In the 1970s, shojo manga was flooding the nation of Japan. Not only that, a new genre began springing up: shounen-ai, or boys' love. Heart of Thomas is arguably one of the first and most well known shounen-ai manga, published in 1974, but it didn't reach this side of the Atlantic until 2013, more than forty whole years after it sprung forth into this world. It was inspired by a French film the author, Moto Hagio, saw, and found it to be the inspiration she needed to create this manga. Publishing it was quite a hurdle, but she managed to get it done, even though shojo manga back then were mostly aimed at elementary school girls. However, according to the introduction at the end of the English edition, an audience outside of the target demographic--namely, older men--began devouring the story (sound familiar, bronies?) and telling people about it, passing it down from generation to generation. I finally found it in a library and decided to see what it was like. Unfortunately, however, I don't have the same nostalgia or fondness for it as other people do, and there are things about the manga that really confuse me, but this definitely doesn't mean I don't like it.

The story starts with a boy committing suicide by throwing himself off a bridge. The boy is Thomas Werner, a popular student at a well known all-boys school in Germany. News gets around, and the only one who seemingly isn't bothered by the news is Juli, a boy who is also popular in school for his intelligence and calm demeanor, even though he's not well liked among his family for having dark hair from his Greek father. However, there's more to Thomas and Juli than meets the eye: Thomas was in love with Juli, but Juli rejected him quite harshly. Thinking his suicide is a means to get back at him, Juli doesn't want to be controlled by his death and wants to forget the whole thing...but then he meets a transfer student, Erich, who is nearly the spitting image of Thomas, but unlike Thomas, who was gentle, sweet, and kind, Erich is loud, audacious, and has a short temper. Erich is sick of everybody thinking he's Thomas, and Juli really wants Erich out of his life forever. But love isn't something that can be tamed.

The art is extremely lush and very old school and shojo-y, so it might turn some people off. I thought the old school style looked nice and charming, and I normally don't discriminate when it comes to the era in which something is from, but I found the character designs for the child characters to be a little too thin and spindly, kind of like what CLAMP has been doing with Kobato and Tsubasa Chronicle. But the manga itself uses a lot of religious and angel imagery relating to the issues at hand in the story, and I thought they fit really well, especially considering the subject matter and the overall themes of the story.

The characters are a bit meh. Juli is the cold, stone faced kid who has a dark past and learns to trust people, Erich is the hot blooded, loud kid, Thomas is the completely perfect mary sue character who is liked by everyone even after death, etc. There's only three volumes to this series, so we only get to learn about four main characters and their relations to various people. I do like that their flaws move the story forward and round the characters a bit more, but I really didn't feel much for them. Not only that, I thought Thomas was pretty much a big Mary Sue. Everybody worships the kid like he's God, he's beautiful, smart, quiet, friendly, is in love with the most unapproachable guy in school, and even after death, nobody stops talking about him. But then again, I think this might be intentional in regards to all the religious imagery in the manga. But even with that in mind, they could have made Thomas a bit more flawed. Well, the good thing is, at least the characters were interesting and actually developed somewhat. But one thing I found really odd was that at first, Juli and Erich absolutely hate each other, then out of bloody nowhere they suddenly like each other. I won't say much for the sake of spoilers, but I thought this transition was way too sudden. Plus, I didn't understand Juli's back story regarding a man he hates. But I definitely liked it when Erich boldly and publicly yelled at Juli's grandmother for talking bad about Juli to his mother.

The story is relatively simple, but has a lot of complex layers underneath it, like Oskar's past, Erich's unhealthy love for his mother (which seriously turned me off), Juli's past, Ante's machinations, and the impact Thomas's death has on everyone around him. Everyone has secrets to hide, and eventually all of those secrets are revealed. I will admit, some parts of the story were a bit forced and melodramatic to me, like the whole fiasco of Erich resembling Thomas even though it's been explicitly stated that his hair and eyes are different from Thomas. The romances between some boys didn't bother me too much. I just wish they were a bit more gradual and subtle, and more built on mutual interest than hate turns into love in an instant. I definitely respect the manga as a historical piece and a groundbreaking work of its time, and I like it, but some parts of the manga could be improved upon.

Not the best seventies manga in the world, but Heart of Thomas definitely deserves a read if you're into shounen-ai, seventies shoujo art style, (No, there's NO X-rated stuff in it! Don't worry!) and a relatively decent story.