Manga Reviews (2010-2019): My Boy vol. 1 by Takano Hitomi (a Neo-Tokyo 2099 Manga Review)

I can easily say that I enjoyed the first volume of Takano Hitomi’s “My Boy” manga series and I do recommend it!

MANGA TITLE: My Boy (Watashi no Shonen) vol. 1

STORY AND ART BY: Takano HItomi

FIRST PUBLISHED IN JAPAN: Futabasha Publishers, Ltd.

PUBLISHED IN USA BY: Vertical Comics

RATED: 14+

Available on April 10, 2018

In Volume 1, Satoko Tawada, a 30-year-old office worker at a sporting goods company, encounters Mashuu Hayami, a 12-year-old boy, playing soccer in a park at night. She was treated cruelly by a former lover, he is dealing with a high-handed and uninvolved family. Both are burdened with loneliness, and they sense that the other has something that they’re searching for…

From mangaka Takano Hitomi comes her manga “My Boy” (known in Japan as “Watashi no Shonen”).

The first volume introduces us to a 30-year-old office worker named Satoko Tawada, a young woman who lives her life with not much exciting going on. She had a love since she was in college but after a year, they had broken up. And now that ex-boyfriend happens to be her supervisor but he is with another woman.

One day as she is walking home, she sees a young boy (whom she thinks is a girl because of his long hair) playing soccer and Satoko knows soccer well, and shows him how to kick with the ball.

The following day, as she is walking by the park, she sees a man with the boy and worried about him (as there is someone molesting kids in the city), she scares the man off and she tells the boy that he shouldn’t be out late. But the boy, names Mashuu Hayami, tells her that the reason he is practicing late is because he has a soccer test.

Satoko agrees to give him pointers but when she sees Mashuu, she worries because his mother is not around, his father is always at work and he wears clothing that are too small and too young for his age. Seeing him dirty, she invites the boy to her place to get washed up.

But Satoko starts to realize the pain that she has kept inside her regarding her ex and as Mashuu is concerned about her, she is also concerned about Mashuu’s well-being as he’s a nice kid but for some reason, she is curious where his parents are and why he is always alone.

But there is one thing that Satoko knows, this young boy has brought some happiness into his life, as she has brought happiness to Mashuu’s life.

Meanwhile, for Mashuu, at school, what happens when a girl at school takes an interest in him?

All this and more in vol. 1 of “My Boy”!

So far, “My Boy” is an interesting an entertaining manga series.

I can see some people probably being creeped out about a 30-year-old woman named Satoko trying to help a 12-year-old kid named Mashuu, a young boy she doesn’t know and inviting him to her home and I know in some places, some may think it’s child abduction or just morally wrong for a woman to do that.

It’s important to note that there is nothing taboo going on with these two characters, if anything, Satoko is almost being a motherly figure to Mashuu and that is why they have a connection.

It started out as Satoko wanting to teach the boy soccer, to get the pain of a breakup out of her head. But when she starts to notice certain things about the boy, his reasoning of not wanting to go home, his parents not being there, his naivety and wearing clothes that are too short for him, what is wrong with this child’s family life? Is his mother alive? Does his father not care about him?

These are things that Satoko worries about Mashuu. But Mashuu also knows Satoko is hurting, as she cries out of nowhere and if anything, it’s almost like a mother/child storyline but it’s not necessarily the case.

Mashuu is no doubt naive about a lot of things and what he learns from school, he starts to realize things, such as, he needs to do something in return for Satoko for helping him. Of course, Satoko doesn’t feel the need for a young boy to repay him, but we get a entertaining scene when she takes him to a kaiten-zushi restaurant and surprised Mashuu is not aware of sushi going around on plates, and experiencing it for the very first time.

Overall, the first issue of “My Boy” is delightful but with that being said, I’m not exactly sure where this manga will lead to. Will Satoko discover Mashuu’s family life? Will it be odd that this 30-year-old woman is hanging around Mashuu quite a bit?

I guess I’ll find out in the next upcoming volumes. But for now, I can easily say that I enjoyed the first volume of Takano Hitomi’s “My Boy” manga series and I do recommend it!

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