Blue Summer Haze Volume 1 Review

When they were in junior high, Makoto Minami and Shusuke Waya were utterly obsessed with playing baseball together and were in the team that won the Summer Rookies’ Tournament. But all that came to an abrupt end when Shusuke had to move away with his family, leaving Makoto with the promise that they’d play together one day at Koshien Stadium in the national championships.

Makoto has never given up on the dream and is now the ace pitcher of his high school’s baseball team, forming a winning pair with Hokuto Shiratori, the team’s captain and ace catcher. So he’s shocked when a new transfer student turns out to be his childhood friend Shusuke – and even more shocked when Shusuke tells him that he’s stopped playing baseball. It just so happens that the team’s manager has left so on a whim, Shiratori tells Shusuke that he should be their new manager. Shusuke agrees. But Makoto is still beyond furious with Shusuke – until Shusuke admits to him that he’s injured his shoulder and can’t play anymore. He hugs Makoto and Makoto, his feelings in total disarray, runs away.

Now, Makoto is in a daze and Shiratori, realizing it’s affecting his performance during their next game, distracts him with a sudden kiss on the cheek, telling him as he reacts, “Channel that anger into some strikes, not at me.” No sooner is the Spring Tournament over than the team is off for a tough training camp in the country as their coach is determined to whip them all ‘into shape’. And the accommodation for the team turns out to be run-down and dingy (‘Dreary Inn’) leading the boys to suggest it’s haunted. This spooks Makoto who, for all his fierce façade, turns out to be far too suggestible when it comes to hints of the supernatural. But is there something else going on? Both Hokuto and Shusuke seem to be in some kind of unspoken competition for Makoto’s affections, leading to all-too easily misinterpretable situations. But how does Makoto really feel…?

Blue Summer Haze is the first of Dondon’s manga to be licensed for English publication and it’s a great read! Even if you’re not a baseball fan, all you need to know about the game and how it affects the main characters is worked effortlessly into the narrative. But above all, it’s the three main characters that catch the attention from the start (do we have a throuple in embryo here?). Dondon’s art is good in the sports scenes (not such an easy thing to pull off) and also good at portraying the feelings of her three protagonists. Above all, it’s the excellent storyboarding that pays off so well as it’s involving and convincing. Hot-headed Makoto is very believably depicted (those expressive dark flaring eyebrows!) alongside the confused feelings of Hokuto and Shusuke as they realize they might be rivals for Makoto’s friendship (and so much more!). With a 13+ age rating, this is a Boys’ Love that explores what happens when friendship turns into something deeper; it’s all about feelings and the publisher Kodansha’s comparison with Nagisa Furuya’s My Summer of You is an apt one.

Extras for this Kodansha edition include a digital bonus comic, an afterword from the mangaka and two helpful pages of translation notes from translator Jacqueline Fung whose work is excellent, as ever, in conveying the story, aided by a versatile range of lettering by SADHA. There’s an attractive colour image at the beginning as well the first page which is also in full colour, always a good bonus. The series is ongoing in Japan, having recently reached #4, and Volume 2 is due out here in September.

Read a free preview at the publisher’s website here.

• Blue Summer Haze © Dondon/KODANSHA LTD.