 The Tunnel to Summer, The Exit of Goodbyes Ultramarine. I read all four volumes of this series and can't wait to talk about it, so let's get started. The Tunnel to Summer, Exit of Goodbyes Ultramarine is written by Mei Hachimoko. This was originally a light novel and it got a manga adaptation drawn by Kodon. This also has an anime movie adaptation with the same name. The way to differentiate all three happens to be the manga which bears the subtitle of Ultramarine. That doesn't really come into play to the story, so don't worry about it. So this scene in series stars the character of Kaoru Tono, a young high schooler living in this rural town in Japan and he lives a mostly introverted secluded life because of a tragedy that occurred in his household when he was younger. Unfortunately he lost his younger sister, Karin and to this day, sadly the fallout from that is evident on the character. He's not as expressive as he should be and isn't necessarily the most popular kid in school and is keeping mostly to himself, even with the few friends that he has. Now in this town there is a rumor that Kaoru heard and it is about the Urashima Tunnel. It is said that if you walk through this tunnel you will find your heart's desire on the other side, however there's always a catch, in exchange for years of your own life. On a particular night Kaoru just happens to find himself standing in front of the tunnel and he decides that if he's going to go in he might as well do it for the sake of his sister which he lost many years ago. However there is another character here and that is Anzu Hanashiro. She is a mysterious girl who transferred from Tokyo. After a very rough introduction thanks to a scuffle with Koharu Kawasaki, a supporting character in the story, Anzu is sort of left a little bit ostracized by her peers and she's a bit of an eccentric wholesome young girl mostly misunderstood. She's had a tough life in her own regards and is now looking to start a new one in this town. So on a particular day she meets up with Kaoru Tono and the two sort of form a bond or friendship over the mystery of the Urashima tunnel. Anzu is curious about the tunnel and is promising our main character to help with the study of this mysterious phenomenon. So that in a nutshell is a brief spoiler free description of the tunnel to summer, the exit of goodbyes. This is a drama, slice of life, a little bit of high school drama as well, and supernatural themes throughout. I really enjoyed the premise, I love the idea of taking the concept of an urban legend and it being such an integral part of the town and these characters' lives. They've heard about this rumor, they don't know if it's true or not, they suddenly find themselves in the middle of what could be the discovery of a century. We don't really know what's happening but they're going to venture in and I guess the tunnel sort of represents an escape from how bad their real life is. You see the character of Kaoru Tono like I mentioned earlier has had a rough life due to the accident that happened five years prior to the start of the book when he lost his sister. They were playing and she took a hard fall and unfortunately passed. That had huge ramifications for his household and the whole family dynamic just ended up breaking apart and it never recovered. His parents divorced, his mom left and his dad is now an alcoholic abusive angry man and rightfully so for the tragedy that he suffered but that doesn't mean he has to take it out on his son. But the relationship there is shattered absolutely and Kaoru is just living through the motions. So when the rumor suddenly turns out to be real it provides an escape, it provides a possible solution to the grief in his heart over what has happened and the anger and frustration over the family that he lost because of it. Now he blames himself for what happened to his sister but you know at the end of the day an accident is an accident it wasn't intentional and sometimes in life it takes us a while, it takes many hits for us to realize that it wasn't our fault you know and that's what I really enjoyed about this book. It examined stages of grief and how we can recover from it while also learning to depend on others. This is a character that becomes sort of a recluse and is a bit wary at first of Anzu because of her own things that happened later on because he doesn't have a read on her. She becomes this focal point for his new mission about the tunnel but Anzu is dealing with some other stuff. She's in this town because apparently she doesn't have any parents. That changes throughout the story without spoiling too much and her relationship with her family is a cause of anxiety and frustration for her. So the two with their broken perceptions of teenage years certify the comfort and calm and ground with each other even if they don't know each other that well at first. The fact that they're willing to examine this rumor this Urashima tunnel willing to go in and not be afraid of the consequences of losing years of your own life is pretty impressive. I love stories like that because I love the idea of how an urban legend can shape a town or a city and the stories that come of it when you're growing up and how it fuels the imagination and it gets the ball rolling and people just make up stuff as they go along and when the tail actually reaches your ears it's a totally different story and you just want to either jump in and explore it or be fearful of it. So the two characters decide to explore the tunnel and once they go inside they realize that this is sort of a time vortex if you will. There's some sciency stuff involved here that you know I mean some people might dig it. I wasn't too worried about the details of how the tunnel worked and the distance that they're walking in relation to the time outside all these theories that I'm sure somebody could explain it a little bit better but essentially you know you get trapped in this time warp of this tunnel and say a minute in the tunnel would be like a couple of an hour or two outside it's something like that so it would be really dangerous if you stayed inside the tunnel because literally years would go by and you nobody would know nobody would see anything or hear about you the tunnel doesn't have cell phone reception so you've basically been spirited away and nobody can find you. This isn't a long series at only four volumes and 17 chapters the author and the mangaka here doing the art do a phenomenal job of encapsulating that teenage experience and maturity and growth said to a summer season out really well. Speaking of the mangaka Kodon does a wonderful job at the art this is one of the most gorgeous looking manga that I own on my collection I love the backgrounds I love the character designs I love how expressive and genuine they look whether it's them being sad angry depressed or whatever emotions they're going through you see it in their faces and it's so vivid and expressive and so pretty I love the line work I love just the overall details I think this is a really well executed adaptation and I genuinely loved it definitely the biggest selling point here also the fact that it is essentially a coming-of-age story and dealing with pain grief and first loves romance and all that stuff with the backdrop of a paranormal or urban legend story is genuinely great now on a more personal note I didn't know how to phrase this exactly because I haven't really talked about it on the channel but it did impact me because the tunnel to summer the exit of goodbyes reminds us of the changing of seasons and how when we deal with a tragic loss sometimes as much as we want we can't get that time back we can't go back we can't fix things unfortunately and stories like this reminds us of the wish fulfillment that we might have that what if we had that opportunity what if that tunnel was real what if I could go back and rescue a loved one that died would I be able to do that and sacrifice years of my own life when in fact life teaches us that we move forward and our loved ones would want us to move forward and it's a sour reminder of that but it doesn't have to be a depressing one when you have the right people beside you and for Kaoru it takes him a while to realize that but when he does it's a beautiful moment and it did make me a little misty eyed when I read it I really enjoyed that scene a whole lot and it provides for a very emotional and satisfying resolution for this manga this story I really enjoyed it there are a couple scenes here that reminded me of my own time growing up especially the summer seasons and all that stuff and spending time with my family and all that so it was a very nostalgic read and I'm probably over analyzing it in my own style here for this video but I really enjoyed it I don't think this is gonna be a huge video or a huge review that people are gonna care but I do care the fact that you have urban legends and can explore romance and coming of age stories while also dealing with moving on from tragedy and building a better version of yourself in all of that is really fascinating to me because I've had to experience that unfortunately and it's not fun but you see these things and it sort of motivates you or I guess read these things and makes you want to go forward and be a better person and continue marching on because past us would want us to do that if that makes sense same with the people that are no longer here that if they could speak to us they would say you know I had my role to play now it's time for you to keep moving forward yeah we're not gonna see each other uh now but there's more ahead you know don't be blinded by what happened in the past as tragic as it may be and allow yourself to live a good life in the future in the present allow yourself to feel love to be accepted to feel the warmth and joy of companionship friendship romance whatever it may be and just keep moving forward so I think that is a beautiful theme all around I loved it I do recommend it if you're interested the tunnel to summer the exit of goodbyes ultra marine I don't like the super long title but it's a very unique one with beautiful art and great themes all around okay so that's gonna be it that's my review here for the tunnel to summer the exit of goodbyes ultra marine if you read the manga or the light novel or you're planning to watch the anime movie let me know your thoughts on it in the comment section and if you haven't what are some of your favorite drama or coming of age stories in this style that you love and would think I should check out and read for this channel very interested in finding out thank you everybody for tuning in god bless stay safe out there I will catch all of you on our next video