Boy Meets Maria

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I feel that gender identity in anime is very misconstrued. Most of the time, trans women or men who wears masculine clothes either do not have their gender identity truly addressed, or are just called "traps" or other unsavory words. I thought this manga did a beautiful job of showing the struggle of finding your gender identity and sexuality.

One of my favorite parts of this manga is that, even at the end, we don't truly know Arima's gender identity and neither does he (I am using he/him pronouns because that is what is used in the manga), and that is totally fine! Although he is ... able to work through his trauma a little, it does not solve his gender crisis, which I really enjoyed and thought was very realistic. In many manga and anime with gender-queer people, after their problems are fixed they often go back to representing their birth gender, which not only sets an untrue president that trans people are created from trauma, which is just untrue. Gender expression is part of who you are, and working through trauma does not at all mean you have to assign with your birth gender. This manga does a great job at showing this.

Another thing I really liked is the conversation about Hirasawa's sexuality. He likes who he likes, and he doesn't feel the need to put a label on it. I think this is great for people still figuring out their sexuality. Just like who you like, and there is no pressure to put a label on it!

I also thought the relationship was very well written. Hirasawa did not fix all of Arima's trauma but was just there to support him. I feel that there is a huge pressure (especially on women) to fix men's problems for them, but in reality, all you need to do as a partner is be there and support them. Great message!

Overall, a beautiful story with amazing art that shows the struggle of gender identity, figuring out your sexuality, and working through past trauma. A great read for everyone, not just queer people!

(TLDR at the bottom)

This story is kinda ironic. In a world where drama and acting are supposed to feel intense and real, it is hard to even appreciate this story for that reason, because that drama present here isn't particularly good in my honest opinion.

The synopsis is there for you to understand the beginning, so I won't go over that too much other than the title also does a good job at summarising the beginning. You'd think it is a light novel-esque bait title, but respect for this title being actually coherent to the story and short to read, but that's beside the point. What ... I want to touch upon are the themes of this manga and how they didn't really invoke anything out of me as I thought it may have.

In a manga about acting; to play roles in a way that you convey your emotion with such believable strengths, I don't know what was up with this need to have explosive plot devices determine everything about both characters. I won't get into too much detail because of spoilers, but it came across to me as a cheat method for the characters to grow or reason their means to do X and Y. This wasn't just a one-off thing. I counted three "cheated" plot devices. Two of which were "explosive", and the other one was just backstory for the other character. It also goes to show, that this dude was based around a theme of the past. It's strange. You'd think they'd have some human to them, but instead are just literally determined by past events and only that. What can I say though? I will give them credit for their acting skill though. Whilst I don't believe the support is there to make me feel anything strong about them, both Amira and Taiga have passion for sure—even if it can come across as a hack of some kind. These aren't just some half-hearted people looking to pass some subject, they are going all out to impress their respective audiences. The lead up to it is nothing short of entertaining to watch, to say the least. I like these guys in that category, and the connection between Amira and Taiga in this saga is also equally pleasing to read.

I suppose they aren't entirely bad characters per se, but rather, multiple (keyword here) melodramatic moments accompanied with a presentation of being very sincere and real didn't quite come across to me as something to take entirely seriously. It's like some unnecessary juxtaposition that didn't really need to exist; it just ruined the validity when it does. Otherwise, I get what was supposed to be presented here, and I will admit that it is good and serviceable. Something that only deserves praise (in which it already does).

The art isn't particularly phenomenal, but it is good enough to have lasting pleasant memories of, which is honestly something I didn't expect this manga would have. It's just… really clean and stylish enough to have its own personal identity attached to it. Nothing more, nothing less. I suppose on every odd occasion, the powerful scene has its artistic works elevated slightly, but that's usually just to bring out the most of what is currently visible. All in all, it's pretty good.


TLDR: A drama story that's too convenient, not that it is necessarily a problem, but it was to a point where I couldn't really take everything seriously. Otherwise great art, and even if I wasn't the biggest fan, the point came across, and that was enough for me to enjoy it (and should be for literally anyone who isn't cynical).

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That's really all I have to say about Boy Meets Maria. It's pretty highly acclaimed, and I can see the reason why people liked it, but I already explained why this wasn't particularly something I enjoyed. It's a little sad though, stories like these are to enjoy, and I don't really have the highest of standards, but I really only want consistency and not another experience where nothing makes sense or is outrageously annoying (ReLife former, Golden Time latter). It's sadder that the creator of this manga has actually passed away too. They seemed to be going strong with another manga after the creation of this one. A sad loss for the industry indeed. But I thank Eguchi Kousei for making Boy Meets Maria even if I wasn't the biggest fan.

It's not a long story, it can be read in like an hour or 2 and I would recommend this to BL fans too. It's not one of those rapey ones or anything disgusting like that (at least between the main two), it's actually quite wholesome, even if rough beginnings. But that's about it from me.

This manga was extremely disappointing.

The synopsis on the back cover reads, “[this tale explores] the nature of personal expression and the fluidity of the power of love.” And what a surface-level exploration it is.

The first half of Boy Meets Maria is rather trite. The narrative in this section revolves mainly around Taiga, which is its biggest problem. He just isn’t compelling in the slightest because he doesn’t feel like a real person. He’s overconfident to an irritating degree and shows very little depth beyond that. The story attempts to explain his shallowness as a trauma response, but it just isn’t believable. The explanation is ... that since he caught his parents fighting, he decided to start taking everything in life at face-value…but this ideology wouldn’t provide any escapism from the very apparent cracks in his parent’s relationship, so it feels like an exceptionally flimsy explanation.

Then the narrative takes a complete and jarring turn in the second half when the focus shifts to Arima’s perspective. Arima’s rapist is cartoonishly evil, and the horror is gratuitous in a way that feels disingenuous. The contrived circumstances of Arima’s upbringing exist solely to have this shocking moment occur as a tasteless way of giving his character intrigue. Arima’s gender struggles are handled even worse; the narrative refuses to commit to a specifically transgender character while also failing to criticize the gender binary in a meaningful way. The core theme never really moves beyond the cliche idea that “boys can be feminine, too!”

Not to mention, the severity of Arima’s story is contrasted by Taiga’s “comedic” obliviousness. At one point, his classmates even have to explain to him that homophobia exists. It’s absurd that a high school boy with feelings for his male-presenting classmate wouldn’t already be aware of the stigma surrounding non-normative sexualities and gender-expressions.

Overall, Boy Meets Maria is entirely ungraceful in its dealings with sexual assault and queer themes. It feels like a story made for the enjoyment of a heterosexual audience; I don’t understand how a queer person could see themselves in characters so devoid of authenticity.

This may seem like a harsh sentence considering that BL isn’t really known for being “authentic,” but if a manga is going to tackle such serious themes and scenarios, my standards are going to be elevated.

Not every story needs to have perfect representation, for sure, but it should at least do better than this.