Boy Meets Maria

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I feel that gender identity in anime is very misconstrued. Most of the time, trans women or men who wears masculine clothes either do not have their gender identity truly addressed, or are just called "traps" or other unsavory words. I thought this manga did a beautiful job of showing the struggle of finding your gender identity and sexuality.

One of my favorite parts of this manga is that, even at the end, we don't truly know Arima's gender identity and neither does he (I am using he/him pronouns because that is what is used in the manga), and that is totally fine! Although he is ... able to work through his trauma a little, it does not solve his gender crisis, which I really enjoyed and thought was very realistic. In many manga and anime with gender-queer people, after their problems are fixed they often go back to representing their birth gender, which not only sets an untrue president that trans people are created from trauma, which is just untrue. Gender expression is part of who you are, and working through trauma does not at all mean you have to assign with your birth gender. This manga does a great job at showing this.

Another thing I really liked is the conversation about Hirasawa's sexuality. He likes who he likes, and he doesn't feel the need to put a label on it. I think this is great for people still figuring out their sexuality. Just like who you like, and there is no pressure to put a label on it!

I also thought the relationship was very well written. Hirasawa did not fix all of Arima's trauma but was just there to support him. I feel that there is a huge pressure (especially on women) to fix men's problems for them, but in reality, all you need to do as a partner is be there and support them. Great message!

Overall, a beautiful story with amazing art that shows the struggle of gender identity, figuring out your sexuality, and working through past trauma. A great read for everyone, not just queer people!

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)

Woweeee. “Boy Meets Maria” is a tactile and active experience. The art has this kinetically powered crunch to it – it’s radiant and coveys so much motion. While the story deals in dark themes, it somehow manages to keep itself feeling light and pure. A problem I have found with other manga with drama as a central premise is that they tend to go “black hole”: all characters are birthed from tragedy. I was somewhat worried at the beginning of the story when the black haired MC’s superficiality was explained via his less than stellar parental relationship. It felt unnecessary at the time, primarily because ... such a character trait does not require a tragic backstory to explain. Some people are just superficial or they have some other complex of character traits that make them behave if so. However, this backstory was taken and subsequently bounced off the other MCs tragedy, influencing both climax and reconciliation. That’s the sort of narrative weave that makes this story a 9 in my eyes. The only narrative thread I felt unsold on was the Fathers. His humanity was given time to breath and it was recognised that he is just a normal person with strengths and weaknesses. But I wanted more of an exploration about how his personal character had been twisted by the obvious distress and confusion he was going through when his wife was on her deathbed.

In conclusion, “Boy Meets Maria” is a hypnotic whirl of charismatic characters with pervasive, sickly sweet drama on the backdrop. It sold me a hell of a lot in 6 chapters, and that’s down to it being a phenomenal salesman.

**WARNING THERE IS AN ATTEMPT SEXUAL ASSAULT INVOLVING A CHILD IN THIS SO PLEASE READ AT YOUR OWN RISK**

Wow it's really a very dark BL story guys. The main characters Arima and Taiga had pretty decent character developments. Basically the story goes is that Taiga is literally a happy go lucky teenager, who just was influenced by superheroes from a very young age and he badly wants to do acting because of this. He also lives with his dad (a hero too). He then meets Arima who did a stunning performance since he's part of the drama club at the school, Taiga surprisingly confesses and ... Arima rejects him. Taiga also mistakens him for a girl. Then the rest is the pair of them getting to know each other though their pasts.

I'm not gonna say much since it'll involve a lot of spoilers throughout the 6 chapters of the story and want to let everyone read the whole story for themselves. It's definitely one of those BL that would pierce your heart, that's all I'm gonna say..

(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.

The manga treats gender is really interesting it sees it not as a fix trait but as a blurry and confusing aspect of one’s self. It doesn’t jump immediately to labels, and prefers to explore different aspects of gender. Disregarding the origins of the gender questioning (Which I find unnecessarily complicated, questionable but understandable) the way the person in question views his (Pronouns used to refer to him in the book) gender is surprisingly relatable. The best part of the book besides the romance (which is really cute) is the fact that the person never finishes by labeling him self and that every body accepts ... it.

The protagonist is way over done, but in a way that fits well in the story. His back story didn’t really impact his character and could have been nonexistent with out impacting the story. A other notable par of the character is his sexuality which also remains unlabelled but rare for masculine protagonists.

(TLDR at the bottom)

This story is kinda ironic. In a world where drama and acting are supposed to feel intense and real, it is hard to even appreciate this story for that reason, because that drama present here isn't particularly good in my honest opinion.

The synopsis is there for you to understand the beginning, so I won't go over that too much other than the title also does a good job at summarising the beginning. You'd think it is a light novel-esque bait title, but respect for this title being actually coherent to the story and short to read, but that's beside the point. What ... I want to touch upon are the themes of this manga and how they didn't really invoke anything out of me as I thought it may have.

In a manga about acting; to play roles in a way that you convey your emotion with such believable strengths, I don't know what was up with this need to have explosive plot devices determine everything about both characters. I won't get into too much detail because of spoilers, but it came across to me as a cheat method for the characters to grow or reason their means to do X and Y. This wasn't just a one-off thing. I counted three "cheated" plot devices. Two of which were "explosive", and the other one was just backstory for the other character. It also goes to show, that this dude was based around a theme of the past. It's strange. You'd think they'd have some human to them, but instead are just literally determined by past events and only that. What can I say though? I will give them credit for their acting skill though. Whilst I don't believe the support is there to make me feel anything strong about them, both Amira and Taiga have passion for sure—even if it can come across as a hack of some kind. These aren't just some half-hearted people looking to pass some subject, they are going all out to impress their respective audiences. The lead up to it is nothing short of entertaining to watch, to say the least. I like these guys in that category, and the connection between Amira and Taiga in this saga is also equally pleasing to read.

I suppose they aren't entirely bad characters per se, but rather, multiple (keyword here) melodramatic moments accompanied with a presentation of being very sincere and real didn't quite come across to me as something to take entirely seriously. It's like some unnecessary juxtaposition that didn't really need to exist; it just ruined the validity when it does. Otherwise, I get what was supposed to be presented here, and I will admit that it is good and serviceable. Something that only deserves praise (in which it already does).

The art isn't particularly phenomenal, but it is good enough to have lasting pleasant memories of, which is honestly something I didn't expect this manga would have. It's just… really clean and stylish enough to have its own personal identity attached to it. Nothing more, nothing less. I suppose on every odd occasion, the powerful scene has its artistic works elevated slightly, but that's usually just to bring out the most of what is currently visible. All in all, it's pretty good.


TLDR: A drama story that's too convenient, not that it is necessarily a problem, but it was to a point where I couldn't really take everything seriously. Otherwise great art, and even if I wasn't the biggest fan, the point came across, and that was enough for me to enjoy it (and should be for literally anyone who isn't cynical).

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That's really all I have to say about Boy Meets Maria. It's pretty highly acclaimed, and I can see the reason why people liked it, but I already explained why this wasn't particularly something I enjoyed. It's a little sad though, stories like these are to enjoy, and I don't really have the highest of standards, but I really only want consistency and not another experience where nothing makes sense or is outrageously annoying (ReLife former, Golden Time latter). It's sadder that the creator of this manga has actually passed away too. They seemed to be going strong with another manga after the creation of this one. A sad loss for the industry indeed. But I thank Eguchi Kousei for making Boy Meets Maria even if I wasn't the biggest fan.

It's not a long story, it can be read in like an hour or 2 and I would recommend this to BL fans too. It's not one of those rapey ones or anything disgusting like that (at least between the main two), it's actually quite wholesome, even if rough beginnings. But that's about it from me.

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.

This story is so beautiful it had me in tears. The author depicted childhood trauma, gender, and sexuality the best way I've seen in a manga so far. The story and characters don't fetishize gay relationships or trans/questioning. I read the book start to finish, it's captivating and sucks you right into the characters. It showed genuine character growth in only 6-6.5 chapters, and it wasn't forced. The art is beautiful and the story/characters are easy to understand but still complex. This story will have you cringing, sobbing, laughing, and squealing. I definitely recommend this book 10/10, it is my new favorite.

(I'm sorry for all the mistakes, english is not my native language)

First of all, I fell in love in this manga. It was absolutely incredible and emotional.
It has started from a regular slice of life/romance story and then it started to be unexpectedly serious, and it represented something more at the end, there was a lot of gender questioning, which is pretty rare and distinguished among other manga.
The characters, even though I didn't ever have such experiences they had, seem to be really relatable, I could feel their pain, their sadness, also happiness, all their feelings through the manga, and I loved ... that. Also, the art was gorgeous! It will certainly stay in my top 10 for a long time (maybe even forever), and so I highly recommend reading this peace of art.

TRIGGER WARNING: s*xual assault and p*dophilia!
Please be careful if these are topics that trigger you in any way!

Right off the bat, the art is gorgeous. Both on the cover and on the pages. I don't think I've seen a manga with more beautiful art. You could honestly ignore the story and just stare at the pictures.
But I wouldn't recommend it, as the story is also very enjoyable to read. It surrounds a student actor with gender issues due to the way he was raised (think Nagisa from Assassination Classroom), who typically presents as female on stage but male in the classroom, and a the male ... main character that's hopelessly in love with him.

It was enjoyable and refreshing to see the main character be openly queer, not minding that the girl he fell in love with is actually a boy. He acts the same way he'd act if it was a girl! Just as silly, fun, and endearingly annoying, not for a second being afraid to show his love openly to the rest of the school- because why wouldn't he? His personality reminded me of Tamaki Suoh from Ouran High School Host Club (in a good way!)
The actor's backstory is also very pitiful, and it makes you root for him to get over his trauma, to be himself and to do what he loves.

Only 7 chapters long, this is quite a short story that anyone can read in their free time, which I would recommend.

(I apoligize if my grammar is bad, english is not my first language) This is the manga that while reading ive cried the most, it is truly amazing how this manga blossoms into something so out of control to a calm and deserved ending. The way that I began reading this knowing nothing and just laughing of the embarrassment I would get from taiga's interactions to sobbing at them just some few chapters later is what really made this book not just a story line but an expierence. Would reccomend if you want to cry a lot because of how beautifully tragic this story ... is.

I mainly picked it up because of the gender identity and exploration of it but wow... this really hit hard. This story deals with dark themes, and it doesn't shy away so be very warned, because... eesh. Now, I can't vouch for the trans representation and I would rather have someone who is trans or had a gender identity crisis to assist me in seeing if this is somewhat accurate or not. But what Arima goes through is absolutely heartbreaking, and seeing it unfold does feel believable, especially when being in a situation like that as a child and what happened to him. Still, I ... can't vouch for it, but how it was presented and what children's brains are like as they are growing up, makes it feel believable to me.

The art was absolutely so beautifully constructed and the panelling was very well done. And many of the ideas explores really reminded me of Shiminami Tasogare (Our Dreams at Dusk) which is one of my favourite mangas.

I will say that I think not everything really felt resolved. Maybe that's because I didn't want it to end, but I think if it had a longer duration or another volume, it would really give more time to flesh out the character's development further and give a rather satisfying conclusion that didn't just leave abruptly. Though I suppose with Arima's character, it made sense that by the end we didn't really know their identity, but still I don't know.

Update: After giving it more thinking, it makes me feel uncomfortable and it's now a 5/10. I don't like it much anymore

Wanted to start off saying the art is outstanding and consistent, great visual storytelling and made me laugh in some brilliantly composed panels

The theme is something that is rare to be depicted in Japanese media that doesn't have teenage girls as their target audience, and a great portrayal of it at that

But it really felt like much of the story was crammed in because of the low number of chapters to fit it in, if we had more than 1-2 volumes I'm pretty sure it would be a 10 from me

Sometimes the writing is sloppy and much of the dialogue is unrealistic and trope-ish (at ... least in the english translation)

Reiterating the above, sometimes it just felt like they were just trying to fit in more trauma and conflict to get the readers emotional but I'm pretty sure it's only because they had 7 chapters to deliver the plotlines and backstory

Very good read, nice short story with incredible art

Essa resenha será escrita em inglês e português [PT-BR]
This review will be written in English and Portuguese [PT-BR].

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**Essa resenha pode conter spoilers**

Boy meets Maria e a dura jornada de descobrir quem realmente somos

Boy Meets Maria é simples e direto ao ponto, o autor usa do “Minimalismo narrativo” para eliminar tudo aquilo que não é essencial para contar sua história e para transmitir os sentimentos que precisam ser sentidos. Isso tem seus pontos positivos e negativos, mas fato é que Boy Meets Maria consegue abordar temas relevantes, que muitas vezes são abordados de uma maneira banal, mas aqui, isso é feito de uma maneira delicada e ... ao mesmo tempo brutal.
Como citei acima, essa obra consegue abordar seus temas com delicadeza e ao mesmo tempo de maneira visceral, e isso realmente é um grande feito, pois poucas vezes, ainda mais nessa indústria de anime e mangá, conseguimos ver um autor abordar temas tão delicados, como abusos na infância e identidade de gênero, de maneira tão “agradável” (se é que posso usar essa palavra), e ao mesmo tempo mostrar, da maneira mais gráfica possível, como esses temas podem impactar a vida de uma pessoa, seja de maneira mais lírica, mais idealizada digamos assim, ou da maneira mais física, mais “palpável”, sabe? Eguchi Kousei conseguiu nos mostrar esses impactos de ambas as maneiras, de tal forma que é até difícil distinguir ambas as formas de abordar o tema dentro da nossa leitura desse mangá.

Personagem é Rei!

Boy Meets Maria possui um plot relativamente simples, aqui temos um garoto, chamado Taiga, que acaba de iniciar seu ensino médio, e logo de cara se apaixona por uma pessoa, uma suposta atriz, que logo ele percebe que essa atriz que ele pensava ser uma mulher, na verdade é um homem, e a partir daí a história vai se desenvolvendo, mostrando as dificuldades de ambas as pessoas em lidar com essa situação. No geral, como disse, o plot é simples, mas o principal triunfo dessa obra é usar sua premissa simples para desenvolver seus personagens, ao ponto de que a premissa na verdade não importa tanto assim, essa história é mais sobre como os personagens atuam em cima dessa premissa, bem como a construção de suas personalidades, e como isso impacta na forma com que veem aquela situação, e isso norteia a forma com que vão lidar com as dificuldades em suas vidas.
Começando pelo Arima, ou “Maria”, de longe o personagem mais impactante, ele é quem realmente move a história, mas não de maneira literal, e sim “sentimentalmente” falando, sabe? Arima é um personagem muito calcado em seus traumas pessoais, pois mesmo tendo nascido como um homem, sua mãe, devido a seus próprios traumas e frustações, decide enxergar Arima como uma garota, o vestindo e o tratando como tal, fato esse que vai confundindo a cabeça de Arima, pois mesmo se sentindo como um garoto, e gostando de “coisas de garoto”, as pessoas o vê como uma garota, devido a sua aparência feminina, e lidar com tais sentimentos e pensamentos, aos seus 6 ou 7 anos, realmente podem traumatizar a vida de uma pessoa. Mas como se isso não fosse o suficiente, Arima acaba passando por uma das piores situações que uma pessoa pode passar, que é ser abusado sexualmente por uma pessoa próxima de você.
Esse fato, não é somente citado ao longo da história, mas ele é mostrado, de forma visualmente explicita, requadro após requadro, essa cena é mostrada, e certamente isso pode ter pego muitas pessoas de surpresa, me pegou de surpresa também, mas claramente aquela sequência de requadros não estão ali atoa, elas comprem uma função muito importante na história, que é nos mostrar o quão traumatizante é para o Arima passar por essa situação, junto de todos os sentimos dúbios que ele já tinha desde a sua infância, faz com que ele se feche sentimentalmente para certas coisas em sua vida, bem como o deixa com uma certa fixação de como as pessoas o vê, onde ao mesmo tempo que ele se vê como um homem, que gosta e se sente confortável em se portar como tal, pelo fato de sua criação, e também de seu medo de interpretar papeis masculinos no teatro onde atua, ele diz a si mesmo que é melhor que as pessoas o vejam como uma mulher, pois ele acredita que consegue se encaixar melhor no ambiente que frequenta sendo visto assim, sendo visto por um gênero no qual não se identifica totalmente.
Todos esses fatos juntos constroem a personalidade de Arima, uma pessoa indecisa sobre como se portar dentro da sociedade, uma pessoa confusa e que gosta de se mostrar confiante, uma pessoa que sente medo, angústia, inveja... Assim como todos não, não acha?
Arima é um personagem muito interessante, que traz a toma uma discussão importante, que é a identificação de gênero, e como isso pode impactar nossa vida em praticamente todas as esferas, pois isso, por muitas vezes, é o que norteia nossas relações sociais, pois as conversas que temos com nossos amigos do sexo masculino, provavelmente não será as mesmas que teremos com nossas amigas do sexo feminino. Então hoje, ainda é muito importante termos a clara noção se a pessoa que faz parte de nosso círculo social se identifica com seu sexo de origem ou não, pois isso felizmente, ou infelizmente vai definir como se dará nossa relação... Agora, se isso é uma coisa boa ou ruim, realmente não sei dizer.
Já sobre Taiga, eu o vejo como um personagem que cumpre uma função, e nada mais. Taiga tem o dever de trazer todas as discussões desse mangá à tona, pois ele se declara amorosamente para Arima, e mesmo sabendo que na verdade ele é um homem, isso não muda nem um pouco a maneira de como ele se sente referente ao Arima, e esse fato por si só, eu enxergo como um problema.
O fato de Taiga não refletir, nem por um segundo, o fato de Arima ser um homem, é uma contradição muito grande com o próprio background do personagem, pois é dito diretamente no texto desse mangá que Taiga é um personagem “superficial”, que prefere ver somente a superfície das pessoas, e claramente vemos que Taiga, mesmo que inconscientemente, é heterossexual, pois ele se apaixona à primeira vista pela aparência feminina de Arima, e mesmo após saber que Arima é um garoto, ele não liga nem um pouco para isso, e essa decisão do autor é muito estranho e pobre narrativamente, pois ele perdeu a oportunidade de trabalhar melhor no personagem do Taiga esse conflito de entender sua sexualidade, onde aos poucos vai se descobrir um bi sexual, talvez? Taiga simplesmente aceita o que lhe é imposto, sem mostrar uma reflexão sobre aquilo.
No fim do dia, acho que foi uma oportunidade jogada no lixo, pois trazer esses temas, como o preconceito intrínseco ao ser humano, e como podemos fazer para lidar e superar isso, bem como a descoberta da sexualidade na adolescência, seriam ótimos temas a serem debatidos, mas novamente, foi uma oportunidade jogada no lixo.

A arte surpreende, bem como a narrativa

Eu gosto muito da estética desse mangá, pois ao mesmo tempo que ela é “normal” e até mesmo um pouco “Genérica”, o autor conseguiu criar alguma personalidade em seu estilo artístico, devido a forma com que ele trabalha de maneira inseparável a arte da narrativa, e isso é algo muito difícil de explicar em palavras, mas vou tentar.
Geralmente, quando analisamos um quadrinho, temos o péssimo hábito de separar o que é texto do que é arte (eu mesmo faço isso as vezes), e nem sempre esse é o melhor caminho para analisar uma obra, pois geralmente, uma coisa está amarrada a outra. Nos quadrinhos, uma cena só tem impacto se tiver um bom enredo por trás, assim como uma boa história, ao menos nos quadrinhos, vai depender da arte conversar com o leitor, e quando isso ocorre, temos essa mistura maravilhosa, onde não conseguimos pensar a obra como arte e texto separados, pois tudo é uma coisa só. O autor construiu sua obra para ser uma coisa só, sabe? Então novamente, é difícil explicar meus sentimentos quanto a arte desse mangá, mas ela consegue ser única, mesmo sendo “genérica”, e isso é sensacional.

Não é genial, mas é acima de média

Boys Meets Maria é uma obra cheia de nuances, com um enredo carregado de sentimentalismo, identidade, e acima de tudo responsabilidade nos temas que aborda. O mangá consegue nos apresentar um personagem surpreendentemente tridimensional, narrativamente falando claro, com conflitos realmente interessantes, que trazem à tona temas muito pouco comentados nessa mídia de mangás e animes, como a identidade de gênero, a busca pela descoberta de si próprio, e acima de tudo, a mensagem de que nem sempre é fácil entender se quem somos é porque escolhemos ser, ou se aquilo foi construído por nossas influencias externas... Mas no fim, Boys Meets Maria sem dúvida alguma merece sua atenção.
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**This review may contain spoilers**.

The boy meets Mary and the hard journey of discovering who you really are

Boy Meets Maria is simple and to the point, the author uses "Narrative Minimalism" to eliminate everything that is not essential to tell his story and to convey the feelings that need to be felt. This has its good and bad points, but the fact is that Boy Meets Maria manages to address relevant issues that are often addressed in a banal way, but here, this is done in a delicate and at the same time brutal way.
As I mentioned above, this manga manages to approach its themes with delicacy and at the same time in a visceral way, and this is really a great achievement, because few times, even more so in this anime and manga industry, we can see an author approaching such delicate themes, like child abuse and gender identity, in such a "nice" (if I can use that word) way, and at the same time show, in the most graphic way possible, how these themes can impact a person's life, either in a more lyrical, more idealized way, let's say, or in a more physical, more "palpable" way, you know? Eguchi Kousei has managed to show us these impacts in both ways, in such a way that it is even difficult to distinguish both ways of approaching the theme within our reading of this manga.

Character is King!

Boy Meets Maria has a relatively simple plot, here we have a boy, named Taiga, who has just started his academic life at his new school, and soon falls in love with a person, a supposed actress, who soon realizes that this actress who he thought was a woman, is actually a man, and from there the story develops, showing the difficulties of both people in dealing with this situation. Overall, as I said, the plot is simple, but the main triumph of this manga is using its simple premise to develop its characters, to the point where the premise doesn't matter so much, this story is more about how the characters act on this premise, as well as building their personalities, and how this impacts how they view this situation, and this guides how they will deal with the difficulties in their lives.
Starting with Arima, or "Maria", by far the most impactful character, he is the one who really moves the story, but not in a literal way, but "sentimentally" speaking, you know? Arima is a character very much rooted in his personal traumas, because even though he was born as a man, his mother, due to her own traumas and frustrations, decides to see Arima as a girl, dressing and treating him as such, a fact that boggles Arima's mind, because even though he feels like a boy, and likes "boy things", people see him as a girl, due to his feminine appearance, and dealing with such feelings and thoughts, at the age of 6 or 7, can really traumatize a person's life. But as if this wasn't enough, Arima ends up going through one of the worst situations a person can go through, which is being sexually abused by a person close to you.
This fact, is not only mentioned throughout the story, but is shown, in a visually explicit way, frame after frame, this scene is shown, and certainly this may have taken many people by surprise, it took me by surprise as well, but of course the sequence of frames is not there for nothing, they buy a very important function in the story, which is to show us how traumatizing it is for Arima to go through this situation, along with all the doubtful feelings he already had since his childhood, makes him take a sentimental approach to certain things in his life, as well as leaves him with a certain fixation of how people see him, where at the same time that he sees himself as a man, that he likes and is comfortable behaving as such, due to the fact of his upbringing, and also his fear of playing male roles in the theater where he performs, he tells himself that it is better that people see him as a woman, because he believes that he can fit in better in the environment he attends being seen this way, being seen by a gender in which he does not fully identify. All these facts together build the personality of Arima, a person who is indecisive about how to behave within society, a confused person who likes to appear confident, a person who feels fear, anguish, envy... Just like everyone else, don't you think?
Arima is a very interesting character who brings to the table an important discussion, which is gender identification, and how this can impact our lives in almost all areas, because this is often what guides our social relationships, because the conversations we have with our male friends will probably not be the same as the ones we have with our female friends. So even today it is very important to have a clear sense of whether or not the person in our social circle identifies with their gender of origin, because this, happily or unfortunately, will define how our relationship will be. Now, whether this is a good or bad thing, I can't really say.
As for Taiga, I see him as a character who fulfills a function, and nothing more. Taiga has a duty to bring up all the discussions in this manga, because he declares himself lovingly to Arima, and even though he knows he is a man, this doesn't change how he feels about Arima, and that fact I see as a problem.
The fact that Taiga does not, even for a second, reflect the fact that Arima is a man is a very big contradiction to the character's own background, because it is stated directly in the text of this manga that Taiga is a "superficial" character who prefers to see only the surface of people, and we clearly see that Taiga, even if unconsciously, is heterosexual, because he falls in love at first sight with Arima's feminine appearance, and even after knowing that Arima is a boy, he doesn't care a bit about this, and this decision of the author is very strange and narratively poor, because he lost the opportunity to work better in Taiga's character this conflict of understanding his sexuality, where little by little he will discover himself as a bi-sexual, maybe? Taiga simply accepts what is imposed on him, without showing any reflection about it.
In the end, I think it was an opportunity thrown in the trash, because raising these topics, such as the prejudice intrinsic to human beings, and how we can deal with and overcome this, as well as the discovery of sexuality in adolescence, would be great topics to discuss, but again, it was an opportunity thrown in the trash.

The art surprises, as does the narrative

I really like the aesthetics of this manga, because at the same time that it is "normal" and even a little "generic", the author has managed to create some personality in his artistic style, due to the way he works inseparably the art of the narrative, and this is something very difficult to explain in words, but I will try.
Usually, when we analyze a comic, we have the bad habit of separating what is text from what is art (I do it myself sometimes), and this is not always the best way to analyze a manga, because usually, one thing is connected to another. In comics, a scene only has impact if it has a good plot behind it, just like a good story, at least in comics, will depend on the art talking to the reader, and when this happens, we have this wonderful mix, where you can't think of manga as separate art and text, because everything is one thing. The author has built his manga to be one thing, you know? Again, it's hard to explain my feelings about the art in this manga, but it manages to be unique, even though it's "generic," and that's great.

Not amazing, but above average

Boys Meets Maria is a work full of nuance, with a plot loaded with sentimentality, identity, and above all responsibility in the issues it deals with. The manga manages to present us with a surprisingly three-dimensional character, narratively speaking of course, with really interesting conflicts that evoke themes rarely discussed in these manga and anime media, such as gender identity, the quest for self-discovery, and above all, the message that it's not always easy to understand if who we are is because we chose to be, or if it was built by our external influences... But in the end, Boys Meets Maria definitely deserves your attention.

!! Spoiler free !!

TW FOR MENTION OF R@PE AND SA!!!!

I initially hadn’t heard much at all about this manga before I read it. I had heard it was a good LGBTQ+ manga, and I’m a sucker for queer manga, as a queer person. I picked it up at a comic store because I simply recognized it. I genuinely didn’t think I would love this manga as much as I really did.

As I stated before, I’m a queer person (genderqueer and aroace, he/him & other pronouns), so I usually love to read queer manga, especially with trans characters, such is the case with Boy Meets Maria.

Yuu ... Arima, also known as Maria is a genderqueer character who’s gay, and uses he/him pronouns. I thought this as such an important piece of representation with how people under the non-binary umbrella aren’t obligated to be androgynous and use they/them pronouns and whatnot. Not only that, I love to see trans people, especially non-binary people receiving the love they feel they didn’t deserve but definitely needed, especially considering past trauma and past experiences. As sad as this manga was, I felt such a deep connection to the story and how trans people are portrayed.

I wanted to add one last thing to this quick review; transgenderism does not always occur based on trauma, whether it comes to extremely poor parenting, or external trauma such as rape and sexual assault. This manga isn’t supposed to be generalizing trans people’s experiences, but more of a specific experience. Everyone’s story is different.

I still wholeheartedly believe that the message this manga was trying to share was so powerful and relatable. I love this manga so much, and if you’re a trans/queer person who’s looking for something quick to read, I totally recommend this manga. (However I do suggest looking up the page numbers for the trigger warnings so you can skip those parts.)

Have a good day <3

°English Version°

PEYO's Boy Meets Maria is a beautiful, beautiful manga, full of pain and full of hard moments that are framed by a great search for identity by the two protagonists. A story that is told in an excellent way in 6 chapters. A real gem.

The story is perfect because it marks Taiga's quest to be someone else's "hero" from the start. And that someone else is Maria.
Everything that unfolds through this way of seeing is constructed as a true story of heroes, saving someone else.

Another strong point is how the theater or the performance itself is used to express Maria's feelings.
The heartbreaking and sad ... of her story is shown in this way and she manages to convey that despair that she had during her life. Doing so improves the work a lot.

The saddest moments of the manga are real situations that someone could experience, unfortunately.
And the most comforting moments of the work are a way to convey that feeling of watching a story of heroes. But a real one, where saving is mutual.

The plus of all this (and which makes it even sadder) is knowing that a story as excellent as this was made by a mangaka who unfortunately died at the age of 23.
Knowing this and enjoying seeing what he did is knowing that there will be no more works like this. A 10/10.

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°Versión en español°

Boy Meets Maria de PEYO es un manga precioso, hermoso, lleno de dolor y lleno de momentos duros que vienen enmarcados por una gran búsqueda de identidad por parte de los dos protagonistas. Una historia que es contada de una forma excelente en 6 capítulos. Una autentica joyita.

La historia es perfecta porque marca desde el inicio la búsqueda que tiene Taiga de ser "el héroe" de alguien más. Y ese alguien más es María.
Todo lo que se desarrolla a través de esta forma de ver se construye como una verdadera historia de héroes, el salvar a alguien más.

Otro punto fuerte es el como el teatro o la misma actuación se usa para expresar los sentimientos de María.
Lo desgarradora y triste de su historia se muestra de esta manera y logra transmitir esa desesperación que tuvo durante su vida. El hacerlo así, mejora la obra muchísimo.

Los momentos mas tristes del manga son situaciones reales que pudiese experimentar alguien, lamentablemente.
Y los momentos mas reconfortantes de la obra son una manera de transmitir esa sensación de estar viendo una historia de héroes. Pero una real, donde el salvar es mutuo.

El plus de todo esto (y lo cual lo hace mas triste aun) es saber que una historia tan excelente como esta fue hecha por un mangaka que lamentablemente murió a los 23 años.
Conocer esto y disfrutar de ver lo que hizo es saber que no habrá mas obras como esta. Un 10/10.