Senpai wa Otokonoko

Senpai wa Otokonoko is an anime that steps into delicate territory with a potentially impactful story but ultimately plays it far too safe. At its core, the show revolves around themes of identity, self acceptance, and navigating the complexities of personal relationships, especially those involving gender nonconformity. The setup promises meaningful exploration, but time and again, it pulls back just before things get real. This consistent hesitance gives the entire narrative a "sanitized" feel, like it’s afraid to truly engage with the difficult topics it skirts.

The show touches on serious issues, strained family dynamics, the pressure of societal expectations, and the bittersweet nature of unrequited ... love, but it only ever brushes against them. Every time it seems poised to dive deeper, it retreats to an almost utopian status quo where everyone is perfectly accepting, and conflicts resolve themselves without any real confrontation. While this can be refreshing in certain contexts, it feels out of place here, given the weight of what’s being dealt with.

Makoto Hanaoka, the crossdressing protagonist, is a prime example of this. There’s a clear struggle within him, exacerbated by the conflicting attitudes of his parents, yet the story avoids digging into the psychological impact of such a situation. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the dynamic between him and his mother. Throughout the show, their relationship is marked by tension and misunderstanding, but when the time comes for a resolution, it feels completely unearned. The abruptness of this shift robs the moment of emotional weight, making it seem more like a narrative shortcut than a meaningful breakthrough. The narrative implies tension but never follows through on it, preferring to wrap things up in a neat bow. It’s a pattern repeated throughout, whether in Makoto's aforementioned family dynamics, his interactions at school or his evolving relationships with other characters. Despite some promising moments, the show's reluctance to explore these tensions undermines the emotional resonance it could have achieved.

This avoidance is also noticeable in the romantic arcs. One character’s feelings of unrequited love are portrayed in a way that seems on the verge of poignancy, yet rather than grappling with the complex emotions involved, the show opts for an easy reset. It goes back to a comfortable status quo, avoiding the messier but more honest aftermath that love often brings. It’s as if the show is afraid of its characters truly growing or facing the reality of their circumstances.

The same issue can be seen with Saki Aoi, whose backstory had the potential to dive into the emotional intricacies of forgiveness, resentment, and the yearning for familial connection, but the show’s desire to maintain a light, sanitized tone keeps it from fully realizing this potential. Instead of allowing the characters to confront and process these issues, the narrative opts for a simplistic resolution where everyone moves on without confronting the lingering scars of the past.

Despite this, Saki remains a compelling character. Her bright, optimistic exterior contrasts with the unresolved emotional baggage she carries, making her one of the more layered individuals in the story. However, as with many aspects of this show, the narrative’s reluctance to address these layers in a meaningful way leaves the story feeling incomplete. The show hints at deeper emotional truths but consistently pulls back before fully exploring them.

What’s frustrating about this title is that it frequently teases the audience with the potential for more. It’s not that the show is devoid of substance, but rather that it continually undermines itself by refusing to follow through on its more difficult themes. There’s a strong message about self acceptance and coming to terms with one's identity, but the insistence on avoiding discomfort drains it of impact. The result is a narrative that feels polished on the surface, but hollow underneath.

In the end, this anime isn’t a bad watch, but it’s hard not to feel disappointed by what could have been. It presents a world where tough conversations and emotional growth are hinted at but never fully embraced. While it offers moments of sweetness and warmth, the reluctance to tackle its core themes with the seriousness they deserve leaves it feeling like a missed opportunity.

For context: I'm not very familiar with how certain minorities are treated in modern-day Japan. I do believe shows like this, that cover how difficult it is to be genuinely different from your peers as an adolecent, are important. It'd probably fair to say though outside of offering visibility this doesn't have a lot to offer as an entertaining anime.

What we have is an anime that answers important questions about sexuality and gender norms, and how murky the whole subject can be, especially for teenagers. What we don't have is an entertaining, or deeply written, romcom anime. It's tough to exactly pinpoint, but outside of ... highlighting a series of tough situations to be in it really doesn't do much more. Again, as a show it's simply ok. Outside of that I'm not best placed to judge.

If you want a good romcom there are loads more out there, and if you want a good series on dealing with gender and sexuality issues I really recommend reading the Love Me for Who I Am manga. Again, this isn't a bad show but I think it's a little weak.

I initially started this anime because part of its premise reminded me of Hourou Musuko, a 2011 coming of age and romance anime about two transgender protagonists. But as it turns out the main character in here later on does not see themselves as either a boy or a girl, so I guess we’re talking about a non-gender conforming non-binary protagonist here instead.

I mean this anime still shares some things with that one, such as the main character dressing with feminine clothes half the time and being initially rejected by most people around, and having a supportive parent while the other does not accept them, ... but they have nothing in common beyond that and their approach are vastly different.

The romance part of the anime is peculiar, as the protagonist is part of a sort of a love triangle with both a boy and a girl, having the male character being conflicted by his feelings and afraid of being homo or at least bisexual, and of being seen as a creep, both by his friend and society. The female character has no issue with the main character’s identity but her feelings end up being different from what it’s initially shown.

Thus despite being a romance, the approach in here seems like an anti-genre sort of thing, as the characters go in and out of relationships without actually being in love with the others and instead being afraid of losing their bonds, and desperately want affection that was neglected to them at some point in their lives.

So, it’s the anime like KareKano? Which took the premise of a high school romance between two seemingly perfect characters to explore their real selves and their psyche behind them? Not really, hardly, as the series is mostly comical and leaves its themes in the background for the sake of focusing on something else, and when it does focus on them, it feels like a surface level of exploration.

KareKano was a comedy as well but it knew when and how to separate its humor from its psychological introspection, while this show only has the character feeling kinda sad yet doesn’t miss the chance to throw some jokes every few minutes.

Aside of the messy tone, another issue is that, despite its peculiar love triangle and themes it wants to explore, the execution still comes down to awkward teenagers being unable to resolve most things just by talking them out, which is why the resolutions of every conflict there is end up being very easygoing:

-The main character is bullied lightly only in the past on another school, and rejected just at the beginning of the story, they quickly become popular and supported by everyone in the school.

-Ryuji and Makoto’s relationship and conflicts get two episodes tops of focus. Exactly because there isn’t much content to explore about that, at least not in this anime.

-Related to that, characters faking their feelings does not lead to any interesting change in dynamics or a major conflict between them, as they are still around the others and keep accepting each other no problem.

-Aoi’s loneliness does get some focus throughout several episodes, but that can and is in fact resolved simply by having the other two mains around. And the most important part of that aspect, the absence of her mother, gets resolved extremely easily and in an easygoing and very lighthearted way by the end of the series.

-Want to talk about the thing between Makoto and their mother? It gets completely sidelined until the very end of the series, it is looked deeper only when the show is about to end, and just like with Aoi, for how big it seemed to be, the resolution leaves a lot to be desired.

Plus the adaptation isn’t even complete as there is a movie coming out next year to adapt the final bunch of chapters of the source material.

Apparently, the anime covered the whole source material by rushing through all of its content in just one season, so that could be part of the problem, but that does not change the end result of the adaptation.

I can’t even say that the aesthetics are remarkable in any particular way, the backgrounds and artwork are good, the special effects and character designs are one of the same you can find anywhere else. The main issue is the chibi art style the series goes for half the time, which negatively affects everything else.

Just like with Human Bug Daigaku, which I reviewed recently, I appreciate how this show properly captured the main aesthetic of its source material, but by itself it kind of sucks. For the comical moments, the style feels tryhard, and when it is used in between more serious scenes, it ruins the mood completely.

And that goes for the sound as well. The main character having a clear male voice is a nice touch, but everyone else sounds very typical, except for Aoi, who has a weirdly raspy or something like that voice and sounds unnatural a lot of the times to me. The opening and ending are cute and fitting but the rest of the music, as well as the sound effects, are mostly unremarkable.

So, if you’re up for a romance series with a somewhat unusual love triangle with some LGBTQ+ themes thrown in there, and with an attempt at exploring some more serious stuff to make it dramatic enough to feel like something might happens, while still having wholesome resolutions for you to not feel bad while watching it, this is your show. If otherwise you want an actual serious and more complex look into any of its themes, I think you should try somewhere else.

Recommended stuff

Products about the identities of LGBTQ+ and how they are seen by people around them:

-Hourou Musuko
-Yo nena, yo princesa (Argentine movie about the first legally recognized transgender girl in the country).

Romcom series about characters afraid to reveal their true selves:

-Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou
-Horimiya

Overall, I think this anime is quite good. Initially, I wanted to give it a rating of 9. However, from a personal perspective, the anime takes a slightly unconventional turn. Because of this element, I decided to give it a rating of 7. But overall, the anime is still enjoyable.

The story is quite unique and offers a fresh perspective. While there are some predictable moments, I still enjoyed it because I appreciate this genre and setup. The art style is fitting for the story, complementing the narrative well and enhancing the overall viewing experience. The characters are well-rounded with both strengths and flaws, making them ... relatable and engaging. They are not portrayed as unusually strong, smart, or stupid, which adds to their realism. Additionally, the characters react to situations and events in a realistic way, which adds depth to the story and makes it more believable.

I believe others will enjoy this series, even if they might not share my exact views. The unique story, fitting art style, and well-rounded characters make it a worthwhile watch.

I want to preface this review by saying that Senpai wa Otokonoko is one of my favorite manga of all time. I am writing this review from a fan of the source material's perspective. With this being said, I did enjoy watching this anime; however, it left much to be desired. While not a standalone bad watch by any means, I don't believe it to be a very good adaptation of the source material. TL;DR: really, really great series, but pretty lackluster execution in this adaptation.

My complaints lie within two key points: visuals and pacing. Let's talk about the visuals first. I believe the character ... designs were adapted well into the animation, and everyone looks very cute, but regarding "animation", there isn't very much of that to begin with. At many points it felt like I was just rereading the manga but with sounds and voice acting. Most of the actual animated sections were drawn in a sort of simple chibi style that Pom-sensei uses throughout the manga, and I found it to be quite endearing and enjoyable especially for comedic moments in the manga, but quite overused and distracting here in the anime. They especially take away from some of the more serious moments where Pom tends to refrain from using them, but are used very liberally in the anime. A lot of the rest of the scenes are depicted via slideshow montages of still images or otherwise very minimal animation. On top of this, many background characters are drawn without eyes, which I do understand as a way to make the backgrounds easier to draw, but the fact that they often remain eyeless even when attention is drawn to them is very off-putting. All this aside though, in general, none of the standalone visuals look bad at all, and Pom's lovely art style was adapted very nicely. Unfortunately, it's clear the show wasn't given a very high budget, and it definitely reflects in how it's presented visually.

Now, pacing. This 12 episode anime covers around 75% of the manga, which is 100 chapters long. This makes for a lot of things to be gone through too fast, or just plain skipped over in some cases. I imagine that as an anime viewer unfamiliar with the source material, this wouldn't be as much as of an issue; however, from a manga reader's perspective, it personally felt very weird to watch sometimes. Some important arcs in the manga felt very rushed through here, and some less important ones felt like they were given too much attention, which left me very confused sometimes. At no point during watching this did I have any idea where they were gonna end it off. And again, this is only really an issue from a manga reader's perspective, so take this paragraph with a grain of salt.

Now, as I am a big fan of Senpai wa Otokonoko as a manga, I have to talk about some of the positives of this anime adaptation. As I mentioned before, the character designs and Pom's art style were adapted into the anime very nicely. Along with that, all of the voice casting for this adaptation fits each character super well; they're all almost exactly how I imagined them sounding in my head when I was reading. The voice acting isn't all that's good in regards to sound either; The opening and ending and all the OST in between are very good and help tie scenes together very nicely. I'm also very grateful that much of the LGBTQ+ theming was given the attention it deserves, as it's very important to the series as a whole and a big reason why I personally fell in love with it.

To conclude, I will answer the main big burning question: do I recommend this anime, or do I not? The answer is it depends. I do not want to deter anyone from experiencing a series as beautiful and lovely as Senpai wa Otokonoko. If you're not someone who reads any manga at all, then I won't discourage you from watching the anime; by all means, go ahead! As mentioned above, if you're not a fan of the source material, much of the things I mentioned will not sour the experience for you. However, if you're someone who does read manga and happened to stumble upon this anime, I would definitely suggest trying to read the manga first instead. Overall, yes, I do recommend Senpai wa Otokonoko wholeheartedly. There is just simply, in my opinion, a much better way to experience it than via this anime adaptation.

Japanese Anime has come a long way when it comes to it's LGBT storytelling and I find this one frustrating as it really rides the line on any overall point that is being made. 'Otokonoko' basically means cross-dresser or feminine male, but it gets really close to being a transgender narritive, Does he want to Live as a Boy or a Girl ? Is he Gay or Straight ?

Felt a bit padded with another characters side story and repeatedly cuts away to the 'cheap animation' chibi cutscenes constantly.

I just think It could have been a really compelling romanace story, but as we all ... know if there are two love interests, nobody wins.

Ends pretty cut and dry all tied up in a neat little bow, I don't expect a sequel to this, Overall It's just Cute