Ikemen Girl to Hakoiri MusumeHandsome Girl and Sheltered Girl Edit What would you like to edit? SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links   1t21n

The Cool Aloof Guy With Long Hair And Icy Eyes is a standard of shoujo romances, and new college student Satomi finds herself immediately susceptible to a classmate with exactly this description. However, this gay little manga decides to ask the burning question: what if the dreamy cool guy was a GIRL?

As pretty much every trope can be improved with lesbianism, I was sold pretty quickly. The cool guy being a girl immediately makes a character archetype I didn't particularly care for 1) funny and 2) unexpectedly super endearing in her moments of awkwardness given the misunderstanding central to her circumstances.

The two women start accidentally ... dating without Satomi knowing that she's dating a girl, and this leads to a lot of awkward hijinks. It's nonsensical of course, but what sells it is that the characters are genuinely likable and really cute. Don't expect anything revolutionary or genre-busting here. This is definitely a feel-good romp through tropes you know and want. But that's why it's good. It gives you what you want in the cute romance department with a twist of situational comedy and heaps of misunderstandings that are more charming than annoying. There aren't any particular surprises, but there also aren't any GROSS surprises so I count that as a win for an enjoyable, comfy read. It's just good romance, folks!

The art is also quite nice. I particularly was endeared by the couple's character designs and how they reflected their personalities.

All in all, not particularly groundbreaking, but I didn't come here for groundbreaking. The grounding of my favorite comfy romance tropes is enough for me to work with, thanks.

Handsome Girl and Sheltered Girl is the kind of manga that I could read over and over again, and I'd still never get sick of it. It's so cute and funny, and it has a really fresh feeling to it even though it isn't the first love-interest-gets-mistaken-for-a-man manga I've read—even just in the last few months. If that trope speaks to you or you're a fan of the 'green yuri' (A.K.A. The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All), you'll love this!

Majoccoid's art style is stunning and it's the perfect accompaniment to Mocchi-au-lait's story. Kanda-kun and Okuma-san (who is so very, very ... Nana Komatsu coded) are so sweet together, and the way their relationship evolves as the plot progresses is really something special. I was really impressed with the side characters too. I've found that some side characters in sequential art can be a bit wishy washy, but even though Kai and Setchan were only small parts of the story they were really strong characters and they had well planned roles in the story.

I can see myself coming back to this time and again, and I'll be trying my darnedest to get my friends to read it too. It's a really beautiful little story about sapphic love, and it had me laughing out loud throughout the whole book. Highly recommend!

I've seen this recommended so many times when folks are looking for yuri with butch/masculine characters, but I found myself a bit disappointed.

There are many things I liked about the story, the art is lovely and both of the main characters are designed nicely. However, while the romance is sweet, the misunderstanding about gender feels like it lasts too long in some ways. And when Kanda does share that she identifies as a girl it involves taking off her clothes to show her body. The idea of "proving" one's gender by showing one's body doesn't land great and comes off as transphobic. This was ... especially a bummer because throughout the story Kanda's experiences and presentation align a lot with someone who might be AFAB and non-binary or trans masc.