is a Japanese

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

manga written and illustrated by

Aya Kanno is a Japanese manga artist. After working as an assistant to Masashi Asaki of ''Psychometrer Eiji'' fame, she debuted as a professional manga artist in ''Hana to Yume'' in 2001 with her fantasy-action series '' Soul Rescue''. She has since publ ...

, which began in ''

Bessatsu Hana to Yume , also known as , was a Japanese manga magazine published by Hakusensha from 1977 to 2018. It was a sister magazine to . History was launched in July 1977 as a sister magazine to . After 41 years, it ceased publication with the release of it ...

'' in late 2006 and concluded on November 26, 2012. The series has been adapted into a live action TV drama. The series has been one of the best-selling shōjo properties in America, since being licensed by

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

. The series is also licensed in France by Delcourt and in Spain by Planeta DeAgostini.

Plot

Asuka Masamune is the coolest, manliest guy in his school. He is the captain of the kendo team where he reached the national championship tournament, and also excels in

judo is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...

and karate. However, he harbors a secret: he is an ''otomen'', a guy who really loves things that are usually associated with girls: cooking, sewing, and especially reading

shōjo manga is an editorial category of Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent females and young adult women. It is, along with manga (targeting adolescent boys), manga (targeting young adult and adult men), and manga (targeting adul ...

love stories. He hides this part of his life from his classmates until he meets and falls in love with Ryo Miyakozuka, the daughter of a martial artist and heir to his dojo who appears to be interested in manly guys. He is encouraged by his schoolmate Juta Tachibana to pursue a relationship with her and for them to be honest with each other, but unbeknownst to him, Juta is secretly a shojo manga artist of Asuka's favorite manga.

Characters

Main

; : Asuka is a very tall, masculine and cool high school boy, but secretly, he loves all things related to girls (pink, sparkly and cute stuff, cooking, love comics, etc.). This, however, does not stop him from being necessarily tough on occasion- he can defend himself and his friends. When Asuka was young his father left his family because he wanted to become a woman. This affected Asuka's mother severely and when she saw that her son was starting to like girly things she forced him to be masculine. Asuka also clearly states that while he likes girly things, he does not want to become a woman. When a new girl in school, Ryo Miyakozuka, is being bullied he defends her and later falls in love with her. Among his talents, besides sports, are cooking and sewing. He also enjoys reading the fictional

''Love Chick''. : Author Aya Kanno has noted that Asuka has hobbies and sensitivities that are opposite of her own personal likes. She finds that it makes Asuka more naturally feminine. ; : Ryo is a new transfer student at Asuka's school. She lives with her father who is a very tough police officer, and of which owns their family dojo. Even though she is a girl, she cannot sew, cook, bake, make

bento A is the Japanese iteration of a single-portion take-out or home-packed meal, often for lunch. Outside Japan, it is common in other East and Southeast Asian culinary styles, especially within Chinese, Korean, Singaporean cuisines and more, ...

or do any other "girly" things with which Asuka helps her. She also likes action movies. : Author Aya Kanno notes that Ryo is the exact opposite of Asuka, but that Ryo has a different perspective on masculinity than Kanno likes. Kanno perceives her as "the extremely thick-skinned yet clueless cool boy in shojo manga". ; : A playboy who befriends Asuka and Ryo, and helps Asuka with his relationship with Ryo. Under the pen name Jewel Sachihana, he is actually the

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

of Asuka's favorite manga, , which runs in the magazine '' Hana to Mame'', He first was inspired to model his Asuka girl character after Masamune when he saw the latter help out a child with a stuffed animal. As a result, his manga moved up from second place to first place in readership and related awards. Upon getting to know Ryo, he adds her to the manga as a guy, and tries to further their relationship whenever his story bogs down. : Juta is the only son and eldest in a family of 11 children. He was inspired to become a manga artist after meeting a girl who let him borrow a shōjo manga. He ended up falling in love with her, only to find out that she was moving away. He promised to see her off, but by the time he got to her house, she was already gone, leaving him heart broken. He returned home to find the manga she loaned him, unread. He had forgotten about it and never gave it back. Juta reads it and falls in love with shōjo manga. : Kanno notes that Juta was originally a cool character but gets more comedic after the third chapter, and he is a shojo manga artist through and through. She admires his passion for his work and notes that he is the most grounded of the three characters. ; :An underclassman at Asuka's school, Yamato has a very girly appearance which he hates. He loves martial arts and trains hard to become good. He admires manliness and has long delusional fantasies about being manly. He believes Asuka to be the ideal man and is oblivious to the fact that Asuka is an otomen. He falls in love with many different girls but is unable to get a girlfriend. Kanno notes that she initially had a difficult time keeping Yamato in the story as there were not many places where he could be used. ; :The captain of Kinbara High School's kendo team, he sees Asuka as his lifelong rival. He is the strong and silent type but is actually an otomen who is good with doing makeup. Similar to Asuka, Tonomine's father told him to give up his girly habits, fearing it would interfere with his Kendo. Juta calls him a "tsun-sama", a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordstsundere is a Japanese term for a character development process that depicts a character with a personality who is initially very harsh before gradually showing a warmer, friendlier side over time. The word is derived from the terms ('to turn away in ...

'' (cold on the outside, warm on the inside) and ''ore-sama'' (self-confident, narcissistic). In one story arc, he and Asuka are recruited to do makeovers for a local television show as masked characters called the Beauty Samurai. ; :Juta's classmate. He has a mysterious, somewhat threatening appearance thanks to his tall stature and bangs that cover his eyes. With his family running a flower shop, he has been obsessed with the beauty of flowers and covers everything from buildings to people with them. He was in a relationship with a girl but gave it up when she told him he had to choose between her and flowers. He is an otomen who refers to himself as the "flower evangelist". Kitora knows Juta's alter-ego as Jewel Sachihana, but protects it.

Supporting

; Kiyomi Masamune : Asuka's mother. Traumatized by her husband's announcement that he always dreamed of being a woman, she takes many measures to ensure Asuka is very manly. Asuka worries she will faint if he reveals his otomen secret to her. ; Miyuki Yoshino : A photojournalist who originally was hoping to expose the identities of the Beauty Samurai duo, later revealed to be Asuka's aunt on his father's side. ; Mira Jonouchi : A popular shojo manga artist whom Juta becomes friends with. It is later revealed to Juta (and later Asuka) that Mira is actually an otomen, and that he dresses up as a woman in Mira's public appearances and signings, with a hand fan covering her face. ; Hiromi Yoshino : The chef and the owner of Patisserie Violet who held the baking class for men, which is Asuka's safe haven from his anti-otomen mother. He is later revealed to be Asuka's father and Kiyomi's ex-husband. ; Kasuga Masamune : Asuka's cousin on his mother's side, he is brought in as the acting chairman as well as a transfer student in order to stop the otomen. He has light hair and wears glasses. When he was young, he had a crush on Asuka and even confessed that he wanted to marry "her", not discovering that he was a boy until years later. ; Mr. Amakashi : A teacher at Asuka's school. He helps Asuka and his friends with hiding their otomen activities when Kasuga is running the school. ; Otowa Moematsu : A young home economics teacher who is brought to Asuka's school by Kiyomi in order to teach women to be more feminine. Her nickname is O-tan, and she is very popular among the boys. She tries to get Ryo to act more feminine but fails. However, she is surprised that Ryo has Asuka as a boyfriend, and that Asuka is a much better at girl activities than even herself. It is later revealed that when she was a student, she was a tomboy who was a member of the softball team and who did not do any housework. Her boyfriend at the time told her that she was not cute and broke up with her, prompting her to try extra hard at being feminine. After Asuka defends her when she encounters her ex, she agrees to part ways with her ex and lets Asuka continue with his otomen activities. She vows to wait for the right guy to love her for who she is, and to continue being an angel to the single boys. ; Kibino : A science teacher who is brought in by Kiyomi to reform the school. He has messy hair, wears science goggles and a mask that covers his mouth. He enjoys making inventions, but has gotten disheartened recently because the inventions are not getting much attention. He concocted a formula that mass hypnotized Asuka's schoolmates into believing boys should do manly things, while girls do girly things. ; Naito Mifune : A Japanese history teacher who is brought in by Kiyomi to reform the school. He intends to turn all the boys into manly samurai. He hosts a field trip at an Edo period themed town in which the boys have to act like samurai and the girls have to act like geisha. However, when rockslides and storms cut off communication of the town from the outside world, he discovers that Asuka, Ryo and the others are quite capable of handling things. He thus concludes that otomen are the ultimate samurai. ; Suzaku Ohji : A teacher who is brought in by Kiyomi to reform Asuka's school.

Media

Manga

The manga is written and illustrated by

and was serialized in the '' shōjo''

manga magazine 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 used ...

'' from 2006 to November 26, 2012. Serial chapters were collected in eighteen

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...

volumes by

Hakusensha is a Japanese publishing company. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company mainly publishes manga magazines and is involved in series' productions in their games, original video animation, music, and their animated TV series. The c ...

Viz Media licensed the series for its Shojo Beat imprint. French publisher Delcourt licensed ''Otomen'' and released its first volume in September 2008. As of January 2010, eight volumes have been released. In Spain, the publisher

Planeta DeAgostini Editorial Planeta-DeAgostini is a Spanish-Italian publisher and a subsidiary of Grupo Planeta and De Agostini specializing in collectable books, sold periodically in pieces through newsstands ( partworks). It has its headquarters in Barcelona.< ...

has licensed the series as ''Otomen'' with its first volume released in December 2008. As of April 2011, nine volumes have been released. The German publisher

Carlsen Verlag Carlsen Verlag is a subsidiary of the homonymous Danish publishing house which in turn belongs to the Swedish media company Bonnier. The branch was founded on 25 April 1953 in Hamburg. The publisher's program focuses on books for children, i. ...

has made eighteen volumes available in the ePub format.

Volume list

Live-action drama

The July 2009 issue of ''Hana to Yume'' magazine, in which ''Otomen'' runs, announced that a live-action drama had been green-lit, and would premier on

Japanese television Television in Japan was introduced in 1939. However, experiments date back to the 1920s, with Kenjiro Takayanagi's pioneering experiments in electronic television. Television broadcasting was halted by World War II, after which regular televisio ...

on August 1, 2009. Kaho portrays Ryo, and

Masaki Okada is a Japanese actor. He is best known for his roles as Sekime Kyogo in the drama ''Hanazakari no Kimitachi e'' and as Takuma Kakinouchi in the 2009 film '' I Give My First Love to You''. Filmography Films * ''The Foreign Duck, the Native Duck ...

plays Asuka. The ending theme song is ''"ラバソー〜lover soul〜"'' sung by

Kou Shibasaki is a Japanese actress and singer who has performed in television shows, movies, and commercials. She is managed by Stardust Promotion. Biography Acting career Shibasaki debuted in 2000, when she portrayed Mitsuko Souma in '' Battle Royale.'' S ...

. A photobook for the live action series by Hakusensha in September 2009 for 1000 yen, entitled (). Cast *

as Asuka Masamune ** Sara Takatsuki as young Asuka * Kaho as Ryo Miyakozuka **Nanami Hinata as young Ryo *

Ryo Kimura is a Japanese actor who debuted in 2002. His first movie was '' Moonlight Jellyfish'', in which he co-starred with Tatsuya Fujiwara. He played the role of Michio, a mentally challenged 15-year-old boy diagnosed with an incurable skin disease cal ...

as Hajime Tonomine * Koji Seto as Yamato Ariake *Kazuma Sano as Juta Tachibana *

Mirei Kiritani is a Japanese actress, model, and news anchor. She appeared in the film ''Heroine Shikkaku'', ''Kimi ni Todoke'', ''Usagi Drop'', and ''Arakawa Under the Bridge''. She also appeared in the drama '' Andō Lloyd: A.I. knows Love?'', ''Gunshi Kanb ...

as Miyabi Oharida *Tomohiro Ichikawa as Kitora Kurokawa * Emi Takei as Kuriko Tachibana * Kanako Yanagihara as Yumeko Hanazawa *

Nobuhiko Takada Nobuhiko Takada ( ja, 高田伸彦, ring name: ) (born April 12, 1962) is a Japanese former mixed martial artist, retired professional wrestler, actor, and writer. He competed in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Universal Wrestling Federation (UW ...

as Ryo's father *

Shingo Tsurumi is a Japanese actor. Career Shingo Tsurumi has appeared in the films such as Katsuhito Ishii's '' Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl'', Hideo Nakata's '' L: Change the World'', and Tak Sakaguchi's ''Yakuza Weapon''. Filmography Films * ''Tonda ...

as Asuka's father *

Mirai Yamamoto is a Japanese actress. Her father is Kansai Yamamoto. Personal life Yamamoto was born in Tokyo, Japan. She met Kippei Shiina in 1995 when they worked together on the series , and began dating him after they co-starred in the 1998 film ''Fuya ...

as Asuka's mother *Tokimasa Tanabe as Nakajima * Yu Sawabe as Isono Katsuo

Reception

Similar to Kanno's earlier works, the series has become quite popular, scoring high on both Tohan and

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in ...

's weekly comic charts. The seven volumes available in Japan as of May 2009 have sold over 2.5 million copies. The series was listed as being the 3rd best-selling shōjo property, along with the 13th over-all manga property, in America for the first quarter of 2009.