Otoko no ko
Cross-dressing boys are becoming more and more popular with otaku these days, and games are starting to get in on the act now, too. Transform a cute sporty boy into your very own otoko no ko in this new (and free) mobile raising simulation game.
“Otoko no ko”, beautiful boys who can easily pass for girls when they try to, are a favourite of Japan’s netizens (and us!). Who doesn’t love marvelling at stunningly beautiful people, whatever the gender? Here at RocketNews24, we’ve brought you more than a handful of cute beauties, and here’s another one for you… Thai university student Jade Woe!
Cosplay is, of course, a popular pastime of otaku, and one of the most popular types of cosplay right now is the gender-norm-breaking “otoko no ko.” As we’ve explained previously, otoko no ko are men who identify as male and like wearing women’s clothes…and who often happen to look damn good doing it too!
And it seems that otoko no ko numbers are growing too, if the Internet is any indication. Though otoko no ko cosplay events have been around for a while, a contest coming up this weekend is drawing attention online.
As another one of those tricky wasei-eigo words, “new half” refers to transsexual individuals and those people who identify more with the opposite gender. A new Japanese term has also established itself within the past several years to denote the same thing–男の娘, which is pronounced as otoko no ko (the usual way to say “boys”) but written with the kanji for otoko no musume (“young women-men”; musume refers to “young ladies” as in the name of the sensational idol group Morning Musume).
Thanks in large part to the prevalence of otoko no ko in popular manga, social media sites, and video games, casual crossdressing events are enjoying a relative boom of popularity in Japan, and nowhere is this phenomenon more visible than at the monthly Propaganda event held in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Best of all, there are no strings attached–everyone is welcome, from professional drag queens to adults just looking to experiment with a different way of having fun! More details after the jump.