[DeepL Translation - needs review] Erik is a new student at the Hüllerin Gymnasium, where he meets his alter ego, Thomas. There he meets his alter ego, Thomas, and the secret of sin and love that connects them... This enchanting collection of seven early short stories includes "The November Gimnasium," the prototype for the masterpiece "Thomas' Heart," "Sacred Night at Sailor Hill," in which the singing of twin siblings who met twelve years later is heard on Christmas Eve, and "The House wit...
An early 萩尾 望都 short story collection
11月のギムナジウム is comprised of seven short stories; the following overviews are a bit brief, but it's difficult to talk about each one without spoilers, given their length:
Only now am I noticing all the similar themes the author likes to play with; each story deals with the theme differently, however, so it never felt like I was reading a retread of the same story.
While the vocabulary and (usually) grammar were not particularly difficult or specialized, the overall text density and small panel size (when reading on a Kindle, at least) definitely contributed to this being a slower read for me. That, plus the author's love for multiple sentences per small text bubble, which, combined with the manga penchant for no punctuation and oftentimes very samey-looking character designs, led to the most difficulty in my reading. Full furigana throughout at least, even if I couldn't read it 50% of the time.