Senpai wa Otokonoko

SENPAI WA OTOKONOKO

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
10
RELEASE
December 30, 2021
CHAPTERS
100

DESCRIPTION

Can true love really overcome any obstacles? Saki, a high school student, confesses her feelings to Makoto. Taken aback, Makoto reveals his secret, but the sudden discovery doesn’t seem to bother Saki who is already head over heels for him. After being rejected, Saki asks Ryuji, Makoto’s childhood friend, for some advice on how to win his heart. A love triangle unfolds when Ryuji realizes that he might also have some feelings for his old friend.

(Source: WEBTOONS)

CAST

Makoto Hanaoka
Saki Aoi
Ryuuji Taiga
Konatsu Taiga
Mika Hanaoka
Makoto no Ojii-chan

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO SENPAI WA OTOKONOKO

Cover Art for Otokonoko ga Kouhai ni Kokuhaku sareru Hanashi

MANGA RomanceOtokonoko ga Kouhai ni Kokuhaku sareru Hanashi

ANIME ComedySenpai wa Otokonoko

Cover Art for Senpai wa Otokonoko: Deai-hen

MANGA ComedySenpai wa Otokonoko: Deai-hen

Cover Art for Senpai wa Otokonoko: Ame Nochi Hare

MOVIE ComedySenpai wa Otokonoko: Ame Nochi Hare

REVIEWS

femboydirt
89/100
More than a crossdressing manga. Its everything a good coming of age story needs to be.
As a queer person myself, I enjoy reading manga about femboys/otonoko/crossdressing/etc. I initially checked out this manga solely for its title and summary. Something about wholesome queer romance just hits me. This web manga was more than the premise though.

The first chunk of this review will be mostly spoiler free. I will only be talking vaguely about themes and characters. The second half will be filled with spoilers, but I will leave my scores before that.

I was not mentally ready for this manga. I went into it expecting a fluffy rom com with crossdressing. I had just caught up with a different series that was just that. This manga is about a crossdresser and the MC's relationship with them, but it also deals with themes of choice, sexuality, gender identity, identity crisis, self worth, bigotry, difficult parents, etc. Too many things in this manga hit really close to home for me and so many of the struggles felt so real. Self doubt and indecision are core themes of this manga.

I loved how the manga portrayed queerness. All aspects this manga covered was done so well and tastefully. Even the best queer manga can have some problematic aspect to it, but this one manages to understand itself.
The story is a character one. The plot and is shaped by the main 3 characters. The manga seemed to only be planned up until the first major climax. But after receiving serialization and then even printing, the manga continued till 100 chapters.
It is clear the story from that point on is the mangaka writing characters first. While some may read this and feel 100 chapters was unnecessary for the story that was told, I thoroughly enjoyed every chapter. I was deeply invested and wanted to see the characters make it to the end and be happy. There are many swings in the narrative, but none ever feel forced. There was never a point where I felt they were just padding out the story.
I am also the type to want mangas to go on forever. As childish as that sounds, I love the stories that really take their time and let the reader enjoy reading. But characters you want to read about are required for such a feeling. This is not to say the manga goes slow or just meanders around. The plot is always moving somewhere.

The art is really pretty when it needs to be and is in full color the entire time, but I wouldn't call it amazing. Its a pleasing style to look at.

For Story its a solid 9- Same for the characters. Both are easily the stand outs of the manga. A lot of your enjoyment in reading the manga will be how much you connect with the main characters.
As mentioned, the art is good. I personally give it a 7. It has its moments, but its just a good looking web novel for the majority of it.
Where 5 is average for everything, giving this manga a high 8-low 9 comes a lot down to how much I personally got from the series.

Moving into the spoiler section:

The love triangle that forms about 1/3rd through was meh for me at first. Ryuji struggling with his sexuality really did click with me and I felt so conflicted. The manga really does make you root for Ryuji and then reminds you that rooting for him means the main two wouldn't work. Ryuji struggling with his sexuality while Hanaoka struggles with his gender make for such an interesting dynamic.
Seeing Saki deal with indecision and struggling with two absent parents and an aging grandmother while trying to figure out all of her emotions was so engaging. I just wanted to reach through the screen and give her a hug.

So many stories like this have miscommunications and half truths and people not saying what they want to say. I always disliked when mangas would do that. Most of the time, people talk it out and this manga doesn't shy away from that. The characters talk to each other and it doesn't always work out. Each character is dealing with their own issues and can't always support each other.
Sometimes I did wish the manga was more light hearted. Saki's story with her parents and Hanaoka's story with his family really did a number on me emotionally. The fact it mostly worked out in the end and the main couple finally got together is good enough. Its not the perfect fairy tail ending but it didn't need to be.

This review was much more informal than my others. I just had such strong emotions towards this manga.
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jimei73
75/100
A story of complexity: growing up, identity, and finding your place.
I have mixed feelings about Senpai is an Otokonoko. There are many things I enjoyed about the story, especially with the character growth for Makoto. Despite I view myself as female and haven't really questioned that, I still feel like there were times I have thought "But wait, what if I did feel like the other gender?" growing up. Perhaps not as much as someone who thinks about transitioning or like Makoto where Makoto can't decide which gender to identify as. Or both. I suppose I'll try using the they/them pronouns for Makoto for this review.

I suppose I'll go over first all the positives that I enjoyed about this story. First is an easy positive: the humor. There's quite a few moments of shocked faces or just situations that made me smile or laugh. It didn't feel out of place or ill-timed which was nice.

I really liked how this is a really character-driven story as well. It's nice to focus on the characters and just see them interact, and through those interactions, it leads to them changing and influencing each other. Makoto is a great protagonist and I felt the story did well at describing their conflicting feelings about gender and how they want to be accepted. No matter what, everyone has struggled at some point in their lives with trying to be accepted and loved. I admire Makoto fighting for their self-expression. Where the anime ends, I felt like it really completed Makoto's arc as Makoto finally confronted the mother. It's not exactly a clean resolution per se, but the chance to have an open dialogue with Makoto's mother feels realistic and shows maturity for Makoto as they starts to stand up for themself.

Ryuji was my favorite character. His struggle to find out whether his affection is romantic or not was an interesting dynamic to the usual love triangle. I really loved how genuine he was and the moment he dropped everything to help Saki whenever she called him was just such a great character moment. I honestly wanted to see more of his story, especially at the end. (I'll bring this up again later.)

Saki was a refreshing spark to the story as always. Her struggles were the other half of this story and there are genuinely heart-breaking moments when it comes to her life. Her divorced parents, her elderly grandmother, the desire to please everyone and the suppression of her own feelings. All of it just hits you so hard. Maybe a little too hard. For a majority of the story, whenever Saki questioned if her love was true or real or special, I felt seen. As someone who identifies on the aroace spectrum, I really saw Saki's struggle as something I've dealt with. I've questioned myself many times and I've cried over what I felt like my lacking of emotion. Seeing her go through something similar, it made me hope that perhaps this story was leaning in that direction.

But I was wrong.

SPOILERS BELOW

Here's the part where my feelings have become mixed. Up to the point where Makoto confronts their mother, I would've said the story is around 8/10. The art style was simplistic at times and maybe had chibis too often for parts where I wanted more emotive faces as characters talked, but overall I still enjoyed it.

But after the heartbreak of Ryuji confessing to Makoto, then the make-up on the Ferris wheel, it just feels like Ryuji's emotions got brushed aside. It was as if it never happened between him and Makoto. Which was VERY upsetting for me. I've never had 2nd lead syndrome so bad that I cried at the end of the story when I realized that there wasn't going to be more of a resolution or a separate happy ending for him. It still gets me choked up just thinking about it. I HATE it when there is a really decent guy who likes the MC and he does everything and because he's "not special enough", he ends up alone. Which doesn't seem fair to Ryuji or Saki.

Because Saki is such a sweet girl. She deserves love and kindness and I really wanted her to be happy. But she ends up being in love with Makoto as she originally confessed to. And that hurt me too. I desperately wanted to see a story where an aroace person can have a happy ending just being by herself. I really thought she was leaning towards that. I wanted to see some representation for someone like me. But it looks like that like all other stories. romance has to be the most important part of life for Saki. It may be simplistic for me to say, but Saki's romantic feelings for Makoto and Makoto reciprocating those feelings is what pushed Saki to start choosing for herself. She didn't feel inspired to choose to keep living with her grandmother instead of with either of her parents until Makoto confessed and she decided to finally do something about romance first.

I'm starting to ramble here I think. But it's hard to emphasize why it affected me.

END OF SPOILERS

tl;dr: Senpai is an Otokonoko is more of a story centered on characters than romance. As Makoto navigates school and interacts with Saki, they slowly learn what it is to express themselves and be accepted. Ryuji provides a nice contrast as someone more level-headed than Saki's more bubbly nature, but they both hold complex feelings over romantic love which creates an interesting love triangle. Makoto's growth as a character is really sweet and you always want to root for them. While the art style is a little lacking, the character dialogue does well to liven up the story and there's multiple times I smiled or cried over the writing. If you are looking for a story with character drama and a coming of age, this story is for you.
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