After a less-than-stellar arc involving Yui, My Boy in Blue gets back to the basics: a cop, his high school-age wife, and her equally goofy friends.
Now, though, we have a friend of Kota’s who adds to the insanity. But could the main couple be getting further apart?!
Just kidding, this volume is full of fluff. And comedy. You know, the way it should be.
From a story standpoint, volume 13 doesn’t bring much to the table. It feels like a string of mostly-filler episodes, and it’s quite the change from previous volumes.
One of the few points of significance is the introduction of Ryu, Kota’s flirtatious coworker who fits right in with Kako and company. And, well, it’s still very early, but perhaps Kako won’t be the only one with a boy in blue. Otherwise, we learn why Kota may be so skilled in dealing with annoying idiots. Still, the two officers end up playing musical chairs teachers in order to prepare the three stooges for their exams.
Despite my ragging on her, Kako is trying to buckle down. We see this more mature side of her several times in the volume, like starting volunteer work in order to help prepare her for the future. Much better than her whiny self from volume 12.
However, Kota finds himself under some pressure here. First, he finds himself busy for a couple of weeks and doesn’t get a chance to see his wife, and when he has time, she starts finding excuses not to see him. Spoiler alert: she gained weight.
That’s…a lot of weight in less than a month. A month later (the next chapter, a Valentine’s episode featuring the girls making chocolate) she’s back to normal. I guess she has the same crazy metabolism as the protagonist of Kiss Him, Not Me! because that’s extreme. Props to Kota for not being phased at all by the plump Kako, but using weight as a punchline is risky with audiences.
The final chapter here is a rare one where we get not just one but two real-world references: Precure and Our Fake Marriage (labeled as “Fake Marriage” in the footnotes). These two series help represent Kako’s adolescence: she partly wants to stay the happy-go-lucky child who watches magical girl anime, but she also wants to step into a physical relationship. I really like Kota’s honesty here — really wanting to go all the way but respecting his promise as well as knowing Kako doesn’t fully understand the implications of taking the next step. But he still gives his wife (and readers) a little fanservice for now. Again, nothing significant in terms of plot progression on this front, but that was to be expected.
So while it may be disappointing that My Boy in Blue volume 13 is a bit light on key moments, the, as the author calls it, “peaceful, romantic comedy style volume” is just what the series needed.