Forum - View topicHow I Attended an All-Guy's Mixer (TV).
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11446 Location: Frisco, TX |
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How I Attended an All-Guy's Mixer (TV) Source: Manga (ongoing @ 7 volumes, by Nana Aokawa) Demographic: Shoujo Animation Studio: Ashi Genres: comedy, romance Themes: adult cast, crossdressing Plot Summary: College student Tokiwa gets invited to a mixer by his female classmate Suo, and is able to bring along two other friends as Suo will be accompanied with two of her coworkers. So he brings his friends Asagi & Hagi along to get aquatinted with Suo and two other girls. But by the time they arrived at the meet up spot, they’re confused and flustered to be greeted by not three cute women but instead three women who are dressed as dazzlingly handsome men. Air Date & Platform: October 4, 2024 (Friday) Available on: HIDIVE Episode Count / Runtime: Pending ---------------------------------- Will give this a shot for Aoi Yuki, alone. She's awesome. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 1
Okay, I like me some gender and queer stuff. Some crossdressing ladies has me ready to consume it, but I was wondering if there might be a little flaw with me wanting to enjoy this. I think that I might be completely unable to understand the tension/conflict in the show. The idea that the guys would want the gals to not dress like dudes literally doesn't make any sense in my brain, and actually made me angry. I instantly disliked the guys, much the same as if all genders were swapped. Let me just follow the cute/cool crossdressers. I think that we were meant to understand the guys would be uncomfortable, but I can't, and that assumption makes me a little ticked off too. |
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Edjwald
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I found the guys' insistence on wanting their counterparts to dress up as traditional women irritating too Dusky. I just wasn't all that shocked or challenged by the big reveal at the beginning, so the anime's continued efforts to milk the shock value I didn't feel for the first half of the episode just fell flat. It's a comedy, and I felt like the first half was a one joke premise that wasn't all that funny.
I also didn't particularly like or dislike the leads. I think my favorite character was Fuji-san. I like the comedic trope where oblivious artist characters are so wrapped up in their art that they don't realize they're treating human beings like literary canvas fodder. That may be because I know a few people like that in real life, some who are narcissists who annoy me, some who are just kind of hapless and that I'm fond of. Anyhow, I thought the voice actor did a good job fusing emotional detachment and emotional obsession into the same oddly intense monotone. I thought things picked up a little at the campus. There's some comic potential, at least for me, in a boundaries nudging story about a straight guy who forms a friendship with a crossdressing woman (I'm assuming that's the right distinction here) and is dealing with his insecurities about what other people think and his own desires. I don't think that potential was really mined, but at least I saw some. And I did give props to the MC for not "outing" Suo-san when those females behind him were demanding to know what the deal was. He could have just started justifying something that didn't need to be justified, or shared information that wasn't his to share just to shore up his own insecurities or feel less uncomfortable in the moment, and he didn't. That said, I think the anime lost me when they had a karaoke contest and didn't have the people involved actually sing. I mean, don't get me wrong, I find most anime karaoke singing kind of annoying unless it's intentionally all out bad like in Snack Basue, but dammit, I love music and reserve the right to be annoyed by it. It was just such a lazy, cheap, move. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4158 |
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I'm enjoying it, mostly because the pairs work well off one another. As Suo keeps bringing up the notion they're cross dressing for a job, I don't take it too seriously. I see it as less "this is who I am" but "this is who I am right now".
I do question naming the entire series after the mixer that's over and done with already but I appreciate not telling us why they're doing it. We like the guys either have to want to find out or, well, leave. I have my own suspicions, the most obvious being how Suo is at the center of everything. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 3
I am continuing to feel some frustration with this show, and I am starting to identify some unfortunate analysis. For a show that should be really queer friendly, three of the characters work at a crossdressing place, there are elements actually feel kind of homophobic or queer averse. It was one thing that boys acted a certain way at the start, it is another that we have had things like the assumption one of the boys is in like danger from seeing BL, comments about guys looking off for enjoying sweets, and one of the guys having an existential crisis in thinking he might swing both ways. It feels kind of puzzling in once scene we have that internal crisis in being attracted to someone who looks like a guy, as two woman fawning over the prince, since they must know that she is a woman. I was just running through my head a reversed version of the scene that would have had two men fawning over a crossdressing woman of an establishment they frequent, getting angry at a woman for being their companion, and reacting the same way at the end. A lot of my feelings at the moment boils down that this show should enjoyable to queer folk, especially the bisexuals, but it kind of feels hostile to the idea of enjoying the crossdressing, since that is like a blow to their orientation. That is maybe the exception of one of the boys, the one with a cat smile (Asagi), who I don't think has shown any aversion to the crossdressing, and if anything just shows interest in the experiences. I actually wouldn't be surprised if he might at some point take part in crossdressing. But it also that it feels like it wants to treat him with kid gloves, like he must be innocent, that they had to keep him away from seeing that he was helping out on a raunchy homosexual manga. At this point the Asagi and Fuji pairing is the best, if only for the open mindedness, but I also like that paired slightly more geekiness Kuudere. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4158 |
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Remember that in Japan, Boy's Love is a fetish for straight girls so the series is not queer friendly but rather queer... opportunistic is the best way I can put it. It's exploiting straight people which makes it hard to define.
I'm still leaning towards Suo being an actual cross dresser while the other two are doing it for different reason. She's had excuses of "it's my job", "I'm too lazy", "I love watching people react to the prince" and finally, "I'm dressed this way, dealing with it is your problem." It was a fast journey for three episodes. Fuji did have that moment when she was sick and she got confused between being a woman or a male bottom. She sorted herself out eventually as she was more thinking of her manga than her actual life. I think... |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Yeah, but all the same I am going to compare it to last season's Senpai is an Otokonoko, which is at least tangentially connected, only with an AMAB character who often dresses as a girl. Despite a good deal of the bits of two "boys" going on a date, none of it felt opportunistic. And despite its actually very serious mood for much of its run, it also felt like it gave the thumbs up of enjoying queerness in non-traditional gender presentation, and without actually saying that it was taboo or if the characters should care others approving. I know this is a different thing, but I want to enjoy some of the bits that in ways feels like it is behind Ouran Highschool Host Club. Maybe also behind Yuri is my Job, which I guess is the other side of a cafe where a bunch of girls create a fantasy of the (queer) characters they play at their job. Maybe a totally unrelated tangent, but I also just remembered Vampire Dormitory, which did feel much more fun with its fake BL of the crossdressing character. But a lot of that show was I think unintentional funny. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 5
Asagi and Fuji episode for the win. There is no ambiguity that the two enjoy each other's company, and especially no weird expectations from the Asagi side. Maybe just a simple thing he is being treated with kid gloves, like they are afraid that something would break if he actually saw smut. What would even be the chances he got through selling doujinshi at Comiket wasn't exposed to anything? |
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