Love Me For Who I Am Vol. 1

by Kata Konayama

Overview

An LGBT+ manga about finding friendship and common ground at an untraditional maid café! Mogumo is a cute but lonely non-binary high school student who just wants a few loving friends. As someone who doesn’t identify as a boy or a girl, however, finding people who really understand can be a big challenge. When fellow student Iwaoka Tetsu invites Mogumo to work at an untraditional maid café, Mogumo is hopeful that things are looking up. Will they finally find friends to call their own—or just more misunderstanding?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781645054672
Publisher:	Seven Seas Entertainment
Publication date:	06/30/2020
Series:	Love Me for Who I Am Series , #1
Pages:	190
Sales rank:	17,086
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.00(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Kata Konayama is an up-and-coming manga creator best known for Love Me for Who I Am.

Editorial Reviews

05/25/2020

Nonbinary high school first-year Mogumo Ryuunosuke wants nothing more than “friends who truly understand.” Classmates misgender them and treat them as a spectacle, except for Iwaoka Tetsu, whose trans older sister encourages empathy. Offering Mogumo a job at Question, his family’s cross-dressing maid café, Tetsu has noble intentions, but adding Mogumo to the staff of three other high schoolers proves challenging when Mogumo recoils at introducing themselves to guests as otokonoko (“a guy dressed as a girl”). Fellow first-year Suzumi “Suzu” Sou and cosplayer Ten-chan enjoy donning the maid uniform but identify as male; second-year Tatebayashi “Mei” Akira struggles with relinquishing the label otokonoko to better include Mogumo. As Mogumo gains the confidence to assert their wants, Mei realizes hers too, and, in a cathartic scene, asserts her womanhood. Clear, endearing art enhances the narrative’s accessibility. In this first volume’s six chapters, Mogumo makes strides in exploring their identity as rival love interests emerge in Tetsu and Kotone, Mogumo’s childhood friend. Manga creator Konayama, while not nonbinary, embraces difficult conversations leading to meaningful moments (“Are you a homo?” Mogumo frankly asks Suzu before learning those words can be hurtful), making this an appealing queer series opener for rom-com fans. Ages 13–up. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"From the start of its second chapter, [Love Me for Who I Am] had me mesmerized...relatable conflicts and challenges fill nearly every panel. The raw emotion of these are made palatable to even the most casual readers, though, by its sugary coating."
—Ashley Hakker, Anime Herald

"Clear, endearing art enhances the narrative’s accessibility... Manga creator Konayama, while not nonbinary, embraces difficult conversations leading to meaningful moments...making this an appealing queer series opener for rom-com fans." —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher