In the 1970s shojo manga was flooding the nation of Japan. Not only that a new genre began springing up: shounenai or boys love. Heart of Thomas is arguably one of the first and most well known shounenai manga published in 1974 but it didnt reach this side of the Atlantic until 2013 more than forty whole years after it sprung forth into this world. It was inspired by a French film the author Moto Hagio saw and found it to be the inspiration she needed to create this manga. Publishing it was quite a hurdle but she managed to get it done even though shojo manga back then were mostly aimed at elementary school girls. However according to the introduction at the end of the English edition an audience outside of the target demographicnamely older menbegan devouring the story sound familiar bronies? and telling people about it passing it down from generation to generation. I finally found it in a library and decided to see what it was like. Unfortunately however I dont have the same nostalgia or fondness for it as other people do and there are things about the manga that really confuse me but this definitely doesnt mean I dont like it. The story starts with a boy committing suicide by throwing himself off a bridge. The boy is Thomas Werner a popular student at a well known allboys school in Germany. News gets around and the only one who seemingly isnt bothered by the news is Juli a boy who is also popular in school for his intelligence and calm demeanor even though hes not well liked among his family for having dark hair from his Greek father. However theres more to Thomas and Juli than meets the eye: Thomas was in love with Juli but Juli rejected him quite harshly. Thinking his suicide is a means to get back at him Juli doesnt want to be controlled by his death and wants to forget the whole thing...but then he meets a transfer student Erich who is nearly the spitting image of Thomas but unlike Thomas who was gentle sweet and kind Erich is loud audacious and has a short temper. Erich is sick of everybody thinking hes Thomas and Juli really wants Erich out of his life forever. But love isnt something that can be tamed. The art is extremely lush and very old school and shojoy so it might turn some people off. I thought the old school style looked nice and charming and I normally dont discriminate when it comes to the era in which something is from but I found the character designs for the child characters to be a little too thin and spindly kind of like what CLAMP has been doing with Kobato and Tsubasa Chronicle. But the manga itself uses a lot of religious and angel imagery relating to the issues at hand in the story and I thought they fit really well especially considering the subject matter and the overall themes of the story. The characters are a bit meh. Juli is the cold stone faced kid who has a dark past and learns to trust people Erich is the hot blooded loud kid Thomas is the completely perfect mary sue character who is liked by everyone even after death etc. Theres only three volumes to this series so we only get to learn about four main characters and their relations to various people. I do like that their flaws move the story forward and round the characters a bit more but I really didnt feel much for them. Not only that I thought Thomas was pretty much a big Mary Sue. Everybody worships the kid like hes God hes beautiful smart quiet friendly is in love with the most unapproachable guy in school and even after death nobody stops talking about him. But then again I think this might be intentional in regards to all the religious imagery in the manga. But even with that in mind they could have made Thomas a bit more flawed. Well the good thing is at least the characters were interesting and actually developed somewhat. But one thing I found really odd was that at first Juli and Erich absolutely hate each other then out of bloody nowhere they suddenly like each other. I wont say much for the sake of spoilers but I thought this transition was way too sudden. Plus I didnt understand Julis back story regarding a man he hates. But I definitely liked it when Erich boldly and publicly yelled at Julis grandmother for talking bad about Juli to his mother. The story is relatively simple but has a lot of complex layers underneath it like Oskars past Erichs unhealthy love for his mother which seriously turned me off Julis past Antes machinations and the impact Thomass death has on everyone around him. Everyone has secrets to hide and eventually all of those secrets are revealed. I will admit some parts of the story were a bit forced and melodramatic to me like the whole fiasco of Erich resembling Thomas even though its been explicitly stated that his hair and eyes are different from Thomas. The romances between some boys didnt bother me too much. I just wish they were a bit more gradual and subtle and more built on mutual interest than hate turns into love in an instant. I definitely respect the manga as a historical piece and a groundbreaking work of its time and I like it but some parts of the manga could be improved upon. Not the best seventies manga in the world but Heart of Thomas definitely deserves a read if youre into shounenai seventies shoujo art style No theres NO Xrated stuff in it Dont worry and a relatively decent story.