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"That's all, and yet..."
Blue Flag doesn't pull any punches when it comes to portraying the raw and true hardships of young teens facing imminent adulthood and heartbreak.
General
- While they all have their unique issues, each of the four main characters undergo lots of understandable Age-Appropriate Angst.
- Two of the main characters are closeted LGBT members (one is a bisexual woman and the other is a gay man) who suffer from a lot of Gayngst as they live in a very economically advanced, yet highly culturally conservative society with strict gender roles.
- Taichi is actually implied to have profitable affinity for toys, having made well-received custom-made toys at a young age, meaning his initial dream of running a toy shop wasn't all that far-fetched. However, he soon grew to believe that his invention was making him look infantile due to social standards that men are expected to live up to. That loss of childhood imagination because of it being dismissed as 'childish' leads him to conform to the norm and discard his talent, thus losing his unique niche and becoming mediocre.
- For all intents and purposes, while Toma was always amiable to him, Taichi understandably always felt Overshadowed by Awesome whenever he was around Toma, leading to even deeper insecurities.
Specific chapters
- Dear god, everything after Chapter 12. In the following chapter, to no avail, Toma, Seiya, and Futaba do their best to cheer up Taichi, who is puzzled and annoyed at the fact nobody is angry at him as his self-loathing reaches new heights.
- Chapter 16 becomes the icing on the cake, when the Whole Episode Flashback shows Taichi and Toma slowly drifting apart as the latter gets popular. It also shows Taichi's First Love. He falls for a girl who then falls for Toma, hammering his already low self-esteem and putting his unwillingness to attempt to get together with Futaba in a whole new light: he isn't just doing it because he wants her to be happy, but also because he believes there's no way someone would choose him over Toma.
- In Chapter 17, Taichi breaking down crying as he asks for Toma's forgiveness and desperately asks himself for a way to make things right. This quickly prompts an already-heartbroken Toma to cry as they hold each others' hands.
- Chapter 18: Masumi listens to Futaba's doubts and troubles with her feelings. The focus on Masumi's face shows that she is clearly uncomfortable and/or heartbroken about hearing about her very straight crush talking about the two men she wants to be with, while she herself never will get that chance.
- Chapter 33: Mami’s backstory is full of this. It’s so bad that she’s been blamed for being groped.
- Chapter 34: Kensuke and Mami aren't likely to ever become Just Friends.
- The pained smile Toma directs at Taichi.
- Chapter 36: Akiko is deeply worried about Toma's (lack of) plans for the future and tries to get Seiya to talk him into rethinking.
- Chapter 39 has a very painfully realistic Hard Truth Aesop which can be summed up as that if one wants to choose the best path for themselves, other people aren't guaranteed to be supportive of the decision.
- Chapter 40: Kensuke overhears Toma admitting that he's in love with Taichi to Mami, which erupts in a tussle between them.
- Chapter 41: The aftermath of Toma getting Forced Out of the Closet: Kensuke, Toma, and Shingo all get suspended for a week and on top of all that, malicious rumors start spreading around school.
- The gossips are textbook examples of homophobic prejudices:
- The way some of the students discuss Toma being gay comes off sounding like they're talking about some exotic animal.
- Since the start of the series, Toma was regularly admired by his peers for his athleticism. Now? Several male students believe that his physical advantage will make it easy for Toma to assault them.
- Some of the students actually blame Mami for the whole incident.
- Finally, Toma admits his feelings to Taichi via an Anguished Declaration of Love, leaving the latter in shock.
- The gossips are textbook examples of homophobic prejudices:
- Chapter 45: Mami realizes that Masumi is in love with Kuze. The two girls end up getting into a fight about how Masumi refuses to let people try to understand and reach her, prompting the two to end up crying while trying to hit each other in sympathy and about their own problems.
- Chapters 53-54: The Distant Finale is not kind with what happens to Taichi and Futaba's relationship. Right after he declares his desire to be with her in the present day, narration details how he broke up with her in the future, and how they'd grown apart so much that they didn't even stay friends. The final chapter reveals that Taichi didn't even go to her wedding. This is somewhat lessened by the fact that he was attending another friend's wedding, and that Toma did attend in his place. Although this chapter doubles as Heartwarming since we get to see all the characters happy as adults, it’s overall an emotional chapter.
