Awkward Silence, Vol. 4

Awkward Silence #4

by Hinako Takanaga

Yuji Sagara and Takahito Kagami have been on one date together, but Yuji isn’t prepared to start a relationship with a guy who lives in a completely different world than he does. Takahito is being groomed to take his father’s elite place in politics, and now it’s rumored he’ll even go to university abroad…

Genres: Manga, Yaoi, Romance, LGBT, M M Romance, Boys Love, Comics

186 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 9, 2013

About the author

Takanaga Hinako (高永ひなこ) is a Japanese author of Boys' Love manga.
She has also provided illustrations for several BL light novels by other authors, including The Guilty by Katsura Izumi. Her first manga story, 合格祈願 (Goukaku kigan, Prayers for a passing grade?), was published by Hanamaru Comics in 1997; it was later reworked as the first chapter of Challengers. Most of her works have been translated into foreign languages. She was a guest at YaoiCon 2007, invited by Juné, the US publishers of her popular series Little Butterfly.
When not making Boys' Love manga, she spends her time collecting Wallace & Gromit merchandise and playing Final Fantasy. Takanaga doesn’t like beer and people who are ignorant.

She comments that her biggest influence on her art and writing-style was KOUGA Yun, a famous shoujo manga artist whose works she read as a teenager.

Reviews

[Dylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite volume so far! The characters are starting to go off to college and their relationships are really starting to develop nicely. I love Keigo and Satoru in this volume. They are so loving and supportive of each other. This is where the series really gets going and is excellent!

[Bel Hernández · Rating 3 out of 5]

Estamos todos de acuerdo, verdad? La mamá de Satoru es una de las mejores mamás del manga EVER.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went to bed last night without finishing this, frustrated and disappointed with the series. Then when I read the last section today, I liked it a lot more. I think that's probably because we shifted back to Satoru and Tamiya at the end, and they're just such a good couple. Satoru taking the initiative to confess to Tamiya under the cherry tree - a symbol that's supposed to make their love last forever - was really sweet, and I liked how well they communicated about their college worries, and the future of their relationship.

Again, Yu and Kagami's antagonistic, on-and-off-again relationship stands in such stark contrast. There are a lot of weird time skips with their relationship, too - I was annoyed because not only did we not get to see Yu's mother or his job again, apparently all that is over now? His mom's out of the hospital, he's back on regular student council duties (until they pass over the responsibilities to the next group), and he seems to have already quit his job. What was the point of introducing an interesting storyline like that just to drop it?

There's not really much of an indication that Yu and Kagami spend any time with each other outside of what we've seen on the page in these initial chapters - after the early Christmas party, where Yu gets angry because Kagami tricks him into spending the night, they don't seem to meet up again until after New Year's, when Kagami again finds a way to get Yu alone in his room. I liked that Yu started pushing back a lot more, expressing himself and telling Kagami why he was angry (a misunderstanding about Kagami studying abroad without telling him, and abandoning him), but this relationship still feels so one-sided.

Yu has his "oh! I'm in love with Kagami!" realization in this volume, but it doesn't really match with what's actually happening on the page. Why would he be in love with Kagami? What does he even like about the guy? Honestly, it seems like more of a temporary, mostly physical thing for the two of them, and I don't see that changing unless they start communicating a lot more. I find it frustrating that we just don't really get to see any of that.

They did have one good conversation where - like Satoru and Tamiya - they have to address what's going to happen after graduation, and whether they should try to attend the same universities. Yu, to his credit, absolutely refuses to let Kagami upend his life for a high school romance, and insists that he apply to his top choice university. I do like that when Satoru runs into them in a bookstore, on something that Yu refuses to admit is a date, Yu and Kagami seem more comfortable with each other, and have settled into a long distance relationship that's working out fairly well for them. (Yet another time skip, but at least this one had some decent content.)

I also thought it was interesting that Satoru rejects Kagami's frankly kind of terrible love advice: Satoru doesn't want jealousy in his relationship. Instead of using distance and jealousy to keep his boyfriend interested and to spice up their sex life, he chooses to just talk to Tamiya. Like I said in my review of the previous volume, I guess it's realistic for couples to have such different dynamics. What works for one couple might not be what's best for another, and I guess Yu seems happy enough, at least for now. Kagami really would make a good politician...he knows how to get exactly what he wants, and how to manipulate people. I just think Yu deserves better, and I'm a little sad about the story that he could've had.

I find it frustrating that we spent about 3 solid volumes of this (so far) 4 volume series focused on the "side" couple. Can you still call Satoru and Tamiya the mains when they're mostly comic relief in the background for 3/4 of the series? I wouldn't mind that so much if those three volumes had actually been spent developing Yu and Kagami's relationship, but somehow they had all these pages devoted to them, and I still barely feel like I know them or understand their relationship.

This is a decent, readable series that definitely isn't the best out there, but we'll see how the last couple volumes close things out.

[Leila Anani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another solid, fun volume , mostly focusing on Yu and Kagami again. There's a cherry tree in the school and if you confess you're love there its supposed to be forever. Kagami tries to get Yu there, and of course our two leads Satoru and Keigio are just so super cute they jump at the chance to confirm their own feelings, especially when it seems they may end up going to different universities - Satoru wants to study art, Keigo baseball and they both don't want the other to give up on their dreams.

Again I got Heartstopper vibes from this one.

[Soobie has fog in her brain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sagara e Kagami sono ancora al centro della storia, con Tono e Tamiya che ne discutono e la mamma di Tono - grandissima! - che cerca di aiutarli.

Carine anche le pagine a colori all'inizio, in cui i quattro sono animaletti antropomorfi.

La soddisfazione di aver recuperato una serie di seconda mano e scoprire che è una signora serie!

[Dada · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bon, c'est la package du BL japonais lycéen de cette époque, ni plus, ni moins donc je vais pas en faire une critique sérieuse (version tome 4) car ce serait bien trop redondant :

Globalement, on suit les aléas des lycéens avec des enjeux approximatifs mais qui sont de leur âge. Par contre, certaines répliques et cases étaient drôle, j'avoue. Monsieur gris a de la répartie, ça change des autres.

[Elizabeth Soto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vale la pena leer los 4 tomos, el desarrollo de las parejas es lo suficientemente divertido y con ese pequeño toque de drama que le da todo lo que necesita esta historia para ser agradable, aunque probablemente no es de las historias más memorables, es completamente agradable de leer

[Rebecca Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Bee (BacchusVines) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5

I simply adore the dynamic of Sagara and Kagami's relationship. The yelling, bashful one and the over-confident but also insecure playboy. Simply great work.

[Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Anna C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terakhir baca seri ini tahun 2013 via online, tapi krn seri ini dilisensi maka scanlation terhenti di vol 3. Trus kebetulan nemu vol 4 & 5 di Book Depository 2 bulan lalu, baru nyadar ada bukunya, jadilah sekalian borong dari vol 1-5, dan 2 hari ini sibuk garap komik2 yg berdatangan dari UK hari Minggu kemarin : Awkward Silence 5 vol, Love Stage vol 4, Sekaiichi Hatsukoi vol 3. Dan terpaksa novel2 yg lagi dibaca ditunda dulu deh, hehe.

Awkward Silence/Bukiyou na Silent adalah salah satu yaoi favoritku dari Takanaga Hinako, yaoi mangaka favoritku yg juga bikin yaoi manga populer berjudul "Koisuru Boukun/The Tyrant Falls in Love. Aku bertekad utk koleksi semua karya sensei secara perlahan-lahan. :) Seri Koisuru Boukun yg sudah OOS dan super duper langka itu akhirnya bisa kuperoleh via Kickstarter Restocked Project bln Feb kmrn dgn harga yg masuk akal walaupun aku harus byr pajak lumayan mahal utk itu but at least totalnya masih lbh murah dari harga pasaran yg selangit krn kelangkaannya... Duh, sudah ga sabar menunggu 9 volumenya dikirim akhir Mei ini dari US. XD

Anyway, walaupun pasangan Satoru x Keigo totally cute and adorable abis, tapi aku lebih suka pasangan kedua yg diperkenalkan sensei di vol 3 seri ini : Sagara x Kagami. Aku memang lemah sama tipe2 tsundere seperti Sagara ini, lol. Makanya "going kya kya kya XDDDD" terus liat tsundere-nya Sagara, lol. Tadinya kukira ini serinya bakal pendek loh secara plot utk main couple limited gitu, krn Satoru x Keigo ini bnr2 totally lovey dovey couple yg head over heels satu sama lain. Tapi ternyata status serinya masi ongoing di Jepang, jadi aku berharap di next volumes nanti lebih banyak tentang Sagara x Kagami, hehehehe. Penampilan Sagara ini bikin aku teringat Tatsumi si uke di Koisuru Boukun. Tapi Tatsumi jauuhhh lebih kepala batu ketimbang Sagara, lol. Dan Morinaga si seme juga pushy abis deh sampe kadang aku rada sebel sama dia.

[Judyth · Rating 4 out of 5]

~4/5

[Read more at my blog, Geeky Reading!]

This is such a cute series. It’s adorable, sweet, cute, hot. I love it.

There was a lot of focus on Yuji and Kagami this volume, and they finally got their kind of happy ending, for the moment. I like them and all, they’re fun to watch, I liked seeing Yuji accept his feelings and Kagami’s and how he’s so embarrassed and defensive about it all. But they’re just not as good as Satoru and Tamiya to me. That’s probably only because I love them so much, but I really just want more of them. I want the volume to focus on them, all the time. I just want more, okay?

They did have some focus at the end, and aside from that, there was this really cute confession under a tree superstition that was just really funny. I like how both couples get along so well, their interactions are so funny.

I really like this series, it just makes me smile. And it sucks that it’s going to be a while until the next volume comes out, possibly a long while since I don’t think the next volume is even out in Japan, and I don’t know when it will be. I hope soon. Until then, I’m probably going to have to pick up another yaoi title, possibly from SuBLime, and there are several that have caught my eye, so it won't be hard to do that.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

Awkward Silence Volume 4 continues the story as Sagara reels over what he and Kagami did the previous day (including 'love bites'). But a rumor saying Kagami plans to go overseas for college causees Sagara to once again doubt Kagami's sincerity. Add in a house party at Kagami's and Sagara truly begins to feel outclassed. But Kagami is never one to give up on his love and he has some special plans to woo his recalcitrant lover. Meanwhile, Satoru and Tamiya also grapple with the inequalities of their relationship.

Awkward Silence is not one of my favorites in the sublime catalog - it plays a bit shallow and silly but I do like that the romantic scenes aren't overly graphic. There isn't a lot of angst or emotion here - and certainly we've seen enough of the same tired 'obstructions' to relationships before. But it does have its own charm and Volume 4 looks to be a good ending place for the story.

Received as an ARC from the publisher.

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the qualities of good manga is the application of conflict, skillfully and deftly applied. We have that here in spades. The latest installment in the Awkward Silence series continues on the progress of these boys as they prepare for university. When distressing complications arise, they fumble as they try to reconcile their changing lives with the affection they feel for their partners.

The emotionally expressionless Satoru and the outgoing Tamiya have more or less dealt with their differences and are settling into a firmly established relationship. This volume now deals mainly with two other students, again both with very differing personalities. The tension from alternate lifestyles, coupled with opposite temperaments, is what fuels the fire of this relationship in very able and believable fashion. Each page reveals the anxiety of the sensitive Sagara who yearns for love but is too sensitive and wary of his playboy partner’s expressiveness to utter his own emotions.

There is sex in this volume, too, but it takes a back seat to the emotional turmoil. That doesn’t mean it isn’t very sensual because it is (and sometimes mildly amusing when partners talk through it). It’s all part of the package and is partially what makes each volume well worth the wait.

[Derges · Rating 5 out of 5]

From a story that only began as a oneshot to a now ongoing series is pretty remarkable! It's cute, sweet and can be sexy sometimes even. I recommend this and the entire series to fans of yaoi. Starting yaoi fans will definitely like this too!

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've come to the uncomfortable realization that my brain works like manga. And so, here I find myself in the world of manga. Yaoi manga, no less. It's a compelling story form, truly, and it's silly and funny and deeply true in many ways.

[Usagi Tsukino · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is for the italian edition.

[Rendi Febrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cerita penutup dari manga ini bener-bener kocak!!!

HIDUP YAOI!!!

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I forgot how much fun I have chewing through a manga series in a day or two

[Chiara · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cute yaoi story. A nice finish to the series. glad i was able to read this series.