My Boy in Blue, Vol. 1

It's more like 2.5. Content Warnings: Age-gap marriage between a teenager. Suicidal thoughts. Murder. Mental Illness. Crash dieting. Violence.

This is an age-gap “romance”. The manga opens up with Kako and her bestie attending a mixer with the bestie's older sister under the pretense that they are 22 yrs old. Kako meets Kota. It doesn't really look like they talk for a long while. All of it is small talk but apparently it was enough for Kako to start falling for Kota. Kako is like 14/15, first year in high school and Kota is a 23 year old policeman. He cuts things off with Kako before it even begins when Kako lets her real age slip. Kako becomes a bit obsessive and starts popping up at the police station and Kota decides he wants to be with her when neither have had a decent conversation. It's beyond weird because his definition of being together and resolution to their age gap situation is to GET MARRIED. WTF. There was no connection. This manga is extremely similar to My Boyfriend in Orange. I actually like that manga better than this one. This manga does take on more serious topics since, I'm assuming, it deals with the police.

I was irritated with the fact that everyone kept putting Kako down when in reality she was genuine in her decisions, judgement of character and growth. Everyone kept calling her names and just questioning everything she did. A lot of these characters were just not likable. The everyone that I mention are her friends and Kota. The relationship and connection between Kota and Kako was just non-existent. It made no sense for them to get married when they really didn't have much physical interactions. They could have done what they did without getting married which was essentially get to know one another throughout the years. Again, the getting to know one another didn't feel like enough to get married and continue to be married and to finally love one another. Kako showed the most character growth along with one other person and it was because of her genuine belief in him that it happened. You will see Kako and crew go from what we at in the US call freshmen in high school to adults post high school graduation.