Reviews with content warning for Transphobia - Oltre le Onde: Shimanami Tasogare, Vol. 4

I cannot express how beautiful and moving I find this entire series. And this ending is stunning. Like, the whole accept people as they are and what they say they are with the understanding that you may just not be equipped to get their lived experiences but you should just listen to them? Amazing! The beautiful lesbian wedding! The magical realism! The gorgeous art! The satisfying conclusion to the character growth we've seen in previous installments. Truly stunning.

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emotional

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The character development that manifested and showed itself in vol 4 of Our Dreams at Dusk... I’m in love with it. There’s a very sad subplot that was done very well. I have so many feelings about how the subplots overlapped. A wonderful volume. I plan on rereading the whole collection soon!

Edit: Here is my review following my reread.

I just reread this series and it is still such an incredible series. This series follows Tasuku a high school boy who is navigating coming out. Volume one starts when he is outed by his classmates and later in the day, stumbles upon an LGBT drop-in center. The rest of the series follows several people connected to the drop-in center, mostly from Tasuku’s perspective.

Each of the characters are different, not just in sexuality and gender, but in personality. And while you do follow so many of them, no one really gets lost. They each stand out in their own way and have their own experiences. Even so, they are all connected by common themes surrounding community and how to interact with other people. The series of strong themes that link all of the plotlines is really what makes this series outstanding. There are complex points about coming out and how someone can be supportive without pushing someone’s boundaries. It also covers a lot of ground in terms of understanding/accepting different sexualities and genders and covers a variety of misconceptions very smoothly. It was surprisingly nuanced and beautiful overall. While the ending is open, it still felt complete.

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