I was given this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I requested this book because it seemed like a goofy premise and like it would be a fun read and it definitely was! The art is really nice, but it is a little hard to tell the difference between some of the core group of friends in the sweets group because three out of the four have some variation of a blonde bob hairstyle. This was surprisingly wholesome and a fun read.

This was a light, funny read with cute art. A group of "women" that met online get together in person once a month to indulge in sweets. But as the story goes on you discover the different characters genders and who they have crushes. At times it's a little confusing but generally cute and wholesome. It reminds me of Crossplay Love: Otaku x Punk. I think I'll read the second volume to see where it goes.
Thanks to Kodansha and Netgalley for my review copy.

I loved it! One of the best mangas I've read this year. I wish Kurano much success, please write more mangas like this, you're doing the world a favor.
The best thing about it is the naturalness with which the topic of inclusion is treated, how easy and quick it is to read and how understandable the subject is, incredible.
100/100. I highly recommend it.

Thank you so much for letting me read this manga. This is a really well done story. I enjoyed it a lot. I think I liked the first installment just a little better than the second one.

I enjoyed this quite a bit! The back and forth 'gender reveals' were a bit off in my opinion, but nothing was really harmful about them. I'd like to warn fellow trans and gender-nonconforming readers that this is written from the perspective of another culture. The terms and language we use won't always line up. What's progressive in one culture may be regressive in another. There's nothing downright awful, just mild things we'd think were more acceptable to say 10+ years ago, but again, nothing is harmful.

Summary:

Cocoa recently joined a group that meets up every month. This group lets the girls meet up and share treats, all while chatting about the things they love. There’s just one catch - Cocoa isn’t a girl. Her real name is Satoshi.

Fun fact! Satoshi isn’t the only one keeping secrets in this friend group. Nor is his secret all that different from at least one another. This begs the question - what secrets do the other two have?

Review:

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when I dove into I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup 1. It had the potential to be really cute and sweet or go in the entirely opposite direction and get a bit too gross for my liking.

Thankfully, this manga stays wholly in the cute and sweet realm. Our characters are attached to one another and admittedly could have been better at communication, which is how they ended up in this situation.

There’s more to the story than I’ve described, but I don’t want to spoil everything. It delicately handles many of the elements teased in the title (such as shaving concerns, makeup, etc.), which was a pleasant surprise. Likewise, it was never the butt of a joke, or at least that’s how it felt to me.

Highlights:
Cute Romantic Story
LGBTQ+

Will I continue the series? Nah

Sweets, crossdressing, and the revelation that the members of this group may not be what they seem, makes for a hilarious and engaging story. The inclusion of storylines of learning new techniques to dress and do makeup, of friendship and mystery and intrigue, of budding romance, all make this manga one to look out for, as it cements its place in the wonderful world of Slice of Life manga.

Thank you letting read this 🙏🏾.

This was okay I was expecting little more from some other main characters but I did enjoy this alot.

As a cis-gender woman, I don't always feel like the best person to talk about gender identity. But on the flip side, I have plenty of experience being told I'm insufficiently girly because I don't like to use makeup or shop, so it's clear that most if not all of us out there in the world have faced assumptions based on preconceived social ideas of gender and gender expression. This manga does its absolute best to give us a story about a group of people with varying gender identities and expressions, and that, I feel, is worth a lot.

The story follows a group of online sweets fans who decide to start meeting up IRL. Satoshi decides to come as Cocoa, a woman, for certain reasons, one of which seems to be the (patently ridiculous) idea that men don't like sweet foods. Cocoa has a crush on Opera, another girl in the group, but it turns out that Opera is Chiyoda, a young man who enjoys dressing as a woman and so is Lemon, a third group member. The fourth member, Kantentaro, is a woman, but AMAB, so there's some discussion of how that's different from the other three, who identify as male but enjoy presenting as female. In all honesty, I wish that had been delved into a little more, but seeing a trans woman unequivocally accepted as a woman more than makes up for it. And her being trans doesn't need to be a plot point; it's just who she is.

It was a good plan to publish this in a two-volume omnibus because it takes a bit to get into the meat of the story. It feels like the series starts with the idea of being a comedy before shifting over to a discussion of gender expression and identity with comedic elements. If this had been released in single volumes, readers might have gotten the wrong idea about the overall series, which settles down into an exploration of Opera and Cocoa and why they enjoy being those people. Cocoa's reasons feel much more tied to her self-esteem than Opera's; Opera appears comfortable no matter which gender is being presented. But Cocoa is far more comfortable than Satoshi; as Cocoa, she feels like she's got less to worry about in terms of public perception, and she feels less burdened by the gaze of others. A lot of this is tied up in what Satoshi does for work, and that's an interesting conversation about costumes making people feel like their real selves more than their “regular” everyday look.

This may not be the best LGBTQIA+ manga out there about the topic, but it's still a good one. It keeps the tone light without brushing the more serious elements under the rug. That allows room for the story beats to hit readers, giving everyone space to digest what the characters have to say on their own time.

11/04/2024 || I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup 1 by Kurano || #ICrossDressedfortheIRLMeetup #NetGalley


Thank you NetGalley, Kurano, and Kodansha Comics for making this e-ARC available!

Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author and myself.
All of my thoughts are my own~

4.5 Stars

I want to start out by stating I am unsure if it was possibly a localization and/or translation issue, but some parts of this manga were very hard to follow and understand. I could follow the main bulk and enjoyed it very much, and even the parts I struggled with reading/comprehending were also really enjoyable. But the moments where the conversations in the main speech bubbles, the little "talking under their breath"/side comments, and thoughts didn't quite make sense really took me out of the reading experience unfortunately. Due to the amount of times this occurred I struggled to finish this manga in one sitting/in a normal amount of time I normally finish manga and at one point, near the middle, I put the manga down completely for a while.

Which is really unfortunate. I know that there are a lot of restrictions for the topics this manga covers, sexuality, gender, cross-dressing, trans identities, etc - I am just not sure what happened. The author, Kurano, has some lovely author's notes tucked away in this book talking about these topics, but with a lot more clarity than the story line of the manga itself had, so I wasn't understanding why the translation of the AN was clear but the story wasn't it?

Or was the story and dialogue supposed to be clunky and confusing because the characters are a bit clumsy and confused/learning themselves and their friends and their identities? If this was the case, I wish there was an A.N. at the start expressing this as I possibly could have had an easier time navigating those confusing moments. I really hope Kurano and the translating team could maybe get back together to better polish this manga up, or add additional notes to better explain some of the confusing bits.

Other that this above issue, I LOVED this manga. My favorite character was Cocoa, but all of her friends and nearly every character that showed up was so cute and interesting and very fleshed out. Not one single character suffered from being too similar to another- everyone was unique and had their own distinct voice, personality, and story. The story, while clunky in some parts, was really wholesome and heartfelt and I really loved the underlying message (and A.N.) that identities, sexuality, and gender are all fluid and one's own to do with as they like.

"I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup" is a manga series about a group of friends who meet up monthly for sweet treats... but they are not all women as at least one of them are men cross-dressing as women. The manga takes a wholesome turn as they all get to know each other and explore the concept of gender as well as learn about themselves. I've read manga about men crossdressing as women before (especially for romance), but this one takes the cake (haha, get it?) for going deeper into societal norms, gender-neutral restrooms, and more. I'm really looking forward to continuing this series!

A fun and cute read 🫶.

It's my first reading something like this, and it's really a fresh breath of air.

I think the highlight of this story was the characters and the whole cross-dressing plot that is meticulously laid out, giving us an insightful take or perspective of the actions.

Other than that, I really like how it didn't shy in showing the main characters in their most vulnerable state— specifically on the identity part or where Cocoa-san is struggling on their identity and confidence.

The rest of the characters were also a delight, especially Opera-san, I really enjoyed their characters as well.

Overall, this was a good read. I really enjoyed the content of the manga 🫶

Thank you, Kodansha Comic, for the e-arc copy 🫶
-----
Date Released: September 17, 2024
Date Read and Reviewed: November 7, 2024
Ratings: 4⭐️

I don’t know why I expected depth and feelings from this manga. It could have definitely been great, but it doesn’t have any plot. The characters have endless conversations about this and that, but nothing ever happens. We don’t learn why the characters crossdress or what their lives are like. What they do when they’re bored. I wasn’t invested in the story whatsoever. And keep in mind that this edition includes two volumes and not one.

I love seeing what Japanese manga does with gender. I particularly liked the seamless inclusion of a trans girl alongside the cross-dressing boys, highlighting the differences and similarities among the two, and the lack of moral panic surrounding cross-dressing and gender in general. When their identities get revealed, it’s not seen as betrayal or deception, but a shared way to bond. Makes me realize how ingrained our expectation is for that betrayal part of the story—why? It’s not necessary. Imagine that, a world where gender isn’t so feared, policed, and politicized. How refreshing. It was great.

I found this manga to be cute and funny. I liked how the characters bonded and formed friendships. Overall, it was an enjoyable read.

Thank you to Kodansha Comics and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this manga. This was an unexpected story that if I told you more about it, it would be spoilers. I will say if you are uncomfortable with cross dressing and the LGTBQIA community, do not read this. I think though, it’s one that I will continue on slowly and surely. Because of these points, I have to give this a 4 out of 5 stars.

This is a cute Manga about building relationships and being open with yourself. It's funny and cute how the characters both cross-dress as the opposite genders and then discover that they did so! This is a quick read with adorable illustrations and a feel-good message. The characters build each other up and show each other that it is okay to be true to yourself and your identity.

This title immediately caught my attention, since I am generally interested in queer media. Many thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for letting me review this manga!

Cocoa is part of an online group that talks abou desserts and pastries. When they decide to meet up in real life, Cocoa attends dressed as a woman - because, in truth, Cocoa is a shy boy. When her secret crush Opera finds out about her identity, another secret is revealed: Opera is also cross-dressing!

This manga is mostly a comedy with absurd conincidences and fun circumstances. The reader's expecations are always broken up, which leads to plenty of humorous situations. The subject of gender is central, of course, but never the butt of the joke. The story deals less in trying to find labels and more in the characters finding out what they like.

The aforementioned romantic aspects barely make an appearance in this volume. For me, it fit the theme very well, since Cocoa and Opera only now start to really get to know each other and their hidden sides. They both end up as layered characters who have different reasons for their gender presentations.

They are not alone in that. The side characters, mostly the other two girls in their group, all have their own complex circumstances. I loved the moment when one of them came out as a lesbian trans woman on the page. This moment was acknowledged and respected, as far as I can tell, Other than that, there are no specific definitions that the manga tries to apply, which is entirely fitting with its theme of characters searching for their identity.

As a cis woman myself, I cannot entirely judge how sensitive the manga handles the queer topics. I did have a very positive feeling, though! I would certainly reccomend it to anyone who likes reading light-hearted, chaotic queer comedies!

I am so excited about all the new LGBTQIA+ - esque manga and anime that have been coming out lately.

When I read the description of this, I immediately had to request it and was so excited that I got approved. Not only is the art phenomenal, but the story is so sweet and heartwarming. I love all of the characters, but I think my favorites have to be Cocoa and Opera.

Stories about gender expression are very close to my heart as I am going on my own journey, and Cocoa’s striving for perfection in their crossdressing is something I understand all too well. I haven’t found my own style yet, but it’s kind of heartening to see that even people who seem to have the perfect style and everything together still have the same sorts of anxieties. We’re always the hardest on ourselves, and it serves as a good reminder.

I always like to speak on the art in graphic novels and manga, and this art is so beautiful. I love all of the character designs. The characters are all very expressive and the shading and angles during the emotional moments really bring out their feelings. There was one scene where Cocoa is feeling anxious about their appearance in the restroom and it is just them sitting on the closed toilet lid with their head in their hands with the toilet seemingly floating in a sea of shadows and it really stood out to me. I think all of us have experienced that once or twice in our lives- a good cry in the bathroom.

I can’t wait to read more! This is just another to add to the list of books I’m going to request for my library to purchase! Thanks to Netgalley and Kodansha for the DRC in exchange for my review!!

A brilliantly nuanced comedy about the complexity of identity. While the starting premise might have some things in common with myths regarding trans women, the book is quick to show empathy for the experience of trans, genderqueer and gender nonconforming people. Seeing humor empathetic to the queer experience is highly refreshing.