I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup
Exploring gender identity and sexuality through pastries and a very sweet friendship.
I really enjoy reading romances but you know what I also really enjoy reading? Series about friendships! I love reading about a group of friends hang out and be supportive of one another. If you’re someone who wants to explore adult friendships then I have a recommendation for you and it’s the sweet comedy I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup by Kurano. In this series we get to explore friendship, love, and what it means to express your true self.
Genre: Slice of life
Age Rating: Older Teen 16+
Publisher: Kodansha
Status: Complete, all three volumes are now available in English
Synopsis:
In a world that reinforces gender roles, a group of girls meet online through their mutual love of eating sweets and decide to host monthly meetups at different cafes to eat desserts… or so they thought they were girls. It turns out that this group of sweet girls was made up of three cross-dressing males and a trans woman. They soon find out that their friendship goes beyond their mutual love of desserts and they encourage each other’s gender identity, hobbies, and also their real personas when they’re not cross-dressing.
In the series we follow Cocoa, an elegant woman who is new to cross-dressing but is a natural at crafting this new identity because in her real life she’s the actor Satoshi who is a soft-spoken but very talented young man. We also follow the beautiful and very friendly girl named Opera who’s cross-dressing skills are so good that she’s fooled several men into thinking she’s truly a girl. When she’s not cross-dressing, he’s the bland looking college student named Chiyoda. This series also follows femboy Lemon (real-name Yuki) who doesn’t really have to change much when cross-dressing since his features are very feminine. The last piece of the puzzle is the lovely and mature Kantentaro, who’s a trans woman and lesbian- she really loves women.
Favorite Things:
Cocoa and Opera: These two characters are the polar opposites in many ways. Cocoa is new to cross-dressing, insecure, and is worrisome. Opera is confident with her cross-dressing, outgoing, and free-spirited. Together they balance each other really well! Cocoa learns to loosen up and become more confident about exploring her gender expression thanks to Opera. Meanwhile Opera learns that she doesn’t have to put on an act in front of her friends.
Kantentaro: I love all the four characters we follow in this series but Kantentaro is my favorite one! Despite learning that her new group of friends weren’t actually women, she values their friendship so much and immediately accepts that they all feel more comfortable expressing themselves as their cross-dressing personas. She is so accepting and nurturing towards all her new friends. It’s honestly so lovely to see someone like Kantentaro portrayed as the beautiful and kind woman she is.
Kantentaro and Lemon’s relationship: Spoiler, these two get together pretty quick in this series. Although Kantentaro is a lesbian and Lemon is a crossdressing femboy as described by the mangaka, Kantentaro learns that her feelings for Lemon are true and that it doesn’t take away from her sexuality. Love is love after all!
Notable Things:
Educational: Throughout this series we learn more about what it means to each person to be able to truly express themselves and finding a healthy group of friends that will not judge you for how you choose to express yourself. For readers who aren’t familiar with cross-dressing, gender nonconformity, and trans issues I think you’ll learn a lot while reading this series.
Rating: ★★★★ / 5
I have really enjoyed reading I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup so far and I cannot wait to pick up the final volume really soon! This is a sweet story exploring gender nonconformity and adult friendships. I will have to report back on the conclusion once I read it, especially because I really want to see what happens between Cocoa and Opera.
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