My Androgynous Boyfriend Volume 1

Review Date: 2020 May 09 13:30

Reviewed by: Joe

Released by: Seven Seas Entertainment

Publishing Country: USA

Author: Tamekou

Age Rating: Teen

Page Count: 168

ISBN-13: 9781645051985

ISBN-10: 1645051986

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Summary

His makeup is flawless! The daily ins-and-outs of an office lady and her beautiful boyfriend.

Wako and her androgynous boyfriend don't exactly have the most traditional of relationships. She spends her days working hard in the world of publishing, while he spends his time obsessing over fashion and makeup-all with the goal of making himself beautiful just for her. This romantic slice-of-life story is about love, relationships, and breaking with tradition!

Review

My Androgynous Boyfriend is a romantic slice of life story from Tamekou. The story is about Wako and her androgynous boyfriend Meguru.

The original title of this Gender Less Danshi Aisareteimasu. Meguru is a follower of genderless fashion. Like many types of fashion it's also a lifestyle. The genderless look is popular with all genders. It's a non-binary look and a particular fashion/sub culture movement in Japan. By calling the manga My Androgynous Boyfriend in English, it makes sense. The first few pages explain that Meguru is attractive, good with makeup, clothes and hair. So by calling the book My Androgynous Boyfriend, the androgynous aspect acknowledges and invokes a history androgynous fashion like David Bowie.

Wako is an editor for a publishing company and works long hours living the office worker life. In contrast Meguru is a social influencer with a large following and has a modelling contract. He works for a fashion shop in Harajuku where long lines of girls queue up to meet him and buy clothes from the shop. He's an internet celebrity in his own right.

When he's with Wako, Meguru is often mistaken for a girl due to his genderless style and this forms part of the comedy set-up.

With the scenario set the story is a light hearted exploration of the couple's relationship, social media influencers, Harajuku fashion and the ins and outs of being a rising celebrity. There's also an underlying theme about how you're perceived and how you want to be perceived, how much of Meguru's life is shared on the internet and conversely how much he shouldn't mention for the image he needs to project being an genderless icon.

My Androgynous Boyfriend forms a wave of great LBGT+ titles from Seven Seas. It's a sweet little slice of life story with an unconventional twist. It's not a heart wrenching exploration of life being LGBT+ (for that read the brilliant Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare). It's a fun story about a boy with nice nails and everyday happenings.

Artwork wise the manga is done to a high standard. There's lots of good use of screen tones, the clothes, hair and other fashion details are well observed, it feels like it's all out of Tokyo fashion photo book. Pacing is good too and we're introduced to Meguru's trendy world and the people who occupy it.

My Androgynous Boyfriend sets out and achieves exactly what it promises to do. It's a fun light manga read and leaves you keen for the next volume.

Rating: 8/10

Links

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