Yahoooo! (*＞ｖ＜)ゞ*  We’ve finally made it to my first review. Now that I’m done with uni, I can finally get a move on with these reviews and catch up on some manga I’ve been missing out on.

As of late, the only manga I’ve been buying is LGBTQ oriented stuff, which is great because being gay and reading manga are two of my favorite things and here they are coming together. Anyway, the most recent thing I’ve gotten to read is That Blue Sky Feeling by Okura, illustrated by Coma Hashii. It started out as a webcomic and then later got published in August of 2018. Alternative titles include: Sorairo Flutter and そらいろフラッタ.

Synopsis: The manga focuses on main character Noshiro (left), a high school students that’s new to the area, and his budding friendship with wallflower Sanada (right). Noshiro’s outgoing disposition drives him to become friends with Sanada, despite there being rumors about him being gay. Slowly, but surely with the help of other characters (Yamamoto & Hidemitsu) they become closer and closer.

Initial Reaction: Okay so I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t buy this manga until almost a month later, but I first saw it around Thanksgiving and thought “aw, what a cute, wholesome BL manga, I should buy this,” but I ended up buying Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku instead (whoops (´∀｀；)). Anyway, after I read the first volume I was immediately like “when does volume two come out in the US?” because it was that good. Plotwise, what I like about it so much is the way that Noshiro is genuinely drawn to Sanada—there’s no weird ulterior motive, he just really wants to be the boy’s friend. He doesn’t know Sanada at all and he stands up for people bullying him because he’s gay and he doesn’t expect anything to come out of it. I mean look at this pure boy!

He really does his best to make Sanada feel included by having lunch with him, hanging out with him on the weekend, trying to get to know him. He’s very forward—it’s admirable.

Another aspect I was really into was character design. This is a BL manga at the end of the day, so I was stoked to see that it didn’t have that generic BL manga drawing style. None of those gotdang yaoi hands:

First thing, the main character is chubby, he’s into sports, and he’s unintentionally goofy. I’ve honestly never seen anything like that in a BL manga. Maybe I’m reading too much into this character design, but I’m really into the fact that not only is Sanada a kuudere, but also has that general kuudere light hair color:

See what I mean? Moving on. I don’t wanna spoil much, but I am super invested in this lowkey subplot going on with Sanada’s best friend Yamamoto. Towards the end of volume one I was getting a sense that there was something going on with her (perhaps jealousy) that’s going to be brought up in volume two.

Dislikes: Even though the nature of Sanada and Hidemitsu relationship probably wasn’t adult oriented, the age-gap doesn’t sit well with me. Noshiro even brings up the fact that he calls Hidemitsu his ex-boyfriend but is like

Yeah, homeboy is legit a grown-up. Dude’s got a beard and everything. Even though that’s the case, I’m glad that the manga doesn’t focus on their past relationship. Ultimately, it’s a BL manga about two high school boys, which is good.

Rating: For the first volume, I’m giving this manga 7 cassettes out of 10. I totally recommend this if you’re into lighthearted romance manga, LGBTQ manga, and school manga. I’m really looking forward to the next volume. Volume 2 is going to be released 19 March 2019. You can follow Okura on twitter @okura_yp

Welcome to My Manga Mixtape, a bi-weekly review of manga on the fringe.

I guess in this post I just wanted to say a little bit about myself and talk about what inspired me to start this blog (as if I don’t already have a million projects).

My name’s B, I’m currently an undergrad English student in my last semester of college. I’m hoping to become a curator but I’d also like to work as a journalist for some sort of anime + manga or J-culture, American magazine. Outside of manga, some of my hobbies include creative writing, cycling, photography, and zine making.

I started reading manga sometime in elementary school. I’m pretty sure the first manga I read in its entirety was The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I felt pretty bad for being such a cheapskate as a kid because I would buy five to six volumes at a time, read them in the same day and then return them to the store and swap them for the next set, but I didn’t have much of a disposable income as an elementary schooler. I eventually settled for just buying the ones I really wanted and my manga library grew to be pretty massive.

What inspired me to start reviewing manga was 1) my genuine love for manga and 2) one of my mutuals on twitter who does a killer job of reviewing anime.

My taste in manga I’d have to say is pretty narrow. I’m not a huge fan of long, on-going series. I like short ones that I can read quickly and move on to the next thing. My favorite genres are slice-of-life, horror, biographical, girls’ love, boys’ love, and comedy. I tend to read things that maybe a small audience knows about (not to be edgy™, but that’s just me). Some of my favorite manga are: Lucky Star, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, The Junji Ito Horror Comic Collection, and Nichijou.

Well, I don’t really have much else to say except for I’m really excited to see where this blog goes. Hope y’all have a killer week.

Best,

B (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑