John là một cậu bé bình thường với mái tóc đỏ bù xù và khuôn mặt lấm tấm tàn nhang. Điểm duy nhất khiến cậu tự hào chính là việc làm bạn thân với cặp song sinh nổi tiếng nhất học viện – Jekyll và Hyde. Hai anh em thường xuyên chơi trò hoán đổi thân phận, và người duy nhất phân biệt được họ chính là John. Ngày nọ, một nửa của cặp song sinh – Jekyll đột ngột lìa đời. Kể từ dạo ấy, thi thoảng John lại nhìn thấy bóng dáng Jekyll thấp thoáng trong người em Hyde còn sống… Rốt cuộc người ở lại là ai…?
داستانی غمگین ولی دل نشین با الهام از رمان "مورد غیرعادی دکتر جکیل و آقای هاید". اولین مانگایی هست که امسال خوندم. دوستش داشتم. کلا این مانگاکا هم آرت زیبا هم قلم دوست داشتنی ای داره و مانگا در حال انتشارش، "تعطیلات آقای شرور" هم خیلی بامزه است.
I was expecting this to be something entirely different, but it was still unique.
A sad, tender, beautiful story that, loosely inspired by Stevenson's 'Jekyll and Hyde' (clearly homage on the twins' last name), turned out to be a thoughtful exploration about identity, friendship, family and grief.
(But I do have to admit, I myself was pretty confused with the twins' little switch game... so kuddos to John!).
This story is heartbreaking, but I can't help but love it. I was surprised to find out this is the same author of "Mr Villain's Day Off " as the vibes are such polar opposites. Just goes to show their range as a writer.
As a lover of old murder mysterious, I very much enjoyed how the twins were named Jekyll and Hyde. Two sides of a coin pretending to be each other. A theme that reminds me of the twins in Ouran Host Club as they too play the "which is which" game on fellow students.
My only question mark is how did Hyde die, and did it have anything to do with his left eye being almost blind? I may need to reread, but I believe it never delves into how he died.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Such a lovely bittersweet book. I kept expecting some tragic twist or bad ending but it was a nice little thriller.
H and J swap places to mess with people but red head picks up on it. One of them ends up dead due to an accident and we don’t really know why but it has something to do perhaps with being blind in one eye. Hyde doesn’t want Jekyll to know that he is blind in one eye because he is obsessed with them being the same and that they can play their game. Jekyll becomes torn up when Hyde dies, and says the world would be a worst place of the real Hyde died so Jekyll becomes Hyde.
He decides to live his life pretending to be his brother, for the sake of others and his own. John remains his friend through it all and goes along with it.
The story could’ve been a bit more fleshed out and it could’ve gone into a sequel but for what it is it’s a pleasant quick read with beautiful art.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
OH. MY. GOOD. NESS. Why is no one talking about this manga?!?! Or is everyone talking about it but not in my circle?
You guys... FIVE STARS.
I can't even begin to express how much I enjoyed this manga. My Gemini is what I would describe as a historical slice of life tragedy with light psychological themes. It explores traumatic responses to the death of a loved one.
The story follows the perspectives of John and the twins Jekyll and Hyde. John is the only one who can tell the twins apart, even as they pretend to be each other. But after a tragic accident resulting in the death of one of the twins, John isn't certain he actually knows which twin is the one still alive.
My thoughts:
I highly recommend this if you enjoy stories that make you think and are heartfelt. The story never becomes scary or disturbing but rather shows two characters struggling with the loss of someone they deeply love-a best friend and a brother.
We do get some humorous moments throughout the story to help keep the tone nice and light! And even though I heard the ending was really bittersweet I honestly didn't feel it was. It's certainly bittersweet but on a lower key. None of the characters are left crying on the page or living with eternal internal agony The ending, while semi-unexpected, still leaves you feeling the story is complete (although I wouldn't complain about reading more).
I honestly really loved the characters. The twins were fun and very interesting to learn about. John was pretty relatable as he was quiet and shy but passionate about his friends. I'd love to see a story like this done as a series!
3.5/5, but I don’t know how to give a decimal star rating on Goodreads. This was a pleasant read, the premise seemed interesting and it was a oneshot manga so I knew I could finish it quickly. The concept of Jekyll and Hyde was always very interesting and this definitely turned it in a way that I wasn’t expecting. It was quite touching. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t a lifechanging experience. I will say that the characters felt quite bland, especially the main character. None of the characters are really fully fleshed out besides the twins, which makes sense for the length of it, but it meant that we didn’t have much reason to care for anyone else. Anyway, loved it, would love to read it again in like 10 years, and I would definitely recommend if you want a short but endearing read. Finished it on the train back from work, so yeah, very quick read.
I’ve read two manga works in June that have titles including a star sign—I enjoyed both of them, albeit this one slightly more. I loooved everything about Boku no Gemini. It does quite a lot within its below 200 pages without feeling rushed nor lacking; it’s succinct enough of a story that it didn’t leave me hanging. I wouldn’t say there was closure for the three characters, which was bittersweet, but it’s also quite hopeful in a sense. The art style is also *chef’s kiss*
This was... more emotional and tragic than I expected.
First, let me say how adorable the characters are and how beautiful the art is. The library, buildings, plants, and the sunlight filtering through the trees were just gorgeous. This is the story of two twins who often switch places, and a boy who can tell them apart even when they pretend to be each other.
The story quickly takes a tragic turn when one of the twins dies, and the remaining two try to uncover the boy’s secret. But there’s more to it than that, and the final reveal makes it all the more heartbreaking.
Despite the heaviness of the plot, this one-shot had a surprisingly cleansing emotional effect on me. I’d love to revisit this again in the future.
3.8 A pleasant surprise to read. I would say my intuition about who was who was right in the end, even if at one point the story was a bit messy and I got in doubt/lost track of my clues! Worth a read.
I was expecting this to be a fairly sinister story but I'm taken back by how beautifully tender it turned out to be. It's an exploration of friendship and love as well as a story about identity and about how loss can affect a person. It's also one of the most creative reimaginings of Jekyll and Hyde I've ever read, a very original angle on Jekyll and Hyde's theme of identity and self. I've never read a manga by Yuu Morikawa before but the art is lovely and the story developes so naturally. I'm taken aback by how cosy this manga is.
It wasn't a thriller mystery as I thought, but still got me pretty engaged. I like that it is well thought out and characters has reasonable motives. Also the artstyle is pretty, including the backgrounds.
This made me emotional. Playing the role of your twin after their death and living on as them hurts. Feeling as if it’s better that ‘you’ died and they live on is genuinely heartbreaking.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
In Summary This is a story about secrets between friends and between brothers. So despite the character names, there’s no psycho murdering people. Rather, it’s about how jealousy and longing can warp identity and perception. If a melancholy tale with a classic Victorian boarding school setting appeals to you, this title is worth a try.
The Review John Utterson attends a British boarding school where he is best friends with the Stevenson twins: the prim and proper Jekyll and the charming and carefree Hyde. The twins frequently swap personas, and no one is the wiser, except for John, who can tell them apart no matter what. So when a Stevenson brother dies in an accident, John is the only one who realizes the surviving twin isn’t who everyone thinks he is…
It’s a little difficult to categorize this as a standalone story. Perhaps British boarding school mystery drama? But the mystery isn’t the typical whodunit where someone dies and characters track down the killer. Rather, a twin dies under absolutely non-suspicious circumstances, and you have to figure out who the remaining twin actually is. More importantly, you have to figure out why he behaves as he does.
Despite the character names, Hyde is not evil, and the narrative involves no nefarious schemes. However, the twins mirror the original Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in that the personalities they show the world are their joint creation, those personas are vastly different and distinct, and they can be assumed by either brother. While the twins and John treat these switcheroos as a fun game, things take on a much somber tone when one brother dies in an accident. Everyone believes Jekyll is the deceased Stevenson twin, but not long after the funeral, John realizes “Hyde” is actually Jekyll impersonating his brother.
The first part of the story has John – the one person to realize the truth of “Hyde’s” identity–watching over his bereaved friend and wondering why he’s continuing to playact his brother. The exchange of letters signed “Jekyll” and the run-ins with the prefects Benjamin and Roche in this initial arc are somewhat confusing. However, these events set the stage for “Hyde” to receive a cryptic message from Roche, a message that makes him realize his twin had been hiding something from him.
Things get more interesting from that point on as “Hyde” and John work together to get to the bottom of this secret. The deeper they dig, the more they find themselves questioning whether the bonds of friendship and brotherhood they thought they shared were genuine. This mystery primarily gets unraveled through flashbacks and conversations that take place at their family homes and at school. So there are no great adventures, and despite the students’ ghost stories, no supernatural elements.
Regarding illustrations, the manga does a nice job with the Victorian-era clothing and a British boarding school setting. The all-male cast is heavy on bishounen. Even John, who describes himself as plain, comes off as cute. Expressions are spot on, drawings brim with emotion, and you can always tell which “persona” the brothers are assuming.
Extras include the title page printed in color and afterword.
Зізнайтесь, кожен з вас в дитинстві (а може і зараз) мріяв мати близнюка. Це ж було б так весело: завжди мати компаньйона, мінятись місцями, вдавати один одного, заплутуючи навколишніх. Та що робити, якщо після років таких ігор, ти раптово залишаєшся сам, та вже не певний ким є насправді?
«Мої близнюки» – заплутана, драматична та навіть трохи містична історія про близнюків Джекіла і Гайда, та їх найкращого друга Джона. Він, звичайнісінький рудоволосий, кучерявий хлопчик з розсипом ластовиння на переніссі, який соромиться оточуючих та часто втрачає дар мови в незвичних ситуаціях. Проте Джон єдиний, хто може безпомилково відрізнити Джекіла і Гайда, навіть якщо ті мінялись місцями.
"Єдиний, кого цим не надурити, це я."
На жаль, внаслідок трагічного випадку, один з близнюків помирає. Але з часом Джон починає бачити в живому близнюкові його померлого брата. Хлопець не певен, хто ж насправді перед ним, можливо зараз він просто помиляється? Проте низка дивних випадків і зустрічей підштовхують хлопців до того, аби дослідити минуле та відкрити таємниці мертвого брата.
Мені довелось читати манґу двічі, аби осягнути всю картину та вловити постійні зміни, адже брати мінялись особистостями настільки майстерно, що змогли обдурити не лише оточуючих, а й мене як читачку.
"Джекіле, ким будеш завтра?"
Окремо хочу відмітити надзвичайно красивий та витончений малюнок! Настільки тонкої та детальної роботи над кожним фреймом часто не зустрінеш, що робить цей тайтл ще дивовижнішим. Тож, окрім того, що ця манґа примусить вас дуже багато думати і бути уважним, так ще й не дозволить відірвати погляд через надзвичайну красу. Комплексна однотомна історія залишить у вас стійке враження, що, можливо, навіть у фіналі, брати Стівенсони черговий раз вас обдурили.
AMAZING!!!! such an excellent story. the author gives so much respect to their story, and you can feel it in the plot and art. first off, the art work is STUNNING, GORGEOUS, i loved looking at this manga, each page was aesthetically pleasing, and the art style really fit the themes and ~vibes~ of the manga
the story itself was truly wonderful. it walks through grief in such a tangible way. as someone who’s experienced similar experiences, the author wrote the story in a way that makes you feel as though YOURE grieving these character/relationship etc. i would give a content warning for death + grief. but if you can handle such topics, 5 stars i HIGHLY reccomend!!! even though the situation of the story is so specific and not exactly relateable, the feelings carried by the story are extremely human. humour is mixed into the story in a cute way, but not in such a way that makes the story feel like it’s not taking itself seriously. My Gemini explores an incredibly unique situation in a way that you can’t help but feel for. the end is absolutely heartbreaking, which is surprising considering the death that the story is focusing on takes place at the start of the book. which i feel really speaks to morikawa’s excellent writing. the length is also perfect, not too much nor too little. you can tell this book is a labour of love, confirmed by morikawa’s note at the end, “As difficult as it was, the days I spent drawing John, Jekyll, and Hyde seemed to sparkle with light. Thank you very much for watching over them”. you can feel morikawa’s passion in each page, and the love in the narrative. 5 stars, amazing, i will never stop recommending this story
I love these kinds of stories, but I wish I could watch it as an anime — it would be truly mind-blowing. I’m not a big reader of manga, but I read this one because it’s short, and I loved the plot. Plus Jekyll and Hyde is one of my favorite books. The story is so sad.
So the story is about twins (Jekyll and Hyde), and one of them dies in an accident. Their friend John is the only one who can distinguish who is who. He begins to suspect that “Jekyll” may actually be hyde pretending to be him.
But in the end, Hyde is the one who dies.
Jekyll was, and always had been, a playboy, and he created a game with his twin brother to switch whenever they needed — for example, Hyde pretended to be his brother to help with schoolwork, etc.
Jekyll pretended to be Hyde because of guilt, grief, and a fear of losing his brother’s identity. But it comes at a cost: he loses a lot of his own sense of self. As one analysis puts it, “The more I lived as Hyde, the more I realized I was just ‘Jekyll pretending to be Hyde.’”
After the accident, the story’s tension revolves around grief, identity, and a mystery: Which twin is still alive? Keeping it in Canon… mostly.
In the end — the saddest part — John comes and sees Jekyll sitting alone and simply says, “Hi, Hyde.” It’s as if both are now pretending that Hyde never died.
2.5 stars, might climb higher in later volumes if things go well. Though the names Jekyll and Hyde are used, I wouldn't call this a retelling: at a boys' boarding school, unpopular kid John is somehow friends with the popular twins Jekyll and Hyde Stevenson. The twins have a habit of switching identities all the time, and only John can tell them apart. Then one twin dies in a tragic accident...but which one was it? Was one of the twins keeping secrets even from his brother? The tone is vaguely BL-coded (no hints of romance, but everyone obsessing over these beautiful boys in that off-putting celebrity-worship way), but the mystery, backed up with fragments of flashbacks that clarify the twins' relationship with each other, is interesting to follow. I'm on the fence about whether to continue (I hate that weird shoujo queerbaiting feeling, but the mystery...!) but I can see other readers rating this higher than I did.
Content concerns: no nudity/makeout/sex scenes (yet) - mention of a past student having an affair with a teacher (not pictured); no alcohol/drugs, no swearing that I remember; death of a brother/friend (cause not shown or specified beyond 'accident'); tensions/rivalry within family
Loosely based on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror, My Gemini is an exploration of grief and identity that didn't really hit me until the very end. It plays with Robert Louis Stevenson's original themes in an interesting way, particularly in the way that twins Jekyll and Hyde Stevenson essentially create "characters" that they play, enabling them to both live in their own closed world, but also to be either twin at will. It gets sadder and sadder the longer it goes on, and while I don't know how Stevenson would have felt about it, I know I'll be thinking about it for quite some time to come.
My Gemini is also set at an educational academy for teens. Jekyll & Hyde are twin twelve year olds, and enjoy swapping their identities around, as they are identical….or so they think. Young librarian John seems to be able to pick them 100% of the time, so is claimed as an accomplice. Subsequently, the boys continue to trick their classmates. Until Jekyll dies. But which one has really died? John is left with a grieving twin to support, but it takes the rest of the book to realise which twin he has been left with. John’s story is one tinged with loss, but the Manga-styled, quick read was full of genuine moments of belonging. Young teens and up
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This story follows John Atterson and his friends who are twins named Jekyll (older brother) and Hyde (younger brother)who pretend to be one another. The story of My Gemini is slow paced and nothing really happens in it until the last three chapters. The artwork is simple,cute and elegant. In the final chapters the story takes a drastic turn after one of the twins dies from a tragic accident (that was never described) where it is revealed why Hyde and Jekyll pretended to be one another. It's sad how tragic the twins'relationship truly was. I wish the pacing of this story was better and had a lot more scenes that moved the story along but aside from that I like this story.
This has to be one of the best books I’ve ever read. The art is so damn pretty and the story is heart wrenching. I literally cried reading it and yet it’s so good that I’m somehow ready to torture myself again.
It’s short but the characters completely take a hold of you. In just a few chapters you can’t help but fall in love with all of them. The plot keeps messing with your head but in a good way, like you know what’s happening but yet you can’t be sure.
Very well written and a beautiful portrayal of how people take the loss of a loved one. This has definitely, absolutely entranced me.
Чесно.. я заплакала. Перше через красу та духовність цього шедевру. Це нп тільки робота, це почуття. Це почуття брата і життя. Це історія про братів які були близькі і хотіли бути надалі близькими, але завжди повинна бути дитина котру будуть виділяти. Вдруге я заплакала в кінці. Наскільки важко втрачати свою половинку, свого близнюка. Втратити єдиного друга та людину на котру ти так покладався. Це відчуття мені знайоме, адже сама маю брата і це важко. Дякую за таку щемливу історію, я її читатиму знову і знову. Вона сяятиме на моїй поличці наче зорі
I felt so sad when I finished this book; the atmosphere lent so much to the reading experience, I loved the characters and the absence of one of them was so palpable. It was heartbreaking to watch Jekyll go through life as one and the small slivers of vulnerability in his cheerful facade made it so much more impactful.
BUT
I thought back to this story about some hours after finishing it, and... I retained none of those emotions. I feel like if I'd actually loved it more, the ghost of it would've been with me much longer, so I deducted a half star.