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Ao no flag ending explained (Part 4)

Something I want to point out is that the romance was never the main focus of this manga, the story was mainly about the choices the characters made and how these choices shape them into who they are. We see this since the first chapter:

The manga was pretty consistent with its themes, romance is an important part of the journey but the author never intended for this to be about the romance between the three main characters instead it’s a coming of age story that shows how we are constantly trying to make the best choices for us and the ones around us.

So I feel like the ending encapsulates all of this perfectly, life is a series of choices, some people might not agree with what you choose but only you know what is the best choice for you at that very moment and that we should all try to find for our own forms of happiness and not try to fit into the shapes society makes for us.

It’s a brilliant manga that not only managed to be realistic but also gives its characters a happy ending while at the same time taught us about empathy and to not judge others based on what we see or what they decide to do with their lives because we don’t know all the previous choices that led them to the place they are now and what is their own shape of happiness.

Thanks for reading

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Ao no flag ending explained (Part 3)

Afterwards he asks Futaba how she fell in love with him and what she likes about him, this makes Futaba realize Taichi isn’t sure about who and what he likes this is something that she tells Touma latter.

Taichi even has a dream where he needs to save either Futaba or Touma but can’t pick one, the first page of this chapter even goes to say "without even knowing which emotions he should be confronting…"

This means Taichi doesn’t know how he feels towards Touma at this moment but at the very least he is considering him an option which is something Futaba noticed and makes her insecure/sad.

At the end Taichi decides to have both, Futaba as his girlfriend and Touma as his best friend which was the most optimal choice at that moment given that he loved his gf Futaba and Touma more than anything wanted to reconnect with Taichi as friends (as seen in the message he placed inside the birthday charm)

However this choice was what Taichi thought would have been the best choice to give everyone happiness (including himself) at that moment and that he wasn’t 100% sure it was the right one as afterwards he says:

"I don’t know if I made the right decision… but either way there is no choice but to think and decide. To make the most optimal choice you can at this moment for yourself and for the people around you, to be mutually happy"

The only optimal choice here would be having Futaba as his girlfriend and Touma as his friend (it’s even hinted by the flashback of Taichi and Touma talking about how they would use their best friend powers to make everyone happy), also exploring the possibility of seeing Touma as a romantic partner at this moment would have caused issues for all of them (stress within the friend group and it would’ve depressed Futaba) this could even affect them with their studies and university applications.

With this I’m not saying he didn’t loved Futaba (he truly did as evidenced by Taichi getting depressed after their break up) but that he preferred to keep his current happiness with her instead of searching for a new one, once he and Futaba broke up he most likely got to explore his unresolved feelings for Touma during these five years and confront said feelings which is something he didn’t get to do earlier.

Part 4:

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Ao no flag ending explained (Part 2)

2. Taichi and Touma ending together 

This is probably the most controversial part of the ending but one that is easily explained once you notice the hints. 

At the start of the story we could see various moments of Taichi blushing because of Touma:

There are many moments where Taichi looks at him and you can see bubbles or other effects surrounding him not to mention how the mangaka draws Touma with more details during these panels which are supposed to show us how Taichi sees him as this is his point of view.

We also see that Taichi is hurt when he noticed that Touma didn’t tell him about not going to college and how he was bothered (and latter relieved) when he thought that Touma liked Aki, this wouldn’t be that important if it wasn’t for the fact that Taichi wasn’t that close to him anymore in this point of the story and he spends a good amount of the manga thinking about these things maybe even more than any other character (with the exception of Seiya). 

Once Taichi falls in love with Futaba these moments get reduced a little as he is in love with her and she is (for the most part) his focus, this stops being the case once Touma confesses to him and it makes him reevaluate his relationships.  After Tachi tells Futaba about Touma’s confession she notices that Taichi is doubtful and it causes her to asks him about why he dropped his dream about having a toy store to which Taichi responds "because I didn’t had the confidence in what I liked"

Part 3:

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Ao no flag ending explained (Part 1)

Just finished reading the manga I must say this is one of the most underrated ending ever, it’s controversial but it ties the story while also highlighting the message the series wanted to give us since the start. 

I want to talk mainly about the things that most people didn’t understand about the ending itself starting with:

Futaba and Taichi breaking up

This is probably something most people didn’t saw coming but the story itself did foreshadow that Futaba and Taichi would have issues in the future. This problems would come from choosing which universities they wanted to go to.

When deciding for a university Taichi suggest to Futaba that she should list the pros and cons of each choice, we see how the among the pros of some universities she mentions Taichi, her teacher and her parents indicating that these choices are influenced by those people and might not truly be what she wants to do, on the other hand the university that she seems the most enthusiastic about is the farthest away from Taichi’s and she starts to add negatives to this choice like being far away from Taichi or her parents not approving that choice to make it less  appealing to her.

Either scenario could’ve affected their relationship, Futaba picking the same university as Taichi or the closest one to him maybe wouldn’t have made her happy in the long term as it wasn’t where she truly wanted to go while her choosing the one that she wanted could’ve caused them issues due to the long distance between them, we even see Taichi looking up long distance relationships on the internet at one moment.

It’s also worth mentioning that they break up two years latter which means they are already at university by that point and Taichi mentioned that while nothing interesting caused their break up they decided to follow their own happiness and not what someone else wanted for them. 

Part 2:

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Tifa sees both outcomes

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Cloud looks at the swimsuits