30Days: Ashita mo Tanin | Masao Sangatsu
Title: Ashita mo Tanin (Tomorrow, Also a Stranger)
Artist: Masao Sangatsu
Warnings: explicit sexual content
Status: complete, scanlated by Attractive-Fascinate
Description: Akio's been in love with his best friend Ryousuke for ten years, so you'd think that he would have said something by now. Instead, Akio has been able to do nothing but keep quiet through Ryousuke's engagement, Ryousuke's wife running away, and Ryousuke's increasing coddling of Akio. Is Akio a replacement for the family Ryousuke doesn't have? Or is it a sign that he might reciprocate Akio's affections?
Reason for recommendation: OKAY someone explain to me what this title is referring to. Does the title mean, "tomorrow is still a stranger", or "tomorrow, (you are) still a stranger"? If it's the former, wtf does that have to do with the story? And if it's the latter, who's the stranger? Seriously, what is going on in this title?
Finally a bl staple: "we've been friends forever so I don't want to tell you I love you in case that ruins our relationship but it's been (x) years and I really can't take it anymore and now you are getting married!!" That isn't exactly what happens in Ashita mo Tanin, but it's very close. Ryousuke and Akio are the kind of childhood friends that are enviably common in bl manga but sadly not as common in real life. Ryousuke is so close to Akio that he tends to bring Akio home-cooked meals from Akio's own mom. And Akio? Well, Akio is a sort of person you'll want to take care of, just because he's so helplessly bad at living when you leave him alone. So you can see how this relationship might go, and might go wrong.
There's not a whole lot to say about Ashita mo Tanin, mostly because it's so typical. "Why, then, are you reccing it?" you might ask. Because there are little things that make the story worth it for me. For example: Akio's co-worker Murono, who is so close to making this story about a love triangle that part of me wants to just shove it there and make it stay there. But it's not explicit, it's all implied, with this wonderful panel of Akio recounting Murono's "bitter smile". It wasn't until the second reading of Ashita mo Tanin did I pay attention to how subtly Murono's slid in there as an unspoken mirror of both Akio and Ryousuke. It's so subtle that Akio doesn't even seem to consider the possibility. If you assume that Murono is attracted to Akio, you start seeing how, just like Ryousuke, Murono does all the right things and says all the right words, but Akio still doesn't like him like he likes Ryousuke. Or you can see Murono as being action-oriented and aggressive and positive, unlike Akio's passive and negative personality, but regardless, he's still unable to confess. It's an almost like Masao Sangatsu is telling us that there is true love between Akio and Ryousuke, because here's Murono, he's what Akio is looking for or what Akio needs to be, and none of it works.
(The extra chapter, on the other hand, reads to me like if Murono was ever in love with Akio, he's pretty much over it now. By the way the extra chapter is awesome. Especially if you, like me, are a little Team Murono.)
Another thing to love about this manga is how oddly this story mirrors Yoneda Kou's Doushitemo Furetakunai, with a few changes. Is Murono a little like Onoda? Is Akio a little like Shima? Is Ryousuke and his love of family a little like Togawa? It's hard to say. But it's something to think about when you read Ashita mo Tanin-- how (un)important changes (they're childhood friends instead of mere co-workers, they're completely platonic instead of jumping straight into sex) to the basic framework of a story can change the way a story plays out. I don't think Masao Sangatasu (or at least not in Ashita mo Tanin) has the skill or emotional sucker punch that Yoneda Kou does. But it's something that lingers there, to reexamine.
Artist: Masao Sangatsu
Warnings: explicit sexual content
Status: complete, scanlated by Attractive-Fascinate
Description: Akio's been in love with his best friend Ryousuke for ten years, so you'd think that he would have said something by now. Instead, Akio has been able to do nothing but keep quiet through Ryousuke's engagement, Ryousuke's wife running away, and Ryousuke's increasing coddling of Akio. Is Akio a replacement for the family Ryousuke doesn't have? Or is it a sign that he might reciprocate Akio's affections?
Reason for recommendation: OKAY someone explain to me what this title is referring to. Does the title mean, "tomorrow is still a stranger", or "tomorrow, (you are) still a stranger"? If it's the former, wtf does that have to do with the story? And if it's the latter, who's the stranger? Seriously, what is going on in this title?
Finally a bl staple: "we've been friends forever so I don't want to tell you I love you in case that ruins our relationship but it's been (x) years and I really can't take it anymore and now you are getting married!!" That isn't exactly what happens in Ashita mo Tanin, but it's very close. Ryousuke and Akio are the kind of childhood friends that are enviably common in bl manga but sadly not as common in real life. Ryousuke is so close to Akio that he tends to bring Akio home-cooked meals from Akio's own mom. And Akio? Well, Akio is a sort of person you'll want to take care of, just because he's so helplessly bad at living when you leave him alone. So you can see how this relationship might go, and might go wrong.
There's not a whole lot to say about Ashita mo Tanin, mostly because it's so typical. "Why, then, are you reccing it?" you might ask. Because there are little things that make the story worth it for me. For example: Akio's co-worker Murono, who is so close to making this story about a love triangle that part of me wants to just shove it there and make it stay there. But it's not explicit, it's all implied, with this wonderful panel of Akio recounting Murono's "bitter smile". It wasn't until the second reading of Ashita mo Tanin did I pay attention to how subtly Murono's slid in there as an unspoken mirror of both Akio and Ryousuke. It's so subtle that Akio doesn't even seem to consider the possibility. If you assume that Murono is attracted to Akio, you start seeing how, just like Ryousuke, Murono does all the right things and says all the right words, but Akio still doesn't like him like he likes Ryousuke. Or you can see Murono as being action-oriented and aggressive and positive, unlike Akio's passive and negative personality, but regardless, he's still unable to confess. It's an almost like Masao Sangatsu is telling us that there is true love between Akio and Ryousuke, because here's Murono, he's what Akio is looking for or what Akio needs to be, and none of it works.
(The extra chapter, on the other hand, reads to me like if Murono was ever in love with Akio, he's pretty much over it now. By the way the extra chapter is awesome. Especially if you, like me, are a little Team Murono.)
Another thing to love about this manga is how oddly this story mirrors Yoneda Kou's Doushitemo Furetakunai, with a few changes. Is Murono a little like Onoda? Is Akio a little like Shima? Is Ryousuke and his love of family a little like Togawa? It's hard to say. But it's something to think about when you read Ashita mo Tanin-- how (un)important changes (they're childhood friends instead of mere co-workers, they're completely platonic instead of jumping straight into sex) to the basic framework of a story can change the way a story plays out. I don't think Masao Sangatasu (or at least not in Ashita mo Tanin) has the skill or emotional sucker punch that Yoneda Kou does. But it's something that lingers there, to reexamine.