Blue Flag, Tome 8

青のフラッグ [Ao no Flag] #8

by Kaito, Nesrine Mezouane (Translator)

Fin, drôle et pudique, Blue Flag est une fenêtre sur la tolérance.
Les saisons auront beau se succéder, je ne t'oublierai pas.

Tôma a une discussion à cœur ouvert avec Futaba pour la première fois depuis l'incident. De son côté, pris entre deux feux, Taichi se sent tiraillé, et submergé par la situation, il met de la distance entre Tôma et lui.
Tôma finit par ne plus se montrer au lycée... Que vont décider Taichi et Futaba ? Quels choix vont-ils faire ? Quel avenir les attend ?

Genres: Manga, Romance, LGBT, Queer, Young Adult, Comics, Contemporary

240 pages, Paperback

First published June 4, 2020

About the author

Japanese mangaka.

Reviews

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay so it ended just like that??

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!

This manga was so amazing till CH 52 and then the ended happened.

All the building up of their relationship bas well as friendship just to trash it in four sentences?

Futuba and her husband ??? I felt stabbed. I mean like what happened between Taichi and Futuba. And then Masumi and her husband omg why??? I never knew she was bisexual all the way I was rooting for her as the best built lesbian character and now this.

And then suddenly we have touma and taichi as the end game. I mean yes we all were rooting for it but either it would have shown properly or left just like that on BEST FRIENDS POWER note. It would have made more sense than whatever the fuck happened in the end.

This is equivalent to emotional terrorism.

[Gabby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ughhh sadly this is my least favorite volume in the series. Like what the fuck was that ending?? I feel like this entire series was building up to these potential relationships and feelings and then nothing ever happened?? And the ending was so rushed and we didn’t get to see how anything came to be… super frustrating.

I feel like I’d recommend this series as a great ‘high school, coming of age, queer teens navigating their feelings’ kind of story, but not as a romance. The romance was such a let down 😭

[Rachael]

Spoiler-filled thoughts on the ending (chapter 54, vol. 8) -


Full disclosure: I waited until this manga had finished and spoiled myself for the ending before I committed to reading past vol. 1. I loved vol. 1 but got a bit put off because I started reading around the time when Taichi went to hear out Kensuke and Shingo about how "maybe homophobes have a point actually!" and that was all anyone was talking about online, and I was a bit worried about the direction this would take.

I am thrilled it ended the way it did but I do think it could have been handled better. Everything really led up to Taichi turning down Touma but remaining best friends, and I would have been satisfied with that (provided Touma ended up happy with another man in the future). The last little bit of chapter 53 and chapter 54 felt very rushed. It was like the natural course of the story concluded when Taichi stayed with Futaba but reconciled with Touma, and then they were like "oh btw 2 years later Taichi and Futaba broke up and 5 years after that Taichi and Touma are married yay the end!!" I wanted to see them get together! I wanted to see Taichi coming to terms with his own feelings! I wanted to see how and why his relationship with Futaba disintegrated! The way it was handled just seemed rushed and I really think it could have used a post-high school arc to flesh out that seven year time-skip from Point A to Point B. That said though, I am so happy Taichi and Touma did end up together, it was a bold choice on the mangaka's part and I saw a lot of homophobic comments on the scanlation sites I first read this on, so I feel extra compelled to say that I am glad this manga exists.

(Also the physical volume includes a bonus story with madeleines and I LOVE THAT CALLBACK AAAWWWWWWW)

I am annoyed though that Masumi ended up being bisexual and marrying a man when literally everything in the text pointed to her being a closeted lesbian who only dated boys because she wanted to be "normal" 😭
Originally my review said "as long as she's happy, that's what's important", but also she's not a real person and her character doesn't exist in a vacuum so ... yeah I'm still annoyed at this ending for her. It was completely unnecessary and out of the blue, and nowhere near as impactful as it would have been to see her with another woman or even proudly out and single. At least it sounds like her husband is aware she's attracted to women so it's not like she is hiding it, but ... ugh it was a disappointing conclusion to her arc about coming to terms with her same-sex attraction. (and I'm saying this as a bisexual woman so please don't @ me about this)

[Bianca · Rating 5 out of 5]

BEST FRIEND POWER! ✨ ✨

[Katie Colson · Rating 1 out of 5]

THEFUCKAREYOUTALKINGABOUT?!
How did we get here? Cause this is so left field to how the characters have been acting for the last 7 volumes. It's not that people can't grow apart or grow up but I don't understand how the people who got together got together. I never saw those feelings as a two way street. Not reciprocated by one of them. If you know what I mean. But they end up together? What? And we don't even get to actually SEE it? Trash. Offensive to be honest.
Let's not even talk about Masumi. She was done so dirty and I'll never be over it.
This series took such a horrible turn that I'm gonna unhaul the whole set and I'm so mad about it.

[Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ao no flag es el aliciente que necesitaba mi corazón para ser feliz.

«La vida es un conjunto de desiciones.»

Hay tantas cosas por decir de esta historia pero yo la resumiría específicamente en amistad. Porque qué bonito son las relaciones y la responsabilidad afectiva que hay en muchos de ellos. El amor también está y lo hay diverso y de todas las formas. Y aunque el romance es casi esencial para cada uno de ellos por los distintos o iguales intereses románticos que tienen, Ao no flag está para mostrarte que también hay amor filial y que la amistad y la empatía puede ser más grande que todo lo demás.

Es por eso que el penúltimo capítulo lo amé con todo mi corazón y aunque el final no es malo (que lo tomo como un epílogo y cierre a sus vidas adultas), siempre lo he sentido muy anticlimático... pero bueno, eso ya es cuestión del paso de los años y las desiciones que cada uno de ellos tomaron por voluntad propia y para su felicidad. Que al final es uno de los mensajes que busca transmitirte esta obra.

Yo lo que podría decir de este manga es que toca tantas vertientes de manera natural y con muchísimo tacto. Es hermoso y absolutamente emocional la mayor parte del tiempo. El autodescubrimiento, la búsqueda de la identidad, el primer amor, la importancia de la amistad, la aceptación personal, la empatía y otros que se cuelan fuertemente como los estereotipos, los prejuicios, la misoginia, el machismo, la expresión de género, la libertad y sobretodo la felicidad; que al final estas dos últimas se logran acorde a la serie de desiciones que van tomando y marcándoles el camino.

P. D.: Faltó Mami en la imagen, pero igual tiene su lugarcito ganado en mi corazón.

[Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this ending...?

I love that Taichi and Toma ended up together! - But I wanted to see it happen.

To preface, I said in my review for the last volume that I really didn't see a way for this to end with anything other than Kuze and Taichi together before graduation. I was sort of right? This ended in a way that reminded me of How I Met Your Mother - and not that I'm disappointed with the ending (to be honest, I am one of the few that didn't hate HIMYM's finale), but what I mean by this is that, we get to see SO much of the build up and then the ending happens very, very quickly. So, the relationship I'd really been looking forward to seeing (if it happened) was Toma and Taichi, but you only get a glimpse of it. I really, really wanted to see it!

Now, I get that that wasn't the focus of this series. It became clear to me during Masumi's conversation with Taichi about gender roles, expectation and sexuality - this series is more about fighting against what society expects of us. It's about challenging gender roles and double standards with male and female friendships (Mami), challenging society's expectations for sexual orientation (Masumi and Toma) and challenging the presumption that attraction and rejection ruins friendships (Toma and Taichi, more so than Kensuke because that guy literally just couldn't accept rejection). In a way, it also challenged expectations of achievement and goals in life with Toma deciding freedom was more important than going to college.

So, at the heart of it, even though the inciting plot for this series was a love "quadrangle" (though Masumi really got the short end of the stick there), the focus was never really on the romance. Even knowing that, I feel a bit... cheated? That we got so much of the awkward first steps and affection between Taichi and Kuze, but we don't get to see how Toma eventually made things work with the love of his life.

My heart skipped a beat the ending and all, but afterwards, I just got sad. And I wondered if it was my usual upset when I finish a series I got really invested in, but it doesn't feel like that. I think it's more that I really, really, wished I'd gotten to see how Taichi went from being certain the only thing he wanted from Toma was friendship, to marrying him! It was five (or maybe 7?) years in total since high school when he was so certain he was in love with Kuze and only felt friendship for Toma and then he married him? Before Kuze's wedding so... what happened there?

To be honest, I wouldn't say Taichi's feelings for Toma came out of left field. There were several moments where he was flustered and extremely happy around Toma, and as Kuze said, he appeared to be considering the possibility when Toma confessed to him. That Taichi chose Kuze in high school felt more about the fact that he was dating Kuze at the time - and the story was all about timing. It made perfect sense to me that he and Kuze broke up - rarely ever do high school sweethearts last all the way through college - people grow and change. It made sense to me that Taichi ended up with Toma, too, there was a lot of history and love there - it just grew and changed. I just really, really, really wished we'd gotten to see it happen.

Anyway, I don't know if we'll ever get some sequel or at least a short story to show how Taichi and Toma managed to get together. I would've loved so much to see those years because their relationship really was my favorite part of this series. Second to that was Masumi and Kuze's and I'm sad it appears Masumi just never went through with telling Kuze about her feelings for her. Instead, she marries an awkward man with a haircut that was strangely reminiscent of Kuze's old one... It felt a bit out of left field but, I don't think Masumi having yet to meet a man she liked meant that she was a lesbian. At least, it wasn't explicitly said.

I liked seeing what happened to Mami, Akiko and Seiya. That was sweet! I just wish we got more of Toma and Taichi's ending. Side note: I think knowing the ending will make a future reread even more fun!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

In their afterword, Kaito says that they wanted Blue Flag to be three things: about choices, to show the world as the characters see it, and to be a story where characters actually talk to each other, because in their experience as a romance reader, most problems could be solved that way. I think it's safe to say that they succeeded on all fronts, and not just because I feel brilliant for having figured out that how Taichi was drawn depended on whose eyes we were seeing him through. While this does have a happy ending, it also never stops being about the choices people made and continue to make, from Taichi deciding on his life's path to Toma and Futaba figuring out what they want from and for him. And while some of those choices may turn out to be a surprise, like Masumi's, if you think back into the context of the characters and the story they do all end up making sense. (Masumi's choice ends up being more about her never having thought about life after Futaba, for example.)

The two most striking moments in the book belong to Taichi. The first is when he thinks he's lost Toma after he stops coming to school, which causes him to destroy his bedroom in an explosion of emotions that even he doesn't fully understand. The second is when he realizes that he might have started dating Futaba because if he could help her change, then maybe he could change himself as well. Both scenes speak to an inner conflict Taichi can't express even to himself, and one that he doesn't grasp until at least two years after high school - because that's how life works sometimes. Happy endings and graduation are so very rarely tied together like the stories say.

Futaba remains something of a nonentity to the end. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but again, high school is not really the place where most people figure out who they are and how to be that person. That may be the lesson everyone has to learn, in the end - all choices influence each other, but the really big ones don't need to be made right away. Think. Give yourself time to grow.

And of course, talk to the people involved.

[literarylesbian · Rating 5 out of 5]

wait i was not expecting that but omg 😭

[Mon · Rating 5 out of 5]

La trama es simple: cuatro estudiantes se enfrentan a lo que implica ser joven. Sí, hay romances, pero sobre todo hay amistad.

Tenía planeado leer este manga de forma pausada, uno por mes o algo así, pero me enganché y ya no pude esperar así que... No me arrepiento, ha sido una experiencia maravillosa leer sobre la vida de estos cuatro chicos y sus amigos, verlos aprender, tomar decisiones, equivocarse y volver a tomar decisiones. El manga toca temas de género, sexualidad, tolerancia e incontables temas más que a los jóvenes (sí, todavía me considero una persona joven xd) nos interesan. Lo hace tan bien que es inevitable que llores en algún punto y mira que lo dice alguien que no es precisamente sensible. Lloré como niña durante el último tomo, y es que es inevitable recordar algo, debido a la cantidad de temas tratados aquí.

Yo no tengo nada negativo que decir sobre esta obra, para mí el final fue perfecto y no necesito que todos los personajes encajen en una etiqueta para sentirme satisfecha, por algo llegaron hasta donde están y estoy conforme:)

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The whole series was more than it seems at first glance. When I picked this up, I thought it is a simple love triangle. ut I ended up getting more than I bargained for. The love story is a square and the more you read the story, the less you know who's going to end up together. All four characters were different but they all had real-life difficulties, which are well presented throughout the series. The multiple reflective conversations between them and others are extremely realistic. They demonstrate quite well the reality of life for anyone. Those conversations touch coming-out, the contrast between sexes and insecurity. There were so many wells thought viewpoints. Not only does this series have a great plot but it also has great art.

Overall this series has become one of my favorites. I recommend checking it out.

https://amzn.to/3wV3UiG

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, that's it, in only eight volumes, which is of course a short series in manga. It's the story of four high school friends, two of them (Taichi and Futaba) (presumedly) straight and two of them (Toma and Masumi)(presumedly) gay, but the whole point of the series for me is that the teen years are fluid, essentially questioning, and that sexual identity does not suddenly get fixed at eighteen. Kaito tells us to focus on loving and accepting ourselves and then accepting everyone else as friends who are going through this process, which is just part of growing up. So at a glance I am a little confused by the disappointment some readers express that certain characters couple up as straight or not. I really liked how it all works out.

So we know by now (don't read this if you are in volume three or if you want to read the whole thing at some point! Though I won't, I promise, tell you exactly what happens) that Toma told Taichi in the previous volume that he was in love with him, and Taichi did not know how to respond. And in this volume Taichi as we fully expect responds, and with a feel-good solution. So it's a great finish, but! Then we get a flash forward, another conclusion Harry Potter style, in the future, and a somewhat different resolution for all four of the quadrangle, including Masumi. Which makes it clear that who we are may always be in the process of becoming, and this is worth celebrating, too.

Great art work, great pacing of a complicated tale, with a lot of good talk to help (especially) young people think though these issues.

[Nina Quill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Je veux pas croire que ce soit finiiiii je suis dans le déniiiii !!!




Cette fin….d’un côté j’aurais bien sûr bien aimé voir ce qu’il s’est passé exactement entre la petite fin et le « x années plus tard » mais d’un autre c’est justement cette période spécifique de la terminale qui était le focus du manga (et c’est un thème qui me parle tellement que j’ai hurlé 304838 fois en lisant cette série !!!!) et donc c’est tout à fait logique et réaliste comme fin ! J’ai adoré. Jusqu’au bout. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[jut · Rating 4 out of 5]

i'm gonna miss my best friends and i'm so happy touma and taichi had their happy ending but [whispers]i really wanted masumi and futaba to be together too, i feel betrayed.

[ariana esnifa libros · Rating 3 out of 5]

Y ESE FINAL INSULSO????

[Lauren Lanz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blue Flag is such a comforting series for me, capturing the high school experience exceptionally well. I come back to this last volume a lot (since it's definitely my favourite) and sob every time Taichi opens Touma's lucky charm. Such a great manga.

[Rebekah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like that. I did not like that AT ALL. This is possibly the worst ending I've read in a short manga series recently, made worse by the fact that I loved the first few volumes of this series and had such high hopes for it, but starting around volume five, the quality began to decline.

This is the mother of all rushed endings. I sensed a disturbance in the force when I saw this volume only contained six chapters, but I could have never expected the level of rushed ending this served up. First, we began again with the endless flapping of jaws and then I was blinded by the timeskips (yes, plural) and all these jumps into the future did was exterminate the possibility of watching these characters grow and get context for how they ended up where they do.

I don't know if this is me overreacting, but I kind of feel like Kaito exploits the queerness of the main characters (specifically Toma) for angst and then hands the reader what is supposed to be a happy ending without having the characters put in the work on the page to get there. Taichi gives no indication that he has romantic feelings for Toma, and at least in the beginning of this volume even seems hostile to Toma's feelings for him, and so for them to end up married in the timeskip doesn't pull any emotional levers for me. I would have much rather hacked away at some of the utterly dry and loquacious jaw flapping in the past two volumes and sped up the chapters in high school to get an actually developed storyline in a timeskip period where we get to see Taichi reexamine his feelings for Toma, probably after Futaba dumps him. Instead we get a purposely vague epilogue drawn in Toma's point of view (which upon first read is hard to pick up) and absolutely no indication of how this came to pass. Given the emotional turmoil the characters go through, it would have been nice to see this develop in the story, not just fast-forwarded to the happy ending. It absolutely does not feel earned. Another thing I couldn't quite swallow was Masumi marrying a man, again after endless angst from her over her queerness and that long chapter with Toma's sister-in-law comforting her and helping Masumi to accept her identity. Of course, Masumi may be bi or pan while married to a man, but again, we never get to see how this develops on the page. I understand that the message here is that Masumi was attracted to a personality type not necessarily a gender, since Mitsuyuki behaves in the same manner as Futaba, and this personality type is more present in women than in men, but at the point we leave Masumi in high school I feel like realizing she also likes men would be just as confusing and difficult to deal with and I would have liked to see some development from her, especially since she is the most neglected part of the so-called love quadrangle.

Well, what a way to ruin a series, and what a way to ruin my night.

[James DeSantis · Rating 5 out of 5]

So it comes to a end, and I will miss this series.

I think this series had a lot going for it. The idea, or the plot, seems simple enough. Someone loves someone, and someone else who loves them is trying to help them get with that person. It's been done a thousand times. However, the unique twist here is the fact that these characters feel like actual people and not just plot devices to move a romance plot forward. They grow, make mistakes, are confused, and can't decide just like anyone else.

So with the final volume Itachi has to make a choice. It's not a simple choice. He loves both people in his life very much. He's trying to come to terms with his feelings and choices. Trying to decide if he wants to stay with Futaba or maybe actually be romantically involved with Toma. And what's what makes it so compelling, it doesn't feel forced, mixed emotions and feelings are at a all time fly and we do get some solid answers in the end.

The ending is probably going to leave people divided. Some may think it comes out of left field (I did not, I saw the signs throughout the entire book) some will love it, some will want MORE of it. I'm in the later two camps. I wish we got more of the relationship that was finally settled on but what I got, made me so happy, I didn't care.

And I'm trying not to focus much on the plot cause obviously this is the end and it'll give too much away but for me this hit almost all the marks.

I'm most eager to see what Kaito (The author) comes up with next. This was great.

A 4.5 out of 5.

[Flor ):) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me gustó mucho el mensaje que deja la historia, estos protagonistas son jóvenes y creo que es bueno reflejar qué hay muchas ocasiones donde las cosas que quieres en cierto momento de tu vida, probablemente no sean las mismas que vas querer en algunos años.

Que está bien equivocarse, aunque sientas que es la decisión correcta eso siempre puede cambiar y está bien. Me hubiera gustado ver más de cómo llegaron a ese punto pero de igual manera me hizo muy feliz ese final.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Y’all when I tell you I SOBBED

[Isabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

"the only thing we can do, the only thing anyone can do, is to believe in themselves and make the best choice they can in the moment. however other people choose to judge that choice, that isn't your problem. it's theirs."

man when/if this gets an anime i will cry for days on end. in the meantime i'll settle for rereading the series until i have the words imprinted in my mind.
i read the first few chapters of this series thinking it'd be a typical love triangle school-set romance type beat but found out in the best way it's so much more than the question of who ends up with who. ultimately, it's a story about the choices we have to make in life and how they affect the people around us, whether we like it or not. the characters actually feel like real flesh and blood people I've talked to, and their reflective conversations, relatable frustrations, and ever-changing relationships with each other just felt so raw. i think i bookmarked and screenshotted around 30 pages across the whole series just to remember the words because there are so many good conversations and lessons about life that resounded so deep when i read it. the art is absolutely amazing and enhances the entire experience even further because of how well it depicts the emotions and atmosphere of whatever's happening in the story. could very well write a whole dissertation on how much i love this series. having said that, this last volume did feel a bit rushed in comparison to the careful reflections of the last volume, but i don't think it detracts from the masterpiece that is the series as a whole, which is why i kept it 5 stars. god this review is so hard to write with no spoilers but i somehow managed it.
tdlr: if you're looking for a slice of life series that accurately depicts some of the uncertainties faced by students and honestly goes into depth into conversations about individual choice, societal judgements, and love, it's definitely a series to check out!

[Gloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

"La vida es un conjunto de decisiones. Por mucho que elijamos pensando en la mayor de nuestras felicidades...podemos hacer daño a otros...a nosotros mismos... o incluso acabar arrepintiéndonos.
Por otro lado, también existe la posibilidad de tener miedo, de que la próxima decisión que tomemos nos haga perder la felicidad que hemos conseguido. De todas maneras, seguiremos eligiendo eternamente."

[Marc D. ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 estrellas.

ESTA RESEÑA CONTIENE SPOILERS DEL FINAL, leer bajo su responsabilidad 🩷

Ao no Flag me acompañó durante una etapa muy particular de mi vida. No es solo una historia de secundaria con triángulos amorosos: es una obra que mira de frente la inseguridad adolescente, el dolor de crecer, el miedo a no ser suficiente y el anhelo profundo de pertenecer. No recuerdo la última vez que un manga me confrontó tanto con mis propias emociones como este.

Desde el primer tomo, la historia se siente honesta. Cada personaje tiene una voz propia, llena de contradicciones, dudas y momentos de ternura. Taichi, Futaba, Touma, Masumi… todos están construidos con humanidad, y eso hace que uno no solo lea: uno escucha. Y cuando una historia logra eso, ya tiene un valor especial.

A lo largo del manga, vi cómo se tejía de forma cuidadosa la relación entre Taichi y Touma. No solo como una historia de amor, sino como un espacio de comprensión mutua, de aceptación, de aprendizaje. Touma, con su miedo a decepcionar; Taichi, con su necesidad de encajar y no dañar a nadie. Verlos caminar hacia el otro con tanto cuidado me resultó conmovedor. Que terminaran juntos fue algo que me emocionó, pero cuando llegué al último tomo... me encontré deseando más.

Y no solo “más páginas”, sino más coraje narrativo. Su relación se resuelve en una escena casi lateral, que apenas dice lo que una historia como la suya merece mostrar con el cuerpo entero. Después de tantos momentos compartidos, me quedó la sensación de que se les dio un final afirmativo, pero no celebrado. No hay una afirmación clara de ese amor, no se lo ve vivido en plenitud. Se agradece que no se haya evitado la verdad, pero también se nota cierta timidez al mostrarla.

No entiendo por qué Kaito dudó tanto, siendo que estaba decidido desde antes de la publicación del primer capítulo de quién estaría enanamorado Touma, era la condición para que el manga se publicase, por eso pensé que esto estaría más preparado.

Lo que realmente me frustró fue el final de Masumi. Su proceso a lo largo de la serie fue, para mí, uno de los más potentes. Una chica enamorada de su mejor amiga, sabiendo que su amor no es correspondido, eligiendo aún así cuidar ese vínculo y, sobre todo, empezar a afirmarse como quien realmente es. Su dolor, su madurez, su forma de resistir sin cinismo… todo eso me pareció admirable.

Por eso me dolió profundamente que su historia cierre con ella casada con un hombre, sin ningún tipo de comentario, duda o contexto. Como si toda su búsqueda de identidad y aceptación hubiera sido una etapa pasajera, un detalle menor. No porque necesariamente debiera terminar con una mujer —Futaba no la amaba, eso está claro—, sino porque el final la relega a un molde que contradice todo lo que parecía estar construyendo. Es un desenlace que, por lo menos, pedía una reflexión. Y en su ausencia, se siente como una oportunidad desaprovechada o incluso una decisión editorial para “normalizar” un personaje que merecía ser representado tal cual era.

Aun así, no puedo negar el valor que tiene Ao no Flag como obra. Me hizo pensar en mí, en mis vínculos, en cómo a veces crecemos con miedo y otras veces a pesar de él. Tiene momentos dolorosos, sí, pero también otros que son increíblemente cálidos y humanos.

Y hay algo más.

Esta reseña comenzó con el manga siendo de 4.5 estrellas, y terminó en 5 estrellas luego de que, semanas después, recordé que había algo debajo de la sobrecubierta del tomo, y efectivamente, era una continuación del final donde se podía ver a Taichi y Touma en su vida cotidiana con una escena significativa si recordamos el peso que tuvo en la trama. Leerlo tomó mi decisión de este cambio de estrellas. Porque ahí estaba: no solo un cierre, sino una afirmación. Un guiño silencioso pero claro de que el amor entre ellos no solo sobrevivió, sino que floreció en lo cotidiano.

Ao no Flag no es una obra perfecta, pero es valiente, tierna, real. Y aunque me haya soltado un poco antes de lo que quería, lo que me dio mientras la leía va a quedarse conmigo por mucho tiempo.

[stuti ☼ · Rating 2 out of 5]

so i finished this a couple weeks ago, and i've been trying to collect my thoughts and just... not shit on this last volume as much as i really want to, and trust me when i say this, i really really want to.

okay, let me begin with saying that i'm all for a 'happy' ending - but not when the ending literally comes out of the blue? maybe that's where the title of the manga comes from.
we have never, never been made privy to taichi's supposed 'true feelings' about touma. i can't be happy for them because i don't know where that came from! the most i expected was them to return to being really good friends, best friends even; but with taichi liking, then being in a seemingly happy relationship with futaba (though there was an obvious lack of chemistry sometime halfway through the series), this really came out of nowhere. and the worst part is the only explanation we get for all of this is a sorry timeskip to SO MANY YEARS LATER? i'm sorry but... No. even when he came to know about touma's true feelings, taichi did not indicate that he reciprocated them - the only time where touma was shown to be a person he was attracted to as more than a friend was that one manga panel where they showed him... staring at his chest. can't find the panel now but you know.
when i read the first few volumes, i was genuinely excited to see where the mangaka takes this: there really is a lot of potential, and the conversations they have, the characters' reasons for doing what they do - especially when shingo punches touma, and the aftermath of all of that - it all makes sense (though some of the dialogue is way too long drawn for my liking). this is what i liked about the series! the development! character building!
BUT all of that was thrown out the window in the last couple volumes, and don't even get me started on the last couple chapters. i'm fuming as i write this.
now onto the juicy part. whew, when i say i have problems with how masumi ended up, i mean i have problems.
what's with the r/suddenlystraight? all through the manga, we see masumi grappling with her sexuality, struggling to express herself in her numerous heterosexual relationships. this is not a character that was written as being bisexual. the conversations she had with touma, with akiko - all of that seems to have gone in vain, since her life's taken a whole another direction. i don't care how much of a sweetheart the man seems to be, how much love he has for her, heck i don't even mind she didn't end up with futaba because there was no reciprocation or indication of feelings from her end towards masumi. i'm fine with that. i'm not fine with how large of a gap there is in her character between what was told to us in chapter 1 of the manga, vs. the last chapter.

i think that's just about everything i've got to say about this. i would still recommend it because i really did enjoy how the story was progressing in the first couple volumes + if you're a sucker for sweet ends, but be wary of the loose ends in the final volume.

[Rachel Kathryn Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5 ⭐️
The problem that I had with this book that I can’t really express without spoiling is at the last chapter. To keep it simple is that more needed to be shown and expressed especially in regards to the characters feelings, which has been a great thing throughout this series especially the previous two volumes. The one thing I would say that doesn’t impact the story that comes from the end is that I was shocked that Masumi was not a lesbian because she was portrayed as so and was just dating guys to seem straight. But she ends up married to a man, which makes me wonder if she is bi or pansexual. If I had to guess it would be that she is pansexual with how her husband describes how he felt when they got together and how she chose him over others. I just wished that at the end more was discussed between the characters finishing school to getting married. I also kinda wished there was more Mami and Shingo to see where they ended at. The ending just left me wanting to know more in how the characters got to the places they were in the end. Because the chapter prior ended as Toma and Taichi being best friends and moving forward from Toma’s confession. The rest of the book was really good especially Taichi and Masumi’s conversation. But this book did really well with having the tough conversations people experience in reality. Especially with presenting the multiple viewpoints someone could have in the scenarios that the characters face. Even though I wanted more from the ending I still liked how it ended the series overall. Overall, I’m sad the series has come to an end but all the characters have happy endings which I’m happy about.

[Stef · Rating 5 out of 5]

" "Life is a series of choices. Even if you pick, hoping for the best, you might hurt someone or yourself, and regret it. And even if you do gain happiness, you might be afraid of the next choice that comes, because you don't want to lose it. Nevertheless, we continue to make choices forever."

The ending little bit rush and still I feel little stink in my heart. I need more explanation about their journey what the through till they're being together. "the last panel near end giving me shock but happy feeling that in the end Touma getting what the happiness his mean, being together and happy married with his childhood friend Taichi. I still ugly crying over that panel.T.T

[agajae · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, this was the last volume.
It's difficult to express how much I love Blue flag and how this manga is important to me. It's incredible how the mangaka treated all sensitive subjects in a sweet way. How homosexuality and gender problems are still a societal problem, even for students. They managed to resolve everything on their own and the author gave us literally all different opinions with different characters.

Blue Flag is a manga that needs to be read by everyone and especially LGBT people who are still struggling with their sexuality or gender.

I'm so happy with the ending, I wanted it to end like this so god, I'm really satisfied. I'm sure I'll read it again and again and I can't wait for Kaito's next work.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'M CRYING. I'M SO HAPPY.

I'm literally shocked at how overcome by emotion I am. This was such a good ending. I was so confused when I was reading the second to last chapter, because I was so afraid of an unsatisfying ending. But wow that shook me to my core. That last panel was so impactful. I started sobbing. Literally shaking. I had to choke it down because it's 1AM and I didn't want to wake my family with my loud ass crying. Wow. I love this series. I'll definitely have to reread it when I have all the physical copies in my hand. Please read it. Please buy it. It's wonderful.

The bis are winning

[Fátima Embark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Podría tener un final más largo, más detallado, pero no más redondo. He leído el último tomo con el corazón en un puño, emocionada y feliz por todas las emociones que me ha provocado. Ao no flag es un manga especial, MUY especial. Como la vida. Con personajes reales que persiguen su felicidad, que toman decisiones, que viven y tropiezan y se levantan y lloran y sonríen y podría seguir vomitando palabras para intentar explicar lo que siento. Pero no. Hay que leerlo. Una obra maravillosa que me ha robado el corazón.

[yona!! · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ce manga est une véritable pépite <3 j’ai pris un énorme plaisir lire tous les tomes! Les personnages sont terriblement attachants et étonnamment réalistes! Les sujets sont traités avec justesse et ça faisait trop du bien de lire ça, en fait? Niveau identité, orientation, futur et les inquiétudes allant avec etc...
Je recommande à fond!!