I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup 1

"Cocoa" has found belonging in an all-girl who meet up for sweets. There's just one problem: Cocoa's actually a cross-dressing guy! What begins as a tense manga about online life turns into a lighthearted comedy about love, friendship, gender nonconformity, and what it means to be your true self.

Includes volumes 1 and 2 of the Japanese edition, over 250 pages of manga!

"Cocoa" has made three best friends in her monthly meetup group, where girls get together every month to quell their sweet tooths by meeting up at the cutest and trendiest new dessert cafes. Cocoa is in it for the sweets--really!--but she's also harboring a few secrets: Not only does Cocoa have a crush on another one of the girls in the group, Opera, but she's actually a guy named Satoshi who's been cross-dressing in order to attend the all-girl group! During one meetup, things come to a head when Opera discovers that Cocoa is cross-dressing--and to Cocoa's surprise, Opera confesses that he is too! But Cocoa realizes that his attraction to Opera is more than clothing-deep, and as the two grow closer, they'll learn more about each other--and their own selves--than they could have ever imagined.

• ISBN10: 1646517830
• ISBN13: 9781646517831
• Publish Date: 17 September 2024
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Kodansha Comics
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 272
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781646517831

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

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

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