Hiroyuki Tamakoshi, the author of the manga series Naruto, said on September 14 that he had been diagnosed with stage 3 cancer and will start four months of chemotherapy the following week. He stated that Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket-based new manga he is working on would take a break from serialization because to chemotherapy, but he hopes to restart it somewhere around the beginning of 2023, adding that he “definitely” wants to do so.

Tamakoshi expressed concern about the potential numbing side effect of chemotherapy on his hands, and how it would damage his capacity to create art. He continued, saying he wished he could draw manga till the day he passed away because he detested not being able to. The late science fiction illustrator Shigeru Komatsuzaki was quoted as saying, “That’s what I want,” just three days before he passed away, telling his wife, “I can’t draw anymore.”

The 1990s saw the serialization of the first Boys Be… series by Masahiro Itabashi and Tamakoshi in Weekly Shnen Magazine, followed by Boys Be…2nd Season and Boys Be…L Co-op. After that, they launched the Boys Be… manga series again. 2009 1-Gakki (Boys Be… 2009 Term I) debuted in April 2009 on Kodansha’s MiChao mobile comic website, and it was completed in October of the same year. Itabashi and Tamakoshi then began and finished their Boys Be… Next Season series in Kodansha’s Magazine Special in a separate magazine in November 2009. Chapters of the continuing Boys Be…adult season manga were first published in Kodansha’s Evening magazine in August 2012, and the series is still running. In September 2017, Kadokawa’s Monthly Dragon Age magazine published the young adult manga The Boys Be…; it ran until July 2018.

In North America, Tokyopop released the majority of the Boys Be…2nd Season series under other titles.

The 2006 animated adaptation was initially made available by Right Stuf. A live-action television series and stage musical versions were also inspired by the property in Japan.

In June 2021, Kadokawa’s Gundam Ace magazine published Tamakoshi’s next manga, which was based on the Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket OVA.

On March 26, Kadokawa released volume two of the manga.