Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru

Information of Anime

Mizuho Miyanokouji is a normal young boy with a normal lifestyle.  When his grandfather passed away, he was shocked to hear what his grandfather's wish was in his will.  It was Mizuho to attend to the same school that his mother use to attend to which is an all-girls school.  With the help of his friend Mariya Mikado, Mizuho gets a makeover to look like a girl in order to attend the school.

Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru is based on an ero-game by Caramel Box.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

Because of his grandfather's wish, Mizuho is forced to dress up as a girl.  The only people that knows that he's a boy are the headmaster, his teacher, & Mariya.  Due to the fact that he's living in a dormitory full of girls, he needs to act & dress like a girl most of the time.  He has a hard time adjusting to this due to his normal actions & phrases as a boy.  For example, leaving the toilet seat up after finishing his business.  Because of Mizuho's tall height, looks, & physical abilities, he instantly becomes a hit with many of his schoolmates.  His popularity makes him a potential candidate to become an Elder, a sister that's respected by the school.  However, the student council is against this as they believe that Mariya is trying to make Mizuho become an Elder as he doesn't know his way around the school yet.  However, he does become an Elder in the end.  Over time, some of the students discover that Mizuho is a boy but keep it a secret.  Not many of them know it though.  Throughout the show, we see Mizuho's relations with some of the girls.  Things pick up when Takako Itsukushima, the student council president, start to develop something for Mizuho after the school festival play.

Because of Takako's confusion, she doesn't know what her feelings to Mizuho is.  At the same time, Mariya develops jealously on how close Takako & Mizuho are.  As Mizuho fixes up the relationship problem between him & Mizuho, Takako almost becomes a victim in a kidnapping.  But Mizuho saves her & accidentally reveals to Takako that he's a boy.  Because of this, Takako keeps her distance from him & Mizuho decides to leave the school after attending the upcoming school dance as a final duty as an Elder.  Since Takako didn't reveal his secret & let's him still, all is well at the end as the ending shows what seems like Mizuho graduating with some sort of certificate or diploma on his desk.

A bonus episode was released on DVD as a fanservice using the Cinderella storyline with Mizuho being the prince (a male role) & Takako being Tsunderella (another name for Cinderella).  This episode has no linkage to the main story as it's all humour with the characters being in their deformed appearances most of the time.  The ending for that episode follows the original story's, but with a twist.

My Personal Review

Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru is kind of disturbing for people that aren't use to seeing boys dressing up as girls.  It was kind of hard for me too.  But strangely enough, people don't seem to have that problem as Mizuho was actually voted as the most popular character in the game by fans over the girls.  Not too sure why.  If you don't main this stuff, give this anime a try.

Animation

The character designs are considered to be quite cute with the large eyes & long faces.  Mizuho does have the appear of a girl more than a boy.  However, there are times where he does look like a boy from the sides due to his long face.  Also, you will see a lot of thin legs from the girls.  I don't know why a lot of anime studios are doing this for yuri-based anime shows.  The school uniforms are pretty plain, but look good.  It's got some elegance & class to it.  Also, there are times where the characters go SD & it's pretty weird looking.  Personally, I find them ugly.  They have small chubby bodies & large round heads with dumbfounded looks.  The eyes are dots & their butts look big that you can see panties.  These come up during comedy & explanation scenes & they appear quite often.

The colours are dull & soft.  It really fits the mood of the show.  Not only do they make the characters come to life, but they make the backgrounds look stunning for the outdoor areas.

The backgrounds look elegant & give the school & it's surroundings some colour.  It's almost like art, but not the very best ones.

In terms of the animation movement, the flow was quite nice & natural.  Even the SD characters seem to move smoothly than strange.  I expected some choppy or missing frames for the humour, but there's barely any to my surprise..

Sound       

The seiyuus aren't too bad here.  Yui Horie's voice took a lot of time for me to adjust.  Although she makes an ideal voice for Mizuho being a girl, as a boy it's a bit hard to adjust.  It's more little a cute girly boy's voice personally.  I rarely hear her voice in male roles.  I believe it's a first for me.  The others are okay for me.

The sounds are a mixture of cute & realistic sounds.  Most of the cute stuff comes from Mizuho panicking or other girls getting hurt in a strange way.  They are clear & set at a good volume level.

The music isn't too bad.  It's not too memorable for me as they don't stick to my head.  They are mainly ballads in a classical style with a lot of strings.

Story

The show focuses on Mizuho's school life as an Elder.  No doubt it involved a lot of training for Mizuho to become a girl & get adjusted to his new school life.  However, I'm a bit surprised on how most of the girls don't know that Mizuho is a boy based on the clothing he wears.  The string tank top he wears should reveal some indication that he's a boy with that much skin exposed on the top.  However, it seems the girls don't notice this.

It's nice to see how Mizuho's relationship with some of the girls is as it is quite realistic.  However, some may be disturbed on how Mizuho acts with his girlish side.  It's quite impressive to see the story being covered pretty well for a 12 episode show.  There doesn't to be fillers anywhere as the plot moves smoothly.  Even the ending is well done, even though I wanted to see something more dramatic than easy going.  Nevertheless, it's still a decent ending.

Overall Conclusion

Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru is something that some people may not want to watch.  Mainly because we get to see a boy dress up as a girl & wear makeup as well.  I think the show does have some potential even though it has a plot that is similar to many anime shows out there like Strawberry Panic!  If you can get over the trauma of Mizuho dressing up & acting as a girl, this is a good show to watch.

Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru gets an eight out of ten.  The show's got an interesting idea & the way it presents itself with humour is entertaining.  The story is well written even though it can be dry at times for people.  Also, the ending is very well done for a short show.  However, some people like me may like the idea of Mizuho being a girl.

Last updated on January 14, 2008