No Bra

Please take into consideration that this series was not my style and this review is simply to explain why. Many others seem to enjoy it; unfortunately, I did not.

So it's about a boy who winds up having a cute girl for a roommate...except the girl is really a boy. What I expected to find was a romance coupled with a bit of difficulty and lots complex emotions. What I got was a very basic plot with shallow and flat characters.

Contrary to what the synopsis says, Yuki is not a crossdressing boy who enjoys wearing womens' clothing. He is a biological male who self-identifies as a female. He doesn't simply dress like one, he lives the lifestyle of a female and wishes to be accepted as a female. This alone should be enough to build a spectacular story around, but there's simply not enough substance and it only plays a surface part in the overall storyline.

Masato has to cope with his emotions while he lusts after two girls he likes (and any character who will show him their panties). He is constantly wavering between whichever character is currently showing him attention. The relationships aren't very fleshed out and contrived. Ultimately, it was a light/quick read from start to finish.

If you are wanting to read about the complexities of teen romance, the social difficulties of being genderqueer and the search for understanding and acceptance, look elsewhere. If you want to read a typical school life ecchi comedy that's almost-sorta-not-really yaoi, then you'll probably like this.

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No Bra has a marevolus story that puts the characters into very interesting situations It has the ever lovable Childhood friend relationship that just sets this manga up for great stories. the Characters are very well developed and the art is good. However the story can be a bit weak at times and depend on awkward situations a bit too much. In the end I highly recommend this manga

This manga was garbage on all counts. Unrealistic and unlikeable characters aside, even the art was amateurish. Mainly due to the title, I didn't go in with high expectations, but even then it managed to fall far short. The reason I picked this up is that I was looking for series' with a prominent transgender storyline. The way Yuki's character was handled makes it abundantly clear that the mangaka's knowledge on the subject is shallow at best; her identity and feelings regarding her gender are never addressed. Her being transgender seems purely to serve the purpose of causing drama and making her... sexually exotic, I guess you could call it.

The main character is insufferable; I think every chapter made me want to wring the slimy creep's neck a little more. Why any female character in the series wanted to come near him, let alone talk to him, is beyond me.

Would not recommend.

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[Finally read all: Now updated.]
Chapters seen:31/31
[Genre ratings]
Yaoi:2?
Man... one of the 2 guys "in love" has 90% resemblance to a female?
Ecchi:6
Mainly "panties"... what else can I say?
Harem:7
Well, mostly it is about 2 girls who fall in love with a guy who has little attributes, flirtatious, horrible etc. mainly because of reasons the guy did not deserve (aka misunderstandings the guy did not clear but instead let them continue)

For a first, this is the first review I've doen that I will separate into 2 parts, 1-18 and 19-27. Reason being, these 2 portions seem to be totally different.

[1-18]
Story:8
Amazing storyline, I was so surprised at the twists to the story, although there were some irrelevant parts. 1 great point was the teacher staying with the main character... but it was strange that the teacher did not discover anything amiss.

Art:8
A lot of effort in drawing the stuff, even with many characters, and it was clear.

Character:7
Some were a bit blur... their personalities. The main male character was not expressed very well, although the main female characters were better expressed. Side characters played their roles well too.

Enjoyment:9
The plot was exciting, some jokes were made and it is quite an enjoyable gender-bender series compared to some others (especially with harem). Originality made this a whole lot enjoyable.

Overall:8

[19-27]
Story:3
2 words: Harem. Fillers.
The main male character became very horny and went out with the 2 main female characters at the same time, more female characters came into the picture and arouse him. Chapter 27 was a detective story (a lot of mangas have that==), which ended with what they sort of started (thus no plot).

Art:8
Same art.

Character:4
Some had a personality change i believe, and the main male character became downright horrible... dating both a male and a female lols. Not much character development.

Enjoyment:3
The word "panties" came out much more in 19-27. Yeah... and it was too much a harem story without a plot that I am kind of thinking to put a hold on this series, I thought the plot would deepen from chapter 18 D: .

Overall:2

[28-31]
28 is like the start of an ending arc. It seems to flow back to the original story, starting with some school probs then to some personal probs. But seriously, it was too rushed and too easily resolved, not much value added at the end. But it was concluded, definitely. Not exactly good, but still an acceptable one.

[As a whole]
Maybe read 1- 20 then skip to 28 or something?:D
Overall:5

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