J’ai adoré ce tome, et j’aimerai noter la discussion qu’à l’héroïne avec une camarade ! Umiko qui commence donc des études de cinéma alors qu’elle est à la retraite s’étonne qu’un camarade et ami n’aime pas les films de romance et ne croit pas au coup de foudre, qu’elle a récemment mît en scène dans un devoir. Sa camarade lui parle alors des identités de genre et orientations sexuelles pour lui apporter des éléments de peut-être réponse, en parlant notamment de l’asexualité ! Je lis encore souvent des manga qui font comme si tout ça n’existait pas donc ça fait super plaisir à voir mentionné comme une chose normale sur 1 page.
Sinon encore un beau tome plein d’émotions et de constante remise en question d’Umiko, mais aussi de sa réflexion sur ce qu’est l’amour
Officially confirmed nonbinary & aroace rep? That's it, you're going into the #he's-just-like-me-fr shelf...!
I've been desperately looking around for good aroace rep in manga and I usually don't have much luck. But I really loved how this was handled in this volume. There was so much respect towards Kai's identity, and the other characters work hard to understand and respect him because of how much they love him. One of the biggest themes of this volume is how people reject things they don't understand to protect themselves from feeling afraid, and I love how this ties into both Kai's identity and the book's central subject matter of filmmaking and film criticism, as well as trying new things at an older age.
This manga is really refreshingly thoughtfully and maturely written, with characters who feel real to life, with real interests and real feelings. It's such a treat. I loved this volume!
So, I already kind of loved this manga, but now it has asexual representation to boot and a gentle, but warranted, rebuke about not letting your views change with time. Well, jury is still out on representation, but it definitely talks about it openly.
Which, hey, if I went back to university at 60-something to study at film school? It would probably look a heck of a lot different than when I was there last. It’s nice to see Umiko trying her best to learn in more than just the expected way of her courses.
Plus, this plays both sides, having some of Umiko’s culture shock being played for laughs and some for dramatic effect. It splits the balance neatly and neither feels awkward in context.
And it plays into the plot as well, as Umiko’s movie receives a critique for not sounding terribly realistic in terms of how young people speak. Thusly bringing her to her first mixer ever.
Which then brings poor Yamaguchi back into the picture, the young woman with a crush on Umiko’s best friend and inspiration, Kai. If you think that my opening paragraph might become more relevant at this point, well, you wouldn’t be wrong.
I love Kai and Umiko’s dynamic because they have such a shared passion of the type that best friends have. There’s no real spark of romantic love, they share a love between them for film, but Yamaguchi is very jealous of it anyway.
This volume feels like it goes much harder on the personal relationships than the film aspects, although those are definitely present. It might be that it tackles a lot more of them with more depth, now that we know these characters.
It’s a fascinating jumble of viewpoints that doesn’t feel all that jumbled. It’s all very elegantly done and has some interesting little twists. From crossplay to influencers to being discovered, this has a ton going on.
Yet it keeps the focus mostly on Umiko, with a wider net being cast to bring in the rest of the cast. And they’re pretty much all unique, interesting, and well-realized. That’s just straight-up good writing of the sort we don’t often get in manga.
It would be so easy to play this up as ‘hey, an old woman is going back to university!’ and leave it at that (the annoying back of book blurb does precisely that). Make fun of her, play up how out of touch she is, call it a day.
Instead, it uses that as a lens to view all of this and to see how her interactions and perspectives grow and change and how she influences others. Umiko has so much more to contribute than just her age and I love how the series realizes that.
4.5 stars - film or no film, this is a wonderfully human story about people trying to figure themselves out. It’s really compelling and I’m quite a fan of it.
Nous retrouvons Umiko qui commence à prendre ses marques dans la faculté d’art. Le tournage du film est terminé et elle doit le présenter à son professeur qui lui fait plusieurs remarques. Remettant immédiatement sa vocation en doute, c’est Kai qui va une nouvelle fois l’aider.
Le jeune homme, toujours aussi énigmatique, suit son chemin de son côté.
Des fantômes du passé, de nouvelles têtes, ce tome est plein de rebondissement mais ne perds pas l’essence de l’histoire qui a fait tout le charme du premier tome.
Comment expliquer un sentiment qu’on ne connait pas? Comment mettre un mot sur un sentiment inconnu dans la société?
Umiko commet quelques maladresses mais reste ouverte à la découverte.
Des promesses sont faites et il ne reste plus qu’à les réaliser!
Continuem amb ritme molt calmat, sense cap element addictiu que generi intriga, però amb un desenvolupament de personatges ben particular i misteriós que té un gran potencial. El regust que deixa la lectura és de cert desconcert per l'aparició del Sora i una mena de nostàlgia tendra que desperta la protagonista. Fa llastimeta veure-la tan descol·locada, però alhora no sembla rendir-se. Llenguatge poètic on la mirada de l'altre t'ajuda a definir-te. Amb ganes de més (cosa que depèn de la biblio, perquè no penso començar una nova col·lecció)
A very good volume with a bunch of new characters! I kinda relate to Yamaguchi’s character in a way and I really like her personality! Can’t wait for the next volume!
Un 2ème tome qui permet de développer les relations entre les personnages, je n'ai pas grand chose à dire à part que la fin du tome est assez spéciale.
¡Qué interesante ha sido este tomo! No solo porque Umiko empieza a desenvolverse más en el ambiente universitario, más bien porque Kai, llegado un punto, comienza a trabajar como parte del staff de un grupo de dirección cinematográfico para incrementar su habilidad tras la cámara para poder mostrar la mejor versión de Chino y eso nos hace saber un poquito más sobre sus ambiciones.
El dibujo de John Tarachine sigue siendo precioso y expresivo, siendo la delicia de cualquier lector ávido por encontrarse con ilustraciones sencillas y de trazos finos y suaves que ayudan a que muchas escenas consigan el impacto necesario para el lector en los momentos más críticos de la historia.
Me ha gustado especialmente este tomo porque presenta el tema del amor en toda su amplitud y desde el punto de vista de dos generaciones muy distintas: amor romántico, amor fraternal, desamor, no-amor, admiración, atracción…
De este volumen me quedo con dos cosas: 1) la confesión y posterior corazón roto, 2) el reencuentro entre dos amigos que tomaron caminos distintos pero que siguen compartiendo una misma pasión.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.