AKB49 - Renai Kinshi Jourei

@Tetsudan i think i agree with TheRater, him being a guy is different from being a tomboy in that hes at higher risk, thus making his action seem even more awe inspiring, i mean you even said it yourself there are dire comsequences for him cross dressing! if he were female that goes away.

and about your comments on cross dressing about "its perfectly normal" and "nothing else as long as you love eachother bit" i know what you mean. if they love eachother and they are into crossdressing or gay chances are they ARE going to be faced with consequences yet "propoganda manga" makes no mention of them.

But the thing to remember is if someone is into this type of thing, chances are theyve been judged their whole life. No matter who you are and what your hobby is you will be judged and discriminated against, might as well be who you really are and take instead of being a coward your whole life and end up being judged for being the "person" that is in reality a shell of who you wanted to be. Minoru's situation is a bit different and hes a fictional character, but hes an example of someone with no regrets acting as one desires to be.

I can honestly say that in this manga is the only instance of cross-dressing I have ever liked. Dude is risking everything to support his friend/love interest.

Think about it. What happens when the general populace finds out he's a cross-dresser? How will it affect his social life? How will it affect his ability to find a job (if he needs one outside of AKB)? Is this acceptable enough in Japanese society that you honestly believe he won't face some rather difficult consequences?

He's not cross-dressing because he likes it. He's not cross-dressing to make a point. He's cross-dressing for the sake of someone he cares about. That deserves respect, even from someone as repulsed by just the idea of cross-dressing as me.

Most manga/anime with cross-dressing are full of one-sided "It's perfectly normal" and "Nothing else matters as long as you love each other" propaganda. I can't stand that. There are always valid arguments that are overlooked as well as frequently backwards logic.

In this manga, however, there's none of that. There are no males who are attempting to force themselves onto him. He's not attempting to seduce another male. In fact, there's actually very little romance in this manga at all. It's basically all unrequited and far from aggressive.

The cross-dressing in this manga is a side-note. Randrakan is right in saying that if he were a tomboyish female and this were [shoujo-ai] (yuri's a bit far, since there hasn't been so much as a freakin' kiss in this manga), the story would be pretty much the same. I don't think there's a problem with that. I don't think his cross-dressing absolutely needs to be the center of attention all the time. That's not the statement that's being made in this manga. If you want a manga that focuses primarily on the cross-dressing (and shounen-ai/yaoi) aspect, you can go read No Bra. This isn't that kind of manga.

I agree with the gender bender comments below, both sides.
Shoujo Shounen emphasized on the difficulty of keeping your gender secret when being an idol (read it, it's cute)
AKB49 scrapped on this comedy concept (note - comedy is not in this one's tag) but focuses on the idol concept.

Justified.

i know what you mean aquinox, so many people just dont put in the work with excuses like "i am not being paid enough!" and i always think "well with that attitude who would want to pay you let alone promote you?"

@mokata
"Hard work and dedication" - THE things which are easily named but very hard to achieve. (depending on surroundings)

Personally I admire the people who can do both w/o problems ...

well I love it! Hardwork and decitation are my favorite favors of manga!

@Druk
i havent read this in awhile but i decided to read to ch 35 and i dont see any relevance in the comparison brought up. Idol Pretender he literally changes into a girl and its forced to be an idol for money, in this the main character cross dresses and is an Idol out of his own free will to watch over his love interest, its not really comparable at all.
The point of the main character being a guy is to reinforce the fact that he indeed is a legendary idol transcending even gender barriers, as stated in chapter 1 if you dont remember (ya i just read the manga again since its been awhile so i read ch 1 too)

@Randrakan
The reason for him being male is
1. To emphasize how legendary an idol he is transcending even gender

2. Its cheesy but author seems to be saying that AKB is about determination and hardwork not just beauty. themale character here seems to be a representation of the message.

Lets face it, the main focus of this story is about AKB and what idols have to go through and their disgruntled managers that work them to the bone. The guy is definetly a factor in the story but hes not really the focus, he is just the incarnation of the ideal AKB member in terms of dedication. (despite his stumble just now)

"Do you want to see the moment we transform into butterflies?"

Err... sorry you already did... with glitter too!!! trannie!

I don't get it, what's the point of the guy? if he hardly ever appears and he does nothing different as he was a girl. I even lost sight of the heroine in this sea of generic manga girls.

Even though the plot is shallow, I prefer Idol Pretender, at least there, the guy knows he has to turn back before he is overcome by the girl he turned into, which is a bit more reasonable considering it is full transformation.

While I've read more than a few genderbender titles and I have no problem with the genre (Hell, I loved some of them like Pretty Face) I just can't help but feel like this story would have been better if he was actually a she from the start. There have been few instances where him being a guy has actually mattered and they are not only few but far inbetweeen.

The thing is, while this may change later on, the fact that he is a guy doesn't actually change much of a story (just make him a tomboy and slap in the Yuri tag on it and you'll get pretty much the same story)
I don't know really...it's just that after reading each chapter, with him getting more and more popular, I still get that nagging feeling that "hell, he's a guy but even the author seems to forget it at times...". I've never gotten this feeling in other genderbender titles, since it's carfully cemented that the character is a guy all the way, rather than a guy in a few instances.

minori! Minori! Minori!

Honestly I like the main story and the artstyle. Though sometimes It gets a bit uncomfortable cus off the ways idols are wieved in Japan. In the manga everything is portrayed so brightly, yet somhow theres a strange feeling that doesn't seem right.

Great, audience is powering up dragon ball Z style, should only take another two volumes to get to the main event.

OK now I feel like taking bets how many chapter will this 'waiting' be lengthened for +_+

I think the author just made Minoru way too uber, more uber than superman, naruto, forget those guys they had determination when facing death, but Minoru? He gained determination just on his caring for AKB and even sacrificed some his manhood.

Best Scenes: CH16 P18, CH17 P15, CH23 P17, CH29 P16, CH32 P14-15, CH33 P15
Cant wait to read volumes 5 and 6, thanks Sense scans!

DON'T BE A WUSS, MINORU.

Dramaaaaa. Anyways, I look forward to seeing the resolution of this arc, whatever it may be.

when i found this manga the first thing I see was the name akb49 looks really interesting bcuz it sound like akb48 a japan singing group...
NOW IM IN LOVE WITH THIS MANGA...CANT W8 FOR MORE

Maeda~! go wake him up~

some of the dark haired girls are very difficult to differentiate...

CLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIF HANGER!!!!!!!

Yoshinaga will be on that stage. Definitely.
One of the most touching things a fan can ever see is their idol still performing for them even though they are sick.

Though politicians in my country's been using the 'continue-speech-in-rain-without-umbrella' trick recently...

Why Yoshinaga, of all people?
I sure don't want the mangaka to go with the concert w/o Yoshinaga, like one of Chihaya in Chihayafuru's matches..

kinda saw that coming

She put herself under too much stress >.< but can't blame her.