Kininatteru Hito ga Otoko ja Nakatta

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: She Wasn't a Guy

Japanese: 気になってる人が男じゃなかった

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: Unknown

Chapters: Unknown

Status: Publishing

Published: Apr 19, 2023 to ?

Genre: Girls Love

Theme: Music

Serialization: None

Authors: Arai, Sumiko (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.44¹ (scored by 11,611 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #198²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #532

Members: 35,513

Favorites: 2,075

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Wikipedia

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Synopsis

The black-clad boy that Aya Oosawa likes is perfect: he is effortlessly nonchalant, has a sharp sense of style, and listens to the best music. Ever since the trendy Aya stumbled upon a small CD store to enjoy the rock classics her friends are not familiar with, the mysterious employee behind the counter has been on her mind. Meanwhile, the quiet and aloof Mitsuki Koga listens to her popular classmate Aya rave about her crush, tormented by a nagging thought: how to tell Aya that the guy she is interested in is not a guy at all!

In reality, when Mitsuki sheds her plain high school uniform, she is the one manning the counter at her uncle Joe's CD shop. She wrestles with how to reveal her identity, but flirting with the stunning and clueless Aya is just too tempting. As music becomes their shared passion, it seems that Aya's feelings will remain unchanged—even when Mitsuki's secret comes to light.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Kininatteru Hito ga Otoko ja Nakatta began as a web comic released on the author's Twitter account since April 10, 2022, and published in print by Kadokawa since April 19, 2023.

The series has been published in English as The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't a Guy at All by Yen Press since October 22, 2024. It has also been released in Brazilian Portuguese by NewPOP Editora since June 20, 2024; in Polish by Waneko since June 28, 2024; in Italian by Edizioni Star Comics since July 9, 2024; and in Spanish by Panini Comics since November 28, 2024.

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More characters
Characters

Koga, Mitsuki

Main

Oosawa, Aya

Main

Joe

Supporting

Narita, Kei

Supporting

Kanna

Supporting

Chizuru

Supporting

Mao

Supporting

Reviews

Apr 21, 2023

kriemheld

Recommended

Preliminary (41/? eps)

This manga is so good, and this is not coming from a biased perspective. As someone who loves reading Gyaru x any girl here kind of GL, this one is done so tastefully and so cute. I started reading this manga when it started uploading through Twitter and I am more than elated to see it here, as well as starting to get its own physical copies. I recommend this GL to anyone looking for something light hearted but also feel good. It’s a “feet kicker” as I like to call it. Some of the moments you just have to squeal and roll around, because ...

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Jul 9, 2023

T0rnAsunder

Recommended

Preliminary (45/? eps)

Adorable little manga that tastefully navigates a queer relationship in a very fun, comfy way. Though the trope used to drive the story isn't something particularly new, the musical element that drives the characters' attraction to each other is very compelling, and certain plot developments seem to point toward it becoming an even more important part of the main pairing's life. In a similar way to Bocchi the Rock, the music is not only there to kickstart the plot, as it also becomes the main thing around which the lives of the characters revolve. Characters who are, by the way, very well written and avoid ...

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Oct 19, 2024

Marleonka

Not Recommended

Well-written

Preliminary (103/? eps)

It's not easy to be the first negative review for a series with such overwhelmingly positive reception, but I do believe I have a good reason to write this review.

First, let me say that the artwork at display is exceptional and is definetly a big part of why this series has become so popular. I can't deny that the series does look amazing. It's really unique and definetly stands out in the crowd of other GL manga.

However, I can't really recommend this manga in terms of the story. Every chapter is only 4 pages long which already makes it more difficult at telling complex stories, ... but I don't believe that to be the manga's biggest weakness. The pace of this manga is both extremely fast in smaller scale and extremely slow in the bigger scale at the same time. A lot of the chapters feel episodic and there isn't really a lot of arcs that would span multiple chapters. Because of this, every chapter is a little tidbit of the main characters' life. That is quite a good concept, but to get the point of the chapter across in just four pages, they have to rush a lot. Because of that, a lot of the chapters are over in a blink of an eye and the reader is left wondering what even happend in this chapter.

The dialogue can feel entirely disconnected and often becomes just a word salad that's vaguely related to any given subject. The series itself is also something one could consider a "slow burn". Because of that, and how rambly and fast the chapters are, this is a manga in which nothing ever happens and the little that is happening is often entirely incomprehensive. I honestly can't tell you much about the characters other that they are there. Their personalities are fairly standard in terms of what their archetypes are.

I can't deny that it has some cute moments and the general theme, of both characters growing closer together through their shared love of music is nice, it takes unbearably long to get off the ground. As the title implies, the main love interest, Aya, mistakes the protagonist, Koga, for a guy, and while the audience knows that Koga isn't a guy, it takes an extremely long time, for the women to be open with each other and for that misunderstanding to clear up. It's hard to call this a GL romance if it takes a good few dozen of chapters for the characters to even realize they are both women. In fairness, it's hard to call it romance at all, as they just enjoy each other's pressence but keep all the feelings bottled up and won't talk about being into each other, don't expect more than your standard GL "implied feelings" and "being extremely important for each other but never explicitly romantically".

I'm sure someone could come and say how realistic it is for people not to talk about their emotions because they are awkward, but in the year 2024, I'd love to finally see a series that isn't all about extremely awkward characters that are unable to voice their emotions as that's been plagueing the GL genre for years now. Koga and Aya are not blatantly toxic people, so that's at least a plus over a lot of the other GL series that would either be about unbalanced power dynamics, obssessions and jealousy, or just blatant abuse (the bar is on the floor!).

Ultimately I think this series has good vibes, but because of it's extremely slow pace, incomprehensive dialogue and tropey characters, I can't really recommend this to anybody who likes good romance stories. The GL community is somewhat infamous for hyping up everything that is born in this genre, because of how scarce good yuri is, but we do need to step up our standards in terms of the writing. If you do like cute pictures that you can turn off your brain to, you might enjoy it and I don't mean it in a derogatory way, just be sure you approach this series with the right mindset.

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Web Manga 'Kininatteru Hito ga Otoko ja Nakatta' Gets Anime

The wraparound band on the third volume of Sumiko Arai's Kininatteru Hito ga Otoko ja Nakatta (The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All) manga ann...read more

Feb 19, 7:05 PM by Vindstot | Discuss (25 comments)

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Here are the North American anime, manga, and light novel releases for February. Week 1: February 4 - 10 Anime Releases Mato Seihei no Slave (Chained Soldier) Comple...read more

Feb 1, 3:29 PM by Aiimee | Discuss (2 comments)

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Poll: Kininatteru Hito ga Otoko ja Nakatta Chapter 116 Discussion Xiao - Feb 23	17 replies	by Rexnihilo »» Yesterday, 7:09 AM
Poll: Kininatteru Hito ga Otoko ja Nakatta Chapter 118 Discussion Tamer2002 - Mar 17	2 replies	by ayyshut_up »» Mar 19, 1:59 AM
Poll: Kininatteru Hito ga Otoko ja Nakatta Chapter 117 Discussion Xiao - Mar 2	2 replies	by Tamer2002 »» Mar 17, 2:46 PM
Thats Bring Me The Horizon right? Cookiewithfever2 - Feb 25	0 replies	by Cookiewithfever2 »» Feb 25, 2:42 PM
Poll: Kininatteru Hito ga Otoko ja Nakatta Chapter 113 Discussion Tamer2002 - Feb 21	1 replies	by ratboizs »» Feb 23, 1:47 AM

Kininatteru Hito ga Otoko ja Nakatta
The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All
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Kininatteru Hito ga Otoko ja Nakatta
The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All
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