Kunisaki Izumo no Jijou

Kunisaki Izumo no Jijou is a manga with an interesting premise: it revolves around the traditional Japanese theatrical art of kabuki, which is rarely referenced in other anime or manga, much less being used as a central premise. Stylistically however, there is nothing really ground-breaking. The protagonist of the series is the typical talented-person-but-wants-to-lead-a-normal-life-character. Other characters have distinct but predictable characteristics, and the series runs on story arcs which can get pretty formulaic. Its classification as a shonen manga is also suspect in the presence of strong undertones of a reverse harem à la Ouran High School Host Club.

Nevertheless, those flaws are superficial as they do not interfere with the humour or action of the series. The series is well-researched when it comes to depicting kabuki plays, from the setting right down to the costumes. While one might accuse the story arcs for being formulaic, one would find it hard to criticise the content of the kabuki plays selected for each arc, which are unique and appropriate on their own right.

Character-wise, the titular Kunisaki Izumo may complain a lot about performing kabuki as his natural forte is in playing female roles, thus necessitating cross-dressing which he absolutely detests, he never once expresses a dislike for stage performance itself and will invariably work hard for the success of the plays. This makes him a character with sympathetic complaints but whose complaints are also the main source of comedy in the series. Being a relative outsider to the world of kabuki, he also serves as an audience surrogate in understanding kabuki.

Overall, this series is an excellent introduction to the world of kabuki and much of the action and humour revolves around kabuki and the way the protagonist interacts with it. If one views kabuki solely as a gimmicky device, then it is natural for the jokes to fall flat over time. Otherwise, if one views kabuki as an integral part of the story, it is hard not to appreciate it and see how it develops the characters of the series. After all, that is what it did to me, and that is why I enjoy it.

The series is like a shonen ripoff from ouran, except it's more gay. Instead of a girl in reverse harem you get a girly guy in a 'reverse harem' yea.. guy being molested and supported by bunch of other guys. It started as a good gag but after 37 I'm starting to wonder if authors intended to make it fanservice for females and gay readers or did they just fuck up along the way.

There's bunch of shonen-ai like scenes, where main is being harassed by his pedo gay father or by a guy who thinks he's gay.. was funny in begining but now it's repeatable and boring.

All arcs are the same, main refuses to perfrom in kabuki as a girl, but ands up doing it anyway, saves some emotionally fucked up boy in with problems who after that turns out gay and starts following mc around in his gay harem.

Despite it being shonen manga i can only remember 2 female characters, first would be mc childhood friend, possible romantic plot, however only appears as some extra just for the sake of having a female in the series. Second would perverted lesbo like teacher that always wants to rape main character whenever he acts girly.

I'm not saying the idea was wrong, picking stuff up from shoujo series that are liked by both genders could give a bit of freshness in stagnant shonen manga genre, however someone somewhere fucked up and created a gay manga that's released in magazine for shonen boys.

It's easy read, series would prolly be good shoujo. It even had a potential to be good shonen. However as a shonen it's design faults make it only a bit above medicore.

To be honest I've read less gay series about cross dressers and hermaphrodites.