After the awkward “date” in the first volume, featuring not only a third but a fourth wheel, readers have to re-evaluate their understandings of the character dynamics with the reveal that not only does Futaba’s friend Masumi have a crush on her, but Toma’s not crushing on a mysterious woman as Taichi believes — it’s Taichi himself.
Not that Taichi (or Futaba) have noticed this however, although even they have noticed that Toma is trying to push the two of them together as a couple while he stands on the sidelines. Taichi isn’t okay with this however; as he begins to wrestle with his feelings over Futaba he’s still determined to bring the other two, who seem to have so much he doesn’t, together.
KAITO’s other published work in English, the digital-only Cross Manage, is a series about a girl’s lacrosse team and the extra focus on the school sports day in Blue Flag makes it clear that he would love to do more sports manga. Sure the panels and pages here weren’t quite as dynamic but in Cross Manage KAITO was working with the incredibly dynamic game of lacrosse, and comparatively speaking relay races and cheering squads don’t give you as much to work with (although, these scenes did remind me that I need to finish another sports manga about cheering, Mitsuruo Kubo’s Again!!). These scenes are still rather fun and this time it’s not the sports that are supposed to be the main focus but rather the characters’ internal, emotional states and that’s where Blue Flag stands head and shoulders above Cross Manage.
Really, it’s as if KAITO went through a romantic awakening, or a second round of puberty’s overflowing emotions and awkwardness, between these two series, as his grip on interpersonal relationships is so much clearer and more firm this time around. Cross Manage had a fairly basic romantic subplot, with two dumb-ish characters not fully acknowledging their emotions and a few other dumb-ish characters, just enough for a small harem, getting involved as well. So you know, a standard shonen romance. Blue Flag however has been playing with a lot more emotions from the get-go; Taichi is constantly confused why someone so much “better” than him, the athletic, good-looking, and popular Toma, is interested in him in any way and that kind of self-doubt colors his interactions with not only Toma but also with every other character we see in the series.
Taichi can never become as close with Toma (as a friend) as Toma would like. Even when Toma is vulnerable with him, because Taichi doesn’t have the kind of self-confidence to accept that relationship, it would mean accepting that he’s not “bad” or “undesirable.” Likewise, Taichi can’t accept the idea that he and Futaba might be falling for each other, because that would mean once again accepting that he has many positive qualities going for him as well, ones that would cause Futaba to “settle” for him (not that she would be) instead of Toma. Taichi puts on a different front with his other friends, the only ones in the comic with more gag-manga character designs; Taichi feels that this bunch of “outcasts” (which they aren’t) is where he belongs and uses that as a way to avoid confronting these darker feelings.
There are several turns in these two volumes which do absolutely nothing to assuage Taichi’s self-guilt and I do wonder if we’ll ever get to what the root of it is. We learn a bit more about both Taichi and Toma’s childhoods and, since they hadn’t been close for a few years when this series starts, I wonder if Taichi did something to Toma he feels guilty for years ago (like, possibly distancing himself from Toma after his parent’s accident). I think there will be a reckoning about Taichi’s attitude before much longer, possibly coupled with Toma truly opening up to him about why he isn’t planning on going to college, etc. The two of them at least seem to be moving towards that place, and Futaba’s friend Mitsuba has possibly even farther to go; she’s so deeply in the closet that Taichi finds her dating a man and listens to her musing over what love really is. Although my reaction to that scene was also tempered by thoughts of “okay I KNOW there are websites in Japanese about being queer and I think you need to read them to stop whatever self-flagellating you’re doing here,” a feeling I find myself having more and more often as I get older and see the number of resources available to fictional teens that weren’t around for me.
With only two volumes left in this series, I hope the teens will be alright, but the slightly melancholy mood that pervades the entire series leaves me feeling nervous. I have confidence that KAITO will pull off a “good” ending to the series, I just hope he isn’t too harsh to the characters in the process!