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Love Me for Who I Am

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Love Me For Who I Am – Spoiler Free – Recommended

TLDR
Story – 6/10 – 6 x 0.275 = 1,65
Art – 5/10 – 5 x 0.2 = 1
Characters – 8/10 – 8 x 0.225 = 1,8
Enjoyment – 6,5/10 – 6,5 x 0.3 = 1,95
Total: 6,4 -> 6

Story – 6/10
Love Me for Who I Am is more than just a love story and more than just a LGBTQ+ tale. There is romance, but it is quickly elapsed by the more pressing matter of sexuality and gender identity, whether through the main or secondary characters. Truly, what we have here is a story about the overcoming of ... obstacles that come with our self-knowledge of gender and sexuality. It is a story of acceptance and a story of accepting alterity.
First, there is transgender and non-binarity, which come right to the fore in the beginning, and then, later on, the lesbian question is brought up as well. All of this intertwines to create a deep story about the hardships of accepting ourselves.
The darker side of gender exploration – that of suicidal ideation and self-harm – is also glazed upon. Truly, it would have been strange for such a depiction of the LGBTQ+ community without its darker side, resulting from the confrontation between ourselves and a society that does not accept us. What Love Me For Who I Am depicts this journey quite well, this rite of passage that the LGBTQ+ community knows all too well.
The story also does a good job of depicting its topics from multiple viewpoints, not just that of the main character.
However, the story is too short to explore anything other than LGBTQ+ questions. Other plot lines, such as the love between the main characters and the café itself, are quickly resolved and relegated to the background.

Art – 5/10
The art style of Love Me for Who I Am is anything but extraordinary. It is ordinary, dull, and has a bad character design: it becomes tough to distinguish between characters, although the manga does a good job depicting the main character. Technically, the fluency of the panels is well done, making it quite easy to follow up on the story. The scenarios are mostly void, and the story happens in abstract – which is a perfectly sound option as well. The page composition is well done, although quite normal.

Characters – 8/10
Regarding the characters, Love Me for Who I Am presents us with a meaningful cast that greatly surpasses the main character – Mogumo. Verily, characters are the main aspect of Love Me for Who I Am – be it Tetsuo, Kotone or Mogumo’s sister. Them story uses them to present pressing matters and to develop the narrative, although they are somewhat archetypal. The author prefers not to develop most characters and just introduces another character when the story so needs to. The thing is that this move between characters is impeccable. This isn't to say that they don't develop any characters – being the main character a prime example of character development – for the story is based around them. The characters get the job done, and in that matter, they are well done.

Enjoyment – 6,5/10
Although it is an entertaining read, the enjoyment can't be too high. It is a story that fulfils its purpose of exploring non-binarity and transgender, but mostly the former, in both a hostile and friendly environment, as well as exploring the topic of love and romance within the LGBTQ+ community and how the different labels interact with one another. However, the story isn't much more than this. If you're looking for a romance, I wouldn't recommend Love Me For Who I Am. But what this manga offers you is something else: a fully engaged story on the LGBTQ+ community, mostly non-binarity, with slight romance and drama, mentioning suicide and self-harm in a humane fashion. For these reasons, and although it isn’t the best LGBTQ+ manga, it is a quick read that deserves to be recommended.

Love Me For Who I Am, a manga that tackles a tough group of sensitive topics. It shows the lives of several high schoolers undergoing issues in their romantic situations, their sexualities and gender, and the overall umbrella of LGBT+ (LGBTQ+/ LGBTQI+, etc) in school. One of few these days that are of any quality as well, and what I can commend to this is at least the arts’ really pretty. If what you’re looking for is a good review, this isn’t going to be a good one, nor a proper one. And look, I’ll cut to the chase and say that despite my rating, ... I liked this manga. Only the last half of it at least.



*I manage mostly without direct spoilers, except for Kotone.*



I can weirdly relate to this manga, maybe not in every part, but having an incredibly religious and abusive family and lineage has its “perks”, but sexuality and gender along with family household issues is something I’ve struggled with. It was weird realising 3/4 of the way through like “damn, I relate.” Nearly pulled out the “fr, he like me dou” a handful of times too. This was something I could at least subscribe into the fantasy of happening, given chances are low, it’s definitely happened somewhere IRL and it was cool to think of that.


Story: 6
Tackling the deep topics surrounding sexuality, gender, dysphoria, the internal struggles and fear reinforced throughout life, Mogumo Ryuunosuke (Preferably Mogu-chan) is our main character alongside Tetsu Iwaoka. My main issue with the story here is that it has a REALLY, VERY poor time during the first 14 chapters finding its footing. And paired with the fairly nonsensical and partly unexplained character reactions and development at the start, this didn’t sit well with me at all. I want to express purely that I found it upsetting to read through what had the potential to be as good as it was toward the last half, it was personally making me sick to the stomach due to its quality. Now now, that might be because it’s way past midnight and approaching what I like to call “the new day”, but god it was upsetting trying to puzzle my head around some parts of it. Most of my issues come down with the characters themselves, but how the story progressed following contrivances between Kotone and Tetsu felt, and I’m going to put emphasis on this, *disgustingly bad*. Look, I get how she acted a lot of the time is possible in the real world, it’s not something that doesn’t happen often every now and then, BUT GOD, DID IT FEEL SO OUT PLACE AND UNREALISTIC. **Spoiler** Specifically, throwing water on Tetsu. I laughed when this happened. Was this… the author’s way of creating a problem? ANYWAYS, my main issue with the story at the start and I kept repeating it to myself over and over again as I read through every chapter until Chapter 13, everything felt so FORCED. Like the story itself had no substance, the characters felt beyond artificial and everything that was there was only there to covey a message. A comparison if I may and only for structural reasons, a political cartoon. I didn’t like it, it felt icky and yuck. The characters didn’t feel like they had a personality of their own right up until then, it was almost every 5-8 panels I was being taught something directly or indirectly related to LGBT+ which was so unforsakenly not needed. I would’ve rather the manga been so much more drawn out and longer than it being stuffed into my face and down my throat and eyes like it was.
Another issue that ties into this and causes that really jarring effect is this mood that quickly shifts from chapter to chapter like it’s Speed-O-Sound. The author does a terrible job when it comes to emotional pacing, changing things up so quickly that it’s hard to settle down on an idea of how we should feel about something. One of the most clearest examples this shows is in the cafe where someone meets Mogu-chan and they’re so “in your face”, seemingly trying to make themselves seem as horrible as possible with little to no emotional regard for anyone else around them. It reminds me of actual sociopaths/ psychopaths from other animes’ even though they don’t barely resemble them later in the manga. It just seems so out of place that the author couldn’t decide on how someone should be acting which comes to be consistent throughout the entire thing.



Characters: 5 **Spoilers for Kotone, she’s a garbage character anyways**
I’ll come off right the bat before talking about anyone else.
Fuck Kotone. What a shitty character that was developed in an annoyingly proper way. I’ll cut to labelling her (as much as I hate jumping to labels to insult others) right now because seeing her in the early chapters made me pissed that she existed. Was she supposed to be acting as a villain? Damn. Thought she was a fucking paper airplane the way she flew in and out of their lives. (Ha gotteem.) She was seemingly transphobic, sexist and racist for little to no reason. I can understand the initial transphobia, yes, the sexism I STILL DON’T GET FOR SURE- where I assume it could be because she grew up with the idea of hating men because they reinforced the idea that she had to love a man, or because some boys acted obnoxiously dumb in her younger years by fakingly saying “I love you”, BUT- that doesn’t give a clear explanation as to why she might hate being near guys, touching them, seeing them or hearing them. I guess it’s still ‘possible’ that she can harbour that much of a hate because society was initially built that way and it kept stripping her of her opportunities for love, but it’s such a weak point to bring up as a reason for why she hates them ALL so gutturally.
And this is likely merely reaching, she was racist?
IS IT WRONG TO SAY “YA”? DOES SHE HATE PEOPLE FROM KANSAI OR SOMETHING? I was so confused seeing her get pissed off at Ten-chan for saying “ya”. That singular chapter and the few before and after had to of had the most unnecessary points of contention that made the littlest amount of sense possible. She just seems like the entire time throughout the book she exists as a character solely to hate and be that one childhood friend that’s like “Yeah, no, you’re not allowed. Go away.”. Such an annoying trope that’s done badly so often, genuinely end it.
Sigh. Aside from that, every character was actually pretty decent, not garbage like Kotone. Kotone just had the most pointless interjection of being close to a main character that I wish she wasn’t there nor existed. She was used as a plot device and that was it really, the main characters would’ve mostly been fine without her, given Mogu-chan might’ve starved to death though, but they (she?) would’ve been fine.
Now, onto Mogu-chan. Before I get into how somewhat good of a character Mogu-chan is, I’m not quite sure how to refer to Mogumo since halfway through the manga, they decided they’d be fine being referred to as a she (aka biologically MtF). But… then no one refers to Mogu-chan as a she ever, at all after that point? I’ll stick to they for now since that seems to have been their as to not step on any characteristical toes. Anyhow, despite this, I didn’t like Mogu-chan at the start, no, not at all. First chapters immediately ticked me off and gave my sensors and fears a whirl. I understand that it was a culmination of a lot of her fears when it came to being misgendered constantly, and a part of my mind is saying it was a bit of an “overreaction”, but that’s obviously insensitive and not true. Having thought they found a place they could finally fit in, Mogu-chan was betrayed by that same idea being false, etc etc. Other than this singular issue, Mogu-chan is a fairly well rounded main character, they’re actually quite likeable and probably the only one I could bother worth liking minus a few side characters (Suzu and Ten-chan :D ). The side characters are mostly the pride and joy that make this manga all the more less sufferable, removing them from the story clearly makes it seem like it would have an impact but I WISH, I absolutely wish everyone got much more time to be shown and have their lives. Tons could be done with these interesting characters that the author has curated.
Although, Tetsu kinda just feels empty. I don’t really care for Tetsu, like at all. I’m neither on the side of “hating”, “disliking”, “liking” or “loving” him. He’s kinda… eh. He feels throughout the manga as only a support pillar and a caricature of a message to show other people reading that they too can develop feelings for their own gender and it’s okay. And he constantly calls himself an ally when he feels lacking in something, which- god, it feels SO SO tacky. Like disconnectedly tacky. I don’t like saying “ally”, it’s a weird way to say you’ll actively stand for others and go out of your way to support others when capable of doing so. Anyhow, Tetsu feels pointless and useful in the story. More that he isn’t a character compared to how he is actually a plot device that’s… “there” the entire time.



Art: 9
I don’t have much to say about the art, but I thought it looked really pretty and well done at times, often with a surprising amount of detail that I hadn’t seen earlier in the manga. For a debuting author to come out with something you’d see in a funded and weekly formatted manga is fairly surprising. Others might definitely have a different opinion on its quality, but at times the art was there when it felt like it needed to be there and that’s what mattered for me. Particularly the background and LORD, the faces were so well made. If anything had to be one of the most winning parts of the manga, it was the expressions. Clearly they have a knack for it and wether the characters were good, decent or horrible, their emotions were clearly expressed both via face and body language and it felt soooo good watching it evolve bit by bit throughout the manga.
A lot of people will complain about this and say it’s a bad thing, I won’t. Personally, I liked the moe cute style a lot with this. For me, having something like this with the topic it’s covering, it makes it a lot easier to digest and take things through if it’s in the style it’s in. At times, yes, characters might’ve looked completely different to how they were before, often like much younger kids aged 13-16. However, we never actually know their age, so ‘darn’. I mean that sarcastically but anyhow. It’s not much of an issue to me (at all really), depending on how it’s used I prefer it that way often as I adore cute things as much as Mogu-chan here does, or even Ten-chan. I loved the style consistently and it kept swooning my gosh darned heart back and forth the more I saw of the characters at the cafe and Mogu-chan.


There was a lot with this manga that wasn’t… good. Not great, poorly done, emotionally imbalanced at times. It’s at least one of the better LGBT+ mangas around that I’ve read, albeit it has a very commercialised and artificial tone at the start which can feel like a tough wall to break through, which it manages ehhhh somewhat “okayly”. Terribly if I were to remove the cute art. Read this but probably actually just ignore the first 10 chapters completely, I wouldn’t even care for the introduction or lead up. I did at least really enjoy the second-half of the manga but it wasn’t enough to save it completely. I won’t control you, but you have been warned.

Accept this so called “review” I’ve created at the dawn of a new day, 32 or so hours past midnight and only a handful beforehand since I finished it. My final words, it’s cute and traumatic.

Love Me for Who I am is a series that treats its characters as devices to the identities that they identify as rather than letting them breathe as characters with any level of independence from whatever point the story wants to make. All discussion surrounding gender and the various identities the character have are cloaked in a level of discourse more befitting the angst you'd find off people whining about non-issues on Twitter instead of given any level of nuance - any character that in any way likes another character for a reason the narrative sees as negative is portrayed in a shallow, stereotypical light ... with zero genuine depth. The series has the intelligence and maturity of your average old tumblr poster in how to approach these themes, and instead immediately assumes a sympathetic perspective from the reader instead of attempting to portray its characters as being just that; people who want to live by and just want their identities accepted by people around them, and working hard to change the perspective of the reader.

An absurd amount of the manga is split between characters bickering about clothing and melodramatically snapping at each other for not understanding each other. There's no attempt whatsoever from characters who identify as something that doesn't fall within the binary to settle down and explain who and what they are in a calm, rational manner; the series dives into angst-ridden garbage about characters not understanding each other instead of them sitting down and coming together to understand each other. Character conflict being at the heart of a work of fiction in and of itself is not only fine, but something I normally welcome - the problem is that there's no breathing space in-between arcs to let characters just breathe as people with lives of their own. Characters legitimately scream that people don't understand them, refuse to clarify then run off - one noteworthy and unintentionally funny example of this was a character breaking down crying in the middle of the street for inserting their expectations on someone being a woman when they weren't.

The characters are unlikable, insufferable asswipes with no genuine personality beyond screaming at one another for the most part. Mugomo is an absolute idiot who repeats the EXACT same mistakes all manga long over refusing to explain or clarify their emotions to other people, somehow gets surprised when there's a backlash, runs into a corner and only is dragged out - kicking and screaming - by Tetsu, who is more patient with them than any normal person ever can or should be. While it takes time for a person to break out of a certain pattern of behavior, and especially if all they've encountered is rejection, there's very little that I can actually mention about Mugomo that doesn't fall into them being non-binary or isn't defined by that in some way. What little there is for a character arc is defined by Mugomo somewhat becoming more confident in expressing themselves and confronting people who are portrayed as idiots for inserting expectations onto them, but...why should I care? Why should any reader not already invested in the wider meta-narrative over gender issues care? I have no answer to this question and neither does the series, which continues with this rushed pacing unabated from beginning to end. Mugomo is never genuinely called out for running away from people, and constantly assumes the worst in other people from beginning to end, making an infuriating as shit read from a lead who is little more than a poorly explored self-insert that some people may be able to identify with. There's very little to their character and whatever is there is neither compelling nor interesting.

Tetsu is a generic, stereotypical male lead whose acceptance of others and unique perspective on gender is the only worthwhile personality trait he has. There's no depth to him falling for Mugomo, and he exists as the angst control machine to Mugomo (and other characters in the cafe). His attraction towards Mugomo for being in his eyes an effeminate man is called out but while fades away as the center of attention that the narrative places under, never stops being the center of attraction he has; this means that in a weird way, the series turns in circles over this subject and basically arrives nowhere. This is only exacerbated by the absurd amount of attention that the series places on clothing as a marker for characterization; while this is true even for many LGBTQ+ people in real life - who use clothing to identify themselves in different ways - when that is the most memorable thing about the characters instead of some other defining traits, that becomes a problem due to the lack of effort put into, you know, humanizing them in ways that aren't tied to their identities.

All the other characters are barely characters so much as they exist as angst-ridden devices to force outrage out of the audience. Mugomo's backstory made me despise them even more than I already did, the excessive and often senseless use of violence to emphasize a point and use more angst is tasteless at best and is just an attempt to garner sympathy from the audience - with absolutely no effort as to why I should care about any of the victims. All sorts of series have used abuse and violence in more interesting and genuinely terrifying ways - Chi no Wadachi, The Gods Lie or Boy's Abyss coming to mind. So then, at the end of the road, when a cast of characters have little to no characterization that humanizes them or informs the reader of anything genuinely thematically meaningful, what's left?

There's some merit to Love Me for Who I am. Mugomo does undergo minimal character growth near the end of the manga. The artwork is fairly nice to look at, and the paneling is nicely done. Suzumi is a likable - if still shallow - character, and what little enjoyment I found in this travesty was when he was in a scene in question. It's kind of a shame that he and another character star in an abysmal hentai doujin...wait, maybe that really does explain it all. A lot of the writing being overly obsessed with clothing, the hypocrisy in the two leads falling for each other which is never genuinely addressed and the writing being centered on the characters physical traits instead of their personalities come off as fetishistic - which isn't unusual for works in Japan depicting LGBTQ+ people. Normally I'm fine with this to an extent, I can laugh at politically incorrect jokes - but this is something aiming at being higher than a mid-2000s romcom, and as such fails miserably at anything it does. Maybe that's the reason the writing is so poor, the theming is so hamfisted and the characters have zero chemistry...because they're written as though they're hentai characters when in reality they're in, well, a serialized manga.

I recommend this to absolutely no one, stay as far away as humanly possible from this.

Thank you for reading my review. Any and all feedback would be appreciated.