The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 1 (Volume 1)

Wow. I found this manga to be absolutely tremendous, and one of those rare stories that I just know is going to stay with me for a very long time. Like a lot of the best manga out there it also transcends genre, existing somewhere between shounen-ai and horror while becoming something else entirely. It feels sort of post-modernist in an odd way. In a lot of ways this manga reminded me of the films of both David Lynch and David Cronenberg, which is both a compliment and a bit of a warning, heh. I have to say how incredibly unique and beautiful and original the art is. It honestly looks both familiar and natural while also being unlike anything else I’ve seen before. The characters facial expressions seemed especially striking to me, and I found myself studying them for minutes at a time. Extremely deep art with some pretty original use of background sound effects and thoughts. I really appreciated that Yen printed this in the slightly larger format, as it certainly benefits from the bigger pages. I have to mention the one aspect I disliked somewhat which was the localization/translation. Presumably the characters are from Kansai and thus speak the Kansai dialect, which always seems to challenge localization efforts and generally gets portrayed as a weird sort of laid-back west-coast “dude” accent, or sometimes as a southern accent, or even as a bizarre mish-mash of both which appears to be what we have here. It’s pretty distracting at times, and if every other aspect of this manga wasn’t so original and superb and memorable and perfect, it would cause me to knock off a star or even two. But the rest of the manga really and truly is more than great enough to overcome this particular flaw. I can’t really quite decide how literal I should take this manga, though. On the one hand I feel like there’s a fairly straightforward sort of horror story taking place, where this vaguely Lovecraftian demon-thing has assumed the identity of this boy. On the other hand, I feel like the whole thing is also a sort of metaphor for unrequited love and longing, and how one’s feelings can become monstrous and corrupted. I really haven’t decided yet, I guess there’s a second volume so we’ll see. Finally, I feel the need to make mention of the age rating, which appears to be Teen/13+. This is pretty much right on in the sense that there’s definitely no sex or explicit violence. But this manga is… pretty disturbing and upsetting, and frankly pretty darn grown-up in terms of what’s being explored, even though it’s about kids. There’s one particular scene that comes midway through the book that’s especially weird and disturbing and vaguely sexual, where Yoshiki puts his hand inside “Hikaru” in a sequence that vaguely reminded me of Videodrome. So yeah, even though it says 13+ I have to say that I would never give this to a 13-year-old to read.

I liked reading it, very radical and kinda sad story. A real cowabummer in a good way.

The art is amazing!

1 of all Amazing, the art the story, perfection all in one, I started reading the book on my kindle and ordered the books right away, the Anime is out as well and it seems to be following the story as is, but I 100 percent recommend.

I can't put this book down! It's really well written and the characters are fantastic! Mine arrived with a badly torn cover but after exchanging it I'm much happier. Great creepy story!

I recommend this to any manga reader that loves diving into the “small Japanese town” environment with a limited cast of characters and a lot of atmospheric building. The main storyline keeps you locked in with Yoshiki and “Hikaru” as you struggle to understand their uncertain relationship while you see Yoshiki struggles to understand his own humanity as he accepts something that isn’t human and probably responsible for the death of his dearest friend. The undertones that build the unspoken storyline in this story are captivating and it begs you to seek answers and ask questions. Character design is different yet charming. I cannot praise the supernatural character design enough it’s unsettling and striking. Whenever I encountered something supernatural in this series the discomfort that crawled up my neck was shocking. The best I could describe this feeling is “look to close and you’ll see something you shouldn’t have.”. I can’t wait to read on and understand its mystery before it reaches its conclusion. Finding this series was a complete accident but I’m so happy I did. For me I sense an admiration for other Japanese staples such as Higurashi, Shiki, and the works of Junji Ito. I think it’s only a matter of time before this series gets the traction it deserves and becomes something big in the community. Definitely give this a read it if this genre is something you want more of!

Such a great manga. The art is beautiful with a few pages in color. The story itself is beautifully told. There's a decent mixture of suspense and horror after Yoshiki learns that his childhood friend is no longer who he appears to be.

Five stars because the manga is amazing and I don’t want to mess with the rating. It’s completely not the sellers fault but amazons. They just threw the book in my package with any care, it came bent in half with no protection to the book at all. I know the damage is very little but it was just disappointing.

Bra kvalitet. Inget att klaga på.

Arrived quickly and was in good condition, exactly as described. The book itself was very interesting and kept me engaged from start to finish. Great purchase overall, and I’d definitely recommend it to other readers. Will definetly buy all the other volumes.

Arrivé en temps et en bon état

Great book

One of the best series I've read, and I've consumed a lot of media. Definitely something you do not want to miss out on. Worth every single dollar. Beautiful artwork with unique concepts.