Genres: comedy, romance, gander bender
Plot Summary: Through a series of coincidences, Yoshinori wound up having to fill in for his beautiful older sister as a model for a bridal gown. Ever since then he’s had a taste for both cross-dressing and photography, and Yubisaki Milk Tea follows his exploits both as male Yoshinori and female “Yuki.” Yoshinori winds up in a love triangle with his childhood friend Hidari, who doesn’t know about his cross-dressing, and a classmate named Minamo, who hates men and will only talk to Yoshinori when he’s dressed as Yuki.
Series Commentary: It sounds like such a wacky tangle that it could only be an over-the-top comedy, but it’s actually not. Instead, Yubisaki is a high school drama that wavers back and forth between being too emo and being too real. The characters are inconsistent in their desires like any high school kid; the approach to their avid interest in sex is frank (leading some volumes, released by TOKYOPOP, to be shrinkwrapped in stores). Like Kodomo no Jikan, some aspects of the story may make a more conservative reader uncomfortable, but the payoff of peeking into the psychology of the characters is immense.
Ario's Notes: Since the relationships in Yubisaki are so complex as a refreasher Tokyopop put a relationship matrix in the beginning of each volume of the US release. It wasn't nearly sufficient enough and to give you a peak into exactly how messed up the relationships are I decided I made this diagram:






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