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My Boy in Blue

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My Boy in Blue is a short and sweet shojo story about a 24-year-old police officer marrying a 16-year-old high school girl.

Surprisingly, their love story is rarely creepy. Their age difference does come up at times and some of the adult characters, like Sagano (the 24-year-old), are acutely aware of the situation, but it's hardly dramatic enough to keep mentioning throughout the series. Most of the time it's just a story about a normal couple, but without sex.

That said, the story doesn't really do anything different went it comes to other romantic stories. The characters are a bit more mature and understanding their ages ... would let on, but for the most part, it's very standard. It takes a while for the two to hug let alone kiss. By the end, the relationship does feel fulfilling. There are two flashforwards, one of the wedding and one when all the characters have kids. It's nice to see their relationship "finish" and see how far Kako (16-year-old-girl) has grown into a strong woman.

My biggest issue is that you can tell this wasn't supposed to be a long-running series, and the author even admits that. There is a good chunk of the second half of this manga where Kako and Sagano are not the main characters. They take a backseat to the side-characters as the author explores their traumatic backstories. It's very welcome, but at the same time, it felt like we put Kako and Sagano's story on hold for 6 or so volumes.

Hei-chan gets more character development than the titular couple. And I'm happy for him, he's a great character, but when the final volume came around and everyone was graduating high school, moving on with their lives, getting married, having some kids, it really felt like Kako and Sagano were much too easy as a couple and while their love showed it wasn't as impactful as it should have been.

There's a great scene where Sagano is really feeling his age when Kako and her friends come over to his place. I thought that was a really good character moment as it brought back the thing that the manga was trying not to mention (their age difference) and I really wished there were more of those scenes.

Overall, this was a really good manga. It does tackle childhood abuse, but at the end of the day, it's very much about redemption and moving forward with your life. The romance may not be spectacular, but you'll still feel good.