story characters art music op/ed extra my rating please keep in mind that the final rating might be solely based on my personal enjoyment the review itself is just me discussing all the factors mentioned above. warning: please be aware that this is not a spoilerfree review story he dresses up as a girl?? thats cool but i wonder why lets see how this will be dealt wi WAIT THAT GUY IS GAY??? OR BI?? oh wow thats interesti THAT GIRL HAS ISSUES TOO??? oh man... someone bingewatching the show probably. imagine you have a high school love triangle romcom story. thats pretty average right?? WELL GUESS WHAT no. not exactly. under that sillysounding anilist description hides a show that has much more to say and show than just that. in the end you kind of forget it even was a love triangle story in the first place like unironically which really makes me think if the show has any idea what it ACTUALLY wants to be. it starts out as your regular romcom with a little twist then becomes the said love triangle then its a BL and then it just focuses on its sliceoflife comingofage drama aspect. not knowing what you want to be is generally a big theme for this one it is a story of selfdiscovery after all. now just to summarize the plot: firstyear student saki aoi confesses her love to her senpai makoto hanaoka only to find out hes actually a crossdressing boy. unbothered by this she decides to still pursue him promising that shell become his first love. soon enough she finds out makotos childhood friend ryuuji taiga is also in love with him from then on the story focuses on all of the characterss confusing feelings their main concerns regarding gender sexuality and selfworth. characters the three concerns i finished the last paragraph with are exactly the subsections i will divide this part by. i usually dont break it down like so but as the characters are clearly the focal point of this show i believe it is necessary. before i discuss the main cast in detail though id like to say that the characters in senpainoko are very likeable and fun watching them was truly a pleasure. gender makoto hanaoka the title character and the shows main focus. unsurprisingly makotos character reaches the most visible conclusion out of the main cast. to quote his words from the last episode: dad asked me earlier. if i wanted to live as a boy or if i wanted to live as a girl. and i finally found the answer. i dont want to live as either. i... i want to live as myself. im a boy but i like things girls like. i dont believe theres an actual need for me to get DEEP into makotos character because the show did that well enough but theres one thing id like to make clear using the quote above: makoto is not a trans girl and i cannot stress that enough. i saw a few people claiming he is since he does everything a trans girl would do or something along those lines. what these people fail to understand is that theres a BIG difference between gender identity and gender expression and if you dont understand this then please search it up before voicing any kind of opinions on makoto. for example do we assume that every tomboy is a trans boy?? i dont think so. it could be just a girl expressing herself in ways generally seen as masculine makoto is exactly that but vice versa. while gender identity and gender expression are often connected its not the case for makoto. as he says he just wants to live as himself and explicitly says hes a boy. makoto is just makoto and there is nothing that indicates otherwise. he might not be cisgender but the anime has not specified that though i guess you could say that that quote of his makes it seem like his identity falls under the nonbinary umbrella. that said makoto captures the joy of expressing your gender the way you want to flawlessly i think hes an amazing and relatable queer representation that ought to be comforting for lgbtq+ folks aka what some people call the target audience of senpainoko. as someone who isnt cisgender his character makes my own feelings on the topic seem much more valid to me. sexuality ryuuji taiga aka my favorite character from the show and the cutest boyfailure. at the beginning of the show ryuuji assures saki that the love i feel isnt the kind of love youre thinking of but he soon enough finds out that he was completely wrong. over the course of the show ryuuji came to terms with liking makoto but he still feels more or less guilty for doing so guilty enough to break up with with makoto after he accepted his confession. a part of it is that ryuuji knows makoto doesnt like him like that so that decision while sad is perfectly understandable. nonetheless ryuuji went from it would be weird for men to be in love right? to theres nothing that allows or forbids you from falling in love and thats. thats some solid progress. i cant tell how relatable was that experience since im straight but watching him develop and realise that overtime was certainly a bittersweet experience just like the show overall. selfworth saki aoi sakis character was definitely the most odd one out of the main bunch not a single character ive seen in media before is quite like her. not only that but understanding her is a challenge as most of the time shes a show dont tell type of character. sadly shes also the least developed in s1 but i assume well see more of her in the upcoming movie sequel. last but not least or so they say right?? well saki certainly has a habit of putting herself last and disregarding her own value. therefore she wants to be someone special its a desire she herself does not understand as she never felt strongly about anything both positive and negative stuff. considering her past it seemed to me like a coping mechanism of sorts that she has no control over. it always felt as if she expected things to go wrong but when they did it wasnt easy on her at all the best example of that being her dad leaving much more quickly that anticipated when visiting her. but even so saki always said she was fine with whatever. there were times when she got actually emotional like for example when her grandma was sent to the hospital but most of the time she had this very uncanny yet happy anything goes attitude that was just awfully painful to watch. when she was proudly exclaiming i swear ill become your first love senpai what she really wanted was to be special to someone and it just happened to be makoto for reasons we viewers did not get to see. by the time you finish the show youll forget that the confession scene even happened she gave up on makoto after seeing ryuujis love and realising she doesnt actually love makoto proving that what she really craved was feeling important to someone. to add she saw her grandma mentioning how special was sakis grandpa to her and got the idea that once someone will fall in love with her shell finally be worth something shell finally be special to someone. for most of her life she basically didnt have parents so who else could possibly give her value if not a romantic partner?? therefore her quest to make makoto fall for her begun but soon enough ended. for me saki represents struggles of selfworth because she constantly seeks validation through others. theres still a lot to unpack when it comes to her character and she may still be struggling to find her own little place in the world but im happy she got reunited with her mom and is finally starting to feel valued. art in contrast to the characters not much can be said about the art. undoubtedly very pretty and consistent simply put its a wellexecuted but typical 2020s anime art style. if theres anything unique about it then its for sure the extensive use of chibi art. it personally never annoyed me and i found it to be a good way to save some budget money im assuming thats a part of why the rest of the show got to look so good. i can see why it would annoy some people though... music the opening absolute ATE. its so cute so catchy it captures the bittersweetness of the show well and im absolutely in love with it. the ending is nice as well and has some very neat art in it... extra to be honest i didnt plan on writing a review for this at first as im in my senior year of high school and its been awfully busy but its been over a week since the last episode aired and theres not a single review for the show yet. no wonder its a hard show to review with how complicated the characters are so i hope i did well. tbh when it comes to summer 2024 anime i wanted to review giji haremhttps://anilist.co/anime/163623/PseudoHarem/ at first but theres already reviews of that so... as to possible recommendations: while it has no drama at all which is not the case for senpainoko i believe tomochan is a girlhttps://anilist.co/anime/151806/TomochanIsaGirl/ is similar regarding the comingofage and comedy aspect. my rating a beautiful story that even if its a messy or even chaotic melodrama at times i mean come on did ryuuji have to see saki and makoto hug so out of context?? scenes like that were so frustrating... depicts em confusing teen feels well. they might not understand themselves fully just yet but senpai is an otokonoko lets us witness the formation and development of these characterss identities in a way few anime can. i dont like calling it a love triangle story most importantly its a story about selfacceptance coming of age and focusing on what you want or at least trying to instead of playing along to others expectations. personally i find it to be an enjoyable show with a very fun cast that i wont forget anytime soon and can happily give a 9.5/10 to.