I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup Vol. 01

I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup Vol. 01

“Cocoa” has found belonging in an all-girl who meet up for sweets. There’s just one problem: Cocoa’s actually a cross-dressing guy! What begins as a tense manga about online life turns into a lighthearted comedy about love, friendship, gender nonconformity, and what it means to be your true self.

Includes volumes 1 and 2 of the Japanese edition, over 250 pages of manga!

“Cocoa” has made three best friends in her monthly meetup group, where girls get together every month to quell their sweet tooths by meeting up at the cutest and trendiest new dessert cafes.

Cocoa is in it for the sweets–really!–but she’s also harboring a few secrets: Not only does Cocoa have a crush on another one of the girls in the group, Opera, but she’s actually a guy named Satoshi who’s been cross-dressing in order to attend the all-girl group! During one meetup, things come to a head when Opera discovers that Cocoa is cross-dressing–and to Cocoa’s surprise, Opera confesses that he is too! But Cocoa realizes that his attraction to Opera is more than clothing-deep, and as the two grow closer, they’ll learn more about each other–and their own selves–than they could have ever imagined.

Biographical Notes:

Kurano debuted on LINE Manga in 2018 with the traditional Japanese dance–themed shojo manga Sansan Sakura. Their most recent work is the hit comedy I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup, which is being published in English by Kodansha.

Title Notes:

• LIGHTHEARTED, LGBTQ-ADJACENT MANGA: A lie to his online gaming group spirals out of control, and when the group decides to meet up in person, “Cocoa” decides he has to cross-dress! It might sound like a problematic premise, but this series quickly turns into a silly comedy playing with gender norms, online life, and societal conformity, not unlike Go For It, Nakamura! and I Think My Son Is Gay.
• A SWEET-AS-PIE ROMANTIC COMEDY: A romantic comedy about friends who get together over their shared love of sweets will appeal to fans of Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku and Princess Jellyfish.
• OMNIBUS FORMAT: Each volume includes two volumes of the Japanese release, over 250 pages of manga.

More details on Kurano:

Kurano’s Twitter account

More works by Kurano

Publisher’s Twitter account