Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu

Description

From Yen Press:
It has Hikaru’s face. It has Hikaru’s voice. It even has Hikaru’s memories. But whatever came down from the mountains six months ago isn’t Yoshiki’s best friend. Whatever it is, it’s dangerous. Carrying on at school and hanging out as if nothing has changed—as if Hikaru isn’t gone—would be crazy...but when it looks so very like Hikaru...and acts so very like Hikaru...

Nominated for the Eisner Awards in the Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Asia category in 2024

Nominated for the Harvey Award for Best Manga in 2024

Original Web Manga

Note: Hikaru means Light so the title can translate to "The Summer Hikaru Died" or "The Summer the Light Died."

Type

Manga

Related Series

N/A

Associated Names

Der Sommer, in dem Hikaru starb

L'estate in cui Hikaru è morto

Lato, kiedy umarł Hikaru

Mùa Hè Hikaru Chết

O Verão em que Hikaru Morreu

The Summer Hikaru Died

Літо, коли помер Хікару

หน้าร้อนที่ฮิคารุจากไป

光が死んだ夏

光死去的夏天

히카루가 죽은 여름

Groups Scanlating

/a/nonymous

nekojita

shimadaroro

Latest Release(s)

v.6 c.29-31 by shimadaroro 5 days ago

v.6 c.28 by /a/nonymous 9 months ago

v.6 c.27 by /a/nonymous 9 months ago

Search for all releases of this series

Status in Country of Origin

6 Volumes (Ongoing)

Completely Scanlated?

Anime Start/End Chapter

N/A

User Reviews

N/A

Forum

0 topics, 0 posts

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User Rating

Average: 8.2 / 10.0 (126 votes)

Bayesian Average: 7.84 / 10.0

36%

21%

17%

11%

Last Updated

April 20th, 2025 8:26pm PDT - 3 weeks ago

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Genre

Horror Mystery Seinen Supernatural Tragedy
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Categories

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Category Recommendations

Inu no naku mura

Mina Soko ni Sumu Sekai

Yobau Yomosugara

To the Yesterday You

Okujou Pikapika Romance

Recommendations

N/A

Author(s)

MOKUMOKU Ren

Artist(s)

MOKUMOKU Ren

Year

2021

Original Publisher

Kadokawa

Serialized In (magazine)

Young Ace Up (Kadokawa)

Licensed (in English)

Yes

English Publisher

Yen Press (5 Volumes; Ongoing)

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

Weekly Pos #238

(-92)

Monthly Pos #437

(-68)

3 Month Pos #345

(-94)

6 Month Pos #484

(-123)

Year Pos #543

(+36)

List Stats

On 694 reading lists

On 398 wish lists

On 25 completed lists

On 19 unfinished lists

On 225 custom lists

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Forum Posts Click to view the forum

User Comments [ Order by usefulness ]

Rushed, incompetent storytelling

by Textualpoacher
2 months ago

Rating: 3.0 / 10.0

The big horror reveal starts on page 8. Literally page 8. We don't know anything about these characters yet, we don't know their personalities and we don't know their dynamics, and yet we're supposed to immediately care that this happened to one of them? Higurashi, possibly the best horror manga/anime/VN to exist, spends like a full episode following the main characters doing dumb stuff before anything starts to go wrong. In Madoka that's THREE episodes. And this manga does it in 8 pages. Like why. It doesn't work. It sucks.

The 8 pages are poorly spent too. The characters were not "introduced." They don't have that big panel where it's just them and their names and as readers we aren't properly introduced to the characters, so everything ends up feeling very abrupt. The dialog is useless small talk. Like you might want useless small talk sometimes (even though you'd better make that interesting, in which case, this small talk doesn't meet that requirement either) but this is the beginning of your manga!! Make your dialog count. The beginning pages are rushed but also meandering. It's crazy.

Is this what manga is becoming now? Is modern manga so terrified that it cannot even hold 7 pages worth of reader attention and so it must start going in on its premise on page 8? That kind of anxiety is off-putting. It reeks of inexperience.

Even past these pages this manga is plagued with similar storytelling problems. It doesn't understand basic pace. Why spend so many panels and page space in Chapter 4 on shots of phone text messages whose sole purpose is to tell Yoshiki to run errands at the grocery store? Just because it's an insert shot that might have happened in a movie doesn't mean it should be in a manga. If you show the phone screen you should show important messages only!! Is that not common sense? Just have Yoshiki be at the grocery store and people will just assume he's running errands. The economy of the page space is insane. It's like that tweet. You're spending $4,000 on candles!

Outside the store Yoshiki suddenly meets an important character, housewife Rie, who happened to see him and noticed something wrong. I say suddenly because it's very sudden, and not in a good way. Would basic storytelling not have the housewife notice him in the store, perhaps as a shadowy figure, and then follow him out? It would set up tension! Or at least, have shots of Yoshiki inside the store that's framed as if it's from the point of view of someone who's watching him. He is seen through the gaps between the products on the shelf. He is observed by someone standing behind him in line. It's another basic visual storytelling technique that nonetheless seems too advanced for this manga.

I read the manga adaptation of Higurashi and it was so much better than this, storytelling wise, and it was adapted by who I would call a journeyman (even though it's a woman), someone who if she had a popular series like this manga probably wouldn't take the job. And yet she did her job so well you wouldn't be able to tell Higurashi started as a visual novel. The drawings aren't as nice but who cares, You have to meet a basic competency threshold before drawing skills start to come into the picture. Comparing that manga and this one is like night and day. Night and day.

Where have all the skills gone? Where are our masters now? Who is this generations's Adachi Mitsurus and Rumiko Takahashis? Were they the last of their kind, storytellers so skilled that they were only rivaled by the other and would never be matched? I'd say that Urasawa comes close, but he's not of this generation either. I keep reading newer manga like this hoping to find someone who could be good but they never are. They're always too eager to please, not confident, not in possession of all the requisite skills, never mind being so masterful that they could do something unexpected or profound with the medium that we've never seen before.

Look, there are competent mangaka now but they are fewer and farther between, and I mentioned the mangaka of Higurashi because I think most mangaka used to be like that. Most of them were competent, confident, conscientious storytellers who knew how to pace a dang chapter. And well, that certainly isn't the case now.

... Last updated 2 months ago

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Terribly good art

by suyouera
7 months ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

When the first volume was published in my country, it was a phenomenal event. I did pick up this series at that time to check if it was real good before purchasing the hard copy, and I dropped immediately because the 1st chapter scared me shtless 😅😅😅
I decided it to read this after keeping it so long in my drive and I find Hikaru freaking adorable. Yep, I know he did some immoral things, but he's also doing his best to learn how to behave like a human should do. I hope the author will let him have a happy ending ever. Just bring yourself to finish the first chapter, guys, then you will be able to finish all.
Needless to say, I purchased the hard copies to support the mangaka. Not bragging but the version in my language does a better cleaning than English version.

... Last updated 7 months ago

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Wow

by Hestia The Goddess
8 months ago

Rating: N/A

This is revolutionary to the shounen-ai genre. I am super excited to see how the story unfolds. You don't need to be a BL lover to enjoy this, romance is not the focus, and the topic of being queer is integrated so beautifully I think. It is not just a bait to pull readers in.

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polishing the edge of my seat

by WinterCedar
2 years ago

Rating: 9.0 / 10.0

This author has an amazing grasp of tension. They have me waiting with baited breath for every new chapter. Not to mention interesting characters, compelling mysteries, and so much more. I can't wait to see where we're going.

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Good

by Squared
2 years ago

Rating: N/A

Holy molly this is good.

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EEK

by zakiue
3 years ago

Rating: N/A

I totally started reading this without realizing it was going to be scary. Now I am hooked. It's very good, super creepy, really interesting story. I'm desperate for more.

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Freaking love this!

by S1lly
3 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

I love when the line between the normal and the supernatural is blurred, and this manga has a lot of that!
It keeps me on my toes too, because I have no idea where this is going to end.

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scary!

by uke-lele
3 years ago

Rating: 8.0 / 10.0

don't read this alone at night. i couldn't get past the first three pages without feeling fear. the artist did a great job at conveying tension and creating the buildup. even though this genre isn't my cup of tea, the execution is pretty well-done.

... Last updated 3 years ago

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