is a Japanese

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series written and illustrated by

Hideo Yamamoto is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known as the creator of the manga series ''Ichi the Killer'', which was adapted into a live-action film by Takashi Miike in 2001, and ''Homunculus''. Recurring themes in his manga are crime, sexual devi ...

. The series follows Shinya Okama, a straight college student who works at an ''okama'' bar (a

cross-dressing Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes usually worn by a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and self-express oneself. Cross-dressing has play ...

gay bar). ''Okama Report'' was serialized in the manga magazine '' Weekly Young Sunday'' from 1989 to 1991, and was adapted into a three-part

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

(OVA) from 1991 to 1992.

Synopsis

While drunk at a party, college student Shinya Okama's friends dress him as a woman. He later sees a photograph of himself at the party, but with no recollection of the incident, he believes his own image to be that of a beautiful woman and falls in love at first sight with himself. Upon learning the truth, he is persuaded to work at an ''okama'' bar – a cross-dressing gay bar – where he adopts the drag persona of "Catherine". On his first night at the bar he meets Miki, a female college student and regular at the bar who looks exactly like Catherine. The series follows Shinya as he attempts to court Miki while concealing his true identity.

Characters

; : Portrayed by: Ryō Horikawa (Shinya) and Yuri Amano (Catherine) : A straight college student who works at an ''okama'' bar. ; : Portrayed by: : A regular at the ''okama'' bar who Shinya falls in love with. ; : Portrayed by: Issei Futamata : Shinya's friend, who originally dressed him as a woman.

Media

Manga

''Okama Report'' was serialized in the manga magazine '' Weekly Young Sunday'' from 1989 to 1991. It was written and illustrated by

, and is noted as one of his sole works in the comedy genre. Its title is a parodic reference to "Gay Report", a report published by the

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

rights group (also known as OCCUR) noted as the first large-scale survey of gay life in Japan conducted by gay men. OCCUR protested ''Okama Report'' for containing what it argued were stereotypical and inaccurate depictions of LGBT people, particularly its failure to distinguish between gay male

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...

and transgender

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...

. In response, publisher

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics (manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hit ...

ceased publishing collected ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' editions of the manga, discontinuing the release of the series after two volumes. The series was subsequently printed in full twice: as five ''tankōbon'' volumes published from October 1996 to June 1997, and as three ''

bunkobon In Japan, are small-format paperback books, designed to be affordable and space saving. The great majority of ''bunkobon'' are A6 (105×148mm or 4.1"×5.8") in size. They are sometimes illustrated and like other Japanese paperbacks usually ...

'' volumes published from May to June 2009. Both the 1996 and 2009 editions contain "On how to portray male homosexuals", a

postscript PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language. It was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Doug Br ...

from OCCUR noting that the series contains exaggerated and inaccurate depictions of LGBT people.

Original video animation (OVA)

''Okama Report'' was adapted into a three-part

(OVA) produced by

Toshiba EMI , formerly , was one of Japan's leading music companies. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of British music company EMI Group Ltd. on June 30, 2007, after Toshiba sold off its previous 45% stake. Its CEO and president was Kazuhiko Koike. Whe ...

from 1991 to 1992.

References

External links

* {{Weekly Young Sunday 1989 manga 1991 anime OVAs Cross-dressing in anime and manga LGBT in anime and manga Seinen manga Shogakukan manga