How much does the My Little Pony fandom overlap with the crossdressing manga genre?
Eh, who cares. This is my blog.
After reading numerous crossdressing manga online, I figured I might put my downtime to productive use by creating some brief reviews for your consideration. If you're interested in crossdressing/LGBT manga and don't know where to start (or where to stop), I hope you will find something in here that interests you. If you’ve read these, feel free to leave your thoughts as well!
**All the works listed below are non-R18, but some contain suggestive content unsuitable for young children.
**Some of these manga can only be found in English online on certain websites (if you know what I mean), which I will leave to you to find yourself.
**The views expressed in this blog are my personal opinions, and I do not intend to offend anyone with these reviews.
Sometimes Even Reality Is A Lie (aka “Hanging Out With a Gamer Girl”)
I’m real-life friends with a gamer girl, but I can only hang out with her when I’m crossdressing!
For those looking for a lighter read, or if you enjoy video games and cosplay, this popular fullcolor manga is perfect for you. Kaoru Terazaki (pictured left), a high school boy, meets a high school girl Nanami Ousaka (pictured right) through playing an online multiplayer game. To get around Nanami’s father, who strongly disapproves of her getting into a relationship, Kaoru crossdresses as a made-up girl “Kaori” whenever they are together in public. Wacky hijinks ensue.
As a disclaimer, crossdressing doesn’t make up the majority of the manga’s plot, and becomes less of a theme especially in the later chapters, as Nanami and Kaoru’s relationship develop further. That being said, this story does a great job of portraying “wholesome” crossdressing. It’s not cringe, it’s not sexualized. The manga is like a little fantasy world where we see Kaoru wearing fashionable women’s clothes and cosplay, and the people around him are supportive, even the clothing store clerks! (Special shout out to BLAHAJ 🦈🦈🦈fans, our favorite shark also appears in multiple chapters!)
Publication completed?
No
Cringemeter
Cringe Wholesome (Kaoru and Nanami are so precious together, +1 for Blahaj cameo)
Light/Heavy Reading
Playful Heartbreaking
LGBT Representation
Disrespectful Poggers (Neutral—if you’re just looking for some wholesome crossdressing, this is the story for you)
Amachin wa Jishou (Amachin is a Self-Proclaimed Male)
A high school boy makes a cute fashion heir(ess?) hard.
Amachin (pictured at top), a feminine high school boy who is the sole heir of a multi-million-dollar fashion company, falls in love with a tall, strapping male classmate named Tatsumi. They are later joined by a whole friend group of crossdressing classmates (including, at one point, Tatsumi himself!).
Although the highlight is meant to be the romance between Amachin and Tatsumi, my favorite part of the manga are the scenes with just a bunch of crossdressing guys having wholesome fun together; whether at the beach, cooking hotpot, or exorcising a ghost from a haunted onsen inn👻! I especially like how we get to see both the “boy” and “girl” modes of many of the crossdressing side characters. This contrast sometimes becomes a key plot point, including a very wholesome chapter where one of the boys “Fururi-chan” (bottom left) is comforted after his wig catches on fire 🔥 and his makeup is ruined.
I wouldn’t recommend this manga unless you enjoy the BL or crossdressing manga genre. For those who liked the wacky crossdressing hijinks in Himegoto, but hated the thinly-veiled toxic relationship between Hime and the school council, this is a good comedy manga for you to try out.
Publication completed?
No
Cringemeter
Cringe Wholesome (too many “hard” jokes)
Light/Heavy Reading
Playful Heartbreaking
LGBT Representation
Disrespectful Poggers (a bit oversexualized at times)
Josei Danshi (or, as I like to call it, “Pochi the Rock”)
A teenaged boy with an unusually cute voice joins an all-girls band by secretly crossdressing.
I’m only mentioning this story because it reads like the degenerate problem-child sibling of the far-superior “Bocchi the Rock” (which alas is not a crossdressing manga).
Josei Danshi centers around a teenage boy nicknamed “Pochi” (pictured) who is bullied for his high-pitched voice that sounds just like a girl. He submits a blind recorded audition for an all-girls high school band. After discovering Pochi is in fact a boy, Ageha, one of the founding members of the band, hatches a plot for him to secretly crossdress and join the all-girls band Sora, where, dressed as girl, Pochi slowly gains self-confidence and begins to receive praise for his unique voice.
I’d characterize this story as…wasted potential. As a singer, I resonated somewhat with Pochi’s fear of singing in public, and being bullied for his unusual voice (to the point that he would not even speak at school). But I rolled my eyes at Pochi just magically having a singing voice that knocks the socks off of everyone in the crowd, without any proper training or anything. (As if he wouldn’t have already collapsed due to stage fright given how much he’s been bullied.) Add to that a bizarre sub-plot of Ageha secretly running away to New York to learn to play guitar, a super-cringe medical examination scene, and you’ve just got a big hot mess of a band manga.
As with the crossdressing themes…yeah, look elsewhere. There was little discussion about crossdressing other than Pochi just wearing women’s clothing as a disguise.
This manga's premise had a lot of potential, but poor storytelling ruined it. Which is why I say it's not about what story you have to tell, it's how you tell it that makes you a good writer.
If you want to read a good music-themed manga, Bocchi the Rock will be far more enjoyable, though minus the crossdressing.
Publication completed?
Yes
Cringemeter
Cringe Wholesome (saved from a 100% cringe score due to a little thoughtful discussion of Pochi’s stage fright and Ageha's past experience with domestic abuse)
Light/Heavy Reading
Playful Heartbreaking
LGBT Representation
Disrespectful Poggers (manga is full of lechers and perverts that should have gone to jail)
Love Me For Who I Am (aka “Fukaboku”)
A non-binary teenager struggles to find their place working at a crossdressing maid café.
Fukaboku became somewhat popular in the Western world as a model LGBT manga, and unlike all the previous manga, this one has an official English translation for purchase. This story features a non-binary “X-gender” character named Mogumo (pictured), who works at Café Question, a crossdressing maid café run by their classmate Tetsu and his family.
Overall, this story was a good read. I liked the tense moments as Mogumo tries to deal with their unaccepting family, or when Mogumo becomes the subject of a love triangle between Tetsu and their childhood friend Kotone. Mogumo’s dysphoria from male puberty is also touched on...somewhat. Their deepening voice is discussed, yet their body is still drawn as excessively young and feminine (as you can see in the picture). This problem of drawing people like Mogumo as overly and unrealistically feminine is a common issue in all crossdressing/transgender manga, not just Fukaboku. But for a manga that claims to be focused on LGBT representation, I think it sets unrealistic body expectations for transgender people.
At times, it leaned too much on LGBT jargon or stereotypical tropes rather than trying to create a distinct and unique story. Mogumo’s non-binary. They say, “You shouldn’t be making up your mind about my gender.” Mei is a trans girl. She says “I wish I had been born a girl.” In one chapter, they go to a Pride Parade. It was hard for me to see the character’s personalities beyond their gender identity or the sexual orientation that they represented. Other than superficial likes and dislikes, I couldn’t really describe their character beyond either their gender/sexuality, or their struggles due to their gender/sexuality.
All in all, a decent story and worth a read, but if you’re looking for a good LGBT manga I would recommend My Crossdressing Senpai over this (see below).
Publication completed?
Yes
Cringemeter
Cringe Wholesome
Light/Heavy Reading
Playful Heartbreaking (Mogumo tries to cut out their Adam’s Apple in one flashback)
LGBT Representation
Disgusting Poggers (Could’ve done better with “showing, not telling”)
Senpai wa Otokonoko (aka “This is Him” or “My Crossdressing Senpai”)
A high school girl falls in love with a crossdressing boy at school.
Makoto Hanaoka (pictured top) has always loved skirts, dresses, and cute things ever since he was a young boy. Teased for his preferences, he becomes a pariah at school with the exception of his faithful childhood friend, a boy named Ryuji (pictured bottom). This all changes when Aoi, a bisexual girl, confesses her love for Makoto. A love triangle soon blossoms between Makoto, Aoi, and Ryuji. This 100-chapter webtoon-style manga is award winning in Japan and has an upcoming anime adaptation.
Saved the best for last. Everything from the clean, full color art style to the poignant storyline is amazing. Makoto, while still better at passing as a girl than most males, is clearly drawn with the height and physique of a slim teenaged boy—more realistic than in Fukaboku. Aside from crossdressing, there’s something relatable for every reader, including the side stories of Aoi’s neglectful parents leaving her in the care of her aging grandmother, Ryuji’s struggle with accepting himself as a gay man, or Makoto deciding if he wants to join the basketball club. It alternates flawlessly between heartwrenching to happy-go-lucky, much like real life.
One of my favorite scenes is when a family friend puts makeup on Makoto for the first time:
Makoto: Amazing!
Friend: I am a pro after all. So? It suits you!
Makoto: …does it…suit me? I can’t tell.
Friend: Hahaha! You’re an interesting one! You can just think “This suits me!” to yourself! If you do, it becomes something that suits you!
This is an example of how the manga writes about the LGBT experience in a tasteful way. Not by throwing in as many buzzwords as possible or checking the boxes so that every group is represented. Instead, simply create good characters with relatable stories, and your readers will learn to respect them for who they are.
Senpai wa Otokonoko is not a perfect manga, but it’s a pretty damn good one. As a writer, I can only dream of writing a slice-of-life story as good as this. I think it hasn't seen much success in Western world simply because of the not very marketable English title--"otokonoko" is an unknown word to most non-Japanese people, and the word "crossdressing" has certain connotations in the Western world that doesn't match the manga's sweet, wholesome tone.
Publication completed?
Yes
Cringemeter
Cringe Wholesome (knocked off one point for Aoi’s nosebleeds)
Light/Heavy Reading
Playful Heartbreaking (perfectly balanced, as all things should be)
LGBT Representation
Disrespectful Poggers
That's all for today! Let me know if you read (or have read) any of these manga, and if you have any more thoughts to add!
5725574 I, too, like your review style a lot! Would certainly not mind more of these, maybe for anime? I'm not really a manga or comics person.
If you want my recommendation, one of my all-time favorite shows, Pripara, has a character who maybe qualifies under this crossdressing umbrella, Leona West. The other possibility is that he's actually genderfluid, it's never explicitly stated. The magical entity in-universe that distributes idol tickets only gives them to girls, so...
I gotta say, I'm not really interested in either crossdressing or manga, but the way you formatted this blog was excellent and really drew me in. :) I would love to see more review slates like this one, whether focused on crossdressing or other themes!
5725609 I honestly prefer anime as well, especially if it has a good VA! But unfortunately not many anime exist that feature crossdressing as a central theme. All the anime I've seen relegate the crossdressing character to a side gag, for comic relief. Hopefully the Senpai wa Otokonoko anime coming up soon will be good.
5725610 5725601 I love what you can do with Fimfiction formatting! It's interesting though; I've found that some manga artists use the crossdressing genre to symbolically discuss transgender issues in a country (Japan) that isn't as accepting. Like 5725609 touched on with PriPara, some "crossdressing" characters in manga/anime are easily interpreted as on the transgender spectrum, but their gender identity is never explicitly stated due to more conservative Japanese society. Which is why I included the "LGBT representation" rating. For example, in Fukaboku, Mei (a trans girl) says at one point she wants to keep self-identifying as a "crossdressing boy" because she feels she's more accepted in Japanese society that way.
I—I— I don’t know how this happened but I managed to stumble upon Senpai wa Otokonoko on Webtoon of all places, and, and I didn’t even realize it was actually the same manga you spoke so highly about in this post until literally right now.
Why am I here? Well, because coincidences are funny ain’t they.
I think writing this blog is helping me work on my summarization skills, even while I'm still stuck in a writer's block rut.
Like this comment if you'd like to see more; I have plenty of titles in mind to write a Part 2.
I love FiMFiction, sometimes you'll get a story, sometimes you'll get a crossdressing manga dissection.
I love this review style by the way
5725574
I, too, like your review style a lot! Would certainly not mind more of these, maybe for anime? I'm not really a manga or comics person.
If you want my recommendation, one of my all-time favorite shows, Pripara, has a character who maybe qualifies under this crossdressing umbrella, Leona West. The other possibility is that he's actually genderfluid, it's never explicitly stated. The magical entity in-universe that distributes idol tickets only gives them to girls, so...
I gotta say, I'm not really interested in either crossdressing or manga, but the way you formatted this blog was excellent and really drew me in. :) I would love to see more review slates like this one, whether focused on crossdressing or other themes!
5725609
I honestly prefer anime as well, especially if it has a good VA! But unfortunately not many anime exist that feature crossdressing as a central theme. All the anime I've seen relegate the crossdressing character to a side gag, for comic relief. Hopefully the Senpai wa Otokonoko anime coming up soon will be good.
5725610
5725601
I love what you can do with Fimfiction formatting!
It's interesting though; I've found that some manga artists use the crossdressing genre to symbolically discuss transgender issues in a country (Japan) that isn't as accepting. Like 5725609 touched on with PriPara, some "crossdressing" characters in manga/anime are easily interpreted as on the transgender spectrum, but their gender identity is never explicitly stated due to more conservative Japanese society. Which is why I included the "LGBT representation" rating. For example, in Fukaboku, Mei (a trans girl) says at one point she wants to keep self-identifying as a "crossdressing boy" because she feels she's more accepted in Japanese society that way.
5725618
that's actually very interesting, and the kind of cultural context it always seems hard to come across
I—I— I don’t know how this happened but I managed to stumble upon Senpai wa Otokonoko on Webtoon of all places, and, and I didn’t even realize it was actually the same manga you spoke so highly about in this post until literally right now.
Why am I here? Well, because coincidences are funny ain’t they.
Also add me into the vouch for the manga pile5755218
Yep the official English translation is on Webtoon! Though the full manga can be found…elsewhere
Hope you liked it
5755249
Oh yeah it's great, though Webtoon has this dumb daily pass thing, but trust me I am getting it completely legally, totally