Otomen is a shōjo comedy/romance series which reverses the typical gender stereotypes for many of the characters. Not to be confused with an Ottoman or the cushiony furniture and textiles by the same name, Otomen is pun of the Japanese word otome (young lady) and the word men. The story revolves around Asuka Masamune; while Asuka portrays a cool and manly nature to the outside world, he is in fact the complete opposite, liking stuff such as flowers, frills, shōjo manga, and other stuff commonly associated with females. He is still attracted to the opposte sex, specifically Ryo Miyakozuka, daughter of a martial artists, who has been trained by her dad after her mother passed away and wants to become the most manliest girl among men. As the series progresses several people learn about his secret such as Juta Tachibana who writes a manga based heavily on their relationship and others who have similar males who have some feminine qualities to them.
Volume 4 introduces one such character, Kitora Kurokawa, the son of a florist, who loves flowers almost too much. At first he is ashamed of his love for flowers, but Asuka helps him overcome it. The volume also features the reappearance of Ryo's father who attempts for the first time ever to bake a cake and a battle on the beach for customers when Asuka and Ryo decide to help a friend's uncle revitalize his dilapidated beach bar.
Highlights:
The series focuses a lot on the humorous aspects of gender role swapping. While most of this is men doing girlish stuff, the lead romance is the opposite; a girl doing manly stuff. The reoccurring theme in the series is having characters have some kind of secret love for something they shouldn't because it's not suppose to be associated with their gender role. Once they find someone who has similar tastes they overcome their fear and openly display this passion. Some, like Kitora, a bit more than others. Ryo's father is the only major exception to this rule and the jokes that revolve around it. One such joke in this chapter involves him wanting to do something for his daughter for her birthday, but doesn't know about anything feminine. While this was published in a shōjo manga, the message it portrays seems to be that most people are not stereotypes and do not need to feel ashamed about having some item that others might find weird. The manga episodically portrays this for guys showing them not as effeminate men, but simply as males liking cute and beautiful things as not being gay; indeed it seems to imply girls will still like them just as much, if not more so. For those like Ryo's father who are what the stereotype is based on, they too have their own problems and wish they could do more than they can for those they care about.
Overview:
Out of all the shōjo manga I've read recently, Otomen is defiantly one of the best. Aya Kanno is able to blend a traditional romance between a guy and a girl by reversing their roles to put it on its head. Kanno openly admits to using every cliché out there and still she is able to give them new life. While it may not appeal to every male out there, the use of humor as the main driving factor for most of the narrative could make it appeal to a larger audience. Unfortunately, being a Shojo Beat title I doubt this will happen until an anime is made and (officially) translated into English, if ever; that label puts off a lot of male readers due to the traditional narrative structures of shōjo and shōnen even though the lines have blurred for what constitutes a male- and female-oriented manga, especially for western markets.
If there would be anything I feel this manga is lacking, it would be more female characters with some manly characteristics. This aspect might really help broaden the appeal of the series, even if the manga still centers around the male characters. The manga is still just introducing characters so I'm still hopeful Kanno can create a broad range of characters.
Kanno has some variety in her art style, as shown with Ryo's dad in comparison with the rest of the characters. The one fault is that her eyes all tend to look similar and she notes that when drawing Kitora she was glad she didn't always have to draw them because of his physique which is similar to that of Bleach's Chad. Still, eyes are commonly the most difficult thing to draw for people and she makes this up with other physical features and her character's personalities.
ComicsOnline gives Ottomen Volume 4 4 out of 5 guys who like cute items.
