Spoilers for Seaside Stranger volumes one and two
The Stranger By the Shore is an anime film that tackles issues like homophobia and not being able to move forward in a relationship until you come to terms with who you are as a person. Like a lot of anime, The Stranger By the Shore is based on a manga, and it turns out the movie only covers a single volume’s worth of content.
The Seaside Stranger series actually goes further into the relationship between the main protagonists, gay novelist Shun Hashimoto and Mio Chibana, the young man who, after leaving home for a couple of years, comes back and declares his feelings for Shun. After reading the second volume of the manga, I’m hoping that the anime continues the story, but if it doesn’t, I highly recommend checking out the manga to see how these two characters still have some pretty tough roadblocks to get through because the ones responsible for them don’t really see the issue at hand.
Quick recap of Seaside Stranger volume one (aka: The Stranger By the Shore)
The anime is actually pretty faithful to the manga, give or take a few details, and more physically intimate moments between Shun and Mio. The main focus of the story is still Shun internalizing the homophobia he dealt with in the past, so much so that he often pushes Mio away with snide comments about himself, and he even goes so far as to suggest that Mio would do better with a girlfriend. Mio, on the other hand, clearly has feelings for Shun but is also processing the death of his mother.
Both the anime and manga end with Shun deciding to go back home and face his family, inviting Mio to come along—a major moment for him as he tended to have trouble voicing out his true feelings. However, that’s where the anime stops, the manga still has a couple more volumes to go!
Synopsis of Seaside Stranger volume two
Shun has had no contact with his family since the day he revealed that he’s gay. Now he’s headed home to Hokkaido to visit his ailing father, and he’s taking his new boyfriend, Mio. The trip will be unpleasant enough for Shun, but what will it bring up for Mio, who knows all too well the pain of losing a parent?
Now that Shun and Mio are together, what comes next?
Now that the decision has been made to return home, Shun is, understandably, stressed out. It’s never easy returning to the place that, frankly, traumatized you, but he’s been told that his father is sick so that adds some extra weight to the situation. This is especially true since he’s dating someone who lost a parent, which adds a layer of, “You should settle things with your family because they won’t be here forever.”
This is very much a real situation that people are put in, and it’s not an easy one. As much as I’d like to think that I have completely walked away from the folks who’ve hurt me, I have no idea what I’d do if I was told that person wasn’t doing well health-wise. Along with that, I feel like Shun needs to face his father and say the things he didn’t get to say since, at the time, the shame and the hatred he felt toward himself prevented him from having that moment.
It’s not just Shun’s family that affected him, but classmates, friends, going back home means facing all of that head-on.
To my surprise, the big confrontation with Shun’s dad is not the main focus of the story. Instead, there’s more of a focus on Shun and Mio becoming acquainted with his family (and each other), and through that, we get to see that the discrimination at hand isn’t as visible as we initially thought. Don’t get me wrong, some horrible things were said when Shun revealed the truth all those years ago, but now, things have settled down. Um. Kinda.
I fully expected Shun’s father to be some vile, horrible man spitting our gay slurs and admonishing his son. He’s not like that at all, but the alternative isn’t that great, either. Shun’s father does this kind of lackluster acceptance where he knows his son is gay, he just doesn’t care – and not in an “I still love you” kind of way, but in an “It has nothing to do with me” kind of way. He often doesn’t speak to Shun or Mio until he’s not facing either of them and gives dismissive “do what you want” responses whenever his wife tries to ask for his input with something that involves the couple.
You get the sense that this was something that he was more than happy to ignore for, well, ever, but now Shun is home. With a boyfriend. Trying to open up to him about being gay.
I’m the kind of person who would rather have a definitive “I don’t accept you” over feeling like I’m an inconvenience on someone for even asking. It feels awful to try and make room for someone who keeps saying “whatever,” especially if the people around you take their dismissiveness as an affirmative answer. In situations like that, it can be difficult to explain why a shoulder shrug isn’t good enough because they can easily respond by saying how they, at least, didn’t get nasty with you.
You don’t have to throw me a party or anything, but at least don’t sulk around the house while I’m there.
As always with this series, there’s a lot more going on than what I’ve mentioned here. We get to see Shun and Mio adjusting to being an actual couple, traveling together, and learning how the other reacts in certain situations. While the first volume dealt more with Shun being in his own way, this volume shows more external issues that could put a strain on their relationship. With that in mind, there are still plenty of sweet moments between them, a strong sense of loving one another, and signs of them not being alone as they try and make sense of everything going on.
You can check out the second volume in the Seaside Stranger series here, and there are already preorders open for volume three.
(Image: Kii Kanna)
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