Not really. There is no sexual interaction between them and the Yuu doesn’t have those kind of feelings for the Tsubaki. It’s just a 12 year old figuring out he has feeling for someone.
Also a simple reminder the constant age in Japan is 13 although they changed it to 16 this year and Yuu is still a minor, he’s still in high school. They’re both kids. Although it is weird seeing a 12 year old having sexual fantasies so yes we do want the time skip.
The age of consent in japan is 16 and ONLY applies to under 18's also, adding that in randomly is a rather subtle justification though it really defends nothing. Yuu is soon to graduate so he isnt going to be a minor for long, for now we can say that if he developes feelings for tsubaki while he himself is a minor means he is a child predator not a pedophole per say. While there is no sexual interaction between them the author is extremely suggestive with Tsubaki's character in general; she put him as the seme on the cover which was completely unnecessary, who wants to know what the sex position of a child and a late teens?? Had this not been so odly sexual about Tsubaki's feeljngs towards Yuu this manga would be normal. The author 100% puts the kid into suggestive and somewhat provocative outfits but adds a cutesy vibe in order to make it seem like the intentions are innocent even though they put him into something strange (the bunny outfit). Late teens compared to pre-adolecent are very different in terms of physical and psychological developement, this isnt to deny your claim that they are both kids because they are but they are at completely different stages of physical developement. Yuu is almost an adult and Tsubaki isnt even a teenager yet.
Hey now, if you know nothing about japan maybe dont comment misinformation? The MINIMUM age of consent used to be 13, thats an overall age of consent for the country, it also stopped minor(<18) couples from being charged with statutory rape. Prefectures always had 18+ age of consent the same way states in usa do(btw usa doesnt have a minimum age of consent so thats way worse imo). The raise to 16 didnt change any of the prefectural laws which all were at minimum 16.
might be wrong about the hunny outfit im rereading this to make sure but my point still stands*
HELP AHAHA so many people disliked my comment from before where i said: "hell yeah comments are back up so i can complain abt how gross this is- it's so funny how people insist that it's platonic when the author clearly presents their relationship as sexual T^T like it literally says on the cover "shota (seme) x oni (uke)." why is the rating so high oml y'all are going to hell"
and now we have an influx of comments talking about how fucking weird this is god i warned y'all.. just because it might've been tame before it'd obviously only get worse