How I Attended An All-Guys' Mixer

As they say, boys will be girls. Er, girls will be boys? Something like that.

If you've been reading my reviews over the past two years, you may find yourself wondering if I always pick the low-scoring or obscure shows on purpose. It's certainly not my intention, I don't know how or why my tastes alway manage to align with the things that most other people generally dislike or brush off, but here I am, reviewing another show that virtually nobody else decided to watch with me. All I know is that when I see an upcoming title for the season that's about girls in drag, I just immediately add it to my list without a second thought.

If you've heard of this show, it's likely that you've heard it described as one of those "fujoshi" anime, supposedly written for dirty-minded women who like stories about men in homoerotic situations. In and of itself, the show isn't actually THAT boys' love-y (certainly nothing like other more blatant M/M titles I've watched this year like Cherry Magic or Twilight Out of Focus), but I guess the vibe is similar enough that you could say it draws from the same creative wellspring. The difference is that All-Guys' Mixer isn't so much about women rooting for two men to get together as it is about bisexuality, gender presentation, and everyone questioning their orientation.

I actually can't think of more than maybe 3 times in which I watched an anime that featured women in drag, contrasted to the innumerable times I've seen men in drag. Hmm.

To set the stage, How I Attended An All-Guys' Mixer is the story of three college dudes who get invited to an informal mixer by a female classmate. Knowing that mixers are notorious for turning out to be sausage parties, the three warily decide to accept and show up, on the grounds that it was a girl who invited them. Sure enough, they arrive on the scene to encounter another three - admittedly sharp-dressed - dudes waiting for them at the table. Upon closer investigation however, these so-called Chads introduce themselves to reveal that no, they are, in fact, three girls, they're just all dressed as men.

The three of them work part-time jobs together down at a local drag king bar - this anime's equivalent of a maid cafe, but for women dressed as and playing the parts of handsome men - and rather than go home and change after their shift, decided to just show up to the mixer in costume. Hesitant, the three "main" guys hem and haw over it a bit until they decide that a girl in drag is still a girl, which thereby makes it "not gay" (well...) and therefore okay. The constant questioning and eventual acceptance of this situation is what forms the core gimmick of the anime, around which its entire sense of humor and identity revolves.

Color me shocked that a show about girls in drag doesn't have a single boob joke in it from beginning to end. Even as a liker of boob jokes, this was actually a welcome surprise.

Make no mistake, this is a gimmick anime from top to bottom. I've talked about the concept of gimmick anime in other reviews (Plus-Sized Elf, for example), but the short version is that the show is good at exactly one joke, and then spends its entire run finding various ways to repeat and reinvent that same joke in a variety of formats that keep it from getting too stale. Most gimmick anime rely on this type of repetition and lack of resolution to maintain themselves, and that's exactly what fuels All-Guys' Mixer as well. There is very little meat to this story; it's all fluff with no particular destination in mind plot-wise, though there is a small degree of progression character-wise.

But I wouldn't call that a weakness of the show, per se. Like most gimmick anime, it operates KNOWING there is no destination in mind, and focuses more on the inherent charm of its characters and the silliness of its premise to carry it along. Watching these eccentric blorbos interact is the main draw of the show, especially because these characters are so well-defined, and their personalities are so varied that it never gets tiring watching the different ways they interact together. If I could describe the show's vibe with a single word, I would say that it likes very much to TEASE the viewer.

The show is excellent at maintaining tension, often in a very wink-nudge kind of way.

The show doesn't waste a single one of its characters, and each of the "main" boys pairs nicely with an equal but opposite drag king. Each pair's dynamic functions a little differently, but - like any rom-com worth its salt - relies on a healthy mix of tension, teasing, and just the right blend of impish horniness and genuine sweetness.

For me, Suou (the "prince") was easily one of my favorite characters because she perfectly embodies the spirit of teasing. Unofficially the mastermind and often de facto leader of the kings, Suou is the one most likely to instigate or suggest an activity for the group to do, often with a sly smile on her face, knowing where it will inevitably lead. No small detail ever escapes her attention, especially in relation to how any of the others interact together, and she always seems to know exactly which buttons to push in order to bring them closer together. She pairs perfectly with the (lol) straight man Tokiwa, who is dumb enough to fall for every trick she throws at him, but easygoing enough that he learns to roll with it and sometimes even surprises her with how genuine he can be in return.

It's not what it looks like, except for when it is what it looks like, which is all the time, for both.

I can say with complete and utter confidence that Asagi is everyone else's favorite character. Exuding maximum golden retriever energy, Asagi is a boy who doesn't have a single active brain cell in that pretty dirty-blonde head of his. Easily impressed and excitable, he's always down to try new things or encourage his friends, and it's this boundless optimism that ends up pairing him with Fuji, the deadpan pervert and audience stand-in "fujoshi" of the group. Although she rarely speaks - and only in a low, often curt voice when she does - she might very well be the funniest of the group, as her extremely dry delivery and subtle innuendos tend to fly right over Asagi's head. She is seen frequently taking pictures of him for reference material to use in her adult manga, which naturally leads to some wonderfully goofy shenanigans between the two.

And, last but not least, that leaves the naive but otherwise normal girl/king Kohaku, who is paired with everyone else's LEAST favorite character, Hagi. Together, they follow the stereotypical Japanese romance arc, with one party constantly fretting internally over every detail while the other is completely oblivious. Kohaku is probably the most realistic character of the bunch, in that she's the most green at playing a drag king (often struggling to master the finer points of the "arrogant" persona she's been designated to play at the bar), as well as the most traditionally feminine of the bunch outside of her drag persona. She always seem unsure if Hagi likes her or not, partly because she's a little too shy to make the first move, but mostly because Hagi is a fucking MESS.

The Killers were definitely thinking of Hagi when they wrote "Somebody Told Me".

The perpetual worrier of the group, Hagi is the world's biggest drama queen when it comes to obsessing over whether or not what he's feeling makes him gay or not. His feelings are all centered around the notion that he's clearly attracted to Kohaku - in both a physical sense and in personality - but he ONLY feels this way when she's in drag. It can be frustrating watching him struggle to process an endless charade of mental calculations as he grapples with his sexuality, but - in contrast to everyone else's generally more accepting personality - I kind of liked that about him. In every sense of the word, he represents the closeted frustration a lot of dudes go through the first time they encounter a queer awakening.

Granted, for people who are already well past that stage of their lives, I get that they would find him (and, by extension, this whole show) insufferable. I was even asked point-blank by a friend if this was a "gay panic" show or not, and considering Hagi's whole deal, I can't exactly answer "no" to that question.

But for me - and for Suou as well - watching supposedly-straight men squirm and grapple with questioning their orientation is something I still find massively entertaining. On a deeper level, I really did really want to see Hagi finally "get it", but alas, if he ever did come to terms and accept his bisexuality, it would mean the anime wouldn't have a gimmick to milk anymore. Fortunately, it's pretty clearly implied by the final episode that Hagi has at least made some amount of peace with his attraction to Kohaku-in-drag, even if the anime would rather tease than confirm anything. Honestly though? I'll take a tease that only lasts 12 episodes over a more drawn-out production that's still teasing over 5 seasons and counting any day of the week. Not to name any names or anything!

Normalize being a girl-boy who kisses boy-girls in front of your homies.

Ultimately, I think what makes it all work in spite of the back and forth over what is and isn't gay hinges on the show's willingness to explore the underrepresented world of drag kings. I mentioned it earlier, but I actually can't think of more than a handful of anime in which a woman dressed as a man was a prominent aspect or plot point of the show. Going in reverse is easy, there are countless examples of guys in drag (Ranma ½, Gatchaman Crowds, hell, even the currently-airing Magilumiere Co. Ltd. features a cross-dressing businessman), but anime generally doesn't like to man-ify women, because most showrunners and production companies are cowards.

But what really interests me about All-Guys' Mixer's approach to sexuality lies in the context of both men AND women finding the kings hot. The focus of the show may be centered on the obvious homosexuality of guys falling for women dressed as men, but it makes no effort to hide that the clientele of the drag king bar is primarily comprised of women, which is every bit as homosexual going in the other direction as well. The beautiful underlying paradox of drag is that it reveals how compulsory and contrived social constructs like heterosexuality and gender segregation really are.

For example, if you're a woman who finds feminine men attractive, does that make you straight or gay? Where is the line between a man who looks feminine and a woman dressed like a man? Conversely, if a man falls for a woman who acts like a man (to whom women are attracted), is that a case of a man trying to turn a lesbian straight, or is the lesbian turning the man gay? Are the girls of All-Guys' Mixer hot because of how feminine they are as men, or how manly they are as women?

The answer is, of course, none of the above, because gender is fake and sexuality isn't a simple binary. All-Guys' Mixer is a great example of using drag to emphasize this point, and I think most anime viewers could benefit from watching more shows like this!

If you're still asking "but is it gay though?", I think you're asking the wrong question.

Queerness aside, one other thing I'd like to highlight before I close out this review is the show's excellent use of voice acting. Overall the show has a very low animation budget - you can tell this was a title that was tossed into the pile to be cranked out as quickly as possible - but what saves it from utter mediocrity from a production standpoint is the incredibly fun voice work. Aside from everyone playing cartoonish caricatures, the dialogue is very playful, sounding almost ad-libbed at times, and often it's the voice work that carries a scene through otherwise very limited animation.

That said, here's my final remarks. How I Attended An All-Guys' Mixer is nothing groundbreaking, but it's a hell of a lot more fun than it has any right to be. Though it only ever teases and never lets the joke actually finish, its playful gimmick explores an underutilized avenue of genderfuckery that really highlights the joy of doing so. Much like a drag show, it's not in and of itself a serious examination of the deep complexities of being queer, it's just a quick fling for funsies. Looking under the surface will of course reveal an infinitely deeper web of gender dynamics, but the show itself is merely here to entertain.

If there's one thing I wish I could change anyone's mind on, it's to let go of the notion that "fujoshi" stuff is inherently "degenerate" or somehow any dirtier than any other flavor of rom-com. It's a label rooted in sexism, and not at all useful for describing shows like this.

The trans flag colors in this shot are obviously just a happy accident and were 100% definitely not intentional, and are absolutely not ironic or hilarious in any way possible.

I'm having trouble coming up with an ideal follow-up recommendation for this show. For the harder-to-find "women in drag" angle, your best bet is probably going to be something like Revolutionary Girl Utena - a complex, sprawling mess of a show that served as a definite queer gateway for a whole generation of up-and-coming lesbians - but it isn't anywhere near a rom-com like All-Guys' Mixer. There's also the aforementioned Ranma ½, which can function as a story about genderfluidity or transness, but again, is a very different genre than Mixer, and focuses on drag in the other direction (not that that makes it any less queer).

For something else in the same vein but without the drag angle, I'd recommend any modern rom-com anime like Cherry Magic or The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague. If you want something significantly hornier, Green Green and Girls Bravo are two of my evergreen recs. And just for good measure, I'll add in a vote for Princess Jellyfish as well. All different shows, but generally not too far off in terms of overall vibe.

The detail of putting the characters on playing cards in the intro and making the girls the J card is such a nice touch.

Realizing this distinct hole of drag king and women-dressed-as-men anime in my watch history is leaving me a little shook up. If you know any good titles that focus on this specific angle of cross-dressing (I mean, men in drag is always welcome too, but ESPECIALLY women in drag), feel free to send them my way, I'd love to check them out some time!