Blue Flag, Tome 1

青のフラッグ [Ao no Flag] #1

by Kaito

Fin, drôle et pudique, Blue Flag est une fenêtre sur la tolérance.

Au printemps de leur année de Terminale, trois élèves se retrouvent à un carrefour de leur vie. Taichi est dans la même classe que Tôma, un ami d'enfance à qui tout réussi et que Futaba, une fille qu'il a du mal à supporter. Un jour, Futaba se confie à lui et lui avoue qu'elle est amoureuse de Tôma.

Un instantané sensible des tourments de la jeunesse d'aujourd'hui.

Genres: Manga, Romance, LGBT, Queer, Graphic Novels, Young Adult, Contemporary

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 4, 2017

About the author

Japanese mangaka.

Reviews

[Gabby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ow, my heart 🥹 This was soooo cute and I can see this series becoming a new favorite. Major Heartstopper vibes with this one 💕

[Lauren Lanz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started Blue Flag on a whim.
A slice of life rom-com sounded like the perfect quick and forgettable read, right? Right?

Wrong.

What happened was this: I read the first volume of Blue Flag, and came to love it an indescribable amount. My impatience quickly took over, urging me to skip to the last volume to find out if reading the rest would be worth it, and I—I just….

Needless to say, my best friend received a series of texts at 1:39AM about how Blue Flag wrecked me despite the fact that I bypassed, like, 6 volumes due to my nonexistent self control. I am so, so excited to start this series from the beginning with no skips, and fully enjoy (what I assume will be) a new favourite manga of mine. Now, for the volume 1 review!

~★~ What is this book about? ~★~

Taichi and Toma have been best friends since they were kids; they’re now in their third year of high school, having drifted apart after Toma became popular on the baseball team.
Then Futaba—a shy girl—asks Taichi for advice on how to get with Toma. Knowing that they’re not very close anymore, Taichi is reluctant to help, but eventually complies and strikes up an easy friendship with her.
While trying to set Futaba up with Toma, Taichi develops feelings for her. Futaba herself likes Toma, not knowing that he’s gay and has been quietly in love with Taichi his whole life. (Plus, Futaba’s best friend is a closeted lesbian in love with her). So yeah, my first time reading about a love quadrangle.

~★~

I typically don’t gravitate towards slice of life mangas, and so the synopsis for Blue Flag didn’t initially interest me. Thankfully, I definitely judged by the cover, which led me to discover my best surprise read of this year so far. Blue Flag already holds such a dear place in my heart.

Both Taichi and Toma stole my heart from the get-go; I love their friendship to pieces. It was beautiful to see both boys begin rekindling the special bond they lost over the years. Futaba was another joy to read about; it was great to witness her slow gaining of confidence as she worked up to confessing her feelings to Toma.

I’m so fond of Kaito’s art style and the way they illustrated each character, background and expression. There was a fair amount of comedic relief that adds such heart to this story; Blue Flag is probably the only manga I’ve read that I think accurately portrays what high schoolers are like. Because crushes are messy, and friendships falter (then come back strong). Sexualities are contemplated, and hasty romantic relationships begin and end. It was nice to see all of these ideas come into play without an excessive amount of drama.

Blue Flag is an incredibly easy manga to love. The characters practically attach themselves to you, and the prose is executed with a simplistic yet powerful poise that pulls you in from the start. What else is there to say? Nothing. Except, well, read this manga.

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahhhhhhhhhhh

Did I discovered another gem? Yes!!

I am living for it right now? Hell yess!

Okay this manga here is gonna be a next big thing for sure atleast for me. Alice Oseman recommended this so I am definitely gonna read it because you guys know how much I love her!💜

Moving on the characters I mean omg! Can they be anymore funny and cute. The art is splendid. There facial expressions are hilarious. This quadrangle is gonna be a lot more fun then I imagined. So I hope I am in for some great drama and friendship and romance ofc!



Ps :- I feel attacked when taichi pointed out that kuze have a small tounge. Excuse me? I am 6ft tall and I have incredibly small tounge. You don't know how many things I have heard about that!

[Katie Colson · Rating 3 out of 5]

2022: ⭐️4
Rereading to jump start binging the entire series.
I am blown away by the concept and follow through of this manga.
It takes such complicated feelings and makes them even harder to understand because we are dealing with an array of sexualities and within those sexualities is an array of self-understanding. There are characters who hide their sexuality from themselves and others who hide it from others. They are going through such a difficult time in their lives. To have all of this emotional baggage put on top of it is too much to bear at times. I love it.

Also, the last page SENT ME!!!!!!

2022: ⭐️4
Vlog/Review: https://youtu.be/3LtrFimU5g0

This has SUCH Heartstopper vibes. I'm willing to bet that if you like one, you'll like the other.

I didn't read the summary of this before diving in and that last page had me GASPING. I was like love quadrangle say what? I'm here for it. I'm setting up a booth for it. I'm campaigning for it.

I bought the entire series after finishing the first volume. That should speak for itself.

[Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Necesitaba desintoxicarme y qué mejor manera que volviendo a releer uno de mis mangas favoritos.

La cosa está así. Yo nunca suelo darle un segundo o tercer vistazo a algo, pero hay muy pocas excepciones y esta historia es una de ellas. Es que no se puede ser más lindo y tierno, no puede haber una historia sobre la amistad, el amor y el autodescubrimiento más hermosa que esta y que te cala hasta lo más profundo del corazón. No pueden existir personajes tan entrañables como los que hay aquí y que puedas quererlos, comprenderlos y protegerlos a todos en la misma medida. Esta es mi zona segura, el lugar donde todo está bien y la historia que sin lugar a dudas me hace sentir bien.

[Virginia Ronan ♥ Herondale ♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really nice to read and after the ending of volume 1 I’m very curious what’s going to happen in the other volumes. Futaba kinda reminded me of Tohru Honda from “Fruitsbasket”, because she’s at least as kind and clumsy as her. *lol* Taichi seems to be a very gentle and friendly soul as well and tried to help Futaba as best as he could. XD I guess he just didn’t expect her to follow his advice so thoroughly and I felt really bad for him when Futaba’s bestie intervened. XD

Still, Futaba as well as Taichi are two very interesting MCs and I’m pretty sure we’ll get to see more of Toma and Futaba’s bestie as well. I have no idea how many volumes “Blue Flag” has but I’m definitely ready to read them all. It’s been a while I last read a good manga and the LGBTQ+ representation makes this even more intriguing. =)

I enjoyed the first volume a lot and I’ll be watching out for the second one. I hope I’ll get my hands on it soon! ;-)

_____________________________

I borrowed this from my library and it has to be returned by tomorrow, so I decided to tackle it as long as I can and since it's a manga I'll be through with it in no time. =)

All I know about "Blue Flag" is that it has a LGBTQ+ element and a love quadrangle? *lol*
But for me that's everything I need to know. XD So yeah, going to dive into this and we'll see how it goes. ;-)

[Ray Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

[ Re-read in 2021, mexican edition ]

Only a few people know how to write a love story with so much drama going on even when it’s just two people involved, but hey, have you heard about a love quadrangle?

A friend of mine recommended this to me and since I’ve been getting onto manga again, I wanted to try something new and Ao no Flag was just the perfect choice. This is a slice of life, rom-com that is about a girl called Kuze Futaba who has a crush on the golden boy, Mita Touma. Although, she’s tiny and shy and her personality doesn’t really help that much to confess her feelings towards the guy whose charisma bewitches everyone.

So, since she can’t help her own case, Ichinose Taichi, the guy who used to be Touma’s bff since they were kids, decides to help her. Only this might be more of a challenge than they were expecting.

From what I could see, Taichi starts to like Kuze, even though she has a crush on Touma. And, to add more drama to the story, I think Touma actually likes Taichi, but he can’t say he’s openly gay. Also, I suspect Itachi Masumi, Kuze’s friend, likes her too. So, yeah, that’s your love quadrangle.

What I liked about this volume is that it feels refreshing and more realistic, since they’re in their 3rd year of high school, so they have big changes ahead. And of course, the sweet moments between Touma and Kuze, and Taichi and Kuze respectivately were my favorite. But, what would happen with their love life? Would they eventually confess their feelings?

I need answers!

This volume contains 1 - 5 chapters.

[ananya ྀི · Rating 4 out of 5]

blue flag? more like bisexual flag

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beginning to sort of buddy read this series with a teen who lives in this house who Loooooves this. It is cute, I'll say. I like that cover, which depicts a familiar teen scenario: She likes him and he likes someone else who likes someone else.

But's it's more complicated than that; it's a "love quadrangle" tale, as a boy, Taichi Ichinose, and a girl, Futaba Kuze, begin to like each even as their best friends have secretly already fallen for them. But it's even more complicated than that! The two best friends one girl, one boy, are both gay, and are crushing on their same-sex best friend. . . Are you following me? Do I need to make a chart to make this clear?! Kind of fun and funny and sweet, as they have so much to figure out!

[Sofía✿ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esto me dejo muy mal:(

[debs ༉‧₊˚. · Rating 4 out of 5]

╰┈➤ 4 stars

[ariana esnifa libros · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️ QUE LE GUSTA QUIEN??? (mentira ya sabía ese spoiler si esto salió hace mil años)

[Shae · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You're Best Friend, or your Lover, You can only save one. What would you do?"

This story of 4 teenagers dealing with their feelings of love through high school is a journey in which we get to join them. The primary perspective we follow is Sorta, a young teenage boy, who is average height, and is kind of a nerd. His friend Toma is the good looking jock who is friendly with everyone, but only goes out of his way to talk to Sorta. A fellow classmate, Futaba, has a big crush on Toma, and asks Sorta to help her get to know him better, because she is extremely shy, and gets nervous around him.

As the story develops, we meet Itachi, who happens to have feelings for someone in the group as well. As feelings develop and are discovered in the story, things get messier and more complicated. Bring on a variety of love triangles!

The balance within the story is carefully crafted, along with beautiful art that sweeps you into the moment with them. I really enjoyed this volume very much, and look forward to more as they come out. There are some really cute moments throughout the volume, and I can't wait for you all to experience this manga releasing soon.

ARC copy provided by NetGalley for a free and honest review.

[mehta · Rating 4 out of 5]

what in the motherfucking fuck. that ending gagged me!!

[Steph ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5✨

[Maia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The set up for this story is very standard: teens in high school dealing with crushes, friendship, and figuring out their sexuality. But the execution is so skillful that it elevates what could be a really generic or heavy handed tale into something that felts very deft and true. I'm not usually one to pick up a love triangle/quadrangle but I had a great time with this one and will likely read more. I just hope the closeted queer characters don't end up with tragic rejections!

[Mon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ay, es tan hermoso 🥰

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man I am a total sucker for these Romance Slice of life stories haha.

So Blue Flag starts off similar enough to things probably read or watched. A character named Taichi is just living his normal everyday life when one day he begins to talk to Futaba. He quickly finds out Futaba has a mega-crush on Touma Mita, a childhood friend of Taichi. Despite Taichi knowing it won't work out he decides to help Futaba, even though HE might secretly have feelings for her, but more than that he feels let down by his own views in life and being...lost.

This is a love story but with plenty of fun twist. Most of all it's pretty damn funny. The faces are so good, I laughed a few times at reactions. Also, the characters seem realistic and the ending wasn't a surprised as I guessed earlier, but it was handled VERY well. I really got attached to all three characters, and eager to see how they grow from here.

Give me more of blue Flag. A 4 out of 5.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

My heart. Just broke.

5, oh those poor, poor, poor BFFs, stars.

[jut · Rating 5 out of 5]

IM LIVING FOR IT

[Mir · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know where my review went. I don't recall what I said or f I gave it 4 or 5, but I'll give it 5 now to make up for my earlier rating vanishing...

[Malli (Chapter Malliumpkin) · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC was given by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This review is being published before the release date (April 21st, 2020)

Content/Trigger Warnings: Minor bullying, death of a parent/loss of a loved one

Fellow readers, I really enjoyed this manga! I know it's been a while since I talked about a manga, but after reading Blue Flag Vol. 1, I'm so hung up on it and waiting for the next volume. Can the next volume be out already? Please! I truly enjoyed myself and my time reading this manga. And if you're in need of some cute, fluffy, and slow burn romance then you will like this book as much as I did.

Blue Flag follows four teenagers and their journey through high school, navigating their feelings. We follow the perspective of Sorta Ichinose who's an average boy, but also a bit nerdy. His childhood friend, Toma is the polar opposite of Sorta. He's charming and popular with all of his classmates, but despite all of that, he goes out of his way to remain friends with Sorta and make conversation with him. Somewhere along the way, Sorta ends up in the mist of helping a fellow classmate, Futaba Kuze. She has a huge crush on Toma and seeks out courage and help from Sorta as Toma is his friend. As the story-line develops, feelings bloom, signals get mixed, and tensions run high. When it comes to love, things can get a bit messy!



I loved so many things about this manga! I couldn’t help getting swept away as the story-line whisks you away between moments of tension to endearing moments. There are so many moments where you feel like you’re holding your breath or waiting for someone to confess their feelings. Not to mention, there are some really sweet moments shared with the characters. And as these moments bloom, you can’t help wondering what will happen next. Also, I’m not one to really like or enjoy love triangles that often. However, the way the love triangles are crafted in this book were well balanced and leaves you wonder who will end up with who.

I also have to mention the ending of this manga! That ending left me wanting the next volume immediately. The cliffhanger is so good and there are so many questions that I need answers to. I was so swept up into the story-line and the character development that when I got to the end, the ending hit like a ton of bricks. This will probably be one of my favorite cliffhanger endings ever! I can’t for everyone else to experience this ending!

Overall, I was really taken by storm with this manga. From the pleasant art style all the way to the ending of this book, this series has hooked it’s claws in me. I’m ready for the next volume and I can’t wait to see what happens to all of these characters. If you’er a lover of slow burns, love triangles, and cliffhangers that leave you wanting more then this is a series I highly recommend picking up! This manga was charming, had so many sweet moments, and I’ll say it again, that end was top tier level.



|Blog|Instagram|Twitter|YouTube|

[Rachel Kathryn Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is about four teenagers coming to terms with their feelings and learning how to navigate them in high school. It did take a little for the feelings to come through, but once they did I was hooked. And I do wish we got to learn more about the main character, Taichi’s feelings. Because at the end he is the only one that hasn’t expressed interest in someone. The characters are all relatable and easy to connect with. Overall, a good start to a series that I am looking forward to continuing.

[Gloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mi corazón preparándose para sufrir...

[Rod Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow-burn romance about high school crushes and unrequited love with a nice romantic rectangle at the core. Taichi promises to help shy girl Futaba woo his childhood friend, Toma, which results in a super awkward non-date/pre-arranged accidental meet-up that pulls in Futaba's friend Masumi. It's obvious where the story is going, but I really enjoyed the journey.

Bonus: Super intimidating kabedon!

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really promising! I'm not a huge fan of love triangles but this might be the exception.

https://amzn.to/3oAMPag

[literarylesbian · Rating 5 out of 5]

stressing me out 😭😭

[MaguiWorld · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahora empiezo a entender porque todos estaban tan emocionados por este manga.

Y también entiendo porqué lo recomendaban tanto. Leyendo solo el primer tomo uno se da cuenta que la historia va a ir avanzando lentamente pero que van a pasar cosas bastante grosas. Grosas en el sentido a lo que le pasa a los personajes y cómo es que crecen en su último año de la secundaria.

Ya quiero saber cómo sigue esta bella historia.

[Camille · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of shojo mangas. It's probably the most common type of manga I end up reading. In Blue Flag Vol. I, the first volume in this series lays out the groundwork in introducing the people involved in our love quadrangle: Taichi, Futaba, Toma, and Masumi as they all are navigating their way through their third year of high school and the relationships they have with each other.

The beginning was a little bit over the top and cliché at times but as the story progressed, we really get to see more depth to our characters as they deal with issues such as self-worth, identity, and fear of the future. If there was one main issue I had with the book, it was pertaining to a certain situation between certain characters. It sends a wrong message-- how you have to change who you are in order for someone to like you. Wasn't really fond of that but I can see why it was included. That mentality is very relatable especially during your high school years when it’s all about appearances and impressions. However, don’t take that message to heart. Love yourself for who you are and embrace the good and bad parts of yourself. The right people will love you for it in the end.

I loved the dynamic and relationship between Taichi and Futaba. They're probably the couple that I'm rooting for but with the twists that came up and that very teasing, evil cliffhanger, I don't know if my heart will get broken or not as this series continues on! I liked how the author went with a more unconventional cliffhanger instead of going the predictable route. It leaves a lot to explore for the next volume and the volumes to come after as it will possibly open up important conversations about sexuality. I'm hoping with the next volume we get to learn more about Masumi and her back history as well as I feel like in this volume we didn't get to learn too much about her.

Sweet and simplistic filled with sincere and genuine characters, I'm looking forward to seeing where Blue Flag takes me next.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Michela · Rating 5 out of 5]

2nd reread, even better than I remembered, absolutely OBSESSED ♥️

I’ll read v2 tomorrow!