I love seeing what Japanese manga does with gender. I particularly liked the seamless inclusion of a trans girl alongside the cross-dressing boys, highlighting the differences and similarities among the two, and the lack of moral panic surrounding cross-dressing and gender in general. When their identities get revealed, it’s not seen as betrayal or deception, but a shared way to bond. Makes me realize how ingrained our expectation is for that betrayal part of the story—why? It’s not necessary. Imagine that, a world where gender isn’t so feared, policed, and politicized. How refreshing. It was great.

I found this manga to be cute and funny. I liked how the characters bonded and formed friendships. Overall, it was an enjoyable read.

Thank you to Kodansha Comics and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this manga. This was an unexpected story that if I told you more about it, it would be spoilers. I will say if you are uncomfortable with cross dressing and the LGTBQIA community, do not read this. I think though, it’s one that I will continue on slowly and surely. Because of these points, I have to give this a 4 out of 5 stars.

This is a cute Manga about building relationships and being open with yourself. It's funny and cute how the characters both cross-dress as the opposite genders and then discover that they did so! This is a quick read with adorable illustrations and a feel-good message. The characters build each other up and show each other that it is okay to be true to yourself and your identity.

This title immediately caught my attention, since I am generally interested in queer media. Many thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for letting me review this manga!

Cocoa is part of an online group that talks abou desserts and pastries. When they decide to meet up in real life, Cocoa attends dressed as a woman - because, in truth, Cocoa is a shy boy. When her secret crush Opera finds out about her identity, another secret is revealed: Opera is also cross-dressing!

This manga is mostly a comedy with absurd conincidences and fun circumstances. The reader's expecations are always broken up, which leads to plenty of humorous situations. The subject of gender is central, of course, but never the butt of the joke. The story deals less in trying to find labels and more in the characters finding out what they like.

The aforementioned romantic aspects barely make an appearance in this volume. For me, it fit the theme very well, since Cocoa and Opera only now start to really get to know each other and their hidden sides. They both end up as layered characters who have different reasons for their gender presentations.

They are not alone in that. The side characters, mostly the other two girls in their group, all have their own complex circumstances. I loved the moment when one of them came out as a lesbian trans woman on the page. This moment was acknowledged and respected, as far as I can tell, Other than that, there are no specific definitions that the manga tries to apply, which is entirely fitting with its theme of characters searching for their identity.

As a cis woman myself, I cannot entirely judge how sensitive the manga handles the queer topics. I did have a very positive feeling, though! I would certainly reccomend it to anyone who likes reading light-hearted, chaotic queer comedies!

I am so excited about all the new LGBTQIA+ - esque manga and anime that have been coming out lately.

When I read the description of this, I immediately had to request it and was so excited that I got approved. Not only is the art phenomenal, but the story is so sweet and heartwarming. I love all of the characters, but I think my favorites have to be Cocoa and Opera.

Stories about gender expression are very close to my heart as I am going on my own journey, and Cocoa’s striving for perfection in their crossdressing is something I understand all too well. I haven’t found my own style yet, but it’s kind of heartening to see that even people who seem to have the perfect style and everything together still have the same sorts of anxieties. We’re always the hardest on ourselves, and it serves as a good reminder.

I always like to speak on the art in graphic novels and manga, and this art is so beautiful. I love all of the character designs. The characters are all very expressive and the shading and angles during the emotional moments really bring out their feelings. There was one scene where Cocoa is feeling anxious about their appearance in the restroom and it is just them sitting on the closed toilet lid with their head in their hands with the toilet seemingly floating in a sea of shadows and it really stood out to me. I think all of us have experienced that once or twice in our lives- a good cry in the bathroom.

I can’t wait to read more! This is just another to add to the list of books I’m going to request for my library to purchase! Thanks to Netgalley and Kodansha for the DRC in exchange for my review!!

A brilliantly nuanced comedy about the complexity of identity. While the starting premise might have some things in common with myths regarding trans women, the book is quick to show empathy for the experience of trans, genderqueer and gender nonconforming people. Seeing humor empathetic to the queer experience is highly refreshing.

Rating: 3.88 leaves out of 5
-Characters: 2.5/5
-Story: 3/5
-Writing: 5/5
Genre: Slice of Life
-Slice of Life: 5/5
Type: Manga
Worth?: For some

Want to thank Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to read this book.

There were some funny times, some educational times, and some times that I just kind of felt annoyed by. This isn't a manga I would get lost in, but it was a fast read and maybe if you just want something to quickly pass the time this might be for you.

DNF. It was just too much. There is no need to include so many topics in a single chapter to make an inclusive story. Although it had a good start, after five chapters I was done with it because I couldn't see where the story was going with so many "reveals" and a pair of girls who seemed to be all the time where Cocoa's group was. It wasn't for me.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC

I got about 50% into this before deciding to DNF. There's just not really any plot to this (at least in the first half of this volume) - more like a series of hijinks. It reads almost like a collection of comic strips instead of something with a coherent plot, and none of the characters really have any personality. The time line just keeps jumping constantly and switching between the main 4 characters, and random strangers just looking at them - like the mangaka just had a vague concept for this manga and started drawing pages without any real plan of what to do with it or where the story would go. It's kind of confusing and really did not hold my attention at all.

I was worried it'd be offensive, but it's not too bad. One character is a trans woman and another is bisexual, so I appreciate the different queer identities. The art style is cute.

This was really cute and funny. I enjoyed how each male felt they couldn’t be their authentic self and eat cake and other desserts unless they were cross dressing. I’m looking forward to seeing their character growth as the series progresses.

I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup (1) seems to be both volumes 1 and 2 of this serious about four people who we find out are varied in gender presentation/sexuality who get together at first as "women" to enjoy sweets without the social stigma of being men going out to eat cute things. At the end of volume 1 we get a little recap of everyone's deals (one is a transwoman, one is a bi boy who likes dressing femme sometimes, et cetera), and a really nice note from the English publisher in the back that explains that some characters may say things that are ignorant or sound -phobic but that they as translators tried to take care (especially with pronouns as often in Japanese they're omitted entirely where in English.. that's much harder).

As a queer person I was a little understandably unsure when I picked this up about how cross-dressing (at minimum) would be handled in this book as media, and in this case Japanese comics, have not had the greatest history of care and sensitivity toward gender non-conforming folks but I actually quite enjoyed this! The main four are pretty different in how they feel about presenting as female and all pretty understanding of each others' circumstances once they get through the initial shock of "what do you mean it's ALL of our group? (No wonder we felt so comfortable...)"

(As a note, even with the transwoman character, because this is manga and she's earlier on in her journey it's wayyyy more common in Japan to be like "has the heart of a woman" or "used to be/is a man" which is a little jarring to the Western ears/eyes but extremely normal there as they have a heavy emphasis on surgeries being the end all end goal which fortunately is juuuust beginning to shift in real life.)

I think I'll keep up with this series, I loved that they were all adults meeting up to chat and talk openly about social stigmas and maybe even educate some readers!

Thank you to Kodansha and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for review!

I enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading the next book. I liked the community they created together and how they have begun to navigate themselves as queer or just as friends. My one pet peeve would be with one of the characters telling the others they were trans and yet was still referred to their assigned at birth sex. I get that the character who said such thing is probably learning and it's a mistake but it just gave me the ick. Regardless this was a very cute manga.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for the ARC of this manga.

Oh man I absolutely LOVED this!!! I love the LGBTQIA rep in this and the conversations about gender and gender identity. There’s so many great things brought up in this.

I will absolutely be getting a physical edition of this and keeping an eye out for the next volume!

I apparently finished this a while ago, and then completely forgot about it and did not review it anywhere. This is more a fault of my brain than the manga though. It does, however, reveal to me that I did not find this manga super memorable. I thought it was cute enough, interesting enough, funny enough, entertaining enough. I was happy that the pace wasn't too slow and that misunderstandings were not dragged out endlessly. The characters were also pretty likable, and topics like gender identity were handled well enough and not disrespectfully (imo). I don't have much more to say to be honest, but I will always be curious about manga like these.

I got an ARC of this book.

It was ok. I was worried at first that it was going to be queerphobic, but it was surprisingly wholesome. There was a trans woman who was not taking being misgendering, even casually. It was really cute and gentle. I just didn't really enjoy the overall story.

So by far, not the worst I have read. Just didn't hold my attention through both volumes in this edition.

This is cute. A little silly, but overall an enjoyable story. I love that the characters found each other and developed a friendship and community. Curious about more of Satoshi/Cocoa, but I don’t know that I’m invested enough to seek out continuation.

A very cute, very nice read about the importance of casual acceptance. I have to give this credit, not once while reading did I feel I was being lectured or preached at, which is so refreshing. I really appreciate that. This was just wholesome. The importance of friendship and being yourself, and how that allows the people around you to be themselves in turn. Find your people y'all. They're out there and they need you too.

The story follows a group of friends who bond over their love for desserts, though some have other reasons, like romantic interest in someone in the group. But things aren’t quite what they seem. The main characters, Cocoa and Opera, quickly find out that they’re both crossdressers, and that’s where the story really kicks off.

At first, I thought it would focus on romance, but I was happy to see it dive deeper in the topic of crossdressing. The manga also touches on self-esteem and includes a bisexual character and a trans woman who’s into other women. I loved how they handled the conversations about gender and attraction and how they show the process of becoming a whole new person when crossdressing.

Even though the story is light and funny, it doesn’t shy away from exploring how each character expresses their identity. The translators did an amazing job. Despite the challenges, it can be tricky to translate pronouns across languages, especially in the Japanese language, where terms to describe sexuality can be so different.

I think combining the first two volumes for the English release was a great call. It’s a fast read and pulls you in from the start. I’m definitely going to keep reading, both to see if any romance develops and to keep reading about their friendship.

I’d definitely recommend this if you’re looking for a quick, fun read. I got hooked right away and finished it in one day.

There are a few brief mentions of things like transphobia and harassment, but they’re super short and not the main focus.

Thank you Netgalley and Kodansha for the e-book copy!

This story made me skeptical at first. Especially since I felt the story was framing it as the main character was only cross-dressing to get closer to their crush. However, I feel like by the end of the volume you understand that it had more to do with their journey in figuring out their gender identity. I feel like if it didn't start off like that I would have enjoyed it more but I still felt lukewarm about it after I was finished. I might give volume two a chance to see if it makes me more interested. I still recommend checking it out because I feel like the discussions were good and it might work for others.