Searching Your Soul - Summer Ghost

 

     Summer has a reputation for being filled with potential. Warm sunny days that stretch on forever causing motivation to run high. People start dreaming on cool summer nights sitting under the stars. Summer is often seen as a transitional period as people step away from work and experience new things. Who will you be when summer ends? In Summer Ghost three strangers take the chance to chase a ghost on a warm summer night not knowing they would become bound by fate under those stars.

Summer Ghost was an unexpected treat as well as a tearjerker. When I pulled it from the shelf of the barns and Noble, I never realized I’d find a manga that would leave me speechless. I picked up the complete manga collection and it came in at 389 pages. This ghost story is not for the faint of heart.

Our story begins on a ghost-hunting forum where three strangers decide to trust each other enough to chase an urban legend. Our ghost-hunting trio consists of a girl named Aoi, and two boys Ryo and Tomoya. All high school students searching for the summer ghost. She earned this name by only revealing herself to people during the summer months. The trio needs a change of pace and finds themselves in the abandoned airfield where the ghost is said to haunt. Little did they know it would change the trajectory of their lives. Lighting sparklers to illuminate the night they successfully summon the summer ghost. Surprised and delighted they start to ask her questions. Before the ghost lets them ask too many she makes sure they know her name Ayane. While the boys chat and light more sparklers Ayane shares a bit of information with Aoi, the only people who can see Ayane are those close to death.

Summer Ghost deals heavily with the topic of suicide and explores the idealization that starts to grow in people's minds as they suffer. It also explores how thoughts do not have to control you, and with the right support, you can overcome them and continue with a happy life. Each character in this book has a different struggle, bullying, high expectations from controlling parents, and terminal illness. They all lead to the same road of depression and the idea of ending their lives being easier. These feelings only seem to disappear when they hang out with each other. They're all strangers who know nothing of each other's struggles. The three teens mutually feel they can be who they want. There are no consequences in expressing themselves.

I find the dynamics between the characters interesting. Though the trio starts together the story follows each of them separately before they end up in regular groups. The groups are usually Tomoya and Ayane and then Aoi and Ryo. They’re sort of foils of each other. When Aoi very casually drops the fact she’s thought about dying and her fears of not having aspirations Ryo is the one who suggests the aquarium. Something to look forward to. He also tells her not to worry too much about her final destination. Tomoya starts to cancel his plans with the other two, but Ryo makes sure to still hang out with Aoi. The two enjoy each other’s company. Ryo helps Aoi see that life is more than its struggles, and if she can overcome them she can find peace in being alive. Aoi believes that maybe she’ll survive.

While Ryo and Aoi lift each other up, Ayame manipulates Tomoya’s despair as our story takes a bit of a turn. It’s revealed that Ayane didn’t kill herself like the urban legend says, she says he was murdered. A hit and run. She only tells Tomoya, and he becomes obsessed with the thought of helping her find her body. To help him search everywhere Ayane temporarily separates Tomoya’s spirit from his body. They spend a lot of time together and Tomoya starts to enjoy the feeling of being a ghost. Ayame tells Tomoya he could be a ghost forever with her, he would be free to experience the world. Tomoya fears he will never know life from under his controlling mother’s thumb. He seriously considers Ayame’s offer to become a ghost and accompany her in the afterlife.

Summer Ghost balances three different thoughts on death, that it’s peaceful, that it’s selfish, and that it’s lonely. However, it does not romanticize the thought of death it’s an unfortunate struggle and part of life. There is a movie for Summer Ghost which was beautiful, especially the scenes where Tomoya is searching with Ayame for her body. In the realm between the living and the dead, it was a dreamy atmosphere under an odd sea. The movie felt like a warm summer under the shade of a large tree with the breeze blowing through just right. The soundtrack that accompanied it was just as beautiful. There were points in the manga where I had to stop and stare at some of the pages because the art was gorgeous. Especially the sparklers, I swear I can almost smell them and hear the frogs in the grass of the old airport.

There was a scene in the manga that I wish was in the movie revolving around Aoi and Ryo, who were sort of cut to show more of Ayame and Tomoya’s story. They focused on the murder mystery side of things.

Ryo and Aoi find themselves on a bridge and Ryo accuses Tomoya of throwing his life away to be with Ayame. It’s not fair of him to throw his life away, especially in front of Ryo who cherishes his own but has no say in the health fate has given him. Ryo has months left to live. Throughout the story, we see Ryo hide this information from everyone, the anger at his situation causing him to lash out at friends and isolate himself. Aoi attempts to sympathize saying she had wanted to kill herself because of bullying. Ryo who looks down on the option of suicide thinks the attempt is pathetic and tells Aoi she should kill herself. My jaw hit the floor when I read that, the air left my lungs, and I felt the first tear threaten to drop from the corner of my eye. I could feel the anger radiating from the page, and then a numbing clarity. As Ryo’s words sunk in his eyes were opened to the bottom, he had reached himself. To me, it was the two ideals talked about back and forth finally clashing.

Life is hard on everyone in different ways, what one person sees as a minor struggle another may see as a large looming mountain impossible to cross. What causes you stress also changes with age. Bullying may have affected you in middle school, but by college, you may have overcome it, and looking back it may feel trivial. All struggles are perfectly valid, and it’s the next steps you take to work through them that matter most.

I would recommend reading or watching Summer Gost if you need something to tug at your heart. At the end of it all the message is to look towards the future, it’s going to come, and you’ll be happy to greet it. Make the most out of any moment and hold onto what makes you happy. Life will change.