Manga Review | Boys Run the Riot Volume 1

The story follows Ryo, a closeted trans teenager who's struggling with the awkwardness of high school, his feelings about his body, and his crush on his best friend. None of this is helped by the fact that he also has to wear the girls’ uniform at school.

It’s outside of school where he’s able to feel the most comfortable—when he’s able to wear the kinds of clothes he wants. Then one day when he’s out shopping, he bumps into the school’s transfer student and they both reach for the same shirt at the same exact time. Since they have similar tastes in clothes, his classmate proposes a wild idea: what if they started a fashion brand together?

Boys Run the Riot Vol. 1 by Keito Gaku is a poignant, heartfelt story about how fashion acts as a form of self-expression. It provides an introspective look at what it’s like to build a small fashion brand from the ground up. We get to see how much of a collaborative effort it is and what sort of challenges the characters face along the way.

On top of that, this manga tackles a queer narrative with an utter vulnerability and realness that I haven’t seen since I first read Our Dreams at Dusk by Shimanami Tasogare. This is an incredibly personal story, and I think its thanks to the fact that it’s both written by a transman and translated into English by a transman as well.

All in all, at its core, Boys Runs the Riot is a story about different misfits pouring their hearts into pursuing their dreams and I can feel like a lot of heart went into making this manga as well.

Thank you, NetGalley and Kodansha, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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