People who read Ao no Flag

soulfulbongos

Reading this will leave you with lingering attachments and questions the ending leaves open but I don’t mind. I love to linger (there’s sadly a very limited number of fanworks to follow, but ao no flag is alive in my heart). the initial 3 quarters of this is some of the best romance manga i’ve ever read, however… queer themes are handled clumsily towards the end, some homophobic and misogynistic threads are poorly resolved, and matsumi is neglected. Still, its strengths are more salient than its sins, and a comfort read isn’t a comfort because it’s perfect. You might say some red flags are excusable…lol

ART
Great blending of cartoonishness with realism to create impact. I’m not usually a fan of exaggerated gestures and faces as a gag, but it worked SO well here. The exaggerations don’t preclude the expression of subtleties. One thing consistently well used: side by side frames that were identical except for small movements, like futaba shifting closer to taichi, or taichi leaning on touma on the subway. just that final little inch that makes the moment last longer.

STORY
Futaba and taichi’s relationship is the heart of this manga, and the most well-handled aspect imo. Falling for the guy who’s helping you go after your crush… trying to understand what a ‘crush’ even is… taichi writing 'why did you fall for me' on paper because he's too shy to say it, and futaba writing back ‘why did YOU fall for me?’. taichi drawing a little hamster YES. THAT IS THIS MANGA'S STRONG SUIT. ZOOMING IN, LINGERING, ROMANTICIZING THE LITTLE THINGS. And amidst all this cute hetero romance you have masumi and touma yearning, trying to be okay with never getting what they want. this really elevated the manga from conventional romance to a more complex and interesting dynamic. And super unique! I maintain every love triangle would be made superior with a gay addition.

ch 48... touma's pov, the long years of falling for taichi and then the painful distance between them growing …different people, different friend groups. taichi no longer happy...
“im a coward so i pretended i didn't see”
"and you're nice so you pretended you didn't hate it"
oughhh
not knowing what love is. Is it admiration? Is it lust?
wishing you were someone else... an 'ideal' person. wishing so hard you lose track of who you really want to be...
pettiness slipping through "futaba you're in love arentchya?...is it taichi? or maybe me..?" touma was so evil for that…
"touma i wanted to become a man like you" futaba!!!
mami "how come i'm always a girl to you?" "but you are a girl?"

ENDING:
A LOVE TRIANGLE ACTUALLY ENDING QUEER???? wow... miracles are real? I don’t think Kaito owes us the in-betweens because he did a complete job with the main arc in high school. (although of course i would have frothed at the mouth at a continuation…) Wish we had seen a little more build up to taichi's feelings and exploration of bisexuality BUT it makes sense that there wasn't any because sexuality can be an on-going discovery quest.. (and there were subtle signs. Him fixating on touma’s size, his chest, admiring touma playing baseball, watching touma with his other friends and longing…is that gaze purely friendship?) . Also wish for a different ending for masumi, but I’ll get to that:

THE BAD
After Touma is outed, the story wrap- up suffers.You’re hit with a deluge of dialogue, and it is refreshing to have manga characters actually sit down and talk shit out, but also, the conversations don’t necessarily achieve what I think they aim to, and end up feeling drawn-out and don’t spotlight the right characters. I did think Touma + futaba’s conversation after the confession was really well done.

KENSUKE's HOMOPHOBIA and MISOGYNY
Kensuke’s molestation thing...clumsy... felt like it fed into the gay predator trope. rape is heavy and serious and the ‘i was raped so i hate gays’ shielded kensuke’s homophobia from too much criticism and kept his character from facing real conflict: "but isn't criticizing kensuke just another form of intolerance?" NO. because kensuke is being a bigot. do not equate the two. His misogyny towards mami was also never fully resolved. felt like he's going to continue to view women as these soft, sexual beings and i wish they'd shown some sort of final confrontation between him and mami.

MASUMI IS SHAFTED:
masumi got the raw deal here and she's my biggest hang up. where's her closure... mami finds out masumi's feelings about futaba and they have their crying confrontation but that doesn't lead anywhere... i would have liked at least ONE OTHER SCENE OF FOLLOW UP. but hey sometimes you never confess and your feelings fizzle and you hide forever but i hated masumi ending up with the guy at the end. you spend all this time showing masumi's struggle with conforming with normality, dating men she has no feelings for, wondering what it's like to love the opposite sex, and then she's bi and married at the end? like maybe, sure, but Kaito didn't do the ground work building that and it felt lazy and a disservice to masumi and lesbian storylines. "you're not really lesbian, you just haven't found the right man yet." but i have seen ppl suggest masumi's partner is a trans man-- which i love! but that's all it is. a suggestion…

Also can i just say LOLED SO HARD AT THE LIST OF SONG RECOMMENDATIONS AKI GAVE MASUMI. i'd be offended. i just came out to you and you're telling me to listen to taylor swift… homophobic…the most straight girl list of songs possible…

Kalinka

BreeZy

Beautiful in so many ways and captured complex emotions such as feelings of longing and jealousy in such an amazing way but there are so many issues with this manga that I just can’t look past. It felt rushed or unfinished, I mean we don’t even get to know Touma’s thoughts and feelings pretty much ever, like did he talk with his brother that he avoided for a large chunk of the manga? Just a few questions among many but one of the most glaring issues is the lack of the process of Tai coming to terms with his sexuality. Without that coupled with the pitiful “explanation” of the breakup (romantically and in a friendship sense), and the lesbian marrying a man after all of her expressions of her internal struggles with her ‘other-ness’ the story almost feels like “what was this all for” it feels like there was a lot of useless struggle with nearly no resolution. I’m glad Tai and Tomura end up together but it honestly didn’t feel all that satisfying unfortunately. To me, this felt like a failed attempt to make a deep piece of art but really I felt like it was very surface level and did not even attempt to give the queer characters and their stories proper treatment. Overall I’m honestly quite disappointed.

AlphaRat_Sleepz

It was a very beautiful read, its very sweet and the ending felt natural and it was honestly really well done. Ofc there was a scene in vol 7 where one of the characters pmoed me but honestly the story is so well written. Another issue for me was the way it was very subtle with some characters coming to terms with their sexuality specifically *spoiler* their bisexuality we didn't really get to see it in the end. Like cmon I want to see them happy but then again I can see why it was ended the way it did it was to make you think and to leave you with this bittersweet tastevin your mouth so you keep coming back for more lol . I REALLY want a spin off where we can see Toumas face yk not just the implications of their marriage or partnership (since gay marriage isn't possible in Jpn yet) bought 5 vol so far and planning to buy 6-8 ♀ please give it a read guys trust me it is worth it.

лука

THIS WAS SO GOOOOD

sour_whisper

the most beautiful piece of art i've ever read <3333

Ukeukeuke

Spoiler Warning

I wish I could love this manga more. It was overall
amazing but there’s glaring problems that I can’t look past. It hurts as bi person myself that there was no real in depth moments of Taichi coming to terms with his bisexuality. I also don’t like how we never get to see Toma’s thoughts. He so central to story yet we never once get to hear out he feels especially after his outed as gay. My last problem is the treatment of Kensuke. I don’t understand why is homophobia is accepted as okay and it’s not right to judge someone do their opinion. What? Kensuke is a bigot but the story protrays him as someone we should feel sympathy for and that we shouldn’t challenge his homophobic behaviour. for a story so involved with queer characters it’s strange that this is the idea we are supposed to leave with. I know it sounds like I hated this manga but I don’t. It made me cry so many times. My criticisms come from a place of love. I want this story to be perfect because I love it so much. I still recommend reading this manga however because I think the overall message of the story is beautiful and most of the characters are amazing.

Noodle

Katuliitu

i cried 10/10

NoBoDy

I wish we couldve seen a kiss and a little more about touma and Taichi relationship development at the end but whatever that was FIRE

Himedragonfly

Coming

sssurface

oo conchetumaaaaaare soy otra persona

mimi

Um dos melhores bl que ja li, sempre vou guardar em meu coração

yumi

peak

Kkuma325

loveeeeeee

Wtf

lindZciEe

This shit is so fucking peak....

toome

ANOTHA PEAAKKK

Vero

Kylle

Bro did he ended up with Touma?!! Show us his damn face I'm desperate to see them together