Manga, read on May 14, 2026

Author: Soryo Fuyumi

Rating: ★★★★

Thoughts: Needed something I was guaranteed to like after two one star manga reviews in a row orz. I actually started this years ago and enjoyed what little I read, but the scanlation got abandoned twice. Thankfully it got picked up again, and now it's complete!

The main couple in this romance comic are Takatou Masaki, a student with a bad attitude who is the black sheep of his traditional family and only loves basketball, and Yuuki Kanako, a popular and kindhearted student in his class with a heart condition. Despite their opposing natures, they can't help but feel drawn towards each other, but those feelings get tested over the course of the story due to various circumstances...

Note: Usually I use Japanese naming conventions in these entries. However, everyone refers to Yuuki by her given name because of how friendly she is, so I'll be following suit!

The first thing that appealed to me was how this is a very eighties comic. I find that this era gets overlooked by Western shoujo manga fanbases and publishers/scanlators compared to other decades. The fashion and art style both evoke this setting, with so many of the illustrations looking like something out of a photoshoot from an eighties issue of Olive magazine. Aesthetically, I adore this comic, and the art keeps getting better as it progresses.

Secondly, I loved Kanako, and she's why the score is high as it is. She starts off as someone who is popular for her softness, the typical picture perfect protagonist, but this image slowly gets deconstructed over time. Being sick makes her parents overbearing, but also stifled the development of her authentic self too. It can be tough to explore the psychological impacts of illnesses, as authors may fear coming off as insensitive if they portray these characters in an unflattering manner. However, the messy feelings Kanako expresses in the latter half made her a lot more endearing to me. It was cathartic to see her lash out and reveal her true self over time. I wasn't expecting this development at all based on the start of the comic, expecting her to get sidelined by her relationship to Takatou, so I was pleasantly surprised :) Her design is also so dreamy, with her soft and fluffy hair...I could gush more but I'll refrain ✋

I found both parts of the couple intriguing at first, but as Takatou developed and his edges got sanded off, he became a bit more boring imo except for a minor twist at the end that counters a theme you see in a lot of manga...instead of him following his dreams and giving his all to basketball, he accepts that he only got into the hobby as a way to cope with his loneliness, and now that he's accepted by more people, he doesn't need it anymore. No need to follow that dream that he spent 70 chapters chasing. It's subversions like these that make this comic stick out to me, because it gives it a more grounded and naturalistic feeling despite it also being over the top at times.

Parts of the story do go off the rails when we see Takatou in a love triangle and Kanako in a love square, and tbh some of this does feel tacked on just for shits or to give the chapters a cliffhanger. Whether it's because of editor meddling or Soryo Fuyumi trying to keep things interesting, idk. Soryo's Mars was also drama-heavy, but there were relaxing scenes mixed in too so both the couples and readers got to take a break. Meanwhile, Boyfriend's characters are trapped in a vortex of nonstop conflict until it nears the end, and then it's finished. Ngl I thought the ending felt pretty rushed, and it left me feeling a bit empty, feeling like there was more I wanted to see from the characters despite the major plot points all being wrapped up...

Despite the pacing, I did enjoy a few of the subplots, especially one with Takatou's mother that explores gender roles within Japanese families. Feeling unappreciated, she just up and leaves her house at the start. Her all-male family learn the hard way about how much labour goes into running a household once there's no longer someone cooking all their meals, doing all their laundry, and cleaning lol. It's nice to see well done social commentary in a comic like this. A part of Kanako's story also touches on gender norms too, and how being a daughter affects how her family sees her.

I feel like this was the start of the formula that Soryo Fuyumi eventually perfected with Mars. While I'd only recommend this to someone who has a high tolerance for shoujo fuckery, something about this spoke to me (and by something, I mean Kanako!)

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