Cross-posting something I wrote in the comic thread.
I started reading an interesting manga this week. It's called
Shimanami Tasogare or
Our Dreams at Dusk. Before I move on, I want to talk about the title a bit. It literally translates to Shimanami (a city in Hiroshima prefecture) twilight (or dusk), or "Twilight Shimanami." The title is super clever, though, and I unfortunately have to get into Japanese linguistics to explain why. The way it's written in Japanese is しまなみ(Shimanami) 誰そ彼(Tasogare). The way
tasogare is written here is non-standard. The kanji (Chinese characters. Yes, Japanese uses Chinese characters in addition to their own native syllabary writing system) used are for "who" and "that (or him)," though the kanji typically used for the word are 黄昏 which are for "yellow" and "dusk/dark." The latter makes far more sense for a compound that means dusk, yeah? So the etymology of
tasogare is that it was originally written with the kanji "who" and "that (or him)" because of a Japanese phrase "Who is that?"(そこにいるのは誰ですか) being asked as it got darker, because you couldn't make out their faces as well. Therefore, the characters used for "who" and "that" became a word for that time of day. Etymology is interesting!
So, why the fuck does that all matter?? The title of the manga is evocative of a beautiful image. Shimanami is in Hiroshima on the coast, nearby the famous Shimanami Kaido series of bridges connecting islands. So, just hearing the words together "Shimanami Tasogare," Shimanami at twilight—it may bring to mind something like this for many in Japan:
The story, though, is about a high school boy being outed. He's finding his identity and grappling with coming to terms that he's gay in a society that doesn't accept that very well. So, while the title accomplishes the task of establishing a setting for would-be readers and pulling them in with beautiful imagery, it's a pun by using the original way of writing the word (that is seriously out of use today) to say, "Who is he?" for a story about growing up and finding one's sense of self.
The author is non-binary and writes in mainstream publications. That is huge! I've never heard of such a thing in Japan, because while the west still has a way to go in terms of gender equality, Japan is like the American 1960s with gender in many ways. Because of the author's background, they're able to fill the story with complex LGBTQ characters that you very rarely see treated so well in manga.
The manga isn't perfect, but I'm only halfway through, and it shows a lot of promise. I sincerely apologize if that was difficult to understand, but I did my best to explain. Thanks for indulging my idiosyncratic love of comics and language!