beta
This is my favorite series of all time. It’s short, only 4 books long, but the amount of material and emotion Kamatani manages to put onto each page is absolutely stunning. It has some of the most beautiful magical realist art I have ever seen. This is a must read for anyone who is into comic illustration or scene composition and visual metaphor.
I managed to get my hands on the physical copy of this story, and man! Gengoroh Tagame blows me away as always! My relationship with this story is different from his other SFW story “My Brother’s Husband” since “Our Colors” resembles my own experience with queerness. This story is a raw and nuanced version of being a younger gay man meeting an older mentor figure, and essentially having your eyes yanked open to what your future could look like.
I really like this manga. Beautiful art, interesting characters, and most of the comedy actually centers around making fun of bigots rather than “wow, trans people are WEIRD!” The father is one of my favorite characters - being a trans dude that makes manga with a bunch of trans women, is a wonderful father, AGH I aspire to that. There is a lot of pretty dated stuff (and maybe some slight incest?? As far as I can tell it’s never acted upon), but I still recommend the read.
Shimanami Tasogare