Twilight Out of Focus: Long Take Part 1 Volume 5 Review
“Mao..!! We’ve got an emergency!”
Mao and Hisashi have been roommates in the high school dorm since the first year and – in spite of their best intentions – became lovers in the second year. Their relation became stronger when Hisashi took one of the lead roles in the film made by the second years in the film club for the cultural festival (Mao is the cameraman). Now, as their final year approaches, the challenges of choosing what to do after graduating begin to loom large.
But then the Hagari twins (fellow second-year film club members) tell Mao that the club is in trouble: Giichi, newly elected club president and their writer/director, has fallen into a creative slump. He says he has writer’s block and can’t write a new script for them to shoot. Mao, who’s been uncertain about accepting the role of vice president, wants to talk Giichi out of it but is gently but firmly told not to try by the twins, suspecting he’ll only make matters worse. And that’s when Mao begins to realize that Giichi has been acting strangely for some time. He also remembers his first encounter with Giichi at a junior high broadcasting club competition – and the fact that Giichi’s obsessive love of film drew him in and away from his friends in the broadcasting club (including a girl that he liked). How could their new president have lost all interest? What’s caused the block – and is this the end for the film club?
Meanwhile, Hisashi has recently joined the drama club and has been chosen for the lead role in the upcoming Christmas production. He’s conflicted because he knows that fellow member Yukitaka Honjo also auditioned for the role. Surely, Hisashi thinks, Honjo should take the lead; he’s the more experienced actor of the two and he’d mentioned earlier to Hisashi that he’d love to play the role. So, with Mao trying to deal with film club’s problems and Hisashi uncertain if he’s really the right person to play the lead (other drama club members have been muttering), and neither one wanting to burden the other with their problems, both feel as if they’re drifting away from each other. I’ve never been with anyone but Hisashi, Mao finds himself reflecting. Maybe that’s why I’m so scared to open up?
The TV anime series of Twilight Out of Focus may have finished but the manga continues the stories of the high school film club members as the relationship between ‘roommates-turned-lovers Mao and Hisashi’ experiences its first wobbles. Yet when Hisashi says to Mao, “Wherever you are, Mao, is home” as Mao is feeling uncertain about the future, it reassures Mao a little. But there are plenty of challenges ahead.
A little black cat makes an appearance in the first pages and then keeps popping up in school, wreathing its way through the corridors. Where has it come from? Does it have a home? It’s quite friendly and is quite happy to be petted. It makes for a neat unifying thread weaving through the chapters and distracting the students from their troubles.
The fifth volume of jyanome’s perceptive and sympathetic Boys’ Love series is the first of a two-parter: Long Take; Part 2 is due out from Kodansha in February 2025. Much of the pleasure in reading Twilight Out of Focus comes from the mangaka’s beautifully drawn characters and clever use of panels; she really knows how to construct a story graphically on the page. She’s good at writing her characters too; by this stage, readers will have built up a relationship with the boys in the film club and can’t help but want to know more about them. Above all, even though there’s inevitably some angsting (flamboyant Giichi’s specialty) there’s also still plenty of humour as well (some of it at Giichi’s expense but he does kind-of ask for it). As with the recent volumes of Sasaki and Miyano, there’s also graduation looming for the third years and, in the case of Giichi who’s in a relationship with Jin, the prospect of another year without the one he’s fallen in love with who’ll be forging his own way ahead, maybe at university. The mangaka is also very skilled in drawing the more intimate scenes and fans of the main partnership won’t be disappointed; this volume earns its 18+ rating and shrink-wrapping with some tender and relatively explicit scenes.
As before, Twilight Out of Focus #5 is ably translated by Caroline Winzenried and well lettered by Nicole Roderick, making for a smooth read. There are two eye-catching colour pages at the front, showcasing jyanome’s artistic range and striking use of colour. There’s a cute extra story at the end featuring a certain little black cat as well as two pages announcing the anime series (this book dates from 2023) and a page preview of Part 2; two pages of a useful character guide are at the front. Another really nice extra are the two pages at the end (presumably under the cover in the original edition), one with sketches of 14-year-old Giichi and the other showing Hisashi resplendent in his ornately embroidered costume for the Christmas play.
Sometimes when an anime adaptation comes to an end, the manga peters out… but luckily there are no worries here. Twilight Out of Focus #5 is a great continuation, bringing us new situations and dilemmas as the members of the film club face up to the challenges of becoming third years and facing the decisions that have to be made about the future. Recommended.
Our review copy from Kodansha (Vertical Books) was supplied Diamond Book Distributors.
