What does it mean to like someone? How does someone know when a person becomes special to them? What does it mean to be in a relationship? These are all questions fundamental to the romance genre no matter the age, though usually found in those stories centering around a younger age group. How a person understands and interacts with the people closest to them is an important part of growing up and maturing as a human being. High school romance stories often focus on this key period of development as the main characters come to understand and discover both themselves and their relationships with those around them. That Blue Sky Feeling combines the self-discovery of youth with the queer story-lines of realizing and coming to terms with being gay. Volume one of this three-volume series is not only a great introduction into these concepts but also can act as a great first step into the boys love genre for anyone interested.

That Blue Sky Feeling focuses on the life of transfer student Noshiro Dai who meets the loner Sanada after coming to his new school. He doesn’t seem to have friends or really want any. And then there’s the rumor permeating the school that Sanada is gay that makes the other boys keep their distance from him. But that doesn’t seem to deter Noshiro who decides to embark on a campaign to win Sanada over and become his friend. The manga was adapted from an original webcomic by Okura with artist Coma Hashii collaborating for the adaptation. It’s currently licensed for English release by Viz Media.

I think one of the selling points of this series for me was the character designs. I think far too often the gay romance genre features characters that are conventionally attractive, especially when it comes to boys love and yaoi. Perhaps it’s because this series is both shonen and written by a man that we a main character like Noshiro who is not what I would call conventionally attractive. In the series he’s referred to as kind of a potato. He’s a short, stocky boy who has a heavier build than many of the characters in the series. He’s shown to have practiced Judo at his old school, so his stocky build makes sense, but in this kind of story it becomes fairly refreshing to see a manga break away from the kind of body types a lot of romances tend to use. In this way Noshiro’s appeal doesn’t come from his appearance but from his personality. And while Sanada is a “pretty-boy” type, I don’t think his appeal for Noshiro has anything to do with appearance either.