After the tragedy at the Summer Festival, Shinpei started July 22nd for the 4th time! His first priority is to locate Ryunosuke Nagumo. Who is this mysterious lady that could be the key to defeating the Shadows?
1.Nagumo Despite everyone's obsession with her "boobs" she seems the most put together character..she knows about the Shadows..knows how to deal with the shadows..and she likes to hang upside down a lot -to sharpen that thought process. She's the key to whatever's coming.
2.Shinpei. Our hero!? Can be a total flake but I guess we need a protagonist..
3.Ushio Ushio is actually dead..murdered. So this Ushio is a Shadow...a nice Shadow who is helping Shinpei...as seen at the end of this volume..that might be explained pretty soon.
2.5 rounded up. Wouldn’t buy, but grabbed multiple volumes from the library so I’ll give the next one a try since I already have it. Convoluted and really dislike the panty shot of a minor, repeated reference and focus on a character’s breast size, and a split personality that changes whether hair is up or down.
This series has so many twists and reveals it tires me out just slightly more than it intrigues me.
And anytime I start to think I could almost let myself like this a bit, it goes and pulls some cheesy fan service. This time around they actually made up-skirt panty shots of a 15-year-old girl a critical plot point. Who does that????
I'm still on the fence about this series and may or may not pick up the next volume at the library if I see it there. At the very least, I would think I'll have forgotten all the many intricacies of this convoluted plot by the time another volume came out, but this one helpfully included a six-page recap, Maybe they plan to do that regularly until they're up to 90% recap and 10% new story by the final volume.
Overly complicated and wordy, volume 2 brings down the whole thing for me. Some interesting bits about the shadows and how to kill them, but the needlessly long dribble about if we should and shouldn't kill a certain one, the fan service and panty/naked shots, and overall drag on feeling this volume has makes me think this series is just not for me.
At the start of this series, a guy who left two years ago returns for a funeral, and thus stumbles into a mysterious chain of events, that restarts with him stepping from the ferry on day one again and again. To tell you more would spoil it.
As the cover suggest, we gain a new ally who does not shy away from inflicting violence herself, and the story progresses further, at the same pacing as it did before. I devoured this volume, despite it having nearly 400 pages.
There is so far one trope I don't really like but I have a feeling that this will be adressed properly.
I did some research between reading Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 and saw that this series is finished and brought out in a new edition for the start of the anime at Disney+, so I am sure I'll read the whole thing. I want to know more - I need to know more. And see how it ends.
I think I mentioned in my review of the first volume that, for a time travel, multiple POV manga it was actually pretty easy to follow along with. In this volume the ease of service reading did drop off some. I was still able to hang in there but I think someone new to manga would be dead in the water on this series at this point. This is where I have to give a nod to western comics because they have color and I think the time and POV jumps would be easier to follow if there were color in this manga and each time/POV were color coded, that is something that would be in a western comic to help the reader along. Anyway, I'd say that overall I am still enjoying the series and plan to at least give volume 3 a shot and see where things go. This volume ended on a really nice cliff hanger so I am eager to get into it as soon as possible!
Thank you Edelweiss for the eARC! I really need the rest of the volumes now because this volume ends on a big reveal cliffhanger and I just cannot handle it. I need to know what happens 😱 This volume is even better than the first one and you get more backstory on the other characters. Apparently it’s being made into an anime as well, so I will definitely be checking that out! This manga kind of gives me similar vibes like the anime Another. It’s more like a sci-fi thriller mystery and I’m just really enjoying it so far.
Shinpei begins his fourth loop, better equipped this time to recognize his enemies and find his allies. And with the knowledge that each time he loops he's a little further in time, meaning his window to save everyone is dwindling every time he fails.
But the story rewinds all the way back to the ferry and follows Nagumo and what she's / he's been doing while Shinpei flails through his adjustment period. And it's funny you can see when Shinpei's loop fuzzes back in.
Also, there's something going on with the doctor's family.
This omnibus contains volumes 3 & 4. This series has 13 volumes.
And so the mystery continues and thickens while increasing the action and fun character interactions. I think we have found our core team of heroes here and I’m loving the group. An old hunter who is keeping the shadow of his wife hostage, a woman/man who is holds both the souls of twins, the boy who time travels, and the “defective” shadow that made friends with their original. I like that this volume invovled them tackling the first mini-boss type shadow, Shiorih. Which almost seemed to unlock the greater mysteries about why these shadows are acting in the first place.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This is still fantastic, but I find myself wondering why it needs this much fanservice. For such an interesting plot and decent art (except some panels, when the art goes "funny" off model I'm not super into it) it really detracts from what's happening and feels overly gratuitous.
Outside of that, though, this is phenomenal for both the horror and mystery side, the results of the last volume kicks us into gear, and there's so much good development, this is definitely a hit that could just ever so slightly get better with a bit more serious of a tone.
I actually liked volume 2 better than volume 1. We get a deepening of the mystery and Shinpei finally has a few people to talk to about the shadows and what exactly is going on. More mystery and creepiness with a few answers are something to look forward to in this volume. Just be warned, cliffhanger alert!
Plus Master Nagumo/Ryunsuke is one of my favorite character additions. She brings a new perspective and history of the island to our team.
This is a good series for Junji Ito fans who want something longer. I liked the attention paid in this volume to Minakata. She's a really interesting character.
Reviewed this for Booklist Magazine, so check it out for the full review.
I am truly impressed with not only the art work but the pacing of the story that just keeps bringing me back. I believe this omnibus covers anime episodes 4-8.
Have I found a new series to binge? I think so! I’m defined enjoying the twists and turns. Some of them I’ve started to figure out but it’s keeping me engaged.
Summertime Rendering Volume 2 is a collection of volumes 3 and 4 of the SUMMER TIME RENDER series by Yasuki Tanaka that continues the time loop horror story started in the first volume-- people are being replaced by their "shadow" selves, but is it bigger than just that?
Here we have another cliffhanger to lead us into volume 3 (5 in Japan) and onward!
The art is remains good and the characters are really expressive, especially as it gets deeper into the horror of it all, and the inclusion of further notes to sort of recap/re-explain what's all going on here.
Unfortunately the title expired less than two days after my ARC request was approved so I had to grab this volume from the library as I definitely had not downloaded it quick enough! That's on me. But I appreciate publishers throwing older titles up onto NetGalley sometimes to give us the opportunity to read something we may not have been so aware of, or have not gotten around to reading yet. (So thank you to NetGalley and Udon for the eARC!)
This book cover features Ryunosuke. The story starts from her perspective, and we learn much more about her. Shinpei and Syunosuke work together, and things get interesting. Now our heroes are fighting against the shadows and we learn more about that as well. So let's see how the story goes from there and then let's Keep on Reading.
I have always loved comics, and I have I can. I love comics to bits, may the comics never leave my side. I loved reading this and love reading more, you should also read what you love and hope always to love them. Even though I grew up reading local Indian comics like Raj Comics, Diamond Comics, or even Manoj Comics, now's the time to catch up on international and classic comics and Graphic novels. I am on my quest to read as many comics as I just want to Keep on Reading.
The story finds it's footing and becomes much clearer, which does improve the reading experience.
Volume 2 starts of with telling the story from the perspective of Ryunosuke, which fills a lot of gaps and gives some much needed context. Ryunosuke does not relieve the story multiple times, like the protagonist, but has a different gimmick instead. Fortunately that's all the new concepts in this volume, as Volume 1 overdid it in my opinion.
In addition, the whole volume is taking place in the same time loop. I know all characters now and the antagonists are explored in more detail. It's intriguing and I've wanted to keep reading. I'm still not sure how this story is able to fill 4 further volumes though.
I noticed there's quite a few references and jokes that are lost in translation, but I suppose that sort of thing can't be avoided with Manga.
It's getting good. I love how the plot flows more smoothly compared to the first volume, and the ex chapters are so enjoyable.
That being said, this is insane. I've always loved the concept of shadows use in books but this is the first time I've read shadows being depicted as truly antagonistic towards human.
Of course this was written by a man, because he created a strong and independent female character and wrote as her personality "has big boobs" .....ugh
It’s more like 4.5 stars because this book and the series just keeps getting better. I am completely shocked that this concept is this original. I truly love the characters and how you keep getting more back stories to different characters as a story progresses, which only helps move the story a long. I am thoroughly joyful that this book is just as good as the first. The reason I am obsessed with it is because now we find out that they are able to kill the shadows because on this Time Loop, Shinpei knows what’s going on. He ends up working with master Nagumo sooner so they are able to save a lot more people. The important thing is to not change anything but unfortunately that happens a lot because it’s hard when you know the information that you know. And they stopped working with Shinpei, because he refused to kill Ushio. Because he won’t kill her they stopped working with him, but he even said he’s not gonna kill her when she is not like the other shadows, she doesn’t wanna kill people. And he ends up telling Sou the truth sooner and because she does not listen Ushio shows up at the meet with Sou and they tell him everything and of course he believes them and he’s going to help them get answer sooner because he thinks his father is covering something up. It also turns out that his sister is working with the shadows, but we don’t know to what extent yet. Then Shinpei gives Ushio her phone and she ends up unlocking it only to discover that she made a video the day before she died so they all gather round to watch the video and it shows her with her own shadow and she says Shinpei you need to listen to what we’re about to tell you, and that’s how it ends. I have no idea what’s about to happen next, but the fact that the real Ushio was aware of her own shadow to the point that she was working alongside her blows my damn mind. I just hope that they can save everybody from the shadows taking over because this is insane. It is so well written.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This volume feels much more horror than the first volume. The notes at the back of this volume helped to summarize all the complexity that has added up. There are a lot of unknowns in this story but it manages not to get overwhelming.