With age gap romances, typically the younger partner tries to grow up quickly, to become an adult who can walk side-by-side with their beloved.
Here, however, Kako instead flips this on its head: she’s been making Kota walk around in a school uniform. In addition, Kako is rockin’ the kappa look; she’d probably get along swimmingly with the kappa mayor in Arakawa Under the Bridge. Kota gets frustrated on both points, but when he learns what Kako’s motivation was, he can’t help but be even more charmed by his wife.
But any romantic storms are interrupted as Heisuke figures out the relationship between the girl he likes and the cop he hates. Not only that, circumstances at home lead him to start filing to drop out of school, and it’s up to Kota to be both the police and guy who doesn’t let his wife’s friend down. His fallible self is also seen at work when his partner scolds him for getting too emotional while working on Heisuke’s case.
As Miyoshi says in her author’s notes, the fourth volume featured a lot of Heisuke, but his character arc reaches its climax and resolution here. But the manga starts off with some cute fluff at the school festival and slowly shows its serious side as Heisuke’s family life and distrust of the police are revealed. Friendship is a key theme, as Kako, Jiro, and Mikado continue to be upbeat idiots and shine a light in Heisuke’s life.
It’s nice to see Heisuke become happier, but I’m not satisfied that his role in the story is going to be greatly diminished. Spoiler alert: he’s moving. The author says because “keeping him around wouldn’t be good for Kako.”
So either Heisuke would keep hitting on a married woman or Kako can’t be friends with someone who liked her — either way, not exactly a ringing endorsement for the characters. I was also hoping Kota would be a mentor- or brother-like figure to Heisuke, but instead, they’ll have to stick to mutual respect and rivalry from a distance.
In other developments, someone does steal the mantle of worst character from the teacher. Congratulations, I guess? This person who can now claim the Worst Character Award will probably raise some discussion about how he was able to get away with being an abuser for so long. Like most of this manga, readers aren’t expected to think about the reasons why or how too deeply. Really, why would you look for social commentary with a manga about a police officer marrying a high school girl he barely knows?
So while I wasn’t happy with Heisuke being shipped off, My Boy in Blue was just an all-around good read. Friendship, love, respect, drama…nothing overshadowed the other, and I enjoyed it all.