Astrophotographer Falls for Wheelchair User with Wanderlust
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Warning:
This review will contain spoilers for the manga and anime series After We Gazed at the Starry Sky. While the manga may vary slightly from all other forms of media, it may have similar story elements and could be considered spoilers.
Content Warning: There may be references to mentions of parental death, mentions of cancer, peer pressure, self-deprecation, internalized ableism, breakups, excessive drinking, religion, mentions of pregnancy, and car accidents as they appear in the manga.
Synopsis:
Subaru works from home as a graphic designer. And though he does go out around his house, he doesn’t go much further than that. Why? Because he’s a wheelchair user, and while there are places that are accessible to him, and he gets around fine on his own, Subaru fears being a burden to others. So, instead of traveling as he longs to do, he settles for enjoying photography books. He especially loves the astrophotography of Tougo Amase, whose images feature the stars in various towns and countries.
While his life isn’t bad by any means, it isn’t all that exciting either, until he gets the job of a lifetime.
A local planetarium is doing an event with none other than Tougo Amase, and Subaru is tasked with working on the pamphlet. While that is exciting on its own, he also gets an invite to an early showing where Tougo Amase will attend, too. Subaru is just excited to be in the same room as someone he really admires, but when they meet, there’s something much more electric between them. Subaru would love nothing more than to explore this attraction between them, but his self-consciousness already keeps him from exploring the world – and a relationship isn’t any easier.
Review:
The art in this is not my favorite. The heads give me reptilian vibes with how rounded they are, and that makes the ears look super out of place. The ears also end up way too high on their heads sometimes and flair out really far, etc. It’s just very inconsistent and isn’t the nicest to see. It isn’t the ugliest thing I’ve ever read by any means, but I am very picky. So, if you’re picky like me, be warned. It has its cute moments, but it is an overall very inconsistent art style.
The story is better, but I find the pacing to be a bit too fast for my liking. This is probably going to be a bit hypocritical because I read a million BL where the characters are having sex within the first couple of pages, and I frequently bring up enjoying whirlwind romances. Still, I do feel like this one is too fast. This is very much on the slice-of-life side of stories. That usually lends itself to very slow and domestic plots, which are comfortable because what we experience is very down-to-earth. Even if there is drama, it is minimal. However, this takes domesticity at lightspeed.
We start in the first volume with them meeting and falling for each other, and the central plot point is that Subaru fears he isn’t worthy of being with someone able-bodied. It is a powerful moment, and I think the pacing fits perfectly with the effort to resolve their romance within a volume and to work through Subaru’s intense feelings of inadequacy. However, once that is resolved, and they are together, the following two volumes aren’t nearly as powerful, but they try to keep that same pacing, and it just feels like a bunch of rushed nothing. The second volume focuses on them moving in together, and the third leads up to their wedding. While there are moments where these plot points are interesting, they don’t compare to the first.
It even gets to the point where, in the final volume, when they are on the cusp of marriage, Tougo gets into a car accident. That is an intense moment in the series, but within a chapter, it is entirely resolved with little to no consequence. This is explained away by Tougo meeting his family in the afterlife and being protected by them, but it comes so late in a series that has had rushed slice-of-life style content that it feels shoehorned in. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing entirely offensive about this series, but it feels like it had the pacing of something more intense than it was, and then when it tried to go for the intense plot points, they felt incongruous with the rest of the series. It just felt like it didn’t know what it was supposed to be.
Results:
This had potential. I loved the intensity of Subaru and his feelings toward himself and Tougo, but after the first volume, that was pretty much all there was to love. If things had slowed down a bit and we’d really settled into the slow, domestic slice-of-life story, I think this would’ve been much better overall. Unfortunately, it rushes through the slow parts, as if it’s trying to get to the very dramatic end, which ultimately falls flat because we sped through that, too. This turned out to be a major disappointment.
Have you read After We Gazed at the Starry Sky? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!
