My Boy (Watashi no Shounen) is a manga written and illustrated by Takano Hitomi and was published in Monthly Action magazine from December 2015 to November 2020.
Thirty-year-old Satoko Tawada is an office worker for a sporting goods company. Finding herself isolated at her job, fate would have her meet a 12-year-old boy named Mashuu Hayami when he was playing soccer by himself. After saving him from a potential predator, Satoko decides to coach him.
As they further come to understand each other, Satoko sees that Mashuu's home life is unstable. They grow closer when they realize that they aren't so different.
The manga provides examples of:
- All Love Is Unrequited: Nao has a crush on Mashuu ever since elementary school, but unfortunately for her, he is interested in Satoko, is 16 years older than him.
- Children Are Innocent: Mashuu is very tenderhearted and gets easily astonished by mundane things.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Mashuu is mistaken as a girl by Satoko at first glance. He has his hair cut when reuniting with Satoko two years later.
- Genki Girl: Satoko's younger sister Mayu is more lively and preppy.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Satoko angrily yells at Mayu when she asserted that she knew more about Mashuu than her despite knowing him for about a week. Satoko even questions why she became jealous all of a sudden.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Satoko, a 30-year-old woman, befriends Mashuu who is 12-years-old.
- Invasion of the Baby Snatchers: The first few chapters discuss children getting abducted by predators. When Satoko first meets Mashuu, he was being coerced by one.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While he is negligent with Mashuu, his father is in the right to deny Satoko from seeing his son because it does come off as creepy from an outside view.
- Love Confession: Mashuu admits to being in love with Satoko to which she replies that she "didn't mind" that he was. However due to their relationship being too complex to list under black and white terms, Satoko's response is ambiguous.
- Missing Mom: Mashuu's mother is absent from his life. It is revealed later that she is deceased.
- Parental Neglect: Mashuu's father tends to get buried deep in his work. This was one of the main reasons as to why he would go out to play soccer by himself.
- Pool Episode: Satoko goes with Mashuu to the public pool during one of the chapters.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Ogata vomits from an anxiety attack during lunch.
- Will They or Won't They?: The manga ends with ambiguity on whether Mashuu ended up with Satoko. However, the author, who already clarified that she did not have a romantic scheme in mind, does state that whatever choice they decided, they nevertheless were happy.
