Boy Skirt

so, this is my first review. but i couldn't help but express my dissatisfaction with this manga when i first started this the first comparison i made was to Prunus girl, and in a way it had a better chance as it doesn't fall into the slice of life drab like prunus girl does. it still has plenty of somewhat boring stuff going on but at least the shorter runtime severly limits the time it has to waste one inconsequential stuff However, that same runtime shortage also cuts all the time of exposure every character has which leads to situations like "here is this character that youwont see for the rest of the manga" and that will be the entire chapter, i dont mind using other characters for the sake of developing other characters, but this Manga has the gall to pretend like they are going to be more important that they are and now im left with characters that im interested in but i wont get to know anything about them other than, thats their name, and they are vaguely related to the """plot""" but the worst offender by far is the end. which so, incredibly ungracefully and lacking any subtlety whatsoever, just says "screw your expectations" its like they setup to an end just to ignore all of the setup to have the manga end of the biggest lowkey note ive seen to date. even ookami-san (the anime) left me more satisfied, because at least that one was stupid. but this is. this is just boring.

It is hard to write about why I dislike this manga without spoilering the ending too much. Outside of the ending, it is mostly a normal crossdressing manga where the protagonist thinks the crossdresser is extremely cute but doesn't want to admit it. This is also true of manga where the crossdresser character is more accurately described as a trans woman but nobody in the manga seems to have ever heard of trans people. If Boy Skirt did not have the ending it did, it would be an OK if unoriginal guy falls for crossdresser manga. Usually in this sort of manga, the protagonist realizes theyromantically love the crossdresser regardless of gender or decide they are too sexually incompatible to be romantic partners. This manga takes a much worst third option that is much more frustrating than either of those two options despite being pretty similar to both them. The outcome does not feel like a natural development and goes against the developments in the rest of the story.

Before I start this review, I'm going to preface this with how I am the kind of person who appreciate and enjoy the journey more than the destination. TL;DR manga is very funny but not too great in the plot department. Read if you love genderbender comedies and don't mind about unsatisfying ending. I know comedy is subjective but if you love genderbender comedies such as Prunus Girl, Himegoto, stuff from the now defunct Waai! magazine, etc, then this is easily one of the funniest out there. This manga was made before these genderbender stories went on some kind of "oh it's exploring deep issues and whatnotala Hourou Musuko" revolution (circa 2016-now) so if you're looking for that then sorry, you won't find it here. You go into this if you just want to laugh and have a good time. First and foremost this manga heavily leans toward comedy and it set up jokes or funny situations really well, but it suffers on the plot aspect (even if there seems to be hints at more story later on, it doesn't pay them off). There are some downtime to reflect on some genuinely wholesome moments, but they are usually just there to make you empathize with the characters or it's another setup for a punchline in the next chapter. The main characters, Ochi and Izumi, have a nice dynamic and as the main pillar of the whole manga they're doing a good job. Now to address the elephant in the room, the ending is not great. It seems more like a sequel bait than an actual ending and pulled off the infamous "we've gone full circle and got back to where we start off" card from slice of life manga. I honestly think this manga would've benefitted from a longer serialization (or an actual sequel), if it was longer it could have easily pay off some plot details that are hinted at throughout the manga and could even be elevated to something great (like an 8 or 9 out of 10). Of course, that didn't happened so if you don't mind about that aspect then feel free to pick up Boy Skirt for your dose of genuinely great genderbender comedy (I'm legit dying from laughter reading this if you're still not convinced).