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It somewhat pains me to begin a review with this sentence, but as a transgender person, this manga reached out to me and touched my heart in a way I never could have expected.

This story could have easily fallen into the same trap (hehe) of just being another crossdressing fluff story, mere genre-candy without real substance, but instead we were presented with a deep dive into the lives and psyches of three vividly realistic characters, each full of flaws, desires, trauma, yearnings, contradictions of heart... This trio of acquaintances reminds me so much of all the people and stories of other people like me ... on I've met my own journey. All while still managing to serve up enough cute outfits and tender moments to make your heart flutter~

This has the potential to be a very emotional read; I cried, I yearned, I gave a thought to all the battered souls I've crossed paths with whom these three vividly brought back to mind, I laid in bed devouring chapters into the early hours, staring off into the night reflecting on my own journey of expression, wondering if I'd found the happy ending I so wished these characters to find...

If you're up to facing the sadness and shadows hanging over these characters' lives, and you're okay with discussions of abuse and sexual trauma, I absolutely recommend this. It's a story that'll stick with me for years to come, and I'd love for you to make friends with these three weirdos also.

All that said, you may be wondering if this is "for you", if you'll get anything out of it, maybe even if it's even alright for you to engage with. It's very important to note that this is NOT explicitly a transgender story, although it does closely follow a central character's desire to transition, alongside the other of the main trio's journeys. This is more accurately a story for anyone with a complex relationship to gender expression, whether you feel at home as you are, or you yearn for more. If you've ever spent time in crossdressing communities as I have, you'll especially recognize much of the attitudes and "types" here; you'll possibly even see yourself reflected back. If you've never engaged in any of that—maybe you're here to simply enjoy girly boys, nothing more—there's still plenty to enjoy here if a lil despair in your fantasies doesn't turn you away, and hey, maybe you'll learn something about yourself, or about others in your life.

At the bottom of it, this manga makes no statement as to whether it's "for" a certain person, nor pushes any judgment calls on who or what you are, what's okay for you to do or enjoy, nor does it even conclusively define its own characters much of the time; in fact, it takes a rather laissez-faire approach to gender that honestly feels refreshing, coming from a world with so much pressure to nail oneself down, to hurry up and decide if you're one thing or another... Albeit a nod to nonbinary identities would have been nice, more than anything this manga says it's okay to just go with your own flow, the specifics of what or why never really matter so long as you're true to yourself.

I will mention however, be aware that this story is very focused on amab experiences with femininity; there are a few afab side characters that are hinted as being on the cusp of discovering their masculinity, but those aspects of their stories tend to be left as food for thought and not much more, and aren't further explored past a point. This was probably done as a way to give a nod towards those readers coming to this story from the other direction while not distracting from the main thread too much, but I can imagine it'd be disappointing if one were hoping for more representation.

One final point, as to the rating... If I like this so much, why only an eight? Well, there *are* certain flaws here, and unfortunately they directly impact readability. The thread of what's happening can be very hard to follow sometimes; not that the plot is unduly complex, but rather it's written in such a way that I often had no idea who was saying what far too often, and too much time was spent fruitlessly rereading pages several times over and flipping back to the start of chapters to check if I'd even understood it right... While I fully admit some of these issues may have been due to the translation I read, there were enough issues and confusion caused by the dialogue layout and formatting itself that I can't solely lay blame there.

On top of that, the artstyle, which can be VERY kawaii at its best, can also be somewhat... vague? at its worst? There are just, too many side characters who don't stand apart from each other significantly enough to always be easily told apart from other characters, and while I've found that's not exactly an uncommon complaint when it comes to manga in general, I spent too much time awkwardly following along while unsure who certain characters were, or confusing them with others, especially given the story's tendency to "disappear" side characters only to suddenly bring them back after many chapters or even timeskips without properly reintroducing them... It just gets messy to follow, ahah.

But while that keeps me from rating it higher, it only mildy takes away from the experience, so if this sounds like your bag, don't let that scare you off :3