That Blue Sky Feeling vol 2
I'll admit- at this point in my life, about 50% of all manga I consume is Boys Love. I've read a lot of series- and they generally fall into 2 camps. The first is "2 people meet (usually at school), over the course of the volume their feelings for each other grow, and they either admit their feelings to each other, kiss, or bone (depending on the age rating on the book!) at the end of the volume. The other one is best described as "Love at first rape" where a usually gay guy sexually assaults another man (usually, these are done with adults and not High schoolers), and the victim of the sexual assault eventually realizes they are in love with their abuser, and we go on from there.
That Blue Sky Feeling is something different from those, and the first way you can tell is by the publisher- it's published by Viz under the Viz imprint. Viz owns a BL imprint called SuBLime that they usually use for their BL titles, but this is no different than if you went out and bought any other Viz imprint book, like Fullmetal Alchemist, Inuyasha or Detective Conan. And instead about being about a romance between two boys, it's more of…. A book about friendship where one of the boys happens to be gay. The gist is that Kou Sanada is a quiet boy who everyone thinks is gay because he has no friends except for one girl he always has lunch with and is uncomfortable around boys (to the point where he doesn't participate in gym), and Dai Noshiro is a big Transfer student (and he can physically go- he's like an NFL Defensive Tackle). Through sheer persistence, he is able to get Kou to open up to him to some degree, and that is how volume 1 ends- no seeds of a relationship other than friendship. It's a very satisfying 1 volume read.
Volume 2 introduces a whole bunch of gasoline to the story. We get a resolution to the relationship between Kou and the girl- which is rather heated but very relateable to someone like me who was also closeted in high school. We get the introduction of another gay student- but instead of shy and reserved is incredibly outgoing, not-exactly-genki-but-probably-texts-in-all-caps, popular with everyone, not afraid to openly talk about his feelings, and he provides a great contrast to Kou. And once again, the manga ends with a clear definition of "liking" someone can mean a lot of things, from romance, to jellously, to friendship. It's…. refreshing to see a significantly more realistic take- just because you are gay doesn't mean you can't have male friends that you are close with.
Very excited for Volume 3 in…. October. Why does Viz put these out like 7 months apart when it's already done in Japan?!?