An anime television series adaptation produced by Project No.9 aired from July to September 2024 on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block.
Senpai Is an Otokonoko is a romance manga[1] following Makoto Hanaoka, a high school student who dresses like a woman despite his mother's disapproval.
[3] Saki Aoi, a girl attending the same high school as Makoto, falls in love with him under the belief that he is a woman, and only learns the truth after confessing her feelings for him and getting rejected.
[2] Early in the planning of the manga, Pom considered making it a gag-based comedy, but decided to lean more toward a serious tone as that is what she personally enjoys reading, which is what led her to write Makoto's troubled relationship with his mother.
[23] At Sakura-Con 2024, Kodansha USA announced that the series was licensed for English language publication as Senpai Is an Otokonoko: My Crossdressing Classmate, with the first volume to be released in April 2025.
[40][41] It is produced by Project No.9 and directed by Shinsuke Yanagi, with Yoriko Tomita as head writer, characters designed by Shōto Shinkai, and music composed by Yukari Hashimoto.
The staff from the anime series are returning to reprise their production roles, alongside director Shinsuke Yanagi, for which the film is to serve as his directorial debut.
[50][51] It rose in popularity in 2020,[52] and became the third most read series for female readers of 2021 on Line Manga, after Mayu Murata's Honey Lemon Soda and Yaongyi's True Beauty.
[55] The writing was well received for discussing potentially heavy topics like sexuality while managing to keep a light tone;[2] Oricon and Nijimen both thought it did a good job at portraying the characters' psychology, and their struggles in wanting to be open about themselves while fearing the vulnerability that comes with it.
[57] The artwork was also well received, with both Oricon and Nijimen describing the coloring as beautiful,[5][56] and Da Vinci calling the scene where Makoto reveals his gender particularly well drawn.