Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare Vol. 3

Great book, my daughter loves it.Quick shipping

This is my favorite installment so far. The series has to this point taken us on Kaname's coming out journey through several stages. The first book saw him admit to himself he is gay and see modeled for him how a full life as a gay person can be. The second book followed him as a friend and observer on the journey of another, whose understanding of their gender identity was less linear than his own. He learns finally that he cannot presuppose a coming out on to one who is not ready, and who is the expert of their own life. The third book tackles the question of the expectation of silence. While Kaname has arrived at a place where he is comfortable with his sexuality, he is not ready to answer the prejudice he sees casually displayed in his daily life. Observing his senpai being indirectly outed as a trans man and being condescended to by an old classmate while dealing with the offhand homophobia of his crush and friend makes Kaname weigh the value of silence in the face of emotional hurt. Both perpetrators of hurt are unavoidably not evil--the classmate Oyama is unflaggingly positive and enthusiastic to prove how accepting she, a normal person is of her school friend. And Kaname's crush is implied to be questioning, intensely deflecting his doubts by performing disgust for gay people--as we saw Kaname do in the first volume. However, Kaname learns that intentions and confusion are insufficient excuses to justify harm, and that it is imperative to tell people you care about when they hurt you.

This is my favorite volume in the series. In this installment, our main character has several opportunities to get to know his crush better. But as much as he likes spending time with the guy he likes, he discovers that he doesn't always like the things his crush says and does.Meanwhile, a new person starts dropping in on their little community. She's a (straight) former classmate of one of the adult members -- who she outs as trans. It's EXTREMELY rare to see a portrayal of a trans man in manga, so this volume is quite special. His plot involves navigating the uncomfortable position the supposed "ally" places him in, emphasizing that he doesn't feel the need or want to explain himself to everyone. It's a nice reminder that just because someone is part of a marginalized community that doesn't mean they must be a spokesperson for them.Art continues to be great. If you're interested in nuanced portrayals of queer folks, this series is a must-read.

Oyama-San or whatever her name is, well people like her are dangerous. She considers herself "normal", she doesn't know a lot about being LGBTQ+, she thinks she needs to help these "outcasts" & people with an "illness" that makes them gay/trans/NB/etc. She thinks she needs to step down from her high position in life, & help these "dregs". Lack of education, fear, & refusal to be accepting are dangerous. Thinking gay people need to be "fixed" and just need to be reintegrated into society is both disturbing & very, very sad. Sure, she THINKS she means well, but all she's doing is upsetting & offending people. She says hurtful things that she doesn't even know are hurtful. She thinks members of the "sexual minorities" need a hand up, help, direction, & guidance from "enlightened" straight people. Very dangerous, indeed. So, again, this series is quite adept at bringing these issues out into the open, & showing that they have real-world consequences. I strongly applaud the creator of this story. It could really open a lot of people's eyes.

~4 Stars(Contains light spoilers.)After the last volume, Tasuku is still getting over his fight with Misora and worrying about what Tsubaki knows. This leads to Tsubaki suddenly helping out with the remodel business, and thus being around Tasuku a lot.There's some interesting themes confronted in this volume. One of the characters at Cat Clutter is trans and this causes some issues when someone from his past shows up. And Tasuku gets to see when someone around him stands up for an lgbt issue during a conversation. While all of this is happening, he's growing closer to Tsubaki, only for Tsubaki to freak out about it because of his own denial issues.This series is rough. The way these issues are handled are realistic and hard to take some times, but I'm so glad to see this kind of representation because of it. These issues shouldn't be denied and shameful in the way that they are here, and yet it's true still.Highly recommend.