Crossplay Love: Otaku x Punk Vol. 1: Otaku X Punk 1

Product Information

Natalie (in Japanese). Natasha, Inc. 2020-05-09. Archived from the original on 2021-05-20 . Retrieved 2021-05-21. Crossplay Love was nominated for the 2019 Next Manga Award [31] and the 2020 Denshi Comic Awards [ ja], [32] the latter of which called it a great series with an intriguing premise. [33] The manga's web edition had been viewed 15 million times as of February 2019, [34] and was popular with readers. [4] Animania [ de] and Splashcomics both considered it a good cross-dressing comedy for fans of the genre, recommending it to readers who have enjoyed similar manga like Mikiyo Tsuda's Princess Princess. [35] [36] Crunchyroll News recommended it to readers who like "fluffy" romantic comedies, and included it in a feature on "fantastic" LGBTQ manga. [37] Anyway, we'll see! I'm more intrigued than I'd thought I was going to be. The friends are fun, too; Shuumei's buddy/gang member is particularly interesting, and in a regular BL I feel like that would've probably been the romance. (Turning down 25 confessions because no girl is ever going to matter to him as much as Shuumei does...that's a tough act to follow.)

a b c d "Die Schönheit vom Café". Animania [ de] (in German). No.3/2022. Animagine. April–May 2022. p.81. Yuuma Hanae, [c] a gloomy student, works at the Taishō era-themed maid café Roman as a waitress, where he as part of his job cross-dresses in a kimono-inspired dress and goes by the feminine name Hana. [d] Shuumei Satogiri, [e] a delinquent at the same school, mistakes Yuuma for a woman and falls in love with him, but is afraid of approaching him, so he disguises himself as a woman, and becomes a regular at Roman as his female alter ego Mei. [f] [1] [3] Anime Anime (in Japanese). IID, Inc. 2019-11-13. Archived from the original on 2021-02-27 . Retrieved 2021-05-21. The side characters are surprisingly strong, it’s an all male main cast, but everybody is full of secrets or a little more layered than you’d expect. Except that one guy they introduce at the end, who I didn’t especially like, but on the balance this is a good group.

Alternative Titles

Kakioroshi 1: Sayu to Konomi no Otoko no Ko" ( 描き下ろし① さゆと好みの男の子, "Bonus #1: Sayu and the Boy She Likes") Hana is a lovely young worker at a maid cafe who has caught the eye of the brash, yet timid, Mei. The two of them have massive crushes on one another, which would make for a whole other genre if the two of them weren’t actually guys in disguise. Who can’t stand one another in “real” life. Oops.

This friend immediately pegs Hana as a crossdressing guy but doesn't tell Shuumei or discourage him from pursuing his love, so I'll be interested to see how that turns out, too. I like that he's just supporting his best friend in anything he wants. Bonus #2: Shimazaki and the Trail He Blazed" ( 描き下ろし② 嶋崎と新開拓, Kakioroshi 2: Shimazaki to Shinkaitaku) Natalie (in Japanese). Natasha, Inc. 2020-10-10. Archived from the original on 2020-10-12 . Retrieved 2021-05-21. a b c d e Hiiko (2018-05-10). "これはBL？ それともGL？ 女装コンビの両片思いがめんどくさくて愛おしい". NLab (in Japanese). IT Media. pp.1–2. Archived from the original on 2022-12-24 . Retrieved 2022-12-27. Natalie (in Japanese). Natasha, Inc. 2021-09-10. Archived from the original on 2021-09-10 . Retrieved 2021-10-13.This is less true for Shuumei, whose personality, mannerisms, and basic looks remain the same when he's dressed up as Mei. He's actually so similar in both roles that a feverish Hana(e) even recognizes his voice and hands when he's not in his makeup and wig. I like this, because it means that Hanae is falling in love with a personality that's not going to be much different once he finds out who Mei actually is. He might hate Shuumei the delinquent right now, but he admires similar things in Mei: the blunt and somewhat crass language, the strength, the protective tendency towards violence... I have no idea where it's going from here; are the two guys going to eventually realize that they're both guys, and still fall in love that way? Is it going to remain cosplay/crossdressing, or is there some gender identity exploration here? It's really hard to tell at this point. Looks like there are 9 volumes in total, but I tried and failed to find some spoilers online, so I guess I'll have to wait out the translations and see how they go. Another complication is that while Shuumei's Mei is mostly a feminine and somewhat softer version of himself, Hana presents a very different personality than Hanae. Right now, it's really enjoyable. There's no real explanation (yet?) of why Hanae chose to take a job crossdressing in a cafe, or if any of his coworkers know. His boss is a man, and the rest of his coworkers seem to be cis girls, so it's not a themed cafe in that way. Since he doesn't change at work, it seems like he might be keeping it a secret from everyone - but I'd think his boss would have to know his birth name etc for employment purposes. (This came up in Boys Run the Riot, Vol. 1, where the main character was trans and had struggled to find a workplace that'd accept him as a guy.)