His makeup is flawless! The daily ins-and-outs of an office lady and her beautiful boyfriend.
Wako and her androgynous boyfriend don’t exactly have the most traditional of relationships. She spends her days working hard in the world of publishing, while he spends his time obsessing over fashion and makeup—all with the goal of making himself beautiful just for her. This romantic slice-of-life story is about love, relationships, and breaking with tradition!
Second volume of a series about the romance between a career-oriented woman and her boyfriend, an Instagram model who seems to be a rising star. The more I think of it, he doesn't seem so much androgynous as effeminate, or femme? In this one, another similarly identified but more arrogant model, Sasuke, gets marketed with him--two pretty boys selling products together! Oh!
Unicorn boys, is how they are being marketed. Well, if this were to develop into a critique of advertising or social media I might continue reading it, but not much happens in this volume to make me care about any of the characters, really. I guess I just think of it as a slice-of-life romance which mildly raises some issues about gender non-conformity.
I'm enjoying this series much more than I expected to.
My best friend of 33 years, he came out when we were in the 7th grade, in 1987. Yeah, that took a LOT of courage. We live in Spokane, which has always been a very old fashioned, very conservative city. He began what would later be called "drag" the next year. He's 5'4" 105 lbs & is slender with a beautiful face & sandy blonde hair. Ever since junior high, he's had to shop for clothes in the junior (girls) section. He's always been very feminine, and wearing blouses, capris, & so forth, he was often mistaken to be a woman. He's always worn jewelry, & often wears makeup including lipstick. So many times people have thought we were a couple. It never bothered him or me. I've always supported him. I'm straight, never even been bi-curious, so I will never fully understand being in his shoes. However, I love him dearly, as he's my little buddy. He never modeled, although when we were younger, I encouraged him to. He just never had enough courage, no matter how supportive I have been. He has though, participated in so many drag shows at the local gay bars & clubs. He's always done well, & won awards. So I can somewhat relate to the two protagonists in this manga. I'm ALWAYS snapping pics of my little buddy & posting them online. I'm so proud of him. He's just gorgeous. He's been through hell & back, yet still looks better in a dress than most women. So I've enjoyed this manga, as to me, it's kind if a "what if" for me & my lifelong friend. The characters in this story are interesting, to be sure. I rather like the main couple. They're adorable. I'm not sure yet how I feel about the new boy. He's kind of annoying at times. I look forward to seeing how this new endeavour between the two progresses. I highly recommend this series. It is just so much fun. Art, simply fantastic. Dialogue, very good, very true. Characters, believable, likeable, relatable, loveable.
While this was still cute and I loved seeing more of the characters, I liked the first volume more! Wako’s insistence on not being present in her boyfriend’s social media (to the point where she actively avoids being seen as lovey dovey in public with him) because she’s afraid that it’ll ruin his image was a little sad and frustrating. Logically, I get why she does it—especially since she’s so invested in seeing him succeed in the world of fashion and beautiful people—but it was still sad because I could see how much Meguru loves her.
Like last time, I loved the cute moments and just seeing how much love exists between these two characters. Also loved the extra glimpse into their past just as they became a couple!
It’s refreshing to find a manga about a couple of twentysomethings in a long-term relationship, but having the boyfriend be androgynous turns out to be very weak splash of added flavor.
This whole thing feels watered down. The characters are bland, even the ones who are supposed to be diva models. The drama is tepid at best and nearly non-existent as the whole thing approaches a slice-of-life pace. The art is fine but lacks any distinctive flair, happy to exist in the realm of generic manga house style.
Too boring to continue.
Even if there are only three more volumes in the series . . . ?
And I could finish them in a week . . . ?
And feel that wonderful buzz of completion . . . ?
Initially, I liked Meguru and Wako as a couple. However, this volume underlines just how unbalanced their relationship is. Meguru clearly adores Wako and would do anything to make her happy, whereas Wako cares more about what she thinks is good for Meguru and not what he actually wants. She puts him on a pedestal and never treats him as an equal partner in their relationship. I would love it if this is addressed later on, but I just don't think that's the kind of story the mangaka is going for.
So volume two gives us more of our career girl and her Insta-famous bf who’s still out here serving looks and being marketed as a unicorn boy now, apparently?? Like, he’s definitely femme-coded, but in a sweet way—not in-your-face about it.
We get introduced to another pretty boy model, Sasuke, who’s basically him but with more ego. The two get paired up for some cutesy marketing campaign and it’s very “two sparkly boys sell you moisturizer.” Which… okay!
I wanted this to maybe lean into some critique of social media culture or branding aesthetics, but it kinda just vibes instead. Not a lot happens, the romance coasts, and no one really grabbed me emotionally this time around. Still feels like a soft slice-of-life with hints of gender play, but it doesn’t go deep enough for me to get obsessed.
However I think I will still continue this series.
Wieder ein sehr schöner Band, mit dem ich eine gute Zeit hatte. Wie soll man sich nicht in Meguru verlieben? Diesen zweiten Unicorn Boy hätte es jetzt meiner Meinung nach nicht gebraucht, dennoch einfach ein schöner Manga zum Abtauchen mit einer wundervollen Beziehung!
La storia continua a essere molto semplice e al contempo dolce. È una lettura semplice e di conforto che per ora aggiunge ben poco a questi elementi: mi auguro che in futuro ci sia maggiore profondità!
I like this, but I want more cute and affectionate scenes between the two main characters. I also just want Wako to let Meguru show her off like he wants to. Meguru is just too cute when it comes to wanting to let the world know who he's with. Let it happen!!
This story sometimes feels like it's all over the place. Like there's no concise storyline or plot, or it just jumps from scene to scene. But overall, it's cute.
I still love this so much but I wish Wako thought more of herself so she can finally see how much Meguru adores her. A new character was introduced in this volume and I think he's going to be an interesting addition to the cast.
Non me lo credevo, ma alla fine nella sua superficialità rimane godibile. Sarà proprio perché è leggero e non pretende di raccontare i massimi sistemi, alla fine l’ho letto liscio liscio. Per gli stessi motivi però, non ho fame di un altro volume.
'My Androgynous Boyfriend' continues to be really good; I really appreciate the comfortable adult romance vibe, and how supportive and in love with each other they are. In this volume they meet some new people and start a new modeling gig, and both of them continue to inspire the people around them.
Meguru visits Wako's parents' home (they love him). Wako tries to convince Meguru to apply to be a Log House resident (something like the show Terrace House?) in order to get an even bigger fanbase. Then Meguru agrees to debut as an androgynous boy duo with equally cute Sasame. There's also a brief flashback to Wako and Meguru's high school days - he thought they were dating while she thought they were just going on a series of photo shoots.
The flashback underscored one of my main issues with this series, which is that Wako tends to treat Meguru like some kind of fantasy idol she's a huge fan of, rather than as her boyfriend who she lives with. I really liked that, in the flashback, Meguru called her out on it, reminding her that he's a real person and not some fantasy character. That said, Wako hasn't really stopped doing it. During the Log House portion of the volume, she even had full-blown fantasies of Meguru as a Log House resident being so perfect and cute that he somehow charmed everyone, becoming the first Log House resident to be beloved by all.
On the one hand, we have Wako practically pairing Meguru up with any pretty person he might come across, despite the fact that he's made it clear he's only interested in her (Wako) and even wants to be open with his fans about their relationship. The prospect of Meguru's debut makes her genuinely happy, as Meguru's first and biggest fan. On the other hand, a part of Wako still worries that he's going to become untouchable by someone like her once he becomes super famous.
I'm 100% sure that Meguru would choose Wako over fame if he had to make a choice. What would he do instead? My guess is become a professional makeup artist or something - all we really know about him is that he likes clothes, makeup, and Wako.
I'm still iffy about this series. The artwork is lovely, but the rest of it is...meh. On the plus side, it's a low-stress read that's pretty to look at.
Even more than the first volume, the second volume of My Androgynous Boyfriend is an exercise in compersion.
For those who don’t live in poly world, compersion is the concept where you derive pleasure from a partner deriving pleasure from someone or something other than you. In the polyamory context that usually applies to a relationship or sex with someone else, but compersion is by no means limited to those two things. Lots of writers point out how happy it makes us when something good happens to our partner, like job successes or getting really excited about a personal project… even enjoying a good meal or playing a video game. So it’s not a difficult concept to understand when your partner loves someone else, or someone else makes your partner happy. Even when it’s your partner, not you, getting those positive vibes from something we can still feel intensely happy from their happiness.
For publishing professional Machida Wako, her compersion derives from other people’s adoration of her androgynous boyfriend, Souma Meguru. One of the early sections of volume 2 sees Meguru up for a role in a “Netflax” (AHAHAHAHA) reality TV series called Log House, where a revolving cast of six attractive young Japanese people live in house together, hang out and go on dates–based on the very real franchise Terrace House.
As they’re discussing the opportunity, Wako falls into an extended fantasy in which Meguru shows up at the house where three girls (a model, a university student, a dancer) and two boys (a surfer and a former basketball player) are waiting. He helps the university student do her makeup, helps the dancer do her hair, talks diets with the model, feeds rice porridge to the ailing surfer and washes and darns the favourite shirt of the athlete.
They all proceed to fall in love and ask Meguru out… all together.
Still cute, but verrrrry little happened, and Wako was super annoying in this volume with her nonstop "I'm not good enough for my boyfriend" nonsense. I kinda wanted to slap her by the end of this volume.