MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING. BE CAREFUL GOING FORWARD. So Boy meets Maria is definitely a manga that exists. It features a beautiful lesson that anyone can be a hero that anyone can save others and that you should find comfort in others such a beautiful message is accompanied by masterfully crafted characters ... Ill get to that later and a wonderful engaging narrative. The art coupled with the way the panels are arranged perfectly conveys the happygolucky way that Taiga lives his life and hes such an interesting protagonist to have in here. Arima is such a wonderful main character hes not a simple perfect mcgee and has an actual personality beyond his pretty looks. Such a wonderful character. If you paid attention to the title however you might be wondering where this sour spot is. Well... Its in the way it ends. The manga perfectly sets up Taigas trauma: Hes a boy whose fathers lessthanideal treatment of his dying mother made him obsessed with heroes as a coping mechanism. This also helps us see the main theme of the manga anyone could be a hero. This theme however starts to fall apart with one simple reveal: Taigas father was the one good man that helped Arima when he was getting molested. Why Hotaka you might ask how does this affect the theme in any way? Allow me to explain. Arimas situation was portrayed with the man being obscured at first with Arima not sure on why he sees Taiga as said man. Leaving his identity unknown wouldve helped greatly to enhance the idea that Taigas presence helped Arima slowly overcome his fear of others the explanation for Arima seeing Taiga in this adult couldve easily been they both helped me unconditionally when no one else would. But this really touching lesson gets shafted in favour of... Physical similarities...? Because his father bailed on his wife...? Yes this shows that the father isnt the monster we thought he was although he still is a massive prick you can still have the father be the man that helped Arima. What i DO NOT like is that Arima seeing Taiga as the man is explained with this. The ending wouldnt have changed that much either: the way Taiga and his dad treat each other would remain the same because KEEP IN MIND: TAIGA DOES NOT KNOW THIS. Arima DID NOT tell him as far as we know. This twist undermines a legitimately good lesson in favour of pushing an entirely circumstantial explanation to what couldve been an incredibly touching story. The reason i dont give this a bad rating below 50 despite focusing merely on the negatives is that at its core theres a very good concept and a lot to unpack when it comes to this manga its just that some choices really dragged it down to just fine I really wanted to like this i really did i might reread this manga later but as it stands its a pile of wasted potential that couldve been something special.