A Full Review
Published in Ichijinsha's online magazine Lovebites from 2021 to 2022, I Want You to Make Me Beautiful! (Kimi no Te de Kawaiku Naritai!) is a 2-volume office romance series featuring an androgynous male lead and a mousy female lead. The newcomer mangaka Cocoa wrote and illustrated this series, and the series is their first published josei manga. Seven Seas published I Want You to Make Me Beautiful! in a single, all-in-one omnibus under its sexy imprint for women Steamship, and the company released it in April 2024. I Want You to Make Me Beautiful! is the first Lovebites title published by Seven Seas under the Steamship imprint. The second title was Loved by Two Fiancés. (Volume 1 was just released in September 2024.)
Seven Seas describes I Want You To Make Me Beautiful!:
Office lady Nishimura Kanna has had it with her boyfriend after discovering his cheating ways. When she breaks up with him, he insults her looks, bruising her self-confidence on top of breaking her heart. Then she runs into an old classmate, the androgynous Ichikawa Yuzuki, a man whose gorgeous appearance is a sharp difference from the boyish classmate Kanna remembers from their school days. Not only does she ask Yuzuki to help her become just as pretty, but she ends up pretending to be Yuzuki’s girlfriend, too! As things get hot and heavy between them, can a beautiful romance blossom from this “fake” relationship?
In brief, I Want You to Make Me Beautiful! is a story about inner and outer beauty. It's a story about how love changes you and makes you beautiful. It's also a story about how the protagonist Kanna changes for herself and moves on after a bad relationship. The story opens with Kanna catching her boyfriend Keisuke cheating on her, red-handed. They argue and break up, right then and there. Keisuke gets the final word, declaring Kanna to be too "drab and ugly" for him as he walks away. (Yeah, Keisuke is the worst. He's the office flirt, and will hit on any female employee that gets too close.) The breakup is what kicks off the story. Soon after she reunites with Yuzuki and starts a fake relationship with him. Basically, Seven Seas' story description covers the first chapter, and the rest of the book is filled with romance, comedy, drama, office shenanigans, and some sexy times.
The characters are decent. Kanna and Yuzuki are both 25-years-old coworkers in the same department. Kanna is an introverted woman who can't hold her liquor. She's kinda bland and invisible to people until she gets her big makeover which includes removing her (non-prescription) glasses, letting her hair down, putting on makeup, and wearing new clothes. Kinda cliche, but eh, the story isn't supposed to be a serious commentary on beauty standards anyway, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Doesn't bother me, but your mileage may vary.
On the other hand, Yuzuki is an androgynous male lead. He identifies as male. He's into genderless fashion. Yuzuki is an extroverted popular guy who gets mistaken for a woman a lot. (It's a thing throughout the story. Even Keisuke hits on Yuzuki, thinking he's a woman.) Most importantly, Yuzuki is head-over-heels in love with Kanna. It takes a minute for Kanna to recognize her feelings for Yuzuki and respond in kind.
Overall, the story is short, cute, and straightforward. I Want to Make You Beautiful! is a solid read, and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a tame Teens' Love (TL) title. Per Anime Planet, Teens' Love is "a Japanese demographic marketed towards women in their older teens to adults. " The stories "emphasize smut and erotic themes and include detailed or prolonged sex scenes." "TL" doesn't get as much use as "shoujo" or "josei" in the United States and similar markets, and TL is something that can be described as a genre too since it almost exclusively deals with romance, specifically the erotica side of romance unlike shoujo or josei which strictly describes a demographic, not genres.
As far as erotica and smut romances go, I Want You to Make Me Beautiful! has to be one of the least controversial titles in Steamship's line-up thus far. The few things that I could think of that people may have problems with are nitpicks. Besides the few vanilla sex scenes, people may take issue with the scene where Kanna goes out drinking and ends up in bed with Yuzuki, the cliche "ugly girl to beautiful" makeover thing, and Yuzuki being mistaken for a girl throughout as a joke. With only a single volume, I wouldn't be surprised if I Want You to Make Me Beautiful! becomes one of the stories that people blink and miss out on or forget it's even there. Honestly, the androgynous male lead is what gives this simple story that extra spice, well, besides the actual spice. It'd be so bland without that angle, and unfortunately, the story doesn't dive deeply into fashion or gender expression.
At any rate, I Want You to Make Me Beautiful! will have a spot on my shelf as I continue my quest to read and collect every single Steamship title. Also, I Want You to Make Me Beautiful! is a solid debut title for Cocoa, and since Cocoa likes to draw pretty girls and androgynous characters (per the author's note in the back of the book), I think it's worth keeping an eye on their work and watch them as they grow as an artist. Maybe we'll see more work from them in English soon.
Conclusion
I Want You to Make Me Beautfiul! is a solid romance manga. The mangaka Cocoa balances the story and sex well. Overall, this manga is perfect for those who are looking for a mildly sexy and light-hearted office romance featuring adult characters.
Check out I Want You to Make Me Beautiful! via Seven Seas' website here.
What to read next after I Want You to Make Me Beautiful!:
Cinderella Closet by Wakana Yanai
Game Between the Suits by Mai Nishikata
Loved by Two Fiancés by Chizu Aoi & Mia Yuduki
My Androgynous Boyfriend by Tamekou
Princess Jellyfish by Akiko Hagashimura
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