Boy Meets Maria

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When I found this manga first time, I didn't know what expectations I had but, I have to say that it made me feel very strong emotions, to the point of almost reaching tears.

I did not feel that way with any comic since I finished reading Ao No flag, It is not only the art that is magnificent but also the characters are charismatic and you want to see them overcome their difficulties, you want to see them reach a point where they can finally overcome that obstacle that prevents them from feeling complete, from feeling human.

**I will leave as a warning that this work ... contains quite heavy topics such as child abuse, both physical and psychological. So if these issues are too horrible for you, proceed carefully.**

When I finished reading it, I couldn't help but feel that I wanted more, I wanted to know more about the artist, more about his works, but tragically when I looked up his name in Google, I found out that the author had died at the early age of 23 years. (Article : https://www.crunchyroll.com/es/anime-news/2020/08/29-1/kimio-alive-manga-creator-kousei-eguchi-passes-away-at-the-age-of-23-on-august-19 )

Thank you for sharing your talent with the world sensei, you left way too soon.

Rest in peace Kousei Eguchi
(aka PEYO)

(Here be spoilers)

Boy Meets Maria Who Is Actually a Dude Who Is Actually a Girl Who Is Actually a Dude

This is actually fine read, contrary to my expectations and initial impression. If there’s anything this manga excels at, it’s certainly going beyond the expectations if its genres. So, what were my expectations? At very first, I assumed this would be just another overrated generic BL story, just this time with some cross-dressing gimmick. This turned out to be incorrect, which is good. Then, the first few chapter made it clear that this is one of those manga that while being categorized as BL are actually ... aimed towards actual LGBT demographics rather than fujoshi. That of course isn’t by itself bad, but resemblance to Shimanami Tasogare immediately came to mind – manga that did something very similar but was disappointingly lacking in the actual story department. So I though that this would be another manga that just uses LGBT themes as sort of a marketing for a certain crowd without that much effort put to the actual content of it. This also turned out to be not entirely correct a bit later.

You see, there’s a dramatic shift in the tone in about half of the manga, and it’s what makes it stand out. The gender dysphoria turns out to be inducted from the outside. Due to abuse during childhood. Psychotic single mother that so much wished for a daughter. A sexual assault by one in position of trust. This gives the story an unexpectedly different kind of realism. Not the usual low hanging fruit realism of “We have non-hetero romance”, but a complex thought-provoking situation grounded in what could realistically be a real world problem. The whole story is not so grim of course, and the trauma part is well balanced by the rest of it.

Of course, that is one way to view this title, and it is unknown to me if the author actually intended to point out how such cases could stem from trauma and criticize grooming, but it is how I chose to interpret it. The Death of the Author and so on (the literary concept, not literally – though in this case unfortunately literally too, rest in peace).

So yeah, you might enjoy reading this even if you don’t care about BL works or LGBT community, feel free to try it out. I would even be okay with not calling it a BL in the first place, except for the last few pages.

This manga was extremely disappointing.

The synopsis on the back cover reads, “[this tale explores] the nature of personal expression and the fluidity of the power of love.” And what a surface-level exploration it is.

The first half of Boy Meets Maria is rather trite. The narrative in this section revolves mainly around Taiga, which is its biggest problem. He just isn’t compelling in the slightest because he doesn’t feel like a real person. He’s overconfident to an irritating degree and shows very little depth beyond that. The story attempts to explain his shallowness as a trauma response, but it just isn’t believable. The explanation is ... that since he caught his parents fighting, he decided to start taking everything in life at face-value…but this ideology wouldn’t provide any escapism from the very apparent cracks in his parent’s relationship, so it feels like an exceptionally flimsy explanation.

Then the narrative takes a complete and jarring turn in the second half when the focus shifts to Arima’s perspective. Arima’s rapist is cartoonishly evil, and the horror is gratuitous in a way that feels disingenuous. The contrived circumstances of Arima’s upbringing exist solely to have this shocking moment occur as a tasteless way of giving his character intrigue. Arima’s gender struggles are handled even worse; the narrative refuses to commit to a specifically transgender character while also failing to criticize the gender binary in a meaningful way. The core theme never really moves beyond the cliche idea that “boys can be feminine, too!”

Not to mention, the severity of Arima’s story is contrasted by Taiga’s “comedic” obliviousness. At one point, his classmates even have to explain to him that homophobia exists. It’s absurd that a high school boy with feelings for his male-presenting classmate wouldn’t already be aware of the stigma surrounding non-normative sexualities and gender-expressions.

Overall, Boy Meets Maria is entirely ungraceful in its dealings with sexual assault and queer themes. It feels like a story made for the enjoyment of a heterosexual audience; I don’t understand how a queer person could see themselves in characters so devoid of authenticity.

This may seem like a harsh sentence considering that BL isn’t really known for being “authentic,” but if a manga is going to tackle such serious themes and scenarios, my standards are going to be elevated.

Not every story needs to have perfect representation, for sure, but it should at least do better than this.