(TLDR Review at the bottom, as always, thanks for reading)
(Minor spoilers marked)

This must single-handedly be one of the dumbest stories I have come across so far in manga.

Let's get into the foundation of things and understand why. Japan isn't the most LGBT friendly country in the world, there are still some issues. Having looked up information whilst doing this review, you can find that no anti-discrimination laws are protecting LGBT people as well as no same-sex marriage allowed. Having said this, however, through my simple search it is clear as day that most people in Japan do not have a problem with LGBT people. Of course, not everyone is the same, but I would imagine that with Japan's progressive nature, like participating in acknowledging social issues, some including BLM, it isn't far fetched to say that being part of the LGBT community in Japan is going to be the worst thing that could happen to you given that you live in Japan and are part of the community.

So then what is the problem with Our Dreams at Dusk? The problem is that it takes this idea to the extreme unnecessarily and unrealistic. It tries to play off as something bigger than it shows with characters changing faster than Lightning McQueen and flawed logic that can't hold hydrogen nuclei. At this point, I am not sure if this is an excuse for a story to promote the message, "Hey LGBT people in Japan exist, please be nice to us" even though society caught onto this before this manga was even published. Or if this was actually a genuine story that I have completed missed this point in (with good reason). Either way, I will break down how this story is way worse than it seems to be and quite frankly, very overrated.


Narrative:
The start of the manga will really draw you in and everything kinda gets dashed onto your face and your left thinking what the hell just happened. After that, however, you can expect to not see something similar happen again, it goes on a steady decline downhill. It sets out the story pretty well, showing each other characters and their struggles with being part of the LGBT community, not just that too, people questioning gender, pressures from other people. It sucks, it genuinely sucks. But the story is way too extreme with this, this is where the dumb logic part comes in. You see the outside members of drop-in centre think that: if a person is associated with this centre, then said person is gay. I don't know why they didn't consider any other options, consider that this is a flawed idea to go by, and this doesn't just happen once, it happens so many times to the point where outside characters are just made to look like idiots in the face of this group. Which to some respect would make sense, given that anyone thinking this would give off a bad impression of themselves in how much they think about things. I don't think anyone is this dumb in real life and whilst these characters make this assumption, it is only an assumption (however last few chapters debunk this). Maybe I am being ironic in that being a homosexual in Japan is this bad, but it doesn't come across as believable. I don't know what to believe from this, it seems too far fetched and given real-life accomplishments it is hard to say whether or not the feelings conveyed are accurate or exaggerated. But that isn't the only issue with the story, another strong issue is melodrama. When the term "melodramatic" is used, it is usually thrown in a quick way for some easy criticism of something that tries to pull your heartstrings, but using melodrama as a way to describe this story is probably one of the correct terms to use in the instance. I will take a scene from chapter 9 to explain what I mean, this is the part where some minor spoilers come in, viewer discretion is also advised, kinda NSFW:

------[Spoilers!]------
Person 1: "They went after you because you're so cute, Person 2"
*Person 2 slaps away Person 1's hand, then shoves Person 1*
Person 2: You are the absolute worst, you homo!
Person 2: Go get pounded in ass and die!
Person 1: Shut up, keep your voice down
Person 2: You shut up, go to hell, homo!
Person 1: You… little queen!!
Person 2: You don't really get it! I mean, seriously!
Person 2: Because you're an idiot Person 1! You're so stupid!
*irrelevant stuff happens*
Person 2: Drop dead f****t!
------[Spoilers!]------

I really had no clue as to why that happened when I first saw it myself. It just happened. I guess Person 2 did have that aura that they would do something like that, but not something to this extent, the author decided to just switch this person from who they were presented to be, to some other guy in about 2 seconds. Understandably, the ending of the story featured the character of this person completely different to what I have shown you, though, the publisher went bankrupt so the author didn't really have a chance to fix up the character, very sad that no honest redemption was made to fix these errors. However, this isn't the only character who switches up to anger in an instant, another does the same but the development throughout from anger to regular personality was made well. Still, there are unnecessary switch-ups that just happen for the sake of drama.

I really can't tell if this is a mockery to how LGBT people in Japan live, or if this is the cold and undesirable truth of these people. I want to believe that this is far-fetched and that the author decided that it would be better to show extreme cases rather than that of a more realistic story. But it seems more of a joke, this doesn't feel any different from a shoujo manga if anything, it is only darker and dramatic that is what separates it really. At the end of the day, I just don't know what to believe with this as a base if I never understood how LGBT people in Japan suffer.

I have explained characters somewhat, but the most interesting one has to be Anonymous. They are probably one of the best that this story has to offer, and one of the best characters I have seen in manga. They are the perfect mystery, everything about them is shrouded in some metaphorical mist, and even when they reveal themselves of who they are in truth, they still have the ability to retain their mysterious aura, very well written character. Didn't have much time to be focused on, which is even better given their behaviour. You are just left there with this interesting fellow who makes you question yourself as well. You can talk about things with them, but they won't listen. Other side characters are actually better than most MCs, such as Haruko and Saki, especially with their relationship. It comes out as the most realistic one out of all the main relationships in the story. Nothing too exaggerated, but not something that pokes a little bit into the situation. It understands full well where their placement is and does a good effort in not trying to boast itself to a higher, delusional standard if you understand what I mean. Ilya, another genuine character in the story that has his over side of things that are shown later on in the story, not much about him is of any actual relevance, but he is a decent character nonetheless. I haven't explained the MC Tasuku that much, but he does fall into the melodramatic character this manga has given, I felt though, he used other people in the manga to get to where he wants to be in his life, I guess that is what every medium does with someone lost in life looking to seek a place to belong, but as Anonymous says "being gay isn't what makes you Tasuku". So then, where is the other part of him? I guess his love of scary stories may be something, but that isn't adapted to much. It wasn't clearly shown to my vision about who the dude was behind his curtains behind those curtains, but I think it is clear that the guy is open-minded and acts as that go-to person when you want to talk with someone. But he also comes off as constantly self-conscious of himself. I really don't know how this guy comes out as very human. Take away gay factor and you are left with a run-of-the-mill protagonist. All in all, only one very interesting character this story had to give.


Art:
The art is amazing and is timed well. Every time there is some deep thought process at play the art suddenly becomes abstract and gives an explosion of bright detail to view upon. I felt that I was used as an effect to strongly enforce the expression or emotion the characters put on, with zoomed-in detail of the character's face when the style came on to aid it. Whenever Anonymous comes on the art style uses the same effect too, it adds on to their character and how mysterious and unearthly they are. It is also used to show what seems to be transcendency where characters are literally flying through the air, or up in the clouds in some representation. I honestly have no clue if this style had some secret message behind it, but considering the story at hand, I would like to think that there isn't one. It is just pure art. The character designs are pretty good too, every character looked shiny and polished. You could tell time was well spent in that. Saying this, however, you would probably find the same style in some relatively new shoujo manga. It does feel like something out of one but it does give some distinction from the generic standard, which gives it its own style.


Enjoyment:
Meh. How could I enjoy something with so many dumb characters and dumb logic that made no sense? I won't lie though, characters like Anonymous made this worth the while with their trademarked "you can tell me anything, I won't listen though". Gets me every time. Other than that, I can't really say I liked it a lot. I guess Haruko and Saki's relationship was interesting though. Can't say the same for others.


Overall - 4.21 (4)



TLDR Review:
Story - 3: Very unrealistic and forced drama.
Art - 8: Abstract art in the form of pure art, simply transcendence if it were art.
Characters - 4: Personality changes faster than you can expect, for most important characters. Anonymous is the best character given, other side characters are decent.
Enjoyment - 4: I couldn't say I enjoyed such a forced story that had parts which made no sense.
Overall - 4.21 (4)
(Since Art was an outlier, I lowered its significance to overall score)



Having read three stories reloving around same-sex relationships as of this review's post time, I would not like to say that the theme is overrated, since I don't generalise, but it is easily exploitable to make things seem worse than they are. Though I really enjoyed My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, that was actually very good. I made a review for that you can find here (https://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=348820) if you are interested to read it. Would still go on and read stories from the theme, but right now I can only say so far, it seems very disappointing. Would still recommend this to people, however, you just need to witness the greatness of Anonymous as well as the interesting art style used. Apart from that, the story isn't one I can take seriously and is probably not the best representation of the real world.