I said in my last review I was ready for the Yui arc to be finished. It takes up all of volume 12, but My Boy in Blue finally wraps up the situation with her father.
Kako, Heisuke, and the gang continue to escort Yui around to prevent her dad from approaching her. Unsociable Yui is not used to the happy-go-luckiness of Kako and company, but we see her sharp tongue getting a little less sharp as she begins to accept their friendship. Ultimately, she chooses to go to her father to protect everyone, and this sets off a dramatic chain of events as the gang scrambles to save her.
My Boy in Blue has sometimes been a romcom, and yet volumes like this make it hard to keep that classification. Still, the manga never goes too dark. The manga strongly implies but never actually shows. There’s a bit of dialogue, and one of the girls is injured off-screen. I wish if My Boy in Blue is going to have such serious topics — including criminal acts and feature a former convict — it would push its envelope a little more. It doesn’t have to go graphic, but maybe the author shouldn’t dance around the heavy stuff so much.
But this isn’t all doom-and-gloom — which is to be expected when you have cheerful idiots like Kako, Jiro, and Mikado. Yui’s “why me” expression got a chuckle out of me once or twice, but her best moment is when she finds an activity she likes. You will never guess what it is since it’s atypical, and I didn’t even know they were big in Japan. The group also has a hotpot party where I learned tapioca, acai berries, and avocado are girly foods. That was a gag I didn’t get.
As I predicted, despite the cute cover (which is one of my favorites), the romance is limited. I’ve said that before, I know. I always mean it, but this time, I mean it. The only couple-y moment is more like Kako venting her frustration and guilt while Kota listens. He gives a good, pragmatic response, but I wouldn’t call it a sweet moment. Volume 12 has cuter moments between Yui and Heisuke than Kako and Kota. Heck, even Yui and Kako get better scenes together as they slowly start to understand each other.
I was a little surprised at who ends up being a key player in the story and I am a little torn on how I feel about it. I would have liked to see them help, but to be the one who busts the case wide open? Odd. I’ll just leave it at that.
Overall, though, while I’m still throwing a party that My Boy in Blue will move on to something new (or at least get back to what it was good at), volume 12 is significantly better than the previous one. They may technically be only a point apart, but it’s more like a C+, almost B- versus a D-. It’s not perfect, but at least I enjoyed it.