vassalady

Okay so i’m writing this top bit after writing all the rest, I get really spoilery after the cut (i spoil the whole end) and rn you CAN’T read Blue Flag all for free which really sucks, and vol 1 hasn’t come out from VIZ yet, oh MAN when it does, I hope you’ll read it whether you spoil yourself or not.

Trust me. It’s so worth it.

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Omg. OMG. OH MY FUCKING GOD OH MY FUCKING GOD, THE END OF BLUE FLAG!!!

JA;OURGNOAJISDL;AKS J’PAOWJEGOIHADFJG;ALJKDCVKLAJSEL;IHOARGHLADFGXCVK

OKAY. BREATHING. Oh my god. I just danced around in my kitchen for several minutes, I AM CRYING, I am FLOATING, I CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT I JUST READ, GUYS.

BLUE FLAG BY KAITO IS A FUCKING MASTERPIECE OF A MANGA.

Okay, so it’s a Jump+ series and I really don’t do shounen or seinen much these days?? But this came HIGHLY recommended and for whatever reason last year, I decided hey, why not? It was going up on the new Manga Plus app so I thought I’d give it a shot.

Okay, there are gonn abe minor spoilers for the early stuff here and then i’ll put a major spoiler warning before I get to the end.

OKAY. SO.

By the end of the first volume you realize that main character Taichi’s best friend, Touma, is in love with him.

You also realize that main character Futaba’s best friend, Masumi, is in love with her.

YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT, THIS IS GAY PINING O’CLOCK.

So much of the story is a gut punch to the feels as these high school seniors try to figure shit out. Cause like, Futaba is SUPER crushing Touma (for a while at least) and Taichi, who agrees to help her win his affection, winds up SUPER crushing on Futaba, and TOUMA, desperately pining after Taichi and KNOWING he can’t have him, is all like, aw Taichi and Futaba would be a cute couple. (They are, in fact, a very cute couple once they get together.) And then there’s Masumi who is fed up with everyone and doesn’t like her boyfriend, because SHE’S desperately pining for Futaba, but she sure as hell will protect Futaba from anything.

Only you can’t, Masumi, and all four have to grapple with things like feeilngs and expectations and self-esteem and identity. It’s a REALLY GOOD POWERFUL AND EMOTIONAL MANGA. It would be excellent for that ALONE even if it didn’t have that ending. (Fucking DAMN IT, I love all the secret pining stuff SO MUCH.)

But that ending. Oh my GOD THAT ENDING. It made this the most perfect fucking thing in the world for me.

OKAY TOTAL SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING COMING UP, DON’T READ IF YOU WANT TO BE SURPRISED BECAUSE HONESTLY IT’S WORTH THE SURPRISE, BUT I NEED TO GET THIS OFF MY CHEST!!!

…

OKAY. So backing up JUUUUST A BIT. Touma tells this girl who is crushing on him that he’s in love with Taichi. The guy who likes HER hears, and it’s a whole fight and ultimately Touma gets outed.

This leads to Touma confessing to Taichi and EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS JUST IS LIKE RIPPING AT MY HEART.

But we aren’t at the end. Cause like Taichi has to figure out what he thinks about all this?

The question posed at the very beginning of the series is whom would you pick over the other - your best friend or your girlfriend? (I always went, but if they are the same person, it doesn’t really matter! Which…. Turned out to kind be important.)

Because. Because because because because.

So they make up, Taichi and Touma, they are best childhood friends, and there’s this gorgeous scene on the beach with Taichi and Touma and Futaba all there, and THEN-

Last chance to back out.

Really.

Really really really.

…

IT FLASHES FORWARD TO THE FUTURE. TAICHI AND FUTABA ARE NO LONGER DATING. IN FACT, FUTABA HAS INVITED TAICHI TO HER WEDDING.

DUN DUN DUN.

So we get to the LAST chapter.

And it’s first person pov, and you ASSUME it’s Taichi (ETA: he's our main and he signs his name as Ichinose in the guest book - so OBVS it's Ichinose Taichi), and Masumi’s married to a dude because she’s a bicon (ETA: also her husband may be trans, as Japanese readers have pointed out based on his speech which is very feminine and what he says about wearing a suit and what he says to POV character).

But then. But THEN. POV person meets UP WITH TAICHI. AND YOU REALIZE IT HAS BEEN *TOUMA’S* PERSEPECTIVE.

AND THEN. AND THEN!!!

Taichi holds out his hand with a wedding ring on and says let’s go home, and they hold hands.

And holy fuck, I’m crying again thinking about it.

Taichi and Touma ended up together. We don’t GET that story, we don’t get how Taichi’s feelings for Touma EVOLVED (oh god, maybe I’ll actually write FIC!!) but they wound up MARRIED.

This is the end. That’s the LAST THING WE SEE, their clasped hands. I am openly sobbing now, because what a magnificent, perfect ending.

I have spent the last month SO WORRIED that Touma would not be allowed to have a boyfriend. He’d be off screen, maybe. Maybe he’d be inbetween bfs. I didn’t think he’d be married to a lady (Masumi’s husband did surprise me as it was supposed to, but her husband knows she’s bi - in the story, Masumi herself didn’t know this yet.)

But no. He and Taichi are husbands.

This ending has absolutely ELEVATED this story to new heights for me. It was a gorgeous lovely manga already, but this… this is SO GRAND.

I never expected this. I’d always HOPED, but I never expected.

MAN, I wish I’d written future fic Touma/Taichi before so I could be among the kripked crowd too but! Ahaha

*sighs*

I just… It was too beautiful. I’m going to be shoving this in EVERYONE’S faces once the Viz print and digital release for vol 1 comes out (later this month, I think?) And just yell TRUST ME over and over and over again.

I was already kinda upset about That Blue Sky Feeling - I still haven’t read the last volume, but I’d flipped through and the kiss from Okura’s original webcomic had been removed. Maybe the sentiments were still the same (since I can’t read the webcomic) but there was no KISS, which really gutted me, and the feelings were all about “I THINK I love you, if this is what love is.” A different vibe. It’s a different story altogether, and I really do hate comparing queer stories against one another when they ARE doing such different things (rather than trying to achieve the same thing.) But still. It was never what I wanted it to be. I felt like it chickened out from the promises given by its premise.

There’s still no kiss in Blue Flag, either. But Taichi and Touma were MARRIED. Not on the cusp of discovering that maybe what they felt was love. We ran all the way to the other end to established and committed couple. This was NEVER promised in the premise either, which is probably WHY it’s so delightful and perfect and I’m so EMOTIONAL over it.

The “pick between your friend and your girlfriend” is nothing new in stories. But THIS is usually not how it turns out in mainstream media.

Taichi and Touma got married.

Oh fuck, I’m crying again.

Thank you, Kaito, for such an amazing story. Thank you for that ENDING. I am overcome with joy. My heart is so full. I am so happy.

Thank you so much for this journey.