Love Me for Who I Am

Lets get this out of the way immediately, this manga tackles lgbtq+ issues and themes. It does it well, especially for a manga that came out in the 2010s. This manga treats these issues seriously and with respect. It sucks I have to say this, but if this is an issue for you, you're the problem, not the manga. If your own fragile ego and bigotry make you blindly hate this series- you are the issue.

I wouldn't make a review if I didn't feel strongly about the work or didn't have something to add to the conversation.

~ Art ~ This manga does a lot well. The art is always cute but can scale up the facial expressions and detail when it needs to. It is nothing mind blowing, but the manga overall is appealing and easy to read. The panels flow well together. I read both the physical volumes and online scans. ~ Characters ~ The biggest real criticism of the manga is the characters. None of them are bad characters, but many are one note. While 28 chapters is more than enough to tell a full story with flushed out characters, this manga has a big cast. Yes, most of the characters are a few personality traits and then their sexuality and/or gender. While for some, the lack of depth in the side cast is bad, I personally think it was very well done. The characters you are supposed to like are very likeable and the manga uses its cast to explore different aspects of queerness. The story is ultimately about acceptance and understanding. It does a great job showing the diversity of queerness and how its not always simple. Yes, this manga would have benefited from a longer run time. I have read similar manga and each went around 50-100 chapters: in their cases it allowed not only for the main characters and their dynamics to be fully explored, it also allowed breathing room for the side cast. I do think the side cast in this manga felt cramped at times, but none of them are bad characters. There is merit to the main criticism mentioned earlier, outside of their identity struggles, we don't learn much deeper about them.

I will maintain that they fit the story and that their individual character arcs. It is fine that their subtle development and their identity are the core of their characters, because it furthers the themes of the story.
I maintain this because I think the two main characters are wonderful. While not the greatest characters ever, they felt like full characters. Their dynamic together is super cute and a really good portrayal of a queer couple. You want to root for these two.

The Mangaka
Short but needed tangent. The mangaka started out as a doujin artist and drew hentai. One of which is just gross and I won't defend them on it. What I will say is that from a quick glance at everything they have been making afterwards, their commitment to telling queer stories is there. Without having read their newest works, I will not comment on how well they do with representation and other things. I have seen people using the one-off hentai I mentioned earlier to discredit all their other work. Its impossible to remove the author from their works entirely, but it is unfair to judge Love Me for Who I Am with that in mind.
The mangaka also did make a 3 chapter hentai with characters from this manga, although after actually reading it, its not a prequel. It feels like a prototype of what would eventually become this manga. A side character and her boyfriend as well as the cafe exist in the manga, but they are essentially different characters and the cafe itself was just a generic place.
The rabbit hole that is the discussion of hentai set in high school will not be covered here. What I will say is that drawing hentai early on as a up and coming manga artist is very common. A large amount of manga artists make doujin/self publish for many different reasons.

All that to say, the mangaka themselves nor their other work factor into this review or the score, but I felt my review would be incomplete without it.

~ Story ~ Spoilers The story of a non-binary queen teen finding romance and acceptance is nice to read about. While I have seen complaints about how overly dramatic it can be, I feel like such a simple observation is dismissive of real life issues. Japan very much is a socially conservative country. Older generations are less accepting and less likely to want to learn and be better, and this does hurt a lot of people. I always hated the criticism that characters cry to much in certain manga. There are exceptions, but this line of thinking always reeks of toxic masculinity. Its the criticism of people with fragile egos. Characters being emotional and crying can be overdone, but its not in this manga. Coming from a queer person with narrow minded parents, it hurts a lot to feel their rejection. It does feel equally as healing when you find others who accept you. I remember when my best friend came out as bi to me, seeing him go from clearly worried and nervous to super happy is one of the most cherished moments I have. I can still see his smile clearly whenever I think back to it. So when Tetsu calls finally stops saying 'brother' and calls his sibling 'his sister,' it really hits me. Yes the character growth is overly optimistic, but I am glad it exists. Sometimes you need stories like this with a happy ending. Again, more chapters would have done wonders for the story, but I don't think it was needed to tell the story that it did. The fact I can want it to be 50+ chapters instead of 28 should show you how much I enjoyed reading it.~ Queerness ~ Another tangent, but again, I feel like it is needed. In the context of 2018 Japan, this manga is insanely progressive. While not perfect, it treats identities seriously. I recently praised Otaku x Punk for how the queerness was just a natural part of the world. But I think stories like this that so directly confront issues and so openly show queerness are also needed. A lot of manga can otherize queer characters. I have read many otonoko/femboy/crossdressing manga and am well aware of the many pitfalls there are. i have read enough GL and BL to know how their sexuality can dominate the story. Where them being gay is the story and the romance is treated as as some special thing. Homophobia and other forms of bigotry are present in Japan as well as every part of the world. It is an unfortunate reality. I think this manga showed and handled it very well. It was never cartoonishly evil. It was subtle and was more often than not just simple ignorance.

~ Final Thoughts ~
I love this manga. It was a breath of fresh air at a time where almost all queer manga was basic GL or BL. It really felt like a sign of change in the industry and with the influx of great queer manga in the 6 years after, I was right in thinking that. There have been great queer manga before it, but I remember reading this in a mall while waiting for my dad to finish shopping. I had the biggest smile on my face.
4/5 years later, I had that same smile when I reread it. Does it have flaws? Of course not, no manga is perfect. I enjoyed my time with the manga and that is ultimately the main thing that matters. For that my score will seem high, but I do think it is well earned.