Cold Skull, Sanada
Creative Staff:
Story: Okura
Art: Coma Hashii
Translation: Jocelyne Allen
Lettering: Joanna Estep
Design: Yukiko Whitley
Editor: Joel Enos
What They Say:
High school senior Noshiro has finally broken down the emotional walls that his gay classmate, Sanada, had put up, and their new friendship is growing. But when Sanada’s childhood friend Ayumi reveals that she’s always liked him, and new student Makoto arrives on the scene with a crush of his own, their situation gets even more complicated.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
I was initially struck with That Blue Sky Feeling because Noshiro just judo flipped Sanada into a logical conclusion that he may otherwise not have made. But it’s truly a great manga about the relation between those two characters, Noshiro and Sanada, and how their sometimes conflicting feelings intersect.
Added into the mix is Morinaga, a 10th grader on the judo team, who’s enamored with Noshiro. Noshiro knows Sanada is gay, and Morinaga thinks Noshiro is gay, though Noshiro is straight. Morinaga likes Noshiro and Sanada and Noshiro like each other as friends. In addition, there’s Yamamoto, an elementary and junior high classmate of Sanada’s that also likes him. She was a bit of a loner in junior high for a variety of reasons, and Sanada stuck by her through all that.
Here is where the manga really shows off who the characters truly are. Sanada is trying to keep his life as simple as possible for himself, but it’s not really working. Rumors go around that he’s gay for no discernible reason, so he uses Yamamoto to act as a cover for him. It’s cruel, but he isn’t really thinking of Yamamoto’s feelings in all this. Yamamoto has all the reason to be furious at him, but love (and youth) does strange things to a person. Yamamoto forgives Sanada pretty quickly, and it helps that he gives a genuine apology to her, but it feels like something that shouldn’t just be buried under the rug. Meanwhile, Sanada doesn’t come out of everything looking too great, because of how he used Yamamoto’s feelings for him. He doesn’t outright say that he’s gay to her, but he at least says that he isn’t, and can’t, be interested in her. He’s cruel, but he knows that he’s been cruel, and is trying to rectify that.
Noshiro acts as a level between the two of them. He got Yamamoto and Sanada together, knowing Sanada was gay, and he only later realizes that he’s wrong in doing so. Yamamoto knows Noshiro is just trying to do her a favor, and doesn’t know Sanada is gay yet, so she’s grateful. But Sanada is just mad at Noshiro. Noshiro thinks that Sanada can just…fall in love with Yamamoto like he’s not gay, and Sanada is rightfully angry about it. Noshiro is pretty genuine in how he goes about things, but—just like when he was relieved when Sanada said the thing about him being gay was a joke—he realizes where he got it wrong this time. Noshiro acts as an audience insert character in this case, letting him get things extremely wrong and letting the reader know where they can do better in their own lives.
In Summary:
The first volume of this was incredibly charming, and I can’t help but find myself thinking the same about the second. Even through all their mistakes, these characters are lovable. Their mistakes are largely the result of culture, so they haven’t learned prior to, or just simple youth and not having the life experience to know these things yet, so they’re readable in a way that an aged up version of this may not be. I’m excited to read more of this, because I want to see where they end up having learned everything. Having just finished My Brother’s Husband, I want to see the moment (or similar to) at the end of that second volume with Noshiro. Because he’s capable of it.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: March 12th, 2019
MSRP: $10.99
