Senpai wa Otokonoko

Much like the other students at her school, first-year student Saki Aoi finds herself captivated by the beauty of her senior on the school board, Makoto Hanaoka. While she worries that Hanaoka would be uncomfortable receiving a confession from another girl, Aoi musters up the courage to tell her anyway. However, Hanaoka's response surprises Aoi for a completely different reason—Hanaoka is actually a cross-dressing boy!

Fully expecting Aoi to be abhorred by this revelation, Hanaoka is shocked to find that she has no issues with it. Though Hanaoka rejects Aoi's request to go out with her—citing his identity and the fact that he has never fallen in love before—Aoi insists that she will become his first love. Taken aback by Aoi's determination, Hanaoka wonders if he can really fall in love with her if he cannot find it in him to truly love himself first.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hanaoka, Makoto Main

Umeda, Shuuichirou Japanese

Aoi, Saki Main

Sekine, Akira Japanese

Taiga, Ryuuji Main

Uchida, Yuuma Japanese

Taiga, Konatsu Supporting

Maeda, Kaori Japanese

Hayase, Ai Supporting

Kakuma, Ai Japanese

Saotome, Jun Supporting

Kajiwara, Gakuto Japanese

Otonari-san Supporting

Hasegawa, Ikumi Japanese

Aoi, Masako Supporting

Satou, Ai Japanese

Taiga, Miki Supporting

Yoshida, Asami Japanese

Yoshida, Miyo Supporting

Hayase, Yukimi Japanese

Enomoto, Kana Assistant Producer

Tabei, Miwa Assistant Producer

Fujimoto, Noriko Assistant Producer

Yanagi, Shinsuke Director

Reviews

Mar 24, 2025

5iv3_

Recommended

I had little to no expectations for this show and didn't really know what to expect when i started it, but I immediately felt this warm and fuzzy feeling from watching this show over time and slowly came to look forward to this show as it was airing. It's cute, and even the love triangle wasn't that messy. It overall felt like a coming of age story about 3 high-school kids learning about themselves and each other.

The characters for this series I feel are great examples and metaphors of the gender norms that exist in society. One actively breaks that norm, One wants to ... conform to the norms but struggles, and the other is in the middle and sees both sides. They in tandem act as a message for a bigger picture that is being conveyed to the audience. "Be yourself." and i feel it's told quite beautifully if i might add.

Animation wise, it's nothing overly flashy but it doesn't have to be to get the point across. The chibi's they use throughout I feel aid the lighthearted comedy that's sprinkled within that contributes to the warmness of the story. So overall, it's animated nicely i think. They used their resources well!

Now I have to add, The OP & ED for this are amazing and just feel that has to be said. I still listen to them even now they're just that great. The visuals as well are really nice and well animated. I'm gushing a little heheh ///>w<///

Anyways, if you get the point, this show is amazing and you 🫵 should totally give it a try!!

- Written while listening to Fake Idol by QWER

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jun 20, 2025

Rasly2

Mixed Feelings

Are you curious about how unusual people see the world? Then this anime might be worth checking out. Makoto is a guy who feels comfortable wearing women's clothes. Ryu seems to fall for a guy even though he's supposedly not gay. And Saki is a girl who tries to please everyone but ends up lonely, mostly because of her messedup family. Honestly, her arc is pretty weird.

If that sounds interesting to you, it’s worth a watch. Just don’t expect a real story. This is more about the everyday school and home lives of three characters, with a fair amount of drama based on childhood fears ... and emotional confusion. There’s no real plot, just people trying to figure themselves out.

The characters are actually pretty well written. What happens to Saki is especially dumb, she really needs at least one normal friend. But the story doesn’t really move forward. Aside from the three of them becoming close friends (which was kind of obvious from episode one), not much really happens.

There’s also not much of a resolution. Sure, the characters work through a few of their issues, and that is the story here. Honestly, I kind of wanted Ryu and Saki to end up together, they’d make a great couple. And maybe even have the occasional threesome with Mako. But hey, this isn’t Hollywood. You’re not getting that kind of ending here. Instead, things just get a little better. Yay, I guess.

Do I regret spending time on it? Not really. I’m not a fan of drama in general, but if you’re into this kind of theme and just want some light emotional content for the evening, this anime might be a good fit.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Oct 10, 2024

AkiFosu

Not Recommended

Senpai wa Otokonoko - Final Episode

The story severely under delivered in the end, and not only because of the topics treated. Awful pacing, a fudged narrative, and overall bad decisions on what to develop, to include or exclude, played the key roles in destroying good potential. Absent logic in the writing department strikes again.

The anime often felt like three different seasons mixed into one, and nothing got the time it deserved. The whole "muh parents" arc and the "old friends from school appear, at the second last episode, bringing with them flashbacks, and a focus on people no one cares about" delivered the kill shot.

Let's ... be fair, no law or rule written anywhere requires that a webtoon artist should know about dramatic technique or poetics. Just the intention to create something justifies the endeavor, and nothing wrong with that.

But the moment a studio invests (big) money into its anime production you should expect at least one educated guy to take a look at it and say ce n'est pas possible. We need to cut and reorder things. But none of that happened, so we got lukewarm and underwhelming nonsense in the end - 4/10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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