A review by blairwyn
Blue Flag, Vol. 8 by Kaito

4.0

This contains very specific spoilers. Read at own risk. Also just my personal analysis and thoughts. :)

This is my final review for the series as a whole. Book 1-4 were super cute. Very romance manga feel. Also humorous. I enjoyed them.
Then I feel like the story just went down hill each book after. I really didn’t like how In depth the story went with most of the side characters. Especially when those side characters would go on multiple page rants about something. It was one sided explanations that really felt like mansplaining and justifying things that felt very homophobic and a bit transphobic as well.
The last book in the series started to go back up to why I originally liked the story itself. Cute. Humorous etc. Then that ending. I noticed that the manga doesn’t say the word gay or lesbian once. Almost like the author may have been afraid of the actual words in the story. This was highlighted with the final scene in the book. Couldn’t actually show the two characters in a same-sex relationship. It’s still just generally emphasized and hinted. (Why did Futaba’s husband look exactly like ichinose?)
Don’t even get me started on the self deprecation of the entire series. With that being said, chapter 49 was my absolute favorite chapter. The aggressive complimenting between Futaba and toma was cute.
The art for the entire series was stunning. The biggest reason why I picked up the book and then continued through the series.