MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING. BE CAREFUL GOING FORWARD.

So, "Boy meets Maria" is definitely a manga that exists.

It features a beautiful lesson, that "anyone can be a hero", that "anyone can save others", and that "you should find comfort in others", such a beautiful message is accompanied by masterfully crafted characters (... I'll get to that later) and a wonderful, engaging narrative.

The art, coupled with the way the panels are arranged perfectly conveys the happy-go-lucky way that Taiga lives his life, and he's such an interesting protagonist to have in here.

Arima is such a wonderful main character, he's not a simple perfect mcgee and has an actual personality beyond his pretty looks. Such a wonderful character.

If you paid attention to the title, however, you might be wondering where this sour spot is.
Well... It's in the way it ends.

The manga perfectly sets up Taiga's trauma: He's a boy whose father's less-than-ideal treatment of his dying mother made him obsessed with heroes as a coping mechanism.
This also helps us see the main theme of the manga, "anyone could be a hero".

This theme, however, starts to fall apart with one simple reveal: Taiga's father was the one good man that helped Arima when he was getting molested.

Why Hotaka, you might ask, how does this affect the theme in any way?
Allow me to explain.

Arima's situation was portrayed with the man being obscured at first, with Arima not sure on why he sees Taiga as said man.
Leaving his identity unknown would've helped greatly to enhance the idea that Taiga's presence helped Arima slowly overcome his fear of others, the explanation for Arima seeing Taiga in this adult could've easily been "they both helped me unconditionally when no one else would".
But this really touching lesson gets shafted in favour of... Physical similarities...? Because his father bailed on his wife...?

Yes, this shows that the father isn't the monster we thought he was (although he still is a massive prick), you can still have the father be the man that helped Arima.

What i DO NOT like is that Arima seeing Taiga as the man is explained with this.

The ending wouldn't have changed that much either: the way Taiga and his dad treat each other would remain the same because KEEP IN MIND: TAIGA DOES NOT KNOW THIS. Arima DID NOT tell him, as far as we know.

This twist undermines a legitimately good lesson, in favour of pushing an entirely circumstantial explanation to what could've been an incredibly touching story.

The reason i don't give this a "bad" rating (below 50) despite focusing merely on the negatives is that at it's core; there's a very good concept and a lot to unpack when it comes to this manga, it's just that some choices really dragged it down to just "fine"

I really wanted to like this, i really did, i might reread this manga later but as it stands; it's a pile of wasted potential that could've been something special.