The Summer Hikaru Died is the newest anime creating a buzz online. This supernatural horror series explores love, grief, and the process of accepting yourself. The manga currently has seven volumes.
A Quick Summary
The Summer Hikaru Died is set in a rural town that seems normal underneath the surface. However, there are things that lurk around the town once the sun goes down.
Yoshiki and Hikaru are best friends, despite having opposite personalities. Yoshiki is a quiet, introverted guy, while Hikaru is more extroverted and excitable. Everything seems pretty average on the surface; however, Yoshiki realizes that something is wrong with Hikaru when he starts acting odd.
Yoshiki confronts Hikaru and learns that the Hikaru he knew died, and there’s an eldritch being living in his body. While the entity retains all of Hikaru’s feelings and memories, it acts independent from Hikaru. Despite knowing that the entity is not the Hikaru he knew, Yoshiki wishes to stay at the entity’s side. What the two do not know is that there’s a secret the town is hiding about the true nature of the entity and how the real Hikaru became involved.
Love and Grief
The series starts with Yoshiki confronting Hikaru about his odd behavior. Instead of denying it, Hikaru spills his secret, while threatening to kill Yoshiki and professing his love to him in the same breath. Unable to cope with the news, Yoshiki remains at this new Hikaru’s side. The two hang out like average teenagers, and to the rest of the town, nothing is amiss. However, the truth has a nasty way of coming out when Hikaru reminds Yoshiki that nothing is normal.
The moments Yoshiki finds himself reminded of his reality shake him to his core. He watches Hikaru try to understand what’s going on with him and comfort him. He knows he’s in a strange situation. Someone with a sense of self-preservation would not entertain friendship with an eldritch being, but Yoshiki finds himself comforted and comforting the entity in his best friend’s body. Is it out of love, or is it because he can’t let go of his best friend? Whatever the answer is, it doesn’t change Yoshiki’s attachment to the being wearing his friend’s skin.
Accepting Yourself
Despite the eldritch being wearing Hikaru’s skin, it’s far from human. Sure, it can behave like one when needed, but in moments around Yoshiki, it fails to understand certain things.
In these moments, the two grow together, learning boundaries, social cues, and discovering aspects of themselves that they didn’t know they were there.
Hikaru becomes his own person and learns what it’s like to genuinely care for someone and be cared for. Despite carrying on the wishes of the real Hikaru, this Hikaru develops his own thoughts and feelings about his friend. This leads him to learn about what it’s like to be human.
Through his friendship with the new Hikaru, Yoshiki learns to accept parts of himself he hates and keeps hidden from everyone. Watching Hikaru adapt to the human world and grow comfortable in his skin makes Yoshiki want to protect him. Through this urge to protect Hikaru, Yoshiki realizes that it’s okay to accept the parts of yourself that society may reject. As long as he has Hikaru, he will be okay. In the end, all he wanted was to be seen and accepted for who he is. In turn, Hikaru accepts Yoshiki for who he is and is unapologetic about loving and caring for his best friend.
The only problem is that these two don’t know that the town’s secrets may pull them apart.
The Summer Hikaru Died is now streaming on Netflix.
