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Otomen, Bd. 1 (2010)

by Aya Kanno(Favorite Author)

3.97 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

3551735131 (ISBN13: 9783551735133)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Carlsen

series

Otomen

review 1: Genderbending and queerness is never far away in manga, but to show a boy who enjoys things typically considered soft and female in a non-derogative way is rare. I really like this series, I bought the five first volumes over less than a week from my local manga dealer because I really wanted to know what happened next. I got instantly hooked on this one. Myself, I enjoy knitting, crocheting and lots of other creative hobbies, but as a feminist I've denied myself the pleasures of them for several years in favour of my more genger-neutral or manly hobbies, simply because I found them too feminine and too typical hobbies for a girl/woman to have. It's just in recent years I've rediscovered the joy of arts and crafts, and looked past my own prejudices and simply decided to d... moreo what I like and not care what I should and shouldn't do. Kind of the same thing goes for Asuka Masamune who puts on a manly facade to hide the fact that he also likes "cute and girly" things. His father turned out to be a transgendered woman and left the family to live as a woman when Asuka was small, which traumatized Asukas mother and made her adamant in her belief that he should be brought up as manly as possible to avoid becoming like his father. Asuka now is the manliest guy in his school and captain of the Kendo team, repressing all his femininity and true hobbies. When he meets Ryo Miyakozuka, who is a real tomboy and also skilled in martial arts, he falls in love and his (first) love for all things cute and fluffy threatens to show through his carefully crafted exterior. Their mutual friend Juta Tachibana is closely encouraging their relationship since he is making a shojo-manga based on them called "Love Chick". All he has done is really flipped the genders on his protagonists and writes under a not-too-creative pseudonym. The series gets of to a good start with this volume. I love how the female lead is not portrayed as a clumsy, tripping over her feet damsel in distress and it feels fresh (for shojo). I can't be critical of this volume at all, for me it was love at first sight.
review 2: Cooking, sewing, cute accessories, cakes, and girls' comics.Asuka Masamune is a guy who loves all of that. No, he actually is still a guy like most of guys --well, generally.But he is an 'otomen'. Otomen --an acronym of 'otome' (=girl) and 'men'-- is a male who enjoys doing things that are stereotyped as girl's things as their hobbies.Due to a shocking memory his mother had when his dad said "I want to be a woman" and left the house, Asuka's mother hates otomen and put a pressure to her son that he must not become an otomen.Asuka tries hard to hide his 'true identity' from his mother and the society by presenting himself as 'a common real guy who do manly things' in his days.But it seems that it won't be that simple no more when Asuka finds out that he has fallen in love to Ryo, a girl from his school.Contrary to Asuka, Ryo is a girl who loves martial art and other 'manly stuff'. She's also poor at cooking and other 'girly stuff'.But Ryo is a big hearted girl that sees the good of people that when she knew Asuka is an otomen, she doesn't mind at all.This is a fun-cute yet hilarious manga by Aya Kanno where you can meet 'very various' type of people, and also the major question: will Asuka finally dare to be honest to other poeple, especially his mother, about his identity as an otomen, and how they will accept that ;) less

Download links for: Otomen, Bd. 1

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