Boys Be... (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese anthology manga series written by Masahiro Itabashi and illustrated by Hiroyuki Tamakoshi. Three different manga series were serialized in Kodansha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine: Boys Be... (1991–1996), Boys Be... 2nd Season (1996–2000), and Boys Be... L Co-op (2000–2001), totaling 58 volumes. Four other manga series have been published: Boys Be... Pre-season (2009), Boys Be... Next Season (2009–2012), Boys Be… Adult Season (2012–2013), and Boys Be... Young Adult (2017–2018). In North America, the second manga series was licensed by Tokyopop.
A 13-episode anime television series by Hal Film Maker was broadcast on Wowow in 2000. The anime series was licensed for English release in North America by The Right Stuf International.
Overview
Boys Be... is an anthology series of short romantic comedy stories. The title refers to the quote "Boys, be ambitious", said by William S. Clark, which has become a popular motto in Japan.
The series focuses upon the ups and downs, joys and sorrows of first love and teenage romance. While several characters are taken from stories in the manga series, the story of the anime is unrelated to the manga. Each episode begins and ends with a philosophical quote which sums up the episode's content. The anime, while centered on Kyoichi and Chiharu, revolves around seven or eight main characters and their love lives.
Characters
Main characters
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:A typical high school student who, in the opening episode, realizes he has feelings for a childhood friend, a track star named Chiharu Nitta. Their relationship develops slowly in the series, however, it encounters some turbulence when he goes out of the area to do some summer work, and upon coming back, sees Chiharu kissing another guy. Kyochi is broken hearted and has a brief relationship with Shoko Sayama and dealt with loneliness with the help of another schoolmate. His interests are in the visual arts, mainly drawing. In the final episode, he travels to Hokkaido to clear his mind and work on some sketches, and get a new perspective on relationships.
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:When Makoto broke his leg due to a scooter accident, he was confined to the hospital where Mizuki was an intern, and she became his nurse. At first, Makoto's crush on her causes trouble as she makes embarrassing mistakes in front of her superiors. Eventually she warms up to him.
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:A female student who had a run-in with Yoshihiko when he looked for a ball that went through the library's window. When he crawled to look for it, he knocked the stool where she was standing while putting a book back into its proper shelf. He caught her and unintentionally got a feel of her "lumpy" side, but she was grateful for the rescue, and rewarded him with a kiss on the lips. The potential romance was cut short when she transferred back to France, as she was just an exchange student, and Yoshihiko learned the kissing is just a European custom, although it turns out Aya has a different view on the romance.
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:Tsuyoshi was a classmate of Aki from their third year of junior high. He has a passion for photography, and often spends long hours for the perfect shot, bringing Aki along. But in high school, he lost his passion for photography, until he meets Aki again and she puts some sense into him. They form a long-distance relationship, and he is now working in Hokkaido. His inspiration is none other than Aki herself.
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:He is Chiharu's cousin and Nao's overprotective brother, and is Kyoichi's and Makoto's boss at the summer resort. He is so overprotective (because of her frail health) that he did not see his beloved sister grow up. Mostly he is in conflict with the fresh Makoto.
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:She dreams of standing at the pitchers' mound during the annual Koushien (Japanese High School Baseball Championship). Trouble is, she is a girl, and girls are not allowed to participate in the tournament. This girl with immature emotional swings did guide Yoshihiko out of his disinterest in the sport, and they become a couple.
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:He is the charming young man Chiharu Nitta met during summer training camp. He is a city slicker with a beat for nature and many hobbies such as collecting beetles and fishing. At first Chiharu shrugged him off, but because she was lonely, and she is in a fight with Kyoichi, she nearly gave in. Though he had a girlfriend waiting in the city, he continued his advances and managed to make Chiharu fall for him, though, during a date at a spot overlooking the city, Chiharu says nothing happened between them.
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:She is a renegade student hoping to make it big in the music business. She and Kyoichi get involved after she recruits him to retrieve her confiscated minidisc player. During the time with Kyoichi, she was planning to audition for lead singer in a J-pop band, but loses confidence when she sees a younger rival. She asks Kyoichi out one night, but he does notcome, and she wanders the street soul searching. At the end of the series, she is on the radio with her latest single called "Hatsukoi" (First Love).
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:Erika is a good friend of Yumi's and the girl that Makoto's latest matchmaking software selected. Erika comes from a fairly wealthy family and supposedly has refined tastes according to Yumi. Erika and Makoto go on a date, but she notices Makoto has a lot of notes from "training" with Yumi, and that Yumi really does like Makoto, so she quickly dumps him.
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:She is a famous pop idol. Her image is plastered on everything from TV commercials selling bottled water to magazine covers. Yoshihiko mistakes her for a generic girl in a Santa suit distributing flyers. For the rest of the day, Yoshihiko became her unwitting "reindeer" . Earlier in the series, Yoshihiko and his girlfriend Natsue went to one of her concerts.
; / Biker Girl
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:She is a Japanese-Finnish girl that Kyoichi met when he travel to Hokkaido, acting as his impromptu tourist guide that "charge one kiss per transaction." She is more flirtatious, more daring, and freer than the Chiharu he knows, and rides a Harley-Davidson Softail motorcycle.
Media
Manga
Written by Masahiro Itabashi and illustrated by Hiroyuki Tamakoshi, Boys Be... was serialized in Kodansha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine from August 7, 1991, to November 13, 1996. Kodansha collected its chapters in 32 volumes, released from January 17, 1992, to January 17, 1997.
A second series, titled Boys Be... 2nd Season, was published in the same magazine from November 20, 1996, to February 23, 2000. Kodansha collected its chapters in 20 volumes, released from April 17, 1997, to July 17, 2000.
A third series, Boys Be... L Co-op, was published in the same magazine from March 21, 2000, to March 14, 2001. Kodansha collected its chapters in six volumes, released from August 10, 2000, to June 15, 2001. An additional volume, titled Boys Be... Last Season, was released on June 23, 2001.
In North America, the second part of the manga, Boys Be... 2nd Season, was released by Tokyopop; according to Tokyopop's Jake Forbes, the publisher licensed the second series due to its "more contemporary, mature, and compelling" subject matter. They released 17 volumes from November 9, 2004, to August 13, 2008, before Tokyopop confirmed in August 2009 that their manga licensing contracts with Kodansha had expired.
Other series
A special one-shot was published in Magazine Special on March 19, 2009. Boys Be... Pre-season (firstly published as ) was serialized on Kodansha's ' manga website from April 24 to October 9 of the same year. It was collected in a single volume released on January 15, 2010.
Boys Be... Next Season was serialized in Kodansha's Magazine Special from October 20, 2009, to February 20, 2012. Six volumes were released from April 16, 2010, to April 17, 2012.
Boys Be… Adult Season started in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Evening on August 11, 2012. Its latest chapter was published on June 25, 2013.
Boys Be... Young Adult was serialized in Fujimi Shobo's Monthly Dragon Age from September 8, 2017, to July 9, 2018. Two volumes were released on April 9 and October 9, 2018.
Anime
A 13-episode anime television series produced by Hal Film Maker was broadcast on Wowow from April 11 to July 4, 2000. The opening and ending themes, and , respectively, are both performed by Aki Maeda. which is a cover of Kozo Murashita's 1983 song.
The series was licensed in Southeast Asia by Odex, who released the series in Japanese with English subtitles in 2001. In North America, the series was licensed by The Right Stuf International in 2004. It was released on four DVDs from February 28 to June 27, 2006. A complete DVD set was released under Right Stuf's division Nozomi Entertainment on March 11, 2008.
Drama
A television drama series adaptation, titled Boys Be… Jr., aired on Nippon Television from October 4 to December 27, 1998. It was a crown program for the Junior artists of Johnny & Associates, being Jun Matsumoto, Masaki Aiba and Tomohisa Yamashita some of the protagonists. It consisted of 12 episodes and one special.
Video games
Two video games for the PlayStation were released by Kodansha: Boys Be... on March 28, 1997, and Boys Be.. 2nd Season on September 22, 1999. Another video game, , was released by Sunsoft for the PlayStation 2 on March 14, 2002.
Reception
Manga
By 2022, the manga had over 25 million copies in circulation.
Reviewing Tokyopop's first volume for Anime Fringe, Patrick King commended the realism and depth of the characters and Hiroyuki's art style as well, stating: "Boys Be is a refreshing series that was written for guys seeking a little romance manga of their own. In that regard, it is easily worth a look if you're one such guy", noting, however, that the stories could appeal to female readers as well. In Manga: The Complete Guide, Jason Thompson commented: "Most of the stories involve kisses or love confessions, or are excuses for women to pose in scanty outfits, but the hero does not always get the girl, and a few of the stories are impressively funny." Thompson also said that the art "improves as it goes on," adding, however, that "the repetitive character designs make it difficult to tell one girl from the others."
Anime
Writing for Anime News Network, Patrick King commented that the series is "frequently tender, but never mushy. Its female stars are attractive, but they're not pin-ups, nor do they jiggle without reason. Romance and humor are deftly intertwined in this series, but it is not a standard romantic comedy," adding that the series "depicts the "normal" world quite well, but this show is far from average." Chris Beveridge of AnimeOnDVD, made a positive review of the series, stating that it "consistently brought a smile to our face throughout it. Remembrances of experiences past and the ring of real world truth to much of it makes this something that people can connect to in a way they can't with a lot of other anime."
Enoch Lau of THEM Anime Reviews praised the stories and characters, stating that while they are "slightly stereotyped", they have a "down-to-earth appeal to the viewer." Lau also commended the soundtrack and varied range of music. On the other hand, he criticized the art, stating that it is "rather inconsistent when it comes to character design and sometimes gets a bit too simple," and its short duration. In a more mixed review, Jeff Harris of IGN stated that the series' relationship drama is at times "seriously overdone and rather sappy," and that it "disappoints more often than not." Harris concluded: "Boys Be is a pretty harmless but overall, a rather tame and vanilla romance anime. The show leaves way too much unsaid, and it feels like barely any progression is made in the story."