Manga Crossdressers

Japanese comics, manga, often feature crossdressing in their stories. Whether the crossdresser is the main character or one of the supporting cast they most often are undetected as males dressing a girls. They are depicted as pretty, sometimes ethereal, and most always, like the other female characters, portrayed wearing short skirts. Some of the crossdressing is actual transformation. A magic pond a boy falls into transforms him into a beautiful girl. Other reasons for crossdressing include family obligations—or avoidance of family obligations. Sometimes it’s just because the character enjoys being a girl. Here are several examples of manga (and often anime) that feature crossdressing. (Click the graphics for a larger size.)

Princess Jellyfish

Kuranosuke Koibuchi

Princess Jellyfish is set in Amamizukan, an apartment building in Tokyo, where the only tenants are women who enjoy manga and anime. No men are allowed. The main character of the story is Tsukimi Kurashita. The manga is named Princess Jellyfish due to Tsukimi’s love of jellyfish. Her deceased mother took her to an aquarium when she was young and the jellyfish impressed her. Tsukimi meets the stylish Kuranosuke Koibuchi, who is the illegitimate son of a politician. He crossdresses to avoid becoming involved in his father’s politics, and to feel closer to his mother. Tsukimi becomes friends with Kuranosuke and he visits her in her apartment while he is crossdressed and the women in the building don’t realize he is male.

Love Stage

Sena Izumi

Izumi Sena is an 18-year-old college freshman. He is a major otaku (a fan of manga) and is obsessed with Magical Girl LalaLulu and wants to become a mangaka. That’s an artist/writer who creates manga. He is very skinny, and extremely short for his age so when dressed in girl’s clothing it’s easy to believe he is a girl. He has appeared as a girl in television commercials but not for years. One day he is offered a TV commercial he just can’t turn down. On the set he’s reunited with Ichijou Ryouma, a super-popular young actor he co-starred with Izumi on a project ten years ago. After that shoot, Ryouma went after Izumi and found out he was male. Even after Ryouma learned Izumi was a boy, that didn’t stop him from loving Izumi.

Otome wa Boku ni Koishteru

Mizuho Miyanokouji

a.k.a. The Maidens Are Falling in Love with Me), commonly known as Otoboku. Mizuho Miyanokouji, the protagonist is a kind high school student who impersonates a girl at an all-girls school. Why is he attending an all-girls school? His grandfather’s final wish was for Mizuho to attend the same academy as Mizuho’s mother and he put it in his will. Mizuho’s childhood friend Mariya Mikado attends the school with him, and helps in his female transition. Mizuho becomes a popular girl among the other students, who often talk about how pretty, nice, and athletic Mizuho is.

Maria Holic

Mariya Shido

The main character in Maria Holic  is a lesbian high school girl, Kanako Miyamae, who is so scared of boys she breaks out in hives if a boy touches her. During her second year of high school, she enrolls in an all-girls school hoping to find a female romantic partner. However, the girls that she is attracted to, Mariya Shid?, turns out to be a crossdressing boy with sadistic tendencies. When Kanako first meets Mariya, she finds his playful femininity and kind attitude very attractive. He often flirts with Kanako by playing with his long blonde hair, speaking in a soft voice, and smiling sweetly. However, Mariya turns out to be quite sadistic in nature and generally adjusts his personality to reflect whatever situation he is in. In other words he’s really a mean girl.

Princess Princess

Cover of Princess Princess.

Princess Princess revolves around the lives of three boys chosen to dress up as girls at the all-boy school they attend. It also just happens to be the most elite school in the area. The main protagonist, Toru Kouno, has just transferred to the school after living with his uncle for a time. He quickly learns that he has been chosen to be one of the Hime or “Princesses”, which is a tradition at the school. The reason given for the need for Hime is credited to a an effort to break up the monotony of life surrounded by nothing but males. Students (based on certain qualifications) are selected to be Princesses and must dress up as girls and attend school functions like this. Paradise for boys with crossdressing tendencies but what about the kid who has no feminine leanings?

Stop!! Hibari-kun!

Hibari

Stop!! Hibari-kun! features a transgender girl. It follows K?saku Sakamoto, a high school student whose mother tells him on her deathbed to live with her friend and yakuza crime boss Ibari ?zora and his family in Tokyo after she dies. K?saku is unsure about his situation at first, but he is relieved when he meets Ibari’s four children: Tsugumi, Tsubame, Hibari and Suzume. K?saku is attracted to Hibari from the start, but is shocked to learn that Hibari, was assigned male at birth. That is only known within the ?zora Group and Hibari’s family. A group of girls begin to suspect that Hibari may be transgender, but her sister Tsubame takes Hibari’s place during a health checkup, which puts a stop to any suspicions. Hibari begins to show an interest in K?saku, but knowing the truth about her he makes an effort to avoid her.

This is just a small sampling of manga that features cross gender characters. Many of the mange comics have been turned into anime and some have become video games. Most of the visual books written about here are available online.

Tags: crossdressing, featured, manga

Category: crossdressing, Transgender Fun & Entertainment