"In Japan, very few people are open about their homosexuality. And even well-known authors and artists, whose homosexuality is a known fact, never publicly reveal their homosexuality and don’t get involved in the community.

As we use to say in Japan, “if it stinks, put a lid on it”. When there are social issues such as racism or discrimination, we try to address them not by bringing them to light, but by stepping around them and confining them to places where it’s easy to overlook even their existence.
It is the same with gays and lesbians. And this is not the result of a pressure coming from the society, it is a conscious choice that people make themselves."

Source: interview with Gengoroh Tagame at https://www.du9.org/en/entretien/tagame-gengoroh-2/

Our Colors breathes this secretive Japanese atmosphere and shows the reader all the torment it can cause to a teenager who's becoming fully aware that he's attracted to men.

Set in contemporary suburban Japan, this manga tells the story of Sora Itoda, a sixteen-year-old aspiring painter who experiences his world in synesthetic hues of blues and reds and who's struggling with the fact that he's gay. He thinks he will never be able to live an honest life. But then he meets Mr. Amamiya, a middle-aged man who owns a local coffee shop and who's openly and unapologetically gay. Soon Mr. Amamiya becomes some sort of mentor to Sora, especially when the latter accepts to paint a mural in the coffee shop. There's also a third protagonist in this story: Nao, a sixteen-year-old girl who's Sora's best friend and childhood confidante. Lots of people assume they're a couple or at least think they should be.
What choices will Sora make and will he finally accept himself for who he is?

********

"It’s something I’d wanted to read as a middle and high schooler myself, so decided to write for my own self.
As I’m now in my 50s, I think of it as a gift to myself 40 years ago."

Source: interview with Gengoroh Tagame at https://paulsemel.com/exclusive-interview-our-colors-writer-artist-gengoroh-tagame/

Although I've never read a book by Gengoroh Tagame before, this one seems completely different from his usual work, which is apparently often openly pornographic and BDSM.

However, in this coming-of-age and coming-out graphic novel Gengoroh Tagame draws a tender and realistic picture of the questions and problems associated with coming out of the closet, both publicly and in the family environment.

The story felt true to life, except for the blue/red thing. I wondered if this kind of colour blindness exists and yes, it's called tritanopia. But that part of the story is never fully explored and doesn't come into its own, as the drawings were not colored, but simply black and white as in most manga stories. Thus the disparate mentions of it felt more like a gimmick, without having an added value.

The blurb mentions that this story is set in contemporary Japan, but it doesn't really feel that way. To me, it has more a seventies or eighties kind of vibe.
Probably that can be traced back to the fact that this story is a gift from Gengoroh Tagame to his younger self.
Anyway, it will surely lend a helping hand to today's gay teenagers too who struggle with their sexuality.
Furthermore this book could also be a shot in the arm for older generations who might not have had the courage to come out when they were young.

It's surprising that this manga originally appeared in 3 volumes in Japan, because there's almost no action and the reactions of the characters are quite repetitive.
It certainly would've benefited from a smaller page count to emphasize the message, especially bearing in mind that not everyone will be able to appreciate the slower pace. Actually, you could compare the cadence to the one of the movieAn (aka Sweet Bean).

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Gengoroh Tagame (° 1964) is a professional gay manga artist who currently lives in Tokyo.

In 1994 he cofounded the epochal G-Men magazine and by 1996 he was working full-time as an openly gay artist.
Contrary to androgynous ephebes that occur frequently in Yaoi manga (usually created by female authors and aimed at a female audience), he often draws hypermasculine men which is typical for Bara manga (created primarily by gay men for a gay male audience) and bear culture in general.
He's the author of dozens of graphic novels and stories that have been translated into English, French, Italian an Korean. His artwork has been exhibited in galleries across Europe and America.
His most famous manga My Brother's Husband earned him the Japan Media Arts Award for Outstanding Work of Manga from Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. In 2018, the book received the Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition on International Material-Asia.

A very interesting interview with Gengoroh Tagame (May 9 of 2013, Toronto Comic Arts Festival) about gay culture in Japan can be read at https://www.du9.org/en/entretien/tagame-gengoroh-2/

If you wish to read more about Our Colors and see some panels, you can head over to following interview: https://paulsemel.com/exclusive-interview-our-colors-writer-artist-gengoroh-tagame/



*Thanks to NetGalley and Pantheon for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Tagame's Our Colors is amazing and deep on so many levels. At the same time it's light and even fun. The contradiction and easiness of the art makes this so very entertaining. Sora is sixteen and hiding the fact that he's gay. He meets and older man called Mr. Amamiya, who's also gay and is finally someone Sora can confide in. It opens up the world to him as he now has the courage to tell his friend Nao and eventually his parents too. All this happens thorough art and introspection. This is surely slice of life and the manga is realistic, even mundane. Tagame depicts teenage life well and the growing of the characters, even though the time span isn't that long. Everything is credible and the rhythm of the story is pleasurably slow with deep feelings and philosophical aspect too.

The art is quite simple and slightly 1980s, but it works with this story. Perhaps some of the teenagers look like old men though, like Sora's crush. Our Colors is a meaningful manga and something many people should read, since it's universal in many ways. It's not necessarily about homosexuality in Japan, but more like finding yourself and your own strength. The cover is a bit melancholic though and doesn't depict the content fully, but don't let it bother, since Our Colors is really wonderful.

"I don't need understanding. Just acceptance. That's all I want."

Sora is a gay high school student, afraid to come out for reasons he doesn't fully understand. He's perfected his mask of heteronormativity, which he pictures as an iron mask that slams into place every time conversations move over to his assumed straightness. But then one day he meets Mr. Amamiya, an openly gay man who runs a small cafe, and his world changes; Amamiya is the first other gay person he's ever met, and through the older man's friendship and understanding, Sora is able to come to terms with the fact that gay is just as normal as straight and to come out to his childhood best friend Nao, and, most importantly, to fully accept himself.

This book is a lot to take, but it's a lot of <i>good</i>. Unsurprisingly (this is the creator of the excellent <i>My Brother's Husband</i>, after all), Tagame is able to cut right to the heart of the matter without getting preachy; as quoted above, Sora doesn't want people to "understand" him or be sympathetic or anything like that; he just wants them to <i>accept</i> who he is and move on. That rings very, very true as someone on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum - I just want people to accept what I tell them and keep on keeping on. But, as Tagame brilliantly illustrates with an image of Sora standing in front of a series of doors, you never come out just once, and Sora's barely on the first step of living true to himself. But the important thing is that he's taken it.

Unlike many other LGBTQIA+ works, this one focuses not just on Sora's coming out, but also on the found family aspect of being queer, the fact that not all blood families react poorly, and the process of learning how to be a good ally. It's very <i>full</i>, and it tops that off by not having a conclusive ending, but rather one that allows for Sora, Nao, and the others to keep moving forward as they navigate their lives. It's warm, loving, and quietly tender and reassuring, and, hands-down, one of the best books I've read recently.

This was pretty good. I felt that the lgbt+ representation was realistic, and also to some degree the way that others reacted to Sora (the MC), and his coming out. The ending felt a little unnecessary to me, and made me like Amamiya less. Nao was my favorite character I think. Seeing her react to stuff and realize "wow, if I feel like this, imagine how Sora must be feeling", and she was generally really emotionally mature and I dunno. She was a good one

This deeply emotional story explores the complexities of disclosing who you truly are to the world and the ripple effects of doing so. The main character is Sora Itoda a 16 year old young gay man who is struggling with coming out. He wants to live authentically, but he is not sure how to do so. His close friend Nao is a young woman to whom he discloses his turmoil and they journey through the coming out experience together.

This is a simple way of explaining the story because what initiates the coming out is Sora’s encounters with an older gay man who is journeying through the process of coming out himself. Mr Amamiya has lived as a heterosexual but now in his fifties he has come out. This has involved the breakdown of his family life and arranged marriage but he is starting his life again by investing in a new business endeavour, a cafe. When Sora and Mr Amamiya meet they become friends and support each other through their respective journeys, as they do so we journey along with them and encounter the joys, pains and frustrations of coming out for ourselves.

The artwork is simple but powerfully conveys the emotions of all the characters. The story is told from Sora’s perspective so the reader gets to experience all the frustrations and impatience of a sixteen year old. At the same time the story is joyful because Sora is able to grapple with the choices before him and he has real insight into the different aspects of his life.

For me this graphic novel is like a version of ‘Heartstopper’ but told for a more mature audience. The internal reflections and stages that Sora goes through is powerfully illustrated, and at the same time we are able to see that he is both mature and immature in the way he handles life. It is all very human and complex and real, and the storytelling flows across the page in a way that holds the readers attention. It isn’t idealistic either. It is a glimpse into a very real story about two gay men, one older, one younger and their place in the world.

A very thought provoking graphic novel which was also very good to read.

Copy provided via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Sora is a closeted high schooler whose secret sexuality is giving him panic attacks - until he meets the kindly older cafe owner, Amamiya, who’s also gay, but out. And so begins their friendship as Sora plucks up the courage to tell his nearest and dearest who he really is - but will he also tell his crush?

Gengoroh Tagame’s My Brother’s Husband was such an excellent limited series that I was really looking forward to his follow-up, Our Colors. So it’s disappointing to say that it’s an underwhelming book.

It’s over 500 pages and painfully little happens to justify its length. Sora stresses about people finding out his sexuality over and over in an increasingly uninteresting repetition, while the feeble drama comes from misunderstandings of the sort you’d see in any uninspired daytime soap.

Fair enough, I guess it’s more of a character portrait rather than a plot-driven narrative, maybe? Except it’s such an unremarkable portrait, if that’s what it is - Sora’s character arc is obvious and predictable, nor is he a particularly standout personality.

I also feel like it’s crucially flawed in its premise. Sora is a teenager who is frustrated from not having anyone to talk to about his feelings or know what he should do - except he has a smartphone. I’m pretty sure the very first place kids today (god listen to this old fogey) go to when they have a question that they can’t ask anyone is the internet. Why doesn’t he do that? Because then there’d be no bonding with Amamiya.

Similarly, Amamiya says his experience of the online world is only of sex via apps but I’m pretty sure there are sites out there for gay men looking for friendship and/or long term relationships. It’s all so very conveniently presented in this shrunken and contrived way to make the story work - it’s not great writing by Tagame. And I don’t think kids these days give each other magazine pin-ups when there’s streaming internet porn! It reads very much like an older man plotted this book, rather than someone who’s trying to put himself in the actual mindset of a 21st century kid.

Still, it’s skilfully told so it’s easy to read - despite the length, like most mangas, you’ll fly through it in no time. The art is appealing (even though Sora’s crush Yoshioka has weirdly permanently closed eyes), and, as a gay man himself, I believe Tagame’s portrayal of what it’s like to be closeted is an accurate and illuminating one. The book has a sweet message and shows you the consequences of remaining closeted vs being yourself, with some decent advice for younger readers about dating.

It’s just much too light and simplistic for my taste and I wanted more substance than what I got. Our Colors is too straightforward and forgettable because of that. A much too safe narrative to be all that compelling - colour me unimpressed.

Stories about coming out, be it as a teenager in high school or an older adult, always hit hard on the emotions. Our Colors hits particularly hard because Tagame is a master at getting readers to put themselves in the protagonist's shoes. I have nothing in common with Sora or Mr. Amamiya, but I was right there with them when it came time to face the challenges that life had placed on their paths to happiness.
The art is simple yet emotive in a way that helps your eyes flow from one panel to the next without you realizing that you're flying through it. Tagame's expressions always hit the mark for what the character is feeling and the deceptive simplicity of everything helps the more detailed panels really stand out and have a greater impact.
This is a very Japanese story in the way that people react to things and act in certain situations, so I don't think it will be as accessible to most casual readers. However, I would still highly recommend it as an emotional window into the lives of others.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and Pantheon for the emotionally satisfying read!

Thank you so much for granting my wish to read "Our Colors"!

This was such a beautiful read, I honestly had no idea what to expect but I've been totally blown away.
The art for this is so soft and pleasant to look at, it feels comfortable in a way and its overly overcomplicated or too busy. It matches the story really well I think because of it.

Sora was such a wonderful character to follow and I'm so hopeful for his future. His struggles and fears were written out in such a way that felt so very real and easy to connect to. It doesnt always go so easily with friends or family when coming out but the anxiety, worry, fear that Sora had was portrayed very well.

This was a fantastic story, thank you for letting me read it!

“Let the mask take over,deaden my feelings”

Sora Itoda is a sixteen year old high schooler, he’s trying to live his best life but there’s only one problem. He has a crush on a guy in his grade but unfortunately being openly gay is still not accepted in Japan.

His world changes one day when he’s laying down by the ocean and swears he hears a man say “I love you” to him. The man disappears and Sora decides to follow him, it leads him to this abandoned looking cafe. What ensues is a beautiful friendship with the cafe owner Mr. Amamiya, you see Mr. Amamiya is an openly gay man and he becomes sort of a mentor for Sora.

I think this was beautifully written to show the struggles not just teenagers but we as humans face when it comes to our sexuality. There were scenes that absolutely broke my heart as I’m sure lots of people must go through this, Soras friends are making fun of gay men and instantly Sora puts on a mask to hide how he feels. I’m sure we can all relate to hiding something about ourselves that we think others might judge us for, so this was truly relatable.

I absolutely adored Soras best friend Nao, I believe she handled things so kindly. There were times where she would say something ignorant and instead of just letting it be she told Sora she was sorry and to always let her know when she has said something hurtful.

I wish we could’ve seen more between Sora and his crush, regardless if it went in a positive direction or not. I will say that towards the end there is one scene that I am not okay with. I’m sure it was meant to be a pure and innocent moment of acceptance and moving forward but to me it was predatory. That one scene honestly ruined this book some for me, up until then everything was super wholesome.

Thank you NetGalley and to the publishers for granting me access to this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Miigweetch to Netgalley, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, and Pantheon for the DRC.

I enjoyed this graphic novel about a high-school aged boy coming to terms with his homosexuality. This story is written Japanese style (right to left) and it’s important to follow this order when viewing the panels; I admit it took me a few pages to get into the swing of it.

The artstyle is clean, minimalistic, and reminds me of the shonen/shojo mangas I liked to read in the 90s. I liked that the story is what it is: there’s no unsettling twists or turns that don’t fit with the narrative. Secondary characters are treated with grace and respect. I liked that the female character with a crush on our gay protaganist is not treated as a hag or villian; she too is growing and learning and allowed to make mistakes along the way.

I would recommend this story to LGBTQIA+ youths/young adults who may be undergoing a similar struggle as they navigate the path to who they are. I also recommend this book to anyone who enjoys graphic novels and slice-of-life storytelling.

Our Colors is a very straight forward manga about the troubles of being gay, the thoughts of a teenager who doesn't really have the courage to come out and a look into relationships with various people. Sora is a 16 year old who has fallen in love with one of his friends, a boy in his class. That's the beginning of the manga. But this manga is not a love story. It's not the story about Sora confessing his love for his friend. It's the story about him finding himself and dealing with the anxiety of being gay and coming out.

He spontaneously comes out to a man (mr. Amamiya) he just met who is also gay and find a safe haven in his cafe. The man becomes a mentor of sorts. What's interesting is the advice he gives and referring to his own life as a gay man. How times have changed (and haven't) and how he dealt with his homosexuality when he was young.

Sora has another friend, a girl, who overhears a conversation between Sora and Mr Amamiya and the chock is pretty big for her. She has her own things to deal with and the secret is a lot to bear. I like how the mangaka deals with the friendship and her reactions too. Often when you read books like these the girl becomes sort of a villain or stubbornly refuses to understand, but here she struggles to understand but comes to her own conclusions. It's refreshing to read.

It's an easy ready, very well written/drawn and easy to follow. You go from point a to b and there is no unnecessary drama to take away from what's important. It's just a young man's journey to accepting who he is and finding the courage to tell those he love. All while talking about topics like homophobia and dealing with rejection and the burden of sharing someone's secret in a very easy to understand way.

I liked the storyline and the characters, though it feels a little immature. I don't like a certain kiss that happens between two characters, because of the age difference. The art style was nice, and I liked the characters for the most part. I'm glad there are more graphic novels and stories talking about coming out stories.

Set in modern day Japan, this young coming of age story by Gengoroh Tagame gives us a fresh take on a coming out story. Young Soro is in high school and has a crush on a classmate, but he knows he’s different and puts on a mask every day to fit in and hide that he’s gay. The book does a really great job of showing the effects of this situation on everyone surrounding Soro, himself, his classmates, friends and parents. Soro’s torment and loneliness are conveyed with Tagame’s beautiful clean, precise and emotive artwork. As Soro struggles to hide from who is, he meets an older mentor that he can look up to and gives him hope. We’ve all heard that representation matters and that living your truth is important, but this book really puts on display why it is so meaningful and how it can change lives. I found this book to be really beautiful and sweet and can be recommended to anyone.

Another emotional book by Gengoroh Tagame. The focus is on dealing with hiding this huge part of oneself because of fear of rejection and alienation, coming out, and finding hope in kinship who dealt with the same things. There is not really a satisfying conclusion to the story, it is more of a slice-of-life, one summer of one teenage gay guy. It's a bit bittersweet with very real issues discussed but it still upkeeps a hopeful note throughout. Overall I really enjoyed reading this manga, after reading My Brother's Husband and this book underlines my appreciation for this author.

Thanks to Knopf Doubleday Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting and painful manga -- it really goes into the adolescent queer feeling: overhearing microaggressions, shutting yourself away when people are talking about queer things around you and you're not out, etc. It really digs into the feelings deeply; I related heavily to the literal mask that we see closing over Sora's face. It's not a tragic story, but it is ultimately unresolved... though this too is accurate, as he points out that he's going to be coming out over and over and over again. So much of the story revolves around the art that he was going to do for the cafe, and his desires to ask out the boy he likes, though, that I'm a little sad I didn't get to see the end results of either of them; one for obvious reasons, and the other... I don't know. We don't see his decision about what to do about it one way or another. I assume this is TO make the manga feel more open ended (and it's very real about it) but it does make it feel less satisfying about where it ends.

I was surprised about the description of synesthesia; I don't know enough to say if it's accurate, but it seemed as if he mostly experienced colors in intensity depending on his emotions (when he's happy he talks about how blue the sky is, when he's miserable he talks about how it's like all color drained from the world). Unfortunately, the manga itself is in black and white, which I really think didn't benefit from this. I would have loved to at least see splashes of color at key moments to highlight what our protagonist is experiencing.

Really good manga. Extremely relatable.

HOORAY I’m so happy and delighted that the publisher was able to grant my wish through Netgalley!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really enjoyed author-sans other work “My Brothers Husband” so I know well that I was going to enjoy his LGBTQ+ slice-of-life style of writing in this manga also! I really liked the fact how it touches on figuring out yourself as a teenager, especially dealing the pressures of the traditional sense of “boy must be matched with girl normally”. In reality, we all have our own preferences when it comes to relationships in general. Author san was able to do this well by involving a young lad who understandly is catastrophes the “what ifs” when he does admit that he is gay to family and his friend Nao. This would really relate to people out there who are going through the same thing as Sora like I really would encourage everyone to read this manga whenever they can. The drawings at the start of each chapter were really cute and put a smile to my face!

Yeah guys, take a read with this manga, it’s so well done!

I was so thrilled to receive a copy of this. I have read My Brother's Husband and its sequel, so I knew this would would be thoughtful, poignant, and discuss real LGBT issues.

While I will say (without spoiling) that there was one action at the end I wasn't comfortable with - so much of this was so good. One of the most important points this book makes is how you never come out once. Being queer means always stepping between being visible and invisible (but that it's also your choice!)

Fujoshi were mentioned at the beginning of this book. I think it's important to define the difference between fujoshi work and this sort of manga. This manga takes on real queer issues, discusses them, and lays them out bare. I think it's incredibly important for anyone who is queer to read this sort of work. It has themes that both out people and closeted people will find relatable.

I'm going to give it five stars because I think more work like this needs to exist.

"Our Colors" is a breathtaking story about a high-schooler named Sora, his friend Nao, and the elder cafe owner Mr. Amamiya they befriend after Sora spontaneously comes out to him as gay and Nao overhears. This story is a refreshing change of pace when it comes to lgbtq (specifically gay or "BL" in the manga world) works out of Japan. In many BL mangas homosexuality is portrayed as sinful, or needed to be kept secret and the men in these stories do not engage in informed/enthusiastic consent. "Our Colors" flips the script and tells a heartfelt tale about what it's like to come out, meet a mentor, lose and rekindle friendships, and deal with homophobia.

Sora is an artist and throughout the story he remarks on the colors of the world around him and they change in his mind depending on his moods. It's a really lovely way to integrate color into an almost all black and white medium. The conversations about sexuality and coming out were so warm and tender and informational that I was amazed at the depth of these moments. Mr. Amamiya is also gay and acts as Sora's guide through new situations and both help each other see life from new perspectives.

The art is simple but has it's own flair that is easily seen as Gengoroh Tagame's.

I will say as a minor trigger warning and spoiler that Sora and Mr. Amamiya share a small kiss (at the request of Sora) and Sora is an underage high school student. This kind of thing isn't unheard of in BL manga but it's something to be aware of. I personally feel like (while I didn't like it) it was crucial to Sora's realization that he will be ok and that he doesn't need to hide himself from everyone anymore.

This story follows Sora Itoda who is a high school student and an aspiring painter as he navigates his way through high school. Itoda is crushing hard on his guy friend and he doesn't know how to handle that. He confides in his childhood friend, Nao, that he is gay and she promises to keep his secret until he's ready to come out. While Itoda is struggling with being gay he meets Mr. Amamiya who owns a cafe and is openly gay. Nao and Itoda both befriend Mr. Amamiya and as their friendship grows Itoda becomes more confident in who he is.

This was such a fantastic manga! I enjoyed every minute of it. If you are a fan of Gengoroh Tagame's other works then you will definitely like this one.

This story has a lot of quiet heart to it. I love the passion of the relationships, the feelings, yet everything is subdued due to the cultural influences impacting Sora. I'd love if there were splashes of color within the work, though.