is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Gengoroh Tagame. It was serialized in Futabasha's Monthly Action magazine from March 2018 to May 2020 and collected into three volumes. Our Colors is Tagame's second manga for general audiences, following his 2014 series My Brother's Husband. The series follows Sora Itoda, a closeted second-year high school student, who is alienated by the homophobia of his peers and the pressures of needing to pass as straight. One day, Sora meets an older man who runs a cafe, and learns that the man is also gay. The series follows the intergenerational friendship that forms between Sora and the man, and the mentorship the man provides Sora on the problems he is facing.
Plot
Sora Itoda, a closeted second-year high school art student, is alienated by the homophobia of his peers and the pressures of needing to pass as straight. One day, distressed by his schoolmates' casual homophobic jokes, Sora skips class and flees to the beachfront, lying down and closing his eyes. He suddenly overhears an older man say to him that he always wanted to tell him that he loved him. Startled, Sora sits up, but the man has disappeared. He later finds a small cafe in an old residence and is surprised to find that the older man is its proprietor. The man behaves as though nothing happened and Sora leaves. Nao Nakamura, Sora's childhood friend, notices that he has been behaving strangely and asks him what is wrong, but he brushes her off. When a female classmate asks Sora out on a date, he panics and rejects her. Realizing that being closeted may mean he will always have to lie to people and hide his feelings, he flees to the cafe and confronts the owner. The owner admits that he thought Sora was asleep and that Sora reminded him of someone from his past. The man introduces himself as Shirow Amamiya. Sora confesses to him that he is also gay, which Nao, who followed him, overhears. Sora and Nao talk and Nao is supportive, but worried about offending him while also struggling to sort out her own feelings for Sora. Sora brings her to meet Amamiya and the three treat the cafe as a secret sanctuary, where Sora feels finally free to live his truth. The three become friends and Nao suggests that Amamiya commission Sora to paint a mural to help liven up the cafe's profile. Both Sora and Nao ruminate on the pressure of being closeted, and having to deal with society's assumptions of being straight, compared with Amamiya's decision to live openly. The two regularly seek advice from Amamiya, who helps Sora think through how to approach future decisions he'll have to make about being open with others, such as in pursuing relationships.
One day, while Sora is working on the mural, an older woman enters the cafe and causes a scene with Amamiya. She reveals herself to be his ex-wife, Yuko. She asks if Amamiya is having an inappropriate relationship with Sora, embarrassing them both in front of his customers. She leaves and requests that Amamiya meet her at her hotel to talk. Sora is distressed to learn that Amamiya has a complicated past, and it clouds his feelings about his own future. Meanwhile, Nao decides to seek out Amamiya and remembers the hotel address. She overhears Amamiya and Yuko discussing their situation. Yuko has difficulty finalizing the divorce papers and Amamiya states that leaving so that they could both live freely seemed best. He assures her that he takes responsibility for their situation, before leaving. Yuko announces that she knows that Nao has been eavesdropping and invites her to sit with her. She explains that they had an arranged marriage and that Amamiya was always a caring husband. Though she never believed Amamiya to have cheated on her, part of her difficulty accepting his sexuality was the feeling that he might regret wasting his life on their marriage. Meanwhile, Yoshioka, Sora's classmate and crush, asks Sora to join him on a trip to the aquarium and Sora is delighted to go on a "date" with him. They have a good time, though it ends awkwardly with Yoshioka giving him a gravure image of a female model Sora claimed to like.