English Dub Review: The Stranger by the Shore - Bubbleblabber (2024)

Overview:

Shun Hashimoto is an openly gay aspiring novelist living in Okinawa who was abandoned by his parents after coming out to them. Mio Chibana is a reserved, orphaned high school student, often found spending his time by the sea. One day, the two meet on the beach, and Shun is instantly captivated by Mio. The days fly by as they slowly begin to grow closer until Mio suddenly announces that he has to leave for the mainland. Three years pass before a 20-year-old Mio returns to Okinawa to confess his love to Shun. However, in those three years, Shun’s life has changed. Will he be able to accept Mio’s feelings and make such a commitment?

Our Take:

The Stranger by the Shore is my first foray into the yaoi genre. Yaoi, or boy’s love, usually involves a relationship between two men. If you have never tried it before I can tell you with experience this is an excellent place to start. This was a fantastic movie that had my feelings all over the place. With the short runtime for the movie (it clocks in just under an hour) it feels a little rushed at times but it was still a beautiful story.

When the story starts Mio’s mother has just passed away and Shun sees him sitting on a bench outside the cafe he works at every day. Shun tries to help him and get close to him but this just upsets Mio. He thinks no one knows how he feels but they think they do so he gets upset. Eventually, he apologizes but since he is now an orphan he has to move to the mainland to be in an orphanage there.

Mio comes back to work at the same cafe Shun once did but now Shun is a novelist. He understands that Shun was flirting all those years ago and came back to reciprocate those feelings. But something has changed in Shun, he seems more shut off than before, even suggesting Mio get a girlfriend despite knowing how he feels. Seeing their relationship eventually grow is the highlight of the film.

What helps this is the voice actors for the two main leads. As Shun, we have Josh Grelle who does an amazing job of portraying the confused hesitancy in Shun. Justin Briner plays Mio and he is probably best known for voicing Deku inMy Hero Academia. I have always liked Justin as Deku but some of his other roles never really stood out to me. After this, though I am definitely paying more attention. He did great with showing all the different stages Mio goes through. Emotionally the character goes through quite a bit and Justin helps us feel that through his voice.

Seeing two people slowly begin to accept who they are and that they love each other is a beautiful thing. This movie portrays that really well. It does also show how hard it can be and the stigma that often comes with being in a homosexual relationship. Shun’s parents couldn’t accept it and that’s why he moved far away. His former fiance Sakurako comes to visit and it’s implied that they had sex in the past. I imagine this was done to try and deny the fact that he was gay to himself and his parents. I have never personally struggled with something like that so I can’t imagine how hard it is but I think this movie does a good job of showing that.

For a movie that looked nothing but serious, there was quite a bit of comedy in this one. I can never tell when we will get typical anime reactions from movies. Some want to go for the more serious tone and for the most part, this one does as well. But you are still going to get tons of blushing and funny anime faces which actually makes me more comfortable watching something personally.

I thought that Studio Hibari handled the material very maturely. There was a sex scene in the movie and I think it was very well done. This movie gave me a lot of emotions and I think it’s a film a lot of people should watch. I am going to end it with one of my favorite quotes from Shun. He’s talking about being hated for being gay and what he says was really powerful to me. He said “Of all the things we pick to fear, we choose love” and I’ve never seen it put better before. Do yourself a favor and watchThe Stranger by the Shore.