Ao no Flag - Vol. 6 Ch. 40

[MangaDex]

 

[Ceiye]

Pfft, that's quite a list of songs to suggest. But now that I think about it, yeah, those certainly are appropriate cheer up songs.

Oh nooooooooo... I might need that playlist now...

 

[Purplelibraryguy]

What the hell is he so pissed about? In what possible way is it objectionable to say "There's someone that I like"?

 

[ksen]

Aaaand shit hits the fan.

 

[shoker]

@Purplelibraryguy
Uhhh I think it's along the lines of Touma rejecting this dude's crush for another dude. I think he probably wouldn't have thrown such a tantrum if it was just him liking another girl.
I mean it really shouldn't be surprising if there are homophobic people in this series - I mean it'd be weird if there weren't. Plus go figure it'd be the dude who's been a twat previously.

Inb4 Touma fucking lied again
That'd be the ultimate ruse cruise

 

[Purplelibraryguy]

@shoker He didn't say who it was. Guy should have no way of knowing he's into a guy. I think it's ludicrous, but the only thing that comes to my mind is something like, "I love this girl she is perfect and amazing how dare you be into someone else and break her heart when she's into you?"

 

[matcap]

I'm gonna guess that he either said Taichi or Akiko.
So either he admitted to being gay, or he's pretending that he wants his own brother's woman.

Also...
Why is the main couple starting to feel like side/background characters? Their relationship isn't getting much development at all. Hopefully I'm just imagining things.

 

[Deicario]

@Purplelibraryguy I think the implication is that Touma said the name of his crush off-screen when it cut away (with who it cut away to strongly suggesting whose name was said).

 

[lly]

Ichinose! it's touma! he caught the big gay!

 

[pokefairy]

The bald guy is the absolute worst. He can't take no for an answer and as demonstrated by this chapter, is probably also bigoted. I hate him.

 

[OniBarubary]

This comment section is confusing sometimes; dunno why people after 40 chapters are still convincing themselves in a manga clearly dealing with LGBT themes that Touma or Mami aren't gay. Or making "lol gay" posts. From the very start this manga was about that shit so I dunno why you'd stick around if that shit isn't for you.

This chapter though was really good. The focus isn't on the main couple at the moment because there is only small tension there. The other characters are being fully explored and fleshed out and the things they do or say will impact the main couple very closely. That being said, as I mentioned, it's always been about the friendships there so chapters about them aren't really that weird. You have some great stuff from the sister-in-law and Masumi at the start. Meanwhile this chapter was the Touma and Mami show and it had some fantastic dialogue and delving into their relationship and such, with the obviously huge capper of Touma finally coming out (don't kid yourself, he said Taichi's name) and his friend's reaction to it. I'm not really surprised at baldy's reaction because even if he's generally an alright dude (if I'm being nice) you can see from his interactions with Mami that he has some pretty shitty views and while he could probably get over something like his friend being gay he would feel betrayed or gross that he didn't know all this time like a lot of people do when they don't really "get" homosexuality. Long-haired friend being the most perceptive character in the series picks up quickly as to what's going on from small shit that's dropped and you can see in his reaction when he sees baldy looking into the classroom that he knows some shit is going down. Imma bet even money he knew Touma was gay.

Love this manga.

 

[GruntZone360]

lol a fight broke out

@pokefairy
Right? He has no right to pick a fight with Touma xD

 

[KebabRemover]

I remember people calling mami a bitch because they thought she was going after the midget. Now they're calling the dude a homophobic without even knowing why he's raging. If anything can be learnt is that this manga loves to give a first impression on it's cliffhangers to then switch to something else. Just saying.

 

[shoker]

@Purplelibraryguy
He said someones name. We just don't know who. I mean this is like the 3rd time this manga has pulled this stunt and then it cuts to Taichi. First time Touma actually said it to the other girl. Second time he wussed out when it came to confessing to Taichi. I have a feeling he was honest here since he was confessed to and wanted a serious reply for why he was being rejected. Doesn't really make sense for him to name someone else. You can see Mami is shocked at the answer.

@KebabRemover
I mean it just seems like the obvious thing since we see Touma mouth a name and then it cuts to Taichi.
Even if it's not what the actual situation is, that's what the mangaka is trying to present us with.
Blaming the audience for falling to purposeful misdirection is pointless because that's the intention.
And I don't think the Mami thing qualifies here either. Mami was clearly into Touma the entirety of the series, anyone claiming that just hadn't been paying attention.

If this guy was going to get mad at Touma he would've gotten all pissy right when Touma rejected Mami. But he didn't. He waited until Touma said a name. And I don't know any girl in the series that would have made this dude that angry. Unless that girl was a dude. And that dude was named Taichi. You know there's plenty of Drama stories that don't have to cut out content to make drama because we don't know what they said. Such a boring way to write.

 

[Moodyz]

You know things are gonna go bad the moment you see music recommendations for Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift. It's like some law of the universe.

 

[Purplelibraryguy]

@Deicario @shoker Hm. You folks might be right. I hate that technique, precisely because there's no real way to tell if that's what happened. Well, until after the cliffhanger I guess. Tune in next action-packed issue when we tell you what we deliberately excised this time, blah.

 

[WhoCares]

@OniBarubary Can you elaborate a bit on what you said about Mami being gay? I may be forgetting details, but I've been reading Mami as being both non-conforming and somewhere in the grey-aromantic end of things. I'm curious to hear another perspective.

Or were you just referring to Masumi?

 

[OniBarubary]

Oh snap, I was referring to Masumi. That's my bad, let me fix that.

 

[talltales]

Christ, what a massive piece of shit. I would love to see Touma beat the shit out of him for putting his hands on him like that, but I know that won't happen. Gay people don't stick up for themselves in mainstream manga lol. Slurs incoming

 

[MacMeaties]

Yeah I'll refrain from throwing around phobics and ists and other such words until I know for sure that's why he reacting like that. This series has done exactly this type of cliffhanger setup several times only to do exactly what it doesn't look like it was doing.