History YMMV / BlueFlag

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* TheScrappy: It's extremely difficult to find someone who actually ''likes'' Kensuke. At best, they're neutral toward him. At most, they dislike him for his entitled and forceful behavior toward Mami and how he essentially [[spoiler:[[ForcedOutOfTheCloset forces Touma out of the closet]]]] by reacting way out of proportion about something that wasn't even meant for him to be known in the first place. Not even his FreudianExcuse about [[spoiler: being molested by a man before]] [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic helps him be any more sympathetic]], because he's pretty much generalizing [[spoiler:Touma]] to be in the same category.

** Japanese fans pondered about the exact nature of [[spoiler:Masumi's husband]] in the finale. [[spoiler:While most acknowledged his awkwardness being the result of attending a party for people he's unfamiliar with, some Japanese fans took notice of him asking Toma about his looks, alongside his mentioning that he "doesn't know where he fits in" after marrying Masumi and his awkward pauses between sentences, surmising that he may be a transgender man worried that he doesn't pass.]]

* DesignatedVillain: Mami Yagihara. Readers don't have a good vibe from her due to being an AlphaBitch character that would potentially wreak havoc upon the story, but as far as an AlphaBitch go she's not even that bad; [[spoiler: being slightly hostile towards Taichi's group after Toma's injury]] is fairly reasonable for someone that can be immature, and while In-Universe the other girls dislike her for hogging up Toma for herself, it turns out that Toma never clearly turned her down & gave her the impression that she still has a chance.

* TheUntwist:
** Subverted, [[spoiler:Toma being in love with Ichinose]] was intensely foreshadowed in the chapters prior to it. People initially joked about that possibility at the start of the serialization, so it was to the surprise of many that the manga actually went and did it (albeit indirectly), especially as the main plot in a shonen manga. Thus in just a month, it managed to [[http://newscdn.newsrep.net/h5/nrshare.html?r=3&lan=en_US&pid=14&id=uU9abf16fQb_us&app_lan=&mcc=00...&declared_lan=&pubaccount=ocms_0&showall=1 be reached #1 trending term on Japan Twitter]] despite being a romance series that is serialized digitally, from a not well-known mangaka then and got noticed in the Western manga sphere. Chapter 41 especially [[spoiler: shut the denial for good after Toma openly confesses to Taichi]].
** Likewise, fans were not surprised when Chapter 11 shows us that [[spoiler:Masumi has a crush on Kuze]], given how overprotective she is of them and how close she seems to want to be with them.

* {{Wangst}}: Downplayed, but the series constantly has the characters expressing their worries of adulthood.

* SignatureScene: [[spoiler: Masumi and Toma at the rooftop in Chapter 5, with the former revealing a WhamLine]]

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The final two chapters are packed with enough twists and time passing to have warranted a whole arc, if not an entire second half. During said chapters, partially in narration, [[spoiler:the cast graduate high school, Taichi and Futaba break up a few years later and don't speak for a few more years after that due to awkwardness, Futaba gets engaged to a new man, and at her wedding, we learn that Masumi married a man (who oddly is similar to Futaba) and, the big one, Taichi and Toma end up together.]] It's disappointing that all of this occurs off screen.

* ItWasHisSled: Toma and Masumi's same-sex crushes on their friends Taichi and Futaba is an early spoiler, but it's such a huge selling point of the manga that people who haven't read it yet already know, to the point where the official English release includes a description of it in the opening summary.

** During the School Festival, Touma approaches Masumi and says "You said we were the same, but you're wrong. I'm still not the same as you. So I'll support you...". This vague sentence referring to the already quite vague WhamLine in Chapter 5 created a number of guesses. They include:
*** Touma can't find himself to [[spoiler:forget or ignore his same-sex crush and find a [[TheBeard straight relationship]]. He thinks this would be bad for them both and intends to support Masumi in chasing after Kuze]].
*** Touma thinks Masumi is strong for [[spoiler:burying her own socially controversial feelings, but doesn't have the same strength, and still wants to chase Taichi, even if he ends up hurting himself but will support her attempt at a straight relationship]].
*** Touma wants to help Masumi [[spoiler:better come to terms with her sexuality, something he is already okay with. He intends to support her both in coming out to him and possibly to others]].
*** Touma sees that Masumi has given up on [[spoiler:being with Futaba, for any reason, however, he himself hasn't given up on confessing or even dating Taichi, and intends to support her in trying to get the girl]].
** Japanese fans pondered about the exact nature of [[spoiler:Masumi's husband]] in the finale. [[spoiler:While most acknowledged his awkwardness being the result of attending a party for people he's unfamiliar with, some Japanese fans took notice of him asking Touma about his looks, alongside his mentioning that he "doesn't know where he fits in" after marrying Masumi and his awkward pauses between sentences, surmising that he may be a transgender man worried that he doesn't pass.]]
** The series discusses, at great length, the expectations society has for relationships between men and women, and how their actions towards each other are "meant" to be interpreted. Working back from the final chapter, [[spoiler:did Taichi really fall for Futaba, or did he misdiagnose his own jealousy at seeing Touma and Futaba together and try to make sense of his feelings based on what he thought was "correct" in that situation]]?
* ArcFatigue: Despite it being the moment that everyone was waiting for, the chapters after Touma's love confession to Taichi have been criticized for being rather slow and tedious. Nearly 10 chapters after Touma got suspended from school, and not much has actually occurred other than characters monologuing and arguing about ideas about what's okay in society in kind of abstract ways. Multiple chapters go by where Taichi just sits around quietly as others talk around him, making people wish he would hurry up and take a position on the matter in some way. About the only notable thing that has happened since Chapter 40 is that Mami realized that Masumi is also gay like Touma.

** Out of the main trio, Taichi and Futaba come under the most criticism, especially [[spoiler: after they both start dating each other]]. Both are considered less interesting than the rest of the main cast, but on the former's part he comes under fire for his mixed bag treatment of his relationships with Touma and Futaba, while the latter is criticized for her passivity and her being protected by most of the good side.
** Mami for the most part is liked for her very honest personality or scrutinized for her speeches. Her desire to have platonic male friendships also gets criticism, seeing it as trying to have her cake and eat it too when it comes to her crush on Touma.
** Shingo gets some criticism as well. For some, they like how his relationship with Mami remains platonic or how he is usually a voice of reason for Touma's friend group, but others think his later conversations serve as a mouthpiece for the mangaka since he normally never gets called out for those opinions, and his neutral stance in between Touma and Kensuke isn't helping either of their cases.

* CommonKnowledge: No, the story isn't a [[YaoiGenre Boys Love]] manga. It's a shounen, and the story is more than just Taichi and Touma's relationship.
* DesignatedVillain: Mami Yagihara. Readers don't have a good vibe from her due to being an AlphaBitch character that would potentially wreak havoc upon the story, but as far as an AlphaBitch go she's not even that bad; [[spoiler: being slightly hostile towards Taichi's group after Toma's injury]] is fairly reasonable for someone that can be immature, and while In-Universe the other girls dislike her for hogging up Touma for herself, it turns out that Touma never clearly turned her down & gave her the impression that she still has a chance.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Einosuke, one of Touma's younger teammates. He is the only one to have a problem with Taichi, but he gained a lot more love from the fandom when he apologized earnestly to Taichi.

* HarsherInHindsight: They weren't right about everything, but the girls gossiping about the LoveTriangle in Chapter 42 were right about [[spoiler:Futaba and Taichi breaking up after high school and Touma and Taichi's relationship being so strong that they end up together.]]
* ItWasHisSled: [[spoiler:Touma and Masumi's same-sex crushes on their friends Taichi and Futaba]] is an early spoiler, but it's such a huge selling point of the manga that people who haven't read it yet already know. It's also such a huge plot point that it's impossible to talk about the manga without mentioning it.
* LGBTFanbase: [[spoiler:Touma turning out to be gay and in love with Taichi, as well as Itachi maybe a lesbian has not gone unnoticed by gay fans who instantly fell for these characters after the reveal]]. The large amount of realistic {{Gayngst}} of the manga and lack of the comedic gay stereotypes usually seen in manga (especially shonen manga) has added a depth that gay fans don't usually see in Japanese media, and some nuance and plot points about it rare even for Western media, and became instantly attracted to it. [[spoiler:And then you have the fact that Taichi and Touma do end up together.]]

* OneSceneWonder: Chapter 18, where Noda (the black-haired girl wearing a backpack) in the convenience store became well-liked due to defending Kuze instead of affirming her friend's statement that Kuze is using Taichi to be close with Touma.
* {{OT3}}: To many fans who can't decide between Futaba/Taichi and Touma/Taichi, Futaba/Taichi/Touma has grown popular. In some rarer cases, Futaba/Touma/Taichi/Itachi has been satisfactory to people who want everyone to have their UnrequitedLove corresponded.
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: It is fair to say that Mami did not have many fans for a good portion of the series, considering her main traits were being extremely clingy towards Touma who clearly was ambivalent towards her and being pouty the rest of the time. And when it seemed she was preparing an OperationJealousy with Taichi (starting to hang out with him out of the blue despite previously showing nothing but disdain towards him, and right after he started dating Futaba too), people expected to dislike her even more. But then she received an arc for herself that gave her more character and depth, and we learned her rather sympathetic motivations and the fact that the aforementioned OperationJealousy was no such thing, just a ''very'' poorly timed attempt at becoming Taichi's friend. She has gained a fair amount more fans since then.
* ShipMates: You can expect that everyone who ships Touma/Taichi is also shipping Futaba/Itachi. During the later stages of the manga, Masumi/Mami began to pop up after their first non-hostile interaction together.
* ShipToShipCombat: After the revelations that [[spoiler:Touma is in love with Taichi and Itachi is in love with Futaba]], there's a debate among fans what should be the endgame couple, particularly, who Taichi should end up with.
* SignatureScene: [[spoiler: Masumi and Touma at the rooftop in Chapter 5, with the former revealing a WhamLine]]
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The final two chapters are packed with enough twists and time passing to have warranted a whole arc, if not an entire second half. During said chapters, partially in narration, [[spoiler:the cast graduate high school, Taichi and Futaba break up a few years later and don't speak for a few more years after that due to awkwardness, Futaba gets engaged to a new man, and at her wedding, we learn that Masumi married a man (who oddly is similar to Futaba) and, the big one, Taichi and Touma end up together.]] It's disappointing that all of this occurs off screen.

** Subverted, [[spoiler:Touma being in love with Ichinose]] was intensely foreshadowed in the chapters prior to it. People initially joked about that possibility at the start of the serialization, so it was to the surprise of many that the manga actually went and did it (albeit indirectly), especially as the main plot in a shonen manga. Thus in just a month, it managed to [[http://newscdn.newsrep.net/h5/nrshare.html?r=3&lan=en_US&pid=14&id=uU9abf16fQb_us&app_lan=&mcc=00...&declared_lan=&pubaccount=ocms_0&showall=1 be reached #1 trending term on Japan Twitter]] despite being a romance series that is serialized digitally, from a not well-known mangaka then and got noticed in the Western manga sphere. Chapter 41 especially [[spoiler: shut the denial for good after Touma openly confesses to Taichi]].

* ValuesDissonance: In Chapter 47, Seiya and Touma have a talk that seems much more conservative to Western readers than for Japanese, to whom the conversation might sound even reasonable. [[spoiler:Seiya seems to dance around the subject that he knows that Touma is gay. He says he wouldn't agree with it and object, but would never disown Touma, and understands he is just looking for his own version of happiness.]]

* ShockingSwerve: Realistic as it is, [[spoiler:the fact that Taichi and Futaba, this couple who we followed don't end up together and break up 2 years after high school, with Taichi being invited to her wedding in the penultimate chapter hits hard.]]

** During the School Festival, Touma approaches Masumi and says "You said we were the same, but you're wrong. I'm still not the same as you. So I'll support you...". This vague sentence referring to the already quite vague WhamLine in chapter 5 created a number of guesses. They include:

*** Touma wants to help Masumi [[spoiler:better come to terms with her sexuality, something he is already ok with. He intends to support her both in coming out to him and possibly to others]].

* ArcFatigue: Despite it being the moment that everyone was waiting for, the chapters after Touma's love confession to Taichi have been criticized for being rather slow and tedious. Nearly 10 chapters after Touma got suspended from school, and not much has actually occurred other than characters monologuing and arguing about ideas about what's okay in society in kind of abstract ways. Multiple chapters go by where Taichi just sits around quietly as others talk around him, making people wish he would hurry up and take a position on the matter in some way. About the only notable thing that has happened since chapter 40 is that Mami realized that Masumi is also gay like Touma.

* LGBTFanbase: [[spoiler:Mita turning out to be gay and in love with Ichinose, as well as Itachi maybe a lesbian has not gone unnoticed by gay fans who instantly fell for these characters after the reveal]]. The large amount of realistic {{Gayngst}} of the manga and lack of the comedic gay stereotypes usually seen in manga (especially shonen manga) has added a depth that gay fans don't usually see in Japanese media, and some nuance and plot points about it rare even for Western media, and became instantly attracted to it. [[spoiler:And then you have the fact that Taichi and Touma do end up together.]]

** Subverted, [[spoiler:Touma being in love with Ichinose]] was intensely foreshadowed in the chapters prior to it. People initially joked about that possibility at the start of the serialization, so it was to the surprise of many that the manga actually went and did it (albeit indirectly), especially as the main plot in a shounen manga. Thus in just a month, it managed to [[http://newscdn.newsrep.net/h5/nrshare.html?r=3&lan=en_US&pid=14&id=uU9abf16fQb_us&app_lan=&mcc=00...&declared_lan=&pubaccount=ocms_0&showall=1 be reached #1 trending term on Japan Twitter]] despite being a romance series that is serialized digitally, from a not well-known mangaka then and got noticed in the Western manga sphere. Chapter 41 especially [[spoiler: shut the denial for good after Touma openly confesses to Ichinose]].

* ValuesDissonance: In chapter 47, Seiya and Touma have a talk that seems much more conservative to Western readers than for Japanese, to whom the conversation might sound even reasonable. [[spoiler:Seiya seems to dance around the subject that he knows that Touma is gay. He says he wouldn't agree with it and object, but would never disown Touma, and understands he is just looking for his own version of happiness.]]

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: Following the festival, people have started becoming tired of the never-ending suffering the main characters go through, which someone has described as "emotional TorturePorn". This together with some ValuesDissonance towards the treatment of LGBT characters has made some believe they are being led to a never-ending cascade of misery to a beloved group of characters.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The final two chapters are packed with enough twists and time passing to have warranted a whole arc, if not an entire second half. During said chapters, partially in narration, [[spoiler:the cast graduate high school, Taichi and Futaba break up a few years later and don't speak for a few more years after that due to awkwardness, Futaba gets engaged to a new man, and at her wedding, we learn that Masumi married a man (who oddly is similar to Futaba) and, the big one, Taichi and Touma end up together.]] It's disappointing that all of this occurs offscreen.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Chapter 32 is very dialogue-heavy and focuses almost entirely on the issues faced by women who want to be platonic friends with men rather than JustFriends. How people always assume that men and women can't just be friends and one of the two has a romantic or sexual interest in the other, and how once when one of the two in that relationship start dating, they can't stay friends anymore, because they become an automatic source for jealousy.

* MisaimedFandom: There's a large number of fans that think that Mami's problem in her sub-arc boils down to "maintaining a friendly male relationship despite romance", and think the problem would just resolve itself if she took herself off the market or started falling in love with/dating Shingo.[[note]]The reasoning being that for the former, nobody would hypothetically break up their preexisting relationships for her if she got coupled off; in the latter, the message would be "boys and girls can continue to be friends while they're lovers".[[/note]] Note that they agree with the "boys and girls can never be true platonic friends" statement, and think that Mami is at a stage where she's in denial of this belief and needs to accept it to "mature".

* HoYay: Literally every scene where Taichi and Touma appear alone together can be filled to the brim with this. In this case, literally is not even a euphemism.

** During the School Festival, Touma approaches Masumi and says "You said we were the same, but you’re wrong. I’m still not the same as you. So I’ll support you…". This vague sentence referring to the already quite vague WhamLine in chapter 5 created a number of guesses. They include:

** Japanese fans pondered about the exact nature of [[spoiler:Masumi's husband]] in the finale. [[spoiler:While most acknowledged his awkwardness being the result of attending a party for people he's unfamiliar with, some Japanese fans took notice of him asking Touma about his looks, alongside his mentioning that he "doesn't know where he fits in" after marrying Masumi and his awkward pauses between sentences, surmising that he may be a trangender man worried that he doesn't pass.]]
** The series discusses, at great length, the expectations society has for relationships between men and women, and how their actions towards each other are "meant" to be interpreted. Working back from the final chapter, [[spoiler:did Taichi really fall for Futaba, or did he misdiagnose his own jealousy at seeing Touma and Futaba together and try to make sense of his feelings based what he thought was "correct" in that situation]]?

* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: The panel composition for starters and most fans of this series also praised the art style, where using the simplicity as the background the mangaka showed an impressive range of emotions from the characters that complement the overall story.

** Mami for the most part is liked for her very honest personality, or scrutinized for her speeches. Her desire to have platonic male friendships also gets criticism, seeing it as trying to have her cake and eat it too when it comes to her crush on Touma.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: Following the festival, people have started becoming tired of the never ending suffering the main characters go through, which someone has described as "emotional TorturePorn". This together with some ValuesDissonance towards the treatment of LGBT characters has made some believe they are being led to a never ending cascade of misery to a beloved group of characters.
* DesignatedVillain: Mami Yagihara. Readers don't have a good vibe from her due to being an AlphaBitch character that would potentially wreck havoc upon the story, but as far as an AlphaBitch go she's not even that bad; [[spoiler: being slightly hostile towards Taichi's group after Toma's injury]] is fairly reasonable for someone that can be immature, and while In-Universe the other girls dislike her for hogging up Touma for herself, it turns out that Touma never clearly turned her down & gave her the impression that she still has a chance.

* FriendlyFandoms: Due to the similar LGBT friendly themes, some fans of ''Ao No Flag'' also find themselves interested in the manga ''Manga/OurDreamsAtDusk''.

* HarsherInHindsight: They weren't right about everything, but the girls gossiping about the LoveTriangle in Chapter 42 were right about [[spoiler:Futaba and Taichi breaking up after high school, and Touma and Taichi's relationship being so strong that they end up together.]]

* MisaimedFandom: There's a large number of fans that think that Mami's problem in her sub-arc boils down to "maintaining a friendly male relationship despite romance", and think the problem would just resolve itself if she took herself off the market or started falling in love with/dating Shingo.[[note]]The reasoning being that for the former, nobody would hypothetically break up their preexisting relationships for her if she got coupled off; in the latter, the message would be "boys and girls can continue to be friends while they're lovers".[[/note]] Note that they agree with the "boys and girls can never be true platonic friends" statement, and think that Mami is at a stage where she's in denial of this belief, and needs to accept it to "mature".

** Taichi isn't exactly far behind, especially because he often gets portrayed in a super deformed style that makes him very similarly cute to Kuze.

* ShipMates: You can expect that everyone who ships Touma/Taichi is also shipping Futaba/Itachi. During the later stages of the manga Masumi/Mami began to pop up after their first non-hostile interaction together.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Chapter 32 is very dialogue heavy and focus almost entirely on the issues faced by women who want to be platonic friends with men rather than JustFriends. How people always assume that men and women can't just be friends and one of the two has romantic or sexual interest in the other, and how once when one of the two in that relationship start dating, they can't stay friends anymore, because they become an automatic source for jealousy.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The final two chapters are packed with enough twists and time passing to have warranted a whole arc, if not an entire second half. During said chapters, partially in narration, [[spoiler:the cast graduate high school, Taichi and Futaba break up a few years later and don't speak for a few more years after that due to awkwardness, Futaba gets engaged to a new man, and at her wedding we learn that Masumi married a man (who oddly is similar to Futaba) and, the big one, Taichi and Touma end up together.]] It's disappointing that all of this occurs off screen.

** Subverted, [[spoiler:Touma being in love with Ichinose]] was intensely foreshadowed in the chapters prior to it. People initially joked about that possibility at the start of the serialization, so it was to the surprise of many that the manga actually went and did it (albeit indirectly), especially as the main plot in a shounen manga. Thus in just a month, it managed to [[http://newscdn.newsrep.net/h5/nrshare.html?r=3&lan=en_US&pid=14&id=uU9abf16fQb_us&app_lan=&mcc=00...&declared_lan=&pubaccount=ocms_0&showall=1 be reached #1 trending term on Japan Twitter]] despite being a romance series that is serialized digitally, from a not well known mangaka then and got noticed in the Western manga sphere. Chapter 41 especially [[spoiler: shut the denial for good after Touma openly confesses to Ichinose]].

* ValuesDissonance: In chapter 47, Seiya and Touma have a talk that seem much more conservative to Western readers than for Japanese, to whom the conversation might sound even reasonable. [[spoiler:Seiya seems to dance around the subject that he knows that Touma is gay. He says he wouldn't agree with it and object, but would never disown Touma, and understands he is just looking for his own version of happiness.]]

** Society as a whole will treat relationships (platonic or otherwise) with men and women differently, and no amount of individual remedy can change that.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The final two chapters are packed with enough twists and time passing to have warranted a whole arc, if not an entire second half. During said chapters, partially in narration, [[spoiler:the cast graduate highschool, Taichi and Futaba break up a few years later and don't speak for a few more years after that due to awkwardness, Futaba gets engaged to a new man, and at her wedding we learn that Masumi married a man (who oddly is similar to Futaba) and, the big one, Taichi and Touma end up together.]] It's disappointing that all of this occurs offscreen.