The characters (Satoko and Mashuu) and their feelings feel so genuine. I fall in love with them immediately. My Boy is a forbidden love story between a 12-year-old boy and a 30-year-old woman. The author Hitomi Takano gave an interview toward the end of the series, saying she tried to not make this a romance story. I suspect this may be due to some outside pressure. The story, after all, challenges the traditional moral barrier. Even though there is no physical relation between Satoko and Mashuu, most readers would agree with me that the romantic tension between them is strong regardless of what the author said.
Here is a slight spoiler. The ending is open to interpretation (maybe due to outside pressure too). It ended when Mashuu is around 15. So obviously, it would not be ok for them to be in a romantic relationship openly yet. But most readers like me, want to see a more definitive ending, the happy one. In our society now, powerful men marry girls 20+ younger frequently. Yet, somehow the other way around is more frowned upon. I am a man and I feel that this is injustice.
My Boy tries to break the age and more importantly the traditional moral barrier. Yet I think the author may have fallen under the same traditional moral restriction she tried to break. Either that or the author toyed with my feeling a little. In the end, I have a strong mixed feeling about the ending, because it did not completely finish the way I wanted it to finish. Very few stories have left me with this strong sensation.
