Noshiro and Sanada are certainly friends now but even friends will hide some of their thoughts and feelings from each other. As Noshiro tries to understand Sanada, and what being gay means for his life, he’s making some blunders and realizing that Sanada means even more to him than he ever expected.
Well what a surprise — in volume 1 Okura had mentioned in the extra pages that there was a side character from the webcomic who wasn’t in the story yet and he wasn’t sure if the character would fit in at all and he’s here now! The gay underclassman Makoto may have undergone a bit of a name change, and a quite a visual change too (I suspect that Okura, like Sanada, really likes “bear” characters judging by Makoto’s original appearance) but he did make it into the story after all!
Makoto’s role is the classic “third part of a love triangle because the creator felt like additional ‘spice’ was needed” trope and, outside of unintentionally pushing some events to happen, he’s pretty superfluous. I don’t dislike the character, and I felt like Okura almost had something there with how Makoto’s cute, genki appearance and personality causes the folks around him to not take his open declarations of love for Noshiro seriously (compared with the semi-isolation Sanada was experiencing when classmates merely suspected he liked guys) but that’s not quite there either.
When given the choice between a really deep, darker moment and a taking a lighter approach to the situation, That Blue Sky Feeling opts to taking the lighter route just about every time; both in the context of this individual story and in the context of the wide range of LGTBQ+ stories as a whole this isn’t a bad choice, it’s nice to have “fluffier” stories. However, I can’t help but feel that if That Blue Sky Feeling had occasionally gone a bit deeper with its characters, even if it involved a darker moment or two, that it would have elevated the story into feeling like a more well-rounded, empathetic story.
One thing that is still present in the story is Sanada’s old ex, the adult Hide. Once again I’m a bit torn; on the one hand I like that that Noshiro has a trusted, older gay adult to go to for advice in these situations since you don’t often see that kind of intergenerational-age interactions in stories aimed at teens.
On the other hand, it’s the “trusted, older gay adult” part I have trouble with since the series continues to determinedly never question what kind of romantic/sexual relationship you can really have between a roughly 15 years old and 25 years old couple and that kind of age gap is always a huge red flag for me. If Hide had been written instead as merely a mentor to both Noshiro and Sanada, no past romantic/sexual relationships involved, that would have changed Hide and Sanada’s relationship a bit. But, given how much of a tsundere Sanada can be at times anyway, I still think Okura could have made it work in the same amount of time anyway.
In many ways, I do think that this version of That Blue Sky Feeling, the one which is a collaboration between Okura and Coma Hashii, is likely the “best” version of the story. In the extra pages of volume two Okura has the characters address how Sanada and Ayumi really never have their major interactions at the festival, which really sets up how their relationship settles in the future, and how they didn’t have a past together in junior high which was the reason for their relationship before Noshiro transferred schools. I was actually a bit surprised to read that, since those scenes are really critical (and possibly the most important scenes in volume two), but Okura says it just sort of flowed along. I can see a version of Blue Sky where Sanada and Ayumi don’t have much of a relationship at all but I really do think the character growth feels stronger for having the two of them navigate what a non-romantic relationship is going to mean for them.
I don’t think we’ll ever have a chance to read the “original” version of this story, since it’s a private webcomic, but I’m okay with that. That Blue Sky Feeling by Okura and Coma Hashii is a coming out, coming of age story which is sometimes more concerned with keeping things fluffy rather than diving deep into messier emotions but I like having some lighter stories out there to read when sometimes everything else feels a bit too dark.