Manga, read on May 14, 2026

Author: Soryo Fuyumi

Rating: ★★★★

Thoughts: Needed something I was guaranteed to like after two one star manga reviews in a row orz. I actually started this years ago and enjoyed what little I read. I decided to finish it, and I'm glad I did. While not perfect, Boyfriend has a lot of charm and quite a few pleasant surprises that made it memorable.

The main couple in this romance comic are Takatou Masaki, the black sheep of both his family and school due to his bad attitude, and Yuuki Kanako, a popular and kind student in his class with a heart condition. Despite their opposing natures, they can't help but feel drawn towards each other, but those feelings get tested once Takatou joins his school's basketball club and has to balance his budding feelings for Kanako, school work, team, and family life.

Note: Usually I use Japanese naming conventions in these entries. However, everyone refers to Yuuki by her given name because of how friendly she is, so I'll be following suit!

The first thing that appealed to me was how this is a very eighties comic. I find that this era gets overlooked by Western shoujo manga fanbases and publishers/scanlators compared to other decades. The fashion and art style both evoke this setting, with many of the illustrations looking like something out of a photoshoot from an eighties issue of Olive magazine. This comic has a strong aesthetic identity, with art that keeps getting better as it progresses.

Secondly, I adored Kanako, who contained far more depth to her than I was initially expecting. She starts the story as someone who is popular for her softness, the typical picture perfect protagonist, but this image slowly gets deconstructed over time. The manga initially explores how being sick has impacted how her family and friends view her, but then it progresses and exposes how it impacted how she views herself too. There's a plethora of work about female socialization and how it stifles expression of our authentic selves, but it's less common to encounter work that explores what it means to be a "sick girl" and the specific baggage that comes with that. The people around Kanako view her as frail and weak and so she does too and acts accordingly, making sure to always be selfless so she isn't a burden on anyone anymore than she is. I guess this shocked me because I'm just not used to shoujo manga being critical of the kind and gentle female archetype, but it was done really well here. She had such a cathartic development imo, one that I haven't gotten over even a few days after reading. My only complaint is I wish the manga focused more on her lmao. Her design is also so dreamy, with her soft and fluffy hair...I could gush more but I'll refrain ✋

I found both parts of the couple intriguing at first, but as Takatou developed and his edges got sanded off, he became a bit more boring imo except for a minor twist at the end that also counters a theme you see in a lot of manga...instead of him following his dreams and giving his all to basketball, he accepts that he only got into the hobby as a way to cope with his loneliness, and now that he's accepted by more people, he doesn't need it anymore. No need to follow that dream that he spent 70 chapters chasing. It's subversions like these that make this comic stick out to me, because it gives it a more grounded and naturalistic feeling despite it also being over the top at times.

Parts of the story go off the rails when we see Takatou in a love triangle and Kanako in a love square, and tbh some of this does feel tacked on just for shits or to give the chapters a cliffhanger. Whether it's because of editor meddling or Soryo Fuyumi trying to keep things interesting, idk. Soryo's Mars was also drama-heavy, but there were relaxing scenes mixed in too so both the couples and readers got to take a break. Meanwhile, Boyfriend's characters are trapped in a vortex of nonstop conflict until it nears the end, and then it's finished. The pacing could be a little inconsistent as well. I found that certain plot points got drawn out for longer than necessary (esp. Takatou's love triangle, it really overstayed its welcome), while the things that I wanted to spend more time on were glazed over pretty quickly...

Despite this, I did enjoy a few of the subplots, especially one with Takatou's mother that explores gender roles within Japanese families. Feeling unappreciated, she just up and leaves her house at the start. Her all-male family learn the hard way about how much labour goes into running a household once there's no longer someone cooking all their meals, doing all their laundry, and cleaning lol. It's nice to see an honest attempt at social commentary about an adult issue in a teen-centric comic like this.

I feel like this was the start of the formula that Soryo Fuyumi eventually perfected with Mars. While I'd only recommend this to someone who has a high tolerance for shoujo fuckery, something about this spoke to me (and by something, I mean Kanako!)

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