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Forum - View topicREVIEW: Blue Flag GN 8
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leongsh
 Posts: 181 |
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Thank you for reviewing the Blue Flag series. You've picked up the context and meaning of the series and how it ended. I followed this series while it was being serialised digitally and later half of the digital manga showing up in Manga PLUS app. The years after high school and university life and graduation are where the characters each found themselves but their last year in high school is where it is played out where they started to confront themselves.
Masumi's ending and choice spoiler[was questioned by some since they have had her pigeonholed as lesbian but the spectrum is wide enough that she found someone male that loves her and supports her unconditionally, and she in turn loves him enough to be her life partner. Her talk with Toma's sister-in-law helped her question and open up her viewpoint and options from her tunnel vision and fixation with Futaba.] The pleasant surprise at the end was that Tacihi spoiler[did eventually hook up with Toma. Even in the last 3-4 pages where they interacted gives you a clear indication that they really are like a married couple.] It is just sad though that same sex marriage is not recognised in Japan. There is the lingering question for me of whether they could have themselves legally married in a country that accepts same sex marriage and returned to Japan. Added spoiler tags. Errinundra. |
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wolf10
 Posts: 906 |
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Admittedly, I went into this series knowing the ending, if only because I was kind of tired of all the "gay best friend gets rejected" subplots that seem to be creeping into every genre lately, manga or otherwise. What surprised me, though, is that the character I connected to most was actually Taichi. Where he lands in the alphabet soup is debatable and probably irrelevant, but his very dumb, very bad choices were all very sympathetic to me.
It took me a long time to figure out I was gay (most of college, actually), and there were many bumps on the road from "of course I'm straight, what else could I be?" to proper acceptance that I actually liked dudes and dude parts exclusively, and my occasional admiration for women was just exactly that. So, while the entire story may have just been an amusing hypothetical to KAITO, it was much realer to me than any romance I've ever read. To paraphrase one of the Jump+ chapter comments: "where was this series when I was in high school?" The afterword also cleared up one of my misgivings about this series, especially with regards to how the final chapter is told: the author wanted to do it that way, and the most editorial interference came in the form of bringing the queer content to the forefront, not censoring it. I still think it's weird and roundabout, but I can accept it. (The small interjections from the cast are also taken from real comments on the Japanese Jump+ site, as an added bonus.) Needed more Mami, though. (Totally unrelated, but I finally picked up Beyond Heaving Bosoms, and it is a delight. Thanks for the recommendation, Rebecca!) |
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Matcha.8
Posts: 130 |
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Thanks for thoughtful review of the series. I read this sometime ago and remember people were all kinds of pissed about the epilogue when it first came out, saying that it ruined the whole story for them... But my little heart was just really happy to see spoiler[Toma and Taichi ended up together.] As stated in the review, high school is not where people figure out who they are and life happens after that. I think those who are mad at the epilogue are trying to find some narrative continuity where it doesn't exist. I remember seeing on the author's twitter that how they wanted the story to be about coming of age in high school instead of romance, which is why they didn't draw past high school graduation since that is a perfect ending point for the story they have in mind. The epilogue was a nice bonus for me, but with or without it, Blue Flag remains one of the most moving manga that centers on queer characters that I've read in recent years.
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Яeverse
 Posts: 1141 Location: Indianapolis |
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Glad I got the ending outcome I wanted, I just wish KAITO did more between the final high school chapter and the actual final chapter.
spoiler[Would have thought there would have been some impact to showing how the Futaba and Taichi breakup eventually happened, and how ended up going back to Toma (sure its sometimes nice to leave it to readers imagination or even fanfics, but the series wasn't ever big enough for it, and I'm sure doujins of that are hard to come by, oh well), also, of course somewhat curious of what careers both boys ended up choosing, especially Toma as I thought him finding out what he wanted in life was somewhat important...also, as well how would his brother handle him and Taichi, lol. I guess there's so much little extra that would have been nice. ] KAITO's afterward (so much longer than other writers) was worth the purchase of the volume. Oh well, I'm glad to own this series and thank viz for picking it up, was always something I wanted. Now bring us Boyaku Battery please |
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wolf10
Posts: 906 |
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Seems a little silly to spoiler-tag things mentioned in the review, but better safe than sorry...
(Also, not to sound like a banner ad but these paperbacks are much nicer than I expect from Viz. So big and soft. I guess that's what "Signature" means.) |
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Suxinn
 Posts: 243 |
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While I kind of tentatively enjoyed where this series ended up, I also agree that I felt that the ending was a bit rushed, and I wish the final relationship had been given more room to breathe than it had in the series (and for a series that centered a lot on Futaba, it felt like she was kind of given short-shrift at the end).
And I also didn't mind that Masumi married a man, but I really didn't like... spoiler[How her husband talked about how he couldn't help but be jealous of Masumi whenever she was near women or men, which kind of veered wayyy too closely to the whole bisexual promiscuity trope for my liking.] But then again, that might just be my bias against Blue Flag talking since, as I mentioned before, I really didn't enjoy how they handled Touma's outing, and I ended up forcing myself to finish this only after I heard that the ending didn't suck. |
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