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.

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.

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

I really loved and appreciated this manga.
Its a beautiful[Art] depiction of Makoto, a boy struggeling with his gender identity.
The other two main characters each have their own struggles in addition to the love triangle between all of them.
One of them is Saki, a cheerful and energetic girl that presents the emotional opposite to Makoto. And in between the two Riuji Makotos Childhood friend.

Each, but espetially Makoto's story is depicted with realism and raw and unfiltered emotion I have yet to find again in manga.
The story is told in a rythm of happy and sad moments that drive the characters developement as well as provide ... the reader with catartic moments.

An overall 9/10, up until a specific chapter at the beginning of the last third, when one major struggle concluded*.
This conclusion eludes the setup of most previous chapters in a minor way, but is also not properly adressed in the ones after.
I truly respect the authors idea for their characters,
however from that point onwarts , my enjoyment was completly ruined.
This is however not a rational reaction by any means.
So please give this story a shot even if I personally have to drop it to a 7/10.

*The way i have written this review might give you a hint, and I would actually not be suprised for that conclusion to change during the translation process as it highly depends on a concept specific to japanese culture. Saying anything more would bring us into spoiler territory.

the art is PHENOMENAL. a large reason for my high score is simply because of how well done and fitting the art is. i even bought the first 6 volumes in japanese just to look at it all over again and i dont even speak japanese lol. The story was pretty good. there were some parts where things were a little vague but i think it was for artistic purposes.

My main complaint is that it feels kind of corny in some places, at least in the english localization. Maybe it is less so in the original work. Not a huge deal, and not distracting ... either.

It starts very strong and loses energy and strength about a third through, and continues to drag until the ending.

What I like is the premise. What I like is the characters: and all of them. I know a lot of people hate Aoi for making the love triangle but she's pretty adorable. Maybe a little bland but I think they handle her well and she serves her purpose in starting the manga. Makoto and Ryuiji as well- honestly every character in this manga is kind of cute and enduring. These characters and the premise are ... strong I became invested enough to keep reading even though I didn't particularly the second two thirds of this manga. Even though I didn't like two thirds of the manga, I like the main trio enough to consider it alright, and I'd probably read another issue.

I think mangas about cross dressing men are inherently strong. There's built in conflict, built in character development, built in character attributes and a defining outline for how the story has to go- and again, it's all really enduring, charming. An easy read especially for a bad day.

The problem this manga has is Makotos conflict about his internal perception is solved way too early, Ryuji's internal conflict about loving Makoto is also solved too early; and as much as I like Aoi her conflict about her parents is not interesting in the slightest. The love triangle starts strong but as time passes and with each successive issue, the reader is left wondering; why is this still going on? Can Makoto just make up his mind already? Increasingly, the love triangle is forced to escalate itself to keep the readers invested; however with each issue there is less room to escalate and at a point it feels like none of the characters actually care about each other as they seem allergic to accepting the feelings of the others.

Anyways, 5/10 I think the art is nice too