I have mixed feelings about Senpai is an Otokonoko. There are many things I enjoyed about the story especially with the character growth for Makoto. Despite I view myself as female and havent really questioned that I still feel like there were times I have thought But wait what if I did feel like the other gender? growing up. Perhaps not as much as someone who thinks about transitioning or like Makoto where Makoto cant decide which gender to identify as. Or both. I suppose Ill try using the they/them pronouns for Makoto for this review. I suppose Ill go over first all the positives that I enjoyed about this story. First is an easy positive: the humor. Theres quite a few moments of shocked faces or just situations that made me smile or laugh. It didnt feel out of place or illtimed which was nice. I really liked how this is a really characterdriven story as well. Its nice to focus on the characters and just see them interact and through those interactions it leads to them changing and influencing each other. Makoto is a great protagonist and I felt the story did well at describing their conflicting feelings about gender and how they want to be accepted. No matter what everyone has struggled at some point in their lives with trying to be accepted and loved. I admire Makoto fighting for their selfexpression. Where the anime ends I felt like it really completed Makotos arc as Makoto finally confronted the mother. Its not exactly a clean resolution per se but the chance to have an open dialogue with Makotos mother feels realistic and shows maturity for Makoto as they starts to stand up for themself. Ryuji was my favorite character. His struggle to find out whether his affection is romantic or not was an interesting dynamic to the usual love triangle. I really loved how genuine he was and the moment he dropped everything to help Saki whenever she called him was just such a great character moment. I honestly wanted to see more of his story especially at the end. Ill bring this up again later. Saki was a refreshing spark to the story as always. Her struggles were the other half of this story and there are genuinely heartbreaking moments when it comes to her life. Her divorced parents her elderly grandmother the desire to please everyone and the suppression of her own feelings. All of it just hits you so hard. Maybe a little too hard. For a majority of the story whenever Saki questioned if her love was true or real or special I felt seen. As someone who identifies on the aroace spectrum I really saw Sakis struggle as something Ive dealt with. Ive questioned myself many times and Ive cried over what I felt like my lacking of emotion. Seeing her go through something similar it made me hope that perhaps this story was leaning in that direction. But I was wrong. SPOILERS BELOW Heres the part where my feelings have become mixed. Up to the point where Makoto confronts their mother I wouldve said the story is around 8/10. The art style was simplistic at times and maybe had chibis too often for parts where I wanted more emotive faces as characters talked but overall I still enjoyed it. But after the heartbreak of Ryuji confessing to Makoto then the makeup on the Ferris wheel it just feels like Ryujis emotions got brushed aside. It was as if it never happened between him and Makoto. Which was VERY upsetting for me. Ive never had 2nd lead syndrome so bad that I cried at the end of the story when I realized that there wasnt going to be more of a resolution or a separate happy ending for him. It still gets me choked up just thinking about it. I HATE it when there is a really decent guy who likes the MC and he does everything and because hes not special enough he ends up alone. Which doesnt seem fair to Ryuji or Saki. Because Saki is such a sweet girl. She deserves love and kindness and I really wanted her to be happy. But she ends up being in love with Makoto as she originally confessed to. And that hurt me too. I desperately wanted to see a story where an aroace person can have a happy ending just being by herself. I really thought she was leaning towards that. I wanted to see some representation for someone like me. But it looks like that like all other stories. romance has to be the most important part of life for Saki. It may be simplistic for me to say but Sakis romantic feelings for Makoto and Makoto reciprocating those feelings is what pushed Saki to start choosing for herself. She didnt feel inspired to choose to keep living with her grandmother instead of with either of her parents until Makoto confessed and she decided to finally do something about romance first. Im starting to ramble here I think. But its hard to emphasize why it affected me. END OF SPOILERS tldr: Senpai is an Otokonoko is more of a story centered on characters than romance. As Makoto navigates school and interacts with Saki they slowly learn what it is to express themselves and be accepted. Ryuji provides a nice contrast as someone more levelheaded than Sakis more bubbly nature but they both hold complex feelings over romantic love which creates an interesting love triangle. Makotos growth as a character is really sweet and you always want to root for them. While the art style is a little lacking the character dialogue does well to liven up the story and theres multiple times I smiled or cried over the writing. If you are looking for a story with character drama and a coming of age this story is for you.