IS: Otoko demo Onna demo Nai Sei

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: I.S., IS, Intersexuality, Inter Sexuality, Aiesu

Japanese: IS ～男でも女でもない性～

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 17

Chapters: 82

Status: Finished

Published: Jul 8, 2003 to Jul 25, 2009

Genres: Award Winning, Drama, Romance

Demographic: Josei

Serialization: Kiss

Authors: Rokuhana, Chiyo (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.84¹ (scored by 1,534 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1187²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #3065

Members: 6,683

Favorites: 104

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Wikipedia

7.84

Ranked #1187Popularity #3065Members 6,683

MangaKissRokuhana, Chiyo (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /17

Chapters: /82

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Synopsis

This is not your everyday manga. It strictly deals with cases of intersexuality. I.S. stands for Inter Sexuality.

This manga deals with the struggles of intersex people: the pain they go through, the troubles they confront, and ultimately their inability to reproduce or even find a partner who will accept them as they are.

The series broken down into individual cases; each deals with different people, though some cases are much longer and more dramatic than others.

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Characters

Hoshino, Haru

Main

Hiromi

Main

Ibuki, Kenji

Supporting

Ihara, Miwako

Supporting

Himuro

Supporting

Ryouma

Supporting

Hoshino, Taro

Supporting

Usami, Hajime

Supporting

Hoshino, Youko

Supporting

Reviews

Jan 21, 2012

Omamori

Recommended

I.S. is one of the manga out there that I really loved. Not, because there's romance and mushy feelings that drown your sorrows and make you think 'Oh, perhaps I have a chance and one day my prince will come'. That's utter bullshit, as far as I'm concerned. It does, however, have warm feelings packed within it. Soft feelings, and sorrow. The pain of being different is shown very clearly in this manga, in many different ways. Being 'different' isn't something that a lot of people openly want, most people just want to fit in and be 'normal'. This shows in this manga, where being ... inter-sexed is a large problem.

The first volume or so of this series starts out with a collection of short stories. Through them, you get a gist of how hard it is for inter-sexed children to grow up in the world. There are people in the world who don't understand intersexuality, or children who are 'different', or who have special needs, etc. There are also the hardships of parents raising a child who is neither a boy nor a girl, and have to make decisions that will not only impact their lives, but the future of their children's lives, and their mentality.

This is very touching, and while some things might not be straight to the point or factual in this manga ( in spite of lots of research, from what I can tell ), the volumes of this manga does a very good job of conveying hardships for families of intersexed children, specially as they grow. Which leads me to Haru's portion of the manga, and the characters.

The rest of the manga, is the story of Haru. We see the way that Haru's parents decide to raise him, we see the affect that being intersexed has on him. The entire ordeal is very touching and very cleverly done. Romance, love, pain, suffering - all these things, and so much more, are elegantly woven together and create a near-perfect story. The character development in this series is absolutely fantastic.

The characters are what really make up this manga/series. The characters are the shining light of the manga, and are so provoking and interesting that you find yourself wanting to read on and on, because you want and need to know what happens to them in the end. Whether the IS children chose to become male, or female. What the characters surrounding those children are like. Teasing, cruel, misunderstanding - or even sweet, kind, and friendly.

The artwork is simple and clean, though shading and tone can be a bit messy or awkward, though that's not abnormal for shoujo manga. The characters are simple, but you can tell them apart, and as they change, it's a visual change, and not just something that's noted only through speech.

This is a manga I would recommend for anyone, and everyone, as long as you have an open mind and can sympathise with the fact that, people out there are very different. Not, exactly, by their own choice. This manga was very touching, and such an amazing read.

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May 13, 2021

Flaxman

Recommended

This is going to be a hard review to write, because I have very mixed feelings about this manga.

IS: Otoko demo Onna demo Nai Sei is a manga composed of 3 different stories, the first 2 being only 6 chapters each and the last one taking up the majority of the manga. This is by far the best one and the only one I will be discussing in the review. To me, volume 2 (chapter 13) is where the actual story begins, so if you start at the beginning and really aren't feeling it I'd recommend just skipping volume one as it has no effect ... on the rest of the story.

So, how is the story? Well it's fantastic, and very interesting to boot. Haru is a great protagonist and you really feel for him throughout the story. We follow him from birth all the way to early adulthood and his character development, as well as the development of many of the side characters is so well done it deserves praise. The art style is your standard shoujo, nothing to write home about but gets the job done. Character design is decent which I don't mind as long as they look distinct enough from each other, which they do. The drama is great and almost brought me to tears at points, and the story itself is really moving. So why do I have mixed feelings about it?

The pacing. For the first 30-40 chapters the story moves at a great pace, but then we get stuck in "almost-filler-land" for I don't know how long. Basically most chapters take place from a single characters viewpoint, and that character is often the main character, Haru. Now as I said, Haru is great, and there are several other characters that are great, but at some point the author decided that every single minor character needed their own chapter, their own problems, their own tragic backstory, and it just totally messes with the flow of the story. You're so into it and then all of a sudden it feels like half the chapters become unnecessary side-story filler about people you really aren't that invested in.

What makes it worse is how formulaic it eventually becomes. I wasn't exactly counting but it felt like there were at least 15 chapters in this manga that all followed the exact same formula. We get to know some minor character, they have it rough for some reason, (boyfriend only wants sex, rough family life, is bullied, can't stand up for themselves, dead mom etc) then they meet Haru, is sometimes mean to him at first but he just takes their abuse and then calmly relates their problem to his own, tells some personal story about his life and then gives a motivational speech which makes them respect him/feel better. Not only does this get extremely repetitive but it also makes Haru seem really one-dimensional when we know he isn't.

The problem is that these chapters are split up so you don't get them all in a row, and while some of them really could be skipped without missing anything of note, others cannot, so you need to read it all unless you want to risk becoming confused later. For the record, I'm not saying all of these chapters are bad, they just feel like they're interrupting the flow of the story and all I could think while reading some of them was that I wanted to get back to following Haru and his journey.

Eventually the story more or less gets back on track and from that point on it's pretty good again all the way to the end, which I liked well enough although I was kind of hoping for a bit more (that could very well just be my preference though)

Overall, IS: Otoko demo Onna demo Nai Sei is a fantastic manga plagued by some baffling pacing decisions here and there. If I could judge only the good parts this would be a 9, but as a whole it's probably closer to a 7.

That said, when it's good, it's really good and I'm glad I read it.

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Jun 6, 2008

wakka9ca

Recommended

Preliminary (27/82 eps)

Don't be discriminatory towards the strange title of this manga. Don't worry, this is not yaoi, nor yuri, nor ecchi or hentai. In fact, this is one of the most touching and most mature shoujo/josei manga I have read. Of course, the main characters are intersexuals.

Story: the first bolume is composed of short storis while the rest is Haru's story. Although you will not encounter very deep plot (remember, this is a shoujo manga), the different chain of events that are changing the characters' life and personalities are very original and refreshing. The narration is very interesting as it swtiches POV back and forth ...

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Has anyone read this manga? edinaa - Jul 15, 2009	10 replies	by Phaiolet »» Jun 13, 2023 12:53 AM
Poll: IS: Otoko demo Onna demo Nai Sei Chapter 82 Discussion Mayuka - Oct 11, 2019	1 replies	by Flaxman »» May 13, 2021 6:16 PM
Volume 4 Discussion Mayuka - Jul 14, 2016	0 replies	by Mayuka »» Jul 14, 2016 10:09 AM
Volume 3 Discussion Mayuka - Jul 14, 2016	0 replies	by Mayuka »» Jul 14, 2016 9:52 AM
Poll: IS: Otoko demo Onna demo nai Sei Chapter 1 Discussion Stark700 - Oct 15, 2015	0 replies	by Stark700 »» Oct 15, 2015 5:31 AM

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