Senpai wa Otokonoko
Senpai Is an Otokonoko: My Crossdressing Classmate

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I finally finished the series and I can wholeheartedly recommend it, especially if you are queer/child of divorce. It somehow managed to avoid all the pitfalls of stories which deal whit this subject matter and ends up making something unique that truly represents what it’s like being in high school and dealing with your life. If you are having a existential crisis this is the manga for you.

The details

Art
Fits the story, more extravagant art would be distracting and simpler art would be to dehumanising. That said there are some extra art pages which are wallpaper worthy. I would even hang them on ... my wall tbh.

Characters
Way to relatable, like boy did you just put my thoughts and feelings in manga form and publish it. There isn’t really anything unrealistic about them, I feel like I can meet them in real life. They are handled well every step of the way and the usual traps and pitfalls are avoided. Even some stuff which wasn’t expected made my hearth warm and fuzzy.

Problems?
None, you can tell the person who wrote this probably lived thru some of this stuff. Even the homophobia from other people towards the main character is handled in a real way that is used and in a way that I recommend. The emotions of these characters were felt every step of the way and I have nothing but respect at how everything was written.

My Crossdressing Senpai is one of those tales which a glimpse to the everyday life of a highschooler, the problems one faces while in highschool and the various difficult choices he/she has to make.

This story starts with a basic confession, and at first I thought that it was one of those cliche romances, confession, rejection and then the boy and girl fall in love. Yes, it is kinda like that, granted. But the in between points it connected, and how it tackled different things and then finally how it ended, is just beautiful.

Each and every character has given me, and I am sure the other ... readers too, some lessons, lessons we must learn from.

1. From Makato, we learned that the way you are and what you like, is YOUR normal, it should not be affected by what others say around you.

2. From Ryuji, we learned that sometimes giving up is for the better good.

3. From Aoi, we learned that we should choose what we want, and not let others affect us. For example, I'll give a common one, your career, the one I am personally facing, your parents should not affect what you want to do, and you should decide what YOU want for yourself.

The plot focuses on each character one at a time, from Makato to Ryuji to Aoi, showing there struggle, and finally how they reached their conclusion.

And ofcourse, there are fun elements too.

Overall, it was wholesome, with some sad elements and some tears in b/w. 10/10 would recommend

It's a very nice Manga about queer struggles, self acceptance, mending relationsships and accepting others.

Negatives:

Honestly the romance parts are the most confused and it feels like the Mangaka forgot halfway-through that they were writing a romance, or what the main pairing was. There are a few moments where it feels like characters just forgot who they liked or what happened a few chapters ago. The ending feels like it should've happened much earlier with some of the family arcs happening later on. This is because most of the important moments between the main pairing happen fairly early on, but then there is very little happening ... between them in that way for a long time only for the romancing to suddenly start again in the end. There was way too much slice of life tho.

Positives:

Genuinely a unique approach towards gender expression. The Family characters tend to be well written and complex. Tho I am still not sure if the author is trying to make us sympathise with the Mains mother, which feels weird considering what we got from the story. I also like how the author plays with the tropey "No-Eyes"-Character to great effect. The Manga has a great message of Self-Determination towards life. Not buckling and just adhering to expectations of others or their expectation of how "being weird" is supposed to look like.