Welcome to another post about a BL manga I read. Not to shock you, but I don’t think that this one came from that one Evah Destruction tweet that two of the other BL mangas I’ve read have. This one is That Blue Sky Feeling by Okura. This one is a full story in three volumes, so that’s fully why I bought it.
Each of the three volumes does have a different blurb on the back, but I’m just going to share the first one as it gives the basic concept. When Noshiro transfers to a new school, he meets Sanada, a loner who doesn’t seem to have friends — or want any. The other kids whisper that Sanada keeps to himself because he’s secretly gay. But rather than scare Noshiro away, the rumour only makes him more interested. He sets out on a campaign to win over the surly Sanada, embarking on a surprising friendship. And while I did say I was only going to share the first blurb, the final blurb does mention how self-discovery isn’t always fun, so that’s part of the plot of the three volumes.
The very first chapter sees Noshiro turning up, saying he’s transferring and that he never understood what it meant to like someone. Noshiro then sees Sanada, and how he is a loner, there are people talking about it — there was in fact a homophobic joke made against him — but then Noshiro goes to eat lunch with him, until this girl, Yamamoto, comes at eats lunch with him. Basically, Noshiro thinks that everyone is spreading the rumour and avoiding Sanada because of the rumour. Then at the end of the chapter, you find out Sanada actually is gay.
Noshiro’s main vibe that I picked up from the first volume, or at least the first half of the first volume was that, bless him, he was so clueless. Like he’s very one track minded, he wants to make friends with Sanada so that Sanada doesn’t have to be so alone. And even though he knows Sanada is gay, there’s a moment where they run into a guy that is basically Sanada’s ex, an ex-boyfriend, and for some reason the concept of that blew Noshiro’s mind. The only reason I’m bringing this up is because it was funny to me. Like, homeboy knew Sanada was gay, so I don’t know why the idea, the mere thought of Sanada having an ex-boyfriend was so wild. He also mentions that he has zero experience when it comes to love since he was always transferring schools, but then there’s this bit where he’s at a comic shop and sees the BL section and practically runs away. Giving very that one Bart Simpson screenshot.
There’s not much of a plot. Then again, when is there in BL manga, if we’re being real? Like I mentioned before in the blurb paragraph, self-discovery. A lot of this manga is about self-discovery, especially since the characters are in high school. Since it’s romance, there are a lot of things that are quite predictable, but not in a bad way, it’s just the way that the tropes go. Like, there’s a moment in the first volume where Noshiro sees Sanada outside with another guy and it makes him upset, but Noshiro doesn’t know why it upsets him.
I know something I’ve talked about with other BL mangas is how I wish there was an extra volume, just so there was the opportunity for the characters to get a little expansion, or something a little deeper. I think this one did a pretty good job where it was. Often, there’s like one chunk of conflict and that’s it. This manga had bumps almost, like, there was a point in the second volume where even though Noshiro knows Sanada is gay, he pushes Sanada and Ayumi together, thinking that since they spend so much time together already it would be natural for them to become a couple. Bear in mind that Noshiro is a moron, at the same time, by the way. And that bit of conflict forces all three of the characters to look within themselves so that they can resolve the issue that all three of them have caused.
The last volume definitely explores the characters deeper, which I appreciated, Noshiro, especially. The conflict as well isn’t all that major in this manga. There is conflict, don’t get me wrong, it just never felt all that bad. But that just might have been more to do with me having consumed a high quantity of BL content in the last few years since I discovered its existence and have more or less learned all of the tropes that come along with it. Let’s be real, the genre is literally called Boys’ Love, so 9/10 times, they’re going to end up together. And if they don’t end up together, then they’ll end up in a good place together, like they’re just about to get together, or on the road to getting together. This manga was no exception to that.
Since BL mangas never really go all that deep into the side characters, I do think this sort of aligned with that as well. Granted, the cast wasn’t big, thankfully, and the main ones were probably Sanada, Noshiro, and Ayumi. Given that Sanada and Noshiro were the leads, I think they got expanded on as much as you could really want for in a three-volume manga. You didn’t particularly see all that much backstory, but what you got from the present was good enough honestly. And I think Ayumi was solid too. She went on a whole journey herself, which is honestly more than female characters often get in BL, especially from 2017.
I will say, going back to Sanada’s ex-boyfriend… He’s 26… And I had to look up ages for school grades in Japan. So, in this manga, Sanada and Noshiro are in 11th grade, and according to my quick googling, that means they’re 16 or 17. I don’t feel great about knowing that. Sanada’s ex-boyfriend is painted as this really mature, kind character, who gives Noshiro advice on multiple occasions. As a character, they’re quite nice, or they come across nice. But I just can’t get over the fact that there’s a 10-year age gap there, not to mention Sanada and Noshiro are both minors. That’s noncery, Mary. It just is. I don’t care how nice he is, he was a whole-ass adult who chose to date a minor. I think I’d have been okay if the “older” character in this instance had only been in the grade above. That wouldn’t have been weird because even if one character was 18 and the other was 17, they still could have been born in the same year, but just in the grade above. The ex could have been age-appropriate… but they weren’t… I really didn’t like that.
And I think that’s all I’ve got to say. I think it was a really good look at self-discovery, and reading it definitely felt like one of those shows that was gearing up for a season two, actually. However, I feel like the characters ended up more or less where they should have at the end. It was just a shame for Sanada’s ex being 26, when he was a minor. That was the thing I really wasn’t a fan of.
Okay, bye!
