Crossplay Love: Otaku x Punk Vol. 1 (2025)

Super cute concept. TW: expected amount of internalized transphobia and gender performance.

Hana is a lovely young worker at a maid cafe who has caught the eye of the brash, yet timid, Mei. The two of them have massive crushes on one another, which would make for a whole other genre if the two of them weren’t actually guys in disguise. Who can’t stand one another in “real” life. Oops.

I’m pretty open about the fact that BL is not really my genre, so I will also be pretty open and say that having the two guys crossplaying as cute girls is probably the most effective silver bullet that could ever be used to have me exploring the genre again.

This book knows how to weaponize its silly premise for all it’s worth. Hana and Mei, aka Hanae and Shuumei, keep their sparks flying, but it’s not without complication after complication because of just about everything, including their preconceptions of one another’s male selves.

You can generally expect each situation for one character to have a parallel shortly afterwards, so both girls admit that they absolutely hate the type of person who their crush appears to be in the real world in separate chapters. One meets the other while the other isn’t in crossplay, that sort of thing.

Nothing about this premise could survive outside of a manga - these two are fooling one another and basically nobody else. I do like the way that the story takes pains to explain how Shuumei knows how to do Mei’s makeup so well though, but they’d have discovered one another’s identities five times over.

Nonetheless, it’s silly fun and really kind of charming. Hanae’s initial narration is pretty savage and I thought we were in for some serious judgemental manga, but it’s thankfully just a reflection on his self-loathing and poor esteem. There’s basically zero hesitation on Shuumei’s part to shed his punk aesthetic and dress like a girl if it gets him closer to Hana.

The side characters are surprisingly strong, it’s an all male main cast, but everybody is full of secrets or a little more layered than you’d expect. Except that one guy they introduce at the end, who I didn’t especially like, but on the balance this is a good group.

It’s all extremely silly with a side order of farce, but there’s a fun hook to the story and some good chuckles as everybody naturally assumes the wrong thing or can’t put the pieces together (with one exception). Normally that would drive me crazy, but this is played so broadly that it works just fine because it’s always going for it.

I question whether there’s enough substance for some people, this story is hilariously formulaic when it’s mirroring our two leads’ experiences, but if the premise is at all amusing I wager you’d have a good time. It’s a fun take on crossplay and, no, it’s not as thoughtful a look at the notion as, say, Love Me For Who I Am, but that story had similar real world blinders on, so it’s more a difference of the intent than anything. This wants to entertain and it does it pretty darn well.

3.5 stars - this is probably a rounded up first volume, honestly, but I think we’ll adopt a wait and see approach before doing so. It’s off to a strong start, now it just needs to keep it up without becoming stale. Definitely on my reading list for another volume though.

*Original Review 2/20/2023*
Shuumei has a crush on a girl he sees working at a maid cafe, but he doesn't have the guts to go to the maid cafe as his usual punk self. His solution? Disguise himself as a girl. Little does he know the maid he has a crush on is actually Hanae, an otaku boy, who's only comfortable around others when he's dressed as a girl.

So much more fun than I was expecting! I'm looking forward to seeing what happens when they find out about each other since they do not like each other as boys. It'll be great lol. I love the side characters too. Everyone's so cute and funny. The friends seem like they'll be instigators in a good way. This was a fun, enjoyable read and I can't wait to read more.

*Reread 8/9/2024*
They're so silly.

3.5 but rounding up because is cute

I randomly checked this one out from the library and my friends it did not disappoint....

Crossplay Love: Otaku X Punk is about a geek and punk who both enjoy dressing as women. Ironically, the two don't get along at school, but seemingly fall for each other's alter egos. There is a lot to be said about how they both deal with their internalized harmful views about their desires to present as women, but a huge part of this was charming, cute, and funny. It's clear to see that there is a mutual level of caring that is shared between the characters even though they don't know each others true identities. I'm genuinely excited to see how the rest of the series is going to develop. It took me a while to figure out the characters when they were presenting as women, but overall this was a solid read.

This was the cutest manga I've read in a while. It was filled with sweetness, humor, and so much blushing. I loved it.

I almost debated a DNF due to the slow start, but ended up sticking it through to the end. Not a bad story - cute - just not interesting enough to keep me hooked. May or may not grab the next vol.

Mei is a regular at the maid cafe that Hana works at. Both girls have a huge crush on the other. What Mei doesn’t know is Hana is a boy from her school named Shuumei, a punk who she hates. And what Hana doesn’t know is that Mei is a boy from her school named Hanae, an otaku from her school she hates. Both boys are nervous about love, having a crush on a girl who has the same secret.

Kinda has an insane premise that intrigued me, and it has the potential to be really good or really bad. I thought it was cute but it has the potential to be transphobic in a way I will hate. Hopefully it will stick to a comedy of errors about two guys who embrace a certain gender nonconformity, or even, perhaps, develop into a trans story. But I am holding my breath. My review stars will stay with me for now.

3.5* I was hesitant to start this because it could end up a trainwreck, but where it goes and how it gets there...only time can tell. For now it's classic genderbender comedy schtick that's funny as long as you don't think too hard about it.

So this is not the most exceptional or heartfelt romance manga I've read, but it is exceptionally cute and fun. I smiled a lot, and definitely feel hooked for the next one at least. We'll see how long the gag stays fresh and if this has the legs to really stay interesting, but I had a lot of fun!

fun and cute! i laughed a lot

score:3.5/5
read 12/12/22

Very funny. Excited to see where it goes.

They're so cute!!! This all feels very much like a Shakespeare comedy cranked past 11. I have no idea what's going to happen but I love it.

Anziehend anders ist leichte Kost und kommt gerade Recht, wenn man einfach nur etwas entspanntes lesen möchte.

Hana und Mei verlieben sich auf den ersten Blick ineinander, allerdings erwartet jeder von ihnen, dass ihr gegenüber ein Mädchen sei.

Bisher ist der Auftakt vor allem witzig, was sic durch überzeichnete und extreme Emotionen ausdrückt. Der Zeichenstil ist sehr klar, manchmal ein bisschen off, aber passt dennoch gut zur Geschichte. Finds cool, dass sich die Aura der Charaktere, je nachdem ob sie gerade als Junge oder Mädchen unterwegs sind, unterscheidet.

Abgesehen von den klischeehaften Rollen (Hana = Nerd und Mei = Rowdy) in die die beiden Charaktere gesteckt worden, konnte ich noch nicht viel anderes ausmachen. Könnte aber auch an der episodischen Erzählung legen, die stets nur kurze Sequenzen einfängt.

Gut finde ich allerdings, dass hierbei nicht nur deren Zusammentreffen abgebildet werden, sondern Leser:innen die Chance bekommen beide in ihrer üblichen Umgebung kennenzulernen.

Da dies kein BL ist, bin ich neugierig, wohin diese Geschichte wohl gehen mag.

Extrem süße und witzige Story. Wer Lust auf GL, BL und straight romance hat bekommt all das zusammen in einer einzigen Romanze. Hat mir super gefallen.
Der Zeichenstil ist auch hübsch, genau wie die Geschichte. Die Charaktere sind alle ein bisschen stereotypisch und manche ein wenig seltsam, aber das macht eigentlich nichts, trotzdem ist das und die Übersetzung mein Anhaltspunkt für 4 Sterne. Ich denke allein von der Geschichte her wären das sogar 5 Sterne, es ist echt nicht schlecht. (Ich liebe Udon)

This was really cute. I don’t think I’ve read a book with this plot and I can’t wait to see where they go with it in volume 2.

Shuumei sees Hana on his way by a maid cafe and instantly falls in love, so he decides to use his skills at makeup that he learned from helping his sister do hers to dress like a girl and become her friend. So Shuumei becomes Mei. Little does he know, but Hana is actually Hanae… who is also dressing like a girl.

So each boy falls in love with the other, but doesn’t realize they are boys at all. I love the plot so much!

Well I did say I wanted something different to read and this was well definitely different I like the idea and the premise behind the story the artwork was nice the characters though I am kind of hit or miss on some of them all together it’s not a bad story I think I’ll probably read the rest of them but I’m not in a big hurry.

This is funny and cute and kind of ridiculous.

I have no idea where it's going from here; are the two guys going to eventually realize that they're both guys, and still fall in love that way? Is it going to remain cosplay/crossdressing, or is there some gender identity exploration here? It's really hard to tell at this point. Looks like there are 9 volumes in total, but I tried and failed to find some spoilers online, so I guess I'll have to wait out the translations and see how they go.

Right now, it's really enjoyable. There's no real explanation (yet?) of why Hanae chose to take a job crossdressing in a cafe, or if any of his coworkers know. His boss is a man, and the rest of his coworkers seem to be cis girls, so it's not a themed cafe in that way. Since he doesn't change at work, it seems like he might be keeping it a secret from everyone - but I'd think his boss would have to know his birth name etc for employment purposes. (This came up in Boys Run the Riot, Vol. 1, where the main character was trans and had struggled to find a workplace that'd accept him as a guy.)

This is definitely much lighter fare, and pretty focused on the comedic aspect of this dynamic, but (so far) in a sweet and playful way.

In the bonus chapters, we find out that Hanae - who goes to cosplay events as himself, rather than as his alter ego Hana - really loves the art of crossdressing, or just of cosplay in general. There's a famous male cosplayer he adores, who does both male and female cosplay, and has huge numbers of equally adoring fans.

The twist there was one of the more ridiculous parts - funny but nonsensical. But maybe it'll lead to something interesting, if Hanae really does want to explore the cosplay scene more, rather than sticking with Hana. There's a drawing at the end that shows him with a variety of wigs, not all of which look like Hana, so maybe that's on the horizon? Also interesting that it seems like his little sister knows something about all this?

The one part I'm kind of meh on is how different Hanae and Hana look and act. The same was true for the cosplayer Udon-san, at least on the looks front - he explains how you can completely change your eyes etc with the right tools and makeup, which is kind of true, but it also just doesn't feel like Toru was trying that hard to make the characters' designs consistent.

This is less true for Shuumei, whose personality, mannerisms, and basic looks remain the same when he's dressed up as Mei. He's actually so similar in both roles that a feverish Hana(e) even recognizes his voice and hands when he's not in his makeup and wig. I like this, because it means that Hanae is falling in love with a personality that's not going to be much different once he finds out who Mei actually is. He might hate Shuumei the delinquent right now, but he admires similar things in Mei: the blunt and somewhat crass language, the strength, the protective tendency towards violence...

My current concern is that it's not really true in the opposite direction. On a regular day, Hanae is super quiet and gloomy and standoffish. As Hana, he's bright and bubbly and so incredibly cheerful and chatty - all things that Shuumei is super attracted to and finds wonderfully refreshing. Right now, the person he's in love with, gender aside, just isn't Hanae, and I wonder if that's going to change. Maybe Hanae will gain more confidence in his daily life and be more talkative/excitable/etc even when he doesn't have the shield of Being Someone Else?

I definitely appreciated the chapter where he gave Mei his umbrella, because he was Hanae there, but had some of Hana's blushing, fast-paced mannerisms. Not enough for Shuumei to really give him a second look, but he did run after the gloomy otaku to give him his umbrella back, so there's something shifting there, a little.

Anyway, we'll see! I'm more intrigued than I'd thought I was going to be. The friends are fun, too; Shuumei's buddy/gang member is particularly interesting, and in a regular BL I feel like that would've probably been the romance. (Turning down 25 confessions because no girl is ever going to matter to him as much as Shuumei does...that's a tough act to follow.)

This friend immediately pegs Hana as a crossdressing guy but doesn't tell Shuumei or discourage him from pursuing his love, so I'll be interested to see how that turns out, too. I like that he's just supporting his best friend in anything he wants.

I hope the next volume (and the 7 after that) are as enjoyable as this one, but that there's some solid character growth, too. So far I super like Shuumei - his personality, his friends, the glimpses of his family life - and the makeup artist sister whom he learned his Mei-makeup skills from. It seems like both he and Hanae have pretty supportive networks, so I'm looking forward to a hopefully very happy ending for the two of them.

Love at first cosplay?

Sort of. The strange and peculiar lives of this manga's characters converge in such a funny little way that what might otherwise be fertile ground for fetishistic humor instead gives way to deliberately awkward wholesomeness. A mild-mannered girl falls for a rough-around-the-edges girl? Maybe. Except the mild-mannered girl is a reclusive (male) otaku, and the rough-edges girl is (male) delinquent with a soft side. CROSSPLAY LOVE: OTAKU x PUNK v1 is a simple meet-cute via crossdressing. The convenience of its narrative artifice notwithstanding, the story might be cleverer than readers are readily aware.

Both Hanae Yuuma (otaku) and Satogiri Shuumei (delinquent) are second-year high-schoolers looking for a path through the morass of their young lives. Hanae sinks his teeth into nerdy stuff, chats freely with his cosplay-loving best friend, and does everything humanly possible to avoid contact with normies. Satogiri bloodies his knuckles daily, covets how his fellow delinquent buddy attracts so many potential girlfriends, and isn't above pondering self-improvement. Only in manga are they the perfect pair.

Both Hanae and Satogiri also fall in love quite easily. When Satogiri spots Hanae (as "Hana") tending tables at a maid café, the delinquent (as "Mei") pursues the otaku via the not-so-subtle pretenses of workplace patronage. It's up in the air as to how soon these two idiots will actually realize the other person stresses over how the other thinks and feels, but that's part of the gag. Importantly, in CROSSPLAY LOVE: OTAKU x PUNK v1, crossdressing isn't the joke; crossdressing is the vehicle through which all of the manga's humor and social commentary traverse.

Does cosplay and/or crossdressing permit people to express themselves as they would not otherwise be able? Absolutely. But where among this means of self-expression are the limits of willful articulation (desire) and the boundaries of experiential wonder (need)? CROSSPLAY LOVE: OTAKU x PUNK v1 is shallowly written and focuses closely on these two characters' dynamic, with a passing glance to their best-friend circles and their bland school lives. But bubbling beneath the surface is an intriguing slice of contemporary discourse on the application of (gendered) costuming to express or receive genuine affection.

Humans have conditioned themselves into believing certain manners of dress or behavior are the privilege of those deserving of attention. But such contrived renderings of urban civility do very little to represent the incalculable diversity of emotion presumed to define said humans. A dress means many different things, and to many different people. As do makeup, a wig, a hair clip, some lip gloss, some stylish culottes, and so forth. And that's the rub. However funny or sweet or awkward the character dynamics of this manga, these influencing variables of dress only matter if the characters want them to.

Ridiculous, cute fun, that falls apart if you think about it too much but it's not like the series is trying to be a hard-hitting documentary. It mostly plays as comedy.

Hanae is an emo otaku highschooler who dresses and presents as a girl at times because he's more outgoing and extroverted that way and is employed at a maid cafe as his female self, Hana. (Like anyone would do, right?) There, he falls in love with a female customer, Mei... who's actually another boy, Shuumei, a young punk who goes to the same school and sometimes crosses paths with Hanae, not that the two of them would usually willingly interact with each other there since their cliques dislike each other. Shuumei creates his girl self because he sees and falls in love with Hana through the window of the cafe and thinks it would be embarrassing to go in alone as a punk boy. What the endgame of his strategy here is I don't even know. One would presume that he would eventually reveal himself to Hana as Shuumei but how could that go well...? ("I've actually been a boy spending time and becoming friendly with you under false pretenses because I love you! Do you love guy me back [even though you don't even really know guy me]?" Not knowing that Hana's response might partially be something like "...no, but, ha ha, funny story, I'm actually....") Neither Shuumei nor Hanae seem to be into guys and at this point wouldn't even consider being friends.

Another complication is that while Shuumei's Mei is mostly a feminine and somewhat softer version of himself, Hana presents a very different personality than Hanae.

I enjoy Shuumei's friends--except for Kanoko, whom I hate and wish the book would spend less time with--but don't like Hanae's friend Udon or anything he brings to the plot.

A silly comedy of mistaken identities where the complications just keep snowballing: punk Shuumei has a monster crush on Hana, a cute girl who works at a maid cafe, but he's too embarrassed to go in as a guy and look weird or creepy; so he disguises himself as a girl. Hana quickly (secretly) falls for this cute tomboyish girl, not suspecting the truth - and not daring to reveal that 'she' is really Hanae, a geeky otaku boy. Neither boy suspects the truth, and both struggle with whether to reveal themselves to the 'girl' of their dreams - little do they realize that they both go to the same school, where Shuumei can't stand gloomy emo otaku boys like Hanae and Hanae can't stand rude, pushy punks like Shuumei!
What follows is a comedy of errors and "will they or won't they find out?" as the boys run into each other in different combinations of both personas, and as their very different friends become involved, too, taking things into Shakespearian-comedy territory.
Based on this first volume, I wouldn't call this LGBT, despite the gender-swapping - neither boy seems trans or gay, they're just 'crossplaying' for different reasons (work & self-consciousness) and genuinely think their crush is of the opposite sex. Who knows if this might change later. There could be argued to be a bit of queer-baiting with Shuumei's overly-attached guy friend with the crop-top.
Recommended as a light, silly read.

Content/parental concerns: occasional light swear word (like exclaiming 'sh*t' when surprised), so far no alcohol, drugs, nudity, sex, or suggestive imagery.

What a fun concept! I'm always a sucker for secret identities and love squares, so this is a fun story for me. Shuumei sees a girl working at a maid cafe, and falls head over heels for her. Except, he's too scared to go into the maid cafe, both out of embarrassment and for fear of looking like a creep. So he decides to dress up as a girl to visit the maid cafe, because it's not creepy when girls go to maid cafes, right? I'm not going to lie, this massive leap in his logic is honestly hilarious to me. It's very much, only a teenager would come up with this kind of idea. Shuumei, now dressed as "Mei", gets to formally meet and interact with the girl he has a crush on, Hana! But unbeknownst to him, Hana is actually Hanae! Hanae dresses as a girl to boost his confidence and to "recreate" his persona and works in the cafe while dressing as a girl. Hanae, whilst working at Hana, meets Mei, who he immediately falls head over heels for. This story honestly has fun playing around with concepts of gender, and the concepts of LGBT love. If not for this secret identity story, it would honestly read exactly like a common high school shojo romance. This first volume doesn't have a lot of meat plot-wise, but again, it's volume one. It's mostly doing the setup and introducing characters for later. This romantic comedy series has plenty of potential that I'm super excited to read! I look forward to the next volumes!

Seven Seas has definitely become the go-to publisher for LGBT manga over the past few years, and this recent offering is certainly a worthy addition to their collection. Cross Play Love: Otaku x Punk is essentially the story of two teenage boys who fall in love while dressed as girls, oblivious to the fact that a) the object of their affections is not actually female, and b), they do not particularly even get along in real life. Respectively a shy otaku and a high school delinquent, Hanae (Hana) and Shuumei (Mei) clash in school corridors but fall in love at the maid cafe where Hanae works and Shuumei visits as a patron. It’s a sweet series with a simple but decently executed premise. The plot doesn’t necessarily have an awful lot of depth, but it is a very enjoyable romantic comedy with nice art and a cute love story.

This is soo cute! This manga is really good for manga readers who are fans of yuri AND yaoi or simply like any sort of romance. Because while this is a funny little yaoi, technically, we see the two boys as girls more often than not. That being said, it feels really well balanced, but all the cute and romantic scenes are as the girl alter egos. Which, by the way, their girl versions are SOO, super cute and augh, I adore it.
I’m hoping this manga gets a bit deeper as it progresses— I’m hoping this funny, cute little situation inspires the both of them to not only accept more from the world than they had before but also to allow themselves the freedom to be who they’d really like to be, more than before. But yes, super, duper cute! Give it a read!

A cute romance between two crossdressing boys who hate (or at best barely tolerate) each other while boys but are madly in love with each other as girls. The main thing I can't quite believe is that the girl versions are supposed to just be the boy versions in make-up. I suppose that's partly the style of the artwork to blame, but it's not exactly believable. It feels like the style changes too much, especially in the shape of their eyes.

Otherwise, pretty standard contrived drama for a romance story. Decent, but I don't think I'll keep it (happy to donate to little libraries to find a potential new fan, of course!).

ahhhh this manga was just absolutely adorable!! I love how each of the characters act when they're cross-dressing vs when they're in their natural attire. The way Shuu-mei and the other punks act with each other is also sooo wholesome in comparison to how others see them! I really really hope Shuu-Mei and Hanae end up together, and love each other as they are, and as Hana and Mei. <3

(also the art is just gorgeous!! and this story really makes me want to dress up like them and pretend yo be someone else for a while teehee!)

Wer leichte und lustige Unterhaltung sucht, ist bei "Anziehend anders" genau richtig! Shumei und Yuma sind zwei ziemlich gegensätzliche Charaktere, die auf den ersten Blick nicht besonders viel gemeinsam haben. Beide begegnen sich manchmal in der Schule und haben für diese Sorte Mensch nur Verachtung übrig. Doch sobald einer von ihnen sich in seiner Rolle als "Mei" oder "Hana" wiederfindet, hat der jeweils andere die rosarote Brille auf! Daraus entstehen einige ziemlich witzige Situationen, die in kurzen, noch eher episodenhaften Kapiteln ihren Lauf nehmen. Ich bin gespannt, was sich weiterhin darauf entwickelt und auf einige "Probleme", die schon in Band 1 angerissen wurden und noch größere Ausmaße annehmen könnten... Die Zeichnungen im Manga haben mir mit ihrer klaren Linienführung ebenfalls gut gefallen. Von mir gibt es für Band 1 4🌟!

Oh, what a cute beginning of the series! The premise of the story of a loner geek and delinquent falling for each other's alter ego had my attention from the beginning. Its interesting on the reasons why both choose to present themselves as their alter egos. I love how cute Hana gets over Mei, and the moments when Hanae bumps into Shuumei are even more hilarious. I'm having super high hopes for this series so please! Be good!

It started off real cringe and over the top with the chosen trope but after the first couple introductory chapters the story actually progressed a little bit and it got better. The characters are cute (if not a bit annoying at times). I found the side characters to be a little more interesting than the main couple. There were some sweet moments that I found worth reading and continuing the manga. It's a cute, light read (what I like to call a palate cleanser).

Cute artwork, hopefully this is a good ending for both characters, who cross dress from male to female to feel confident. There are a feel cringe moments as it plays on high school identities very keenly. The maid café concept reminds me of Maid-sama, but will continue to read this manga as it gets localized and released.