Despite his mother’s disapproval of his love for cute things and dressing in cute clothes, Makoto Hanaoka secretly dresses like a girl at his high school. While his days are mostly peaceful as he successfully keeps his secret school life from his mother, the lively freshman Saki Aoi throws his world into chaos when she confesses to him, thinking he is a woman.
Even after learning the truth, it seem Saki is still firmly in love with him and wishes to become his first love. While Saki is also met with speculation from Ryuji Taiga, Makoto’s childhood friend, the three form a tight friendship as complicated feelings swirl between them.
More tender than I was expecting, but Senpai is an Otokonoko touches on serious topics and backs into a safe blanket of romance as it retreats. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Senpai is an Otokonoko, head on down below.
Anime Like Senpai is an Otokonoko
For Fans of Cross-Dressing, Gender Dysphoria, LGBT Romance in Treated Respectfully
Princess Jellyfish
Kurashita Tsukimi loves jellyfish, to the point of obsession.
One day, when she sees a jellyfish being mistreated in a pet store, she tries to stick up for it, but her social awkwardness gets in the way. Thankfully, a sparklingly beautiful woman steps in and sparks the beginning of an unlikely friendship.
While Tsukimi’s new friend charms her and her roommates, what they don’t know is that this princess is also a man.
Similarities Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and Princess Jellyfish
- Men who dress as women that aren’t used for comedy
- Romance between the crossdressing man and a woman
- Both encourage acceptance and individuality
Differences Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and Princess Jellyfish
- Romance is a much smaller element in Princess Jellyfish
- The plot of Princess Jellyfish is about a crossdressing man who helps a dorm full of eccentric women/man-haters fight to keep the apartment that they have crafted as a safe space for themselves from being redeveloped.
- The crossdressing man in Princess Jellyfish is an adult, and quite confident in his own skin.
- Princess Jellyfish is most often comical while still encouraging individuality. Senpai is an Otonoko enjoys far more emotional drama.
The Wandering Son
Shuuichi Nitori is an effeminate fifth grader and considered to be the prettiest girl in school, even though he is biologically male. However, Shuuichi is not alone in his complicated feelings.
Alongside his tomboyish childhood friend Yoshino Takatsuki, biologically female though identifying as a male, they have to navigate how their gender identity affects their relationships with their peers and parents.
Things become even more complicated when they must attend a new school, struggling to make new friends and maintain old ones.
Similarities Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and Wandering Son
- Both Senpai is an Otokonoko and Wandering Son depict the troubled emotional struggles of men who want to dress like women, though they do so in different ways.
- The gender dysphoric characters have complicated relationships with their parents, but find support in their friends.
- Elements of love triangles and romance
- Emotionally rich LGBT adolescent stories
Differences Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and Wandering Son
- Wandering Son is about two transgendered main characters, per-transition. Senpai is an Otokonoko lacks a trans element.
- Romance in Wandering Son is subtle and less focused on
- Wandering Son is heart-breaking while Snepai is an Otokonoko has far more encouraging moments.
Adachi and Shimamura
One day while skipping class, Adachi Sakura and Shimamura Hougetsu meet in the second floor gym.
They talk, play ping pong, and eventually become friends. However, as they spend more time together, their feelings begin to shift.
Similarities Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and Adachi and Shimamura
- The characters start as friends, and romance blooms unstoppably from friendship
- Both capture the “uneasiness” of building romantic feelings for a same-sex friend due to not knowing if they do or even could feel the same way.
Differences Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and Adachi and Shimamura
- Adachi and Shimamura is a girl’s love romance between new-ish friends.
- Adachi and Shimamura is more subdued with its drama, it is most often slice of life about them hanging out.
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For Fans of Tender Coming-of-Age Drama
Stars Align
Out-performed by the girls’ club and facing disbandment, team captain of the soft tennis club Toma Shinjou is desperate to recruit members. He immediately targets new transfer student Maki Katsuragi for his solid reflexes.
After a few rejections, Maki joins and quickly shines. This causes complicated feelings among the rest of the team who feel outperformed, but also propelled forward by Maki.
Similarities Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and Stars Align
- Children have complicated relationships with each other and their families
- Emotional coming-of-age stories for multiple characters
- Element of gender identity struggles
- Adolescent drama in many different forms
Differences Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and Stars Align
- Stars Align isn’t a romantic drama like Senpai is an Otokonoko. Surprisingly, it is a sports drama.
- Gender identity is just one of many coming of age stories in Stars Align and does not have as big of a focus as it does in Senpai is an Otokonoko.
- Stars Align can get pretty dark with some of its drama.
Insomniacs After School
Every night, Ganta Nakami is overtaken by insomnia that leaves him grumpy during the day. However, he happens across the easygoing Isaki Magari from his class sleeping in the Astronomy Club’s abandoned, supposedly haunted observatory. It turns out that she, too, suffers from insomnia and uses this room to sneak away for naps.
While the pair at first agree to share sneaking naps in the observatory, they are soon caught. In order to preserve their beloved nap spot, they persuade the school to let them revive the Astronomy Club where they soon share a growing love for the stars as well as each other.
Similarities Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and Insomniacs After School
- Adrift teens with a torrent of complicated feelings find support through each other
- Romantic element
- The main character has a troubled, complicated relationship with his parents
- Emotional drama that feels grounded and realistic
Differences Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and Insomniacs After School
- Insomniacs After School is a heterosexual romance with no LGBT elements, just troubled kids growing up.
- Insomniacs After School is just a boy and a girl with their own worries that they share with no one else coming to share them with each other.
Blue Period
In his second year of high school, Yatora Yaguchi goofs off with his friends and studies hard enough to make good grades. However, neither makes him happy. Bound by normal activities, he wonders if there is something more.
One day, he discovers the joy of drawing after becoming enchanted by a painting made by an art club member. Deciding he wants to do art as a living, Yatora faces a number challenges including his own hesitation on how far art can take him.
Similarities Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and Blue Period
- Coming-of-age drama with complex teen characters who all have their own problems
- Emotional drama and personal growth
- Gender identity elements
Differences Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and Blue Period
- Blue Period is about a passionate guy deciding he wants to be an artist (with no prior experience) in his last year of high school, so it is more about his passion and his struggle as an artist.
- The gender identity elements in Blue Period come from a transgender side character who still gets quite a bit of focus in the story for their gender identity struggles and their complicated relationship with their parents.
- There is no romance in Blue Period.
- The characters can be supportive of each other in Blue Period, but they usually deal with their issues privately and without support.
O Maidens in Your Savage Season
The girls of the literature club have recently been reading sexually charged pieces of literature. This combined with a newfound interest in adult relationships sends each member spiraling off into the world of sex and intimate relations.
Similarities Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and O Maidens in Your Savage Season
- Coming-of-age drama with complex teen characters who all have their own problems
- LGBT element about loving your friend who doesn’t feel the same way
- Romantic element
- Emotional, relatable drama explored thoughtfully
Differences Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and O Maidens in Your Savage Season
- O Maidens in Your Savage Season tells the various first loves of the five female members of a school club. So it is far more romance focused and contains more stories.
- O Maidens in Your Savage Season doesn’t go as deep in its LGBT one-sided love.
- Romance is really the only drama you get in O Maidens in Your Savage Season. It doesn’t explore things like depression or gender identity like Senpai is an Otokonoko does.
For Fans of Finding Acceptance Through Supportive Friends
Kotoura-san
Haruka Kotoura is a school girl that can read people’s minds. Unfortunately, it has caused her nothing but trouble, eventually causing her parent’s divorce.
After she moves to a new school, she tries to avoid her classmates, but a classmate of hers finds her power not scary, but intriguing.
Similarities Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and Kotoura-san
- Adrift and alone people find support through friends
- Both have a building romance
- Main characters who have troubled relationships with their parents
Differences Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and Kotoura-san
- Kotoura-san has a supernatural element in that the main character can read minds
- The titular Kotoura is self-isolating because her ability to read minds destroyed her relationship with and between her parents. So it takes longer for her to make and take to her friends.
- Kotoura-san is far more normal rom-com coded with a bigger emphasis on comedy
My Clueless First Friend
Akane Nishimura is a quiet girl with an intimidating gaze. As such, her classmates gave her the ominous nickname of “The Grim Reaper” and started avoiding her due to fear that they would be cursed.
However, these rumors don’t deter the new transfer student, Taiyou Takada. He finds out about her nickname and her powers and immediately tries to befriend her with no hesitation, excited to be cursed and to be friends with The Grim Reaper. His cheerful disposition and ability to make everything seem positive is just what Akane needed in her first ever friend.
Similarities Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and My Clueless First Friend
- Characters outcasted for being different find a supportive friend/friend group
- Romantic element
Differences Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and My Clueless First Friend
- While My Clueless First Friend has some serious moments, it is mostly cute fluff about a boy using Jedi mind tricks on bullies to make the girl they are bullying seem cool.
- As they are elementary school kids in My Clueless First Friend, the romance doesn’t go far.
- There is no LGBT element in My Clueless First Friend, just adolescent bullying.
Horimiya
Although lauded for being likable and intelligent, Kyouko Hori hides the fact that she has to take care of her brother and the housework because her parents are always working.
Izumi Miyamura, on the other hand, is seen as a brooding, bespectacled otaku. Outside of school, he sports tattoos and nine piercings.
By happenstance, the two outside school personalities of these two classmates meet and they get to know a side of each other they don’t show their peers.
Similarities Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and Horimiya
- Outcasted characters find acceptance among a new friend group
- Romance element
- You watch a character work through their depression with support of their friends and romantic love interest.
Differences Between Senpai is an Otokonoko and Horimiya
- Horimiya is a heterosexual romance anime that has a lot of romantic progression
- Horimiya has a larger cast of side characters who are still getting their stories explored in a similarly deep way like the trio in Senpai is an Otokonoko.
- There is no LGBT element in Horimiya
Do you have more anime recommendations like Senpai is an Otokonoko? Let fans know in the comments section below.