Umibe no Étranger
Seaside Stranger: Umibe no Etranger

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

Umibe no Étranger - or Seaside Stranger - is one of the rare few boys love mangas that I actually genuinely enjoy and love. Kanna Kii writes a story that, unlike many BL in Japan, whether in manga or anime, doesn't fetishize guys or homosexuality. It displays a simple love story between two guys, the troubles that they face along the way, oh, and lots of cats as well.

Set on the island of Okinawa, Japan, gay author Shun Hashimoto meets Mio Chibana, and, although distant at first, the two eventually begin to grow closer to each other. It shows real-life examples of many homosexual ... couples, such as Shun's constant rejections and pushing away of Mio's advances, after his parents' reactions to his coming out, and bullying in school. In contrast, Mio doesn't share those kinds of feelings and keeps trying to tell Shun how much he is loved, and that he should be comfortable with his sexuality. The two discuss many subjects of gay relationships, such as sex, the struggles and worries of how others think, and why those ideals exist, as well as upcoming drama from Shun's past that come back to soon haunt him.

The art, while in black and white, looks absolutely gorgeous, and really pops with the feeling of the tropical climate of what Okinawa shows. Waters, flowers and plants, and the beach are shown very well even in a black and white counterpart. Characters, however, besides Mio and Shun, don't get as much importance. As it focuses on mostly the two boys, the other characters are shown for maybe a few pages, and that's it. Also, Mio is an incredibly horny guy, I must say that.

On its own, the story by itself could be rather shallow. In Japan - and in places here like MAL - it's known as one book, and the next part of the story is its own series, while here in the West, it's all one story. Umibe no Étranger is one book, and Harukaze no Étranger has a book one, two, and so on. In the west, Harukaze no Étranger is book two, and so on. I think on its own, Umibe no Étranger could be rather bland, but if you continue the series, it's a lot more meaningful. It has a very cute story with amazing characters and is one of the best BL stories Japan has to offer.

Umibe no Etranger is a BL that does not fetishize gays. To those not that familiar with the genre this statement much not be telling much, but let me tell you that there’s just a few BLs that successfully don’t do that, even if they try not to. And most don’t even try at all. The characters feel like actual people having actual feelings instead of the usual “we’re all gay because the plot said so”. That’s not to say that Etranger doesn’t have any sexual content at all, but even that is more realistic and believable than the common “yamete kudasai senpai” bullshittery.

Now, ... I have stated that the characters feel realistic, but the character development still leaves things to be desired. The relationship feels quite rushed, perhaps even speedrunned. Not as confusing as the movie which is why I like the manga a bit more compared to the adaptation, but we still get from two people meeting to being in love within but few pages, with few actual development shown. I’d say that the plot of this manga feels more like a feeling than an actual continuous story. That’s not entirely bad and it still feels like an actual romance story (again, compared to the usual rapey boogaloo that plagues the genre), and I guess it was not the goal to show the full relationship development in the first place, but it would still be nice to have perhaps at least a chapter or two more focused on that.

The art is good, and doesn’t give away that this is a BL work right from a first look – if you know how average yaoi artwork looks you know why this is a good thing.

Overall, this is the kind of title that doesn’t hurt to read even if you’re not interested in the genre, but don’t expect anything near a masterpiece. It’s also a nice counterweight to the usual genre tropes, as you might have already guessed by my continuous comparisons to an average work of said genre.

[Contains Minor Spoilers]

I went into this with high expectations, thinking it seemed like a promising Shounen Ai story that would actually focus on a realistic depiction of a intimate relationship between two fairly ordinary boys. My disappointment may have been partially the fault of my own high expectations, but nevertheless, "Umibe no Étranger" turned out to be a surprisingly frustrating read. I will try to give a good amount of objective criticism, but I will also be including subjective opinion in the "Enjoyment" section.

Story (4/10)
Despite having a rather simplistic concept, it actually seemed somewhat promising at the start. It initially felt like the story was ... going to be focusing on the complex developing feelings of the characters in-depth, based on the simplistic yet sentimental feel of the overall concept and setting. It's clear that the story does attempt to do this, but the events that occurred throughout the story to aid in this exploration of the characters' feelings were sometimes nonsensical and felt far from being realistic. One major flaw of "Umibe no Étranger" is its enormous lack of actual development for Shun and Mio's relationship and feelings towards each other. It goes from them being complete strangers to apparent lovers in less than a blink of an eye, missing a lot of important developments in their overall relationship. There is a huge empty gap between the point where Shun and Mio have just met and gotten acquainted and the point where they seem to be deeply romantically interested in each other. This major flaw is what makes the story feel detached and unrealistic, since there is barely any content to slowly and meaningfully develop the origination and growth of these significant feelings of Shun and Mio, making their relationship feel strangely forced and therefore not as meaningful. The point at which Shun and Mio's romantic relationship officially begins is not made clear either, and when it is, it is done in a trifling manner, causing this important establishment to lose its significance and meaning. The story starts out just fine, but it is near the end of the first chapter that the storytelling begins to take a questionable turn.

Character (4/10)
The characters also seemed promising at first, also feeling as if they would be relatively realistic depictions of real people, but even this turned out otherwise. Some aspects of the characters were done well; the focus on the characters' personal life problems gave them more depth, but this wasn't handled so well in the end either, since there were certain issues that weren't properly addressed and simply brushed off. Shun and Mio are supposed to be around 20 for most of the story, but they behave disproportionately childlike and feel a lot more like a couple of awkward, developing teenagers rather than actual adults. The strange behaviour of the characters is further emphasized when Sakurako comes into play. Not only is Sakurako's behaviour questionable, but the things Mio ends up doing during that part of the story are even more unrealistic and disorienting. The characters ended up feeling very disconnected from reality and unfortunately did not serve to depict anything close to real people or the way real people behave.

Art (9/10)
I think the art actually helps to draw the attention of the reader away from the rather lackluster writing, making the work feel much more emotionally engaging. The art has a warm, organic feel to it, and resembles the art style of KyoAni works while also giving off a slight Ghibli vibe. It's especially expressive and does a good job at evoking various emotions in the reader, which is why readers may miss major flaws and many little shortcomings of the story. If the writing was as good as the art, "Umibe no Étranger" could have been almost a masterpiece.

Enjoyment (3/10)
I finished this in one setting, and experienced a headache-inducing emotional rollercoaster as I did, but not for the right reasons. There were times I was genuinely immersed in the story's events and the characters' actions, but other times I was just so thrown off by unwarranted and out-of-place behaviours of characters and events that I was stuck in an awkward place of frustration, bewilderment, and disappointment. I was really excited to get into it at first, since it looked so promising, but I guess this only ended up fuelling my disappointment in the end. The thing is that it wasn't completely bad throughout, which is what confused and emotionally frustrated me. After I'd finished the whole thing, I just felt plain bothered. I put a question mark in the rating for this section because I'm really not sure how I feel about it; I know that I experienced various emotions reading this but afterwards it just felt disappointing and a little frustrating.

Overall (4/10)
I wouldn't really recommend "Umibe no Étranger" to readers who tend to focus more on the technical aspects of story writing, but I wouldn't discourage a casual reader from checking it out. I would, however, recommend it to "yaoi" fans who are mainly exposed to fetishized, unrealistic depictions of gay men in extremely unrealistic situations revolving around almost nothing but sex, since the characters and setting of "Umibe no Étranger" are relatively more realistic and meaningful. "Umibe no Étranger" may have lackluster writing and may not have done a very good job at realistically depicting LGBT+ people (or people at all, really), but it is refreshing to see that it at least made a genuine effort to convey a somewhat authentic and heartwarming story, because not many works focusing on same-sex couples do (as seen with countless "yaoi" and even "yuri" works).

This review is for "Umibe no Étranger," I have yet to read the sequel "Harukaze no Étranger," but I will do so as soon as I can. I was left with a feeling of not just disappointment, but dissatisfaction, after "Umibe no Étranger," and strangely enough, I kind of really want to read "Harukaze no Étranger," to see how Kanna Kii handles the sequel and if the story writing possibly ends up changing for the better.

Thank you for reading!