Clockwise from top left: Kei Murota, Yo Kamehara, Yui Mitani, Ren Ano.
Yohei “Yo” Kamehara is a shy boy. So shy, he can’t tell his friend and junior high crush, Yui Mitani, that he likes her. Yo’s popular, handsome friend Kei pushes him to embrace his sexual feelings and teaches him about masturbation. Later, Yo is shocked when he sees Mitani kissing Kei, but Kei soon moves to Hokkaido and Yo stops talking to both friends.
In high school, Yo is determined to make up for lost time and ask Mitani out. The first day of class, however, Kei shows back up, with long blonde hair and wearing a girl’s uniform. Kei is as sexually forward as ever, and the three friends are soon caught up in an adolescent swamp of love, lust, and confused feelings.
Welcome Back, Alice (Okaeri Alice) is a psychological coming-of-age manga series serialized in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine from 2020 to 2023 and created by Shuzo Oshimi, author of The Flowers of Evil and Inside Mari.
Welcome Back, Alice contains examples of:
- Alice Allusion: Kei, with their long blond hair, is a living Alice reference.
- All Men Are Perverts: Yo certainly is, as was Kei in junior high; however, Yo is extremely afraid of expressing his sexuality, while Kei was possibly a bit too forward about it. Other minor male characters qualify, like Yo's friends and the upperclassman who harasses Kei at a convenience store.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Yo makes one to Mitani in chapter 11.
- Ambiguously Bi: Yo is clearly attracted to Mitani and has escalating sexual interactions with Kei but it’s sometimes questionably consensual and Kei is rather gender-ambiguous.
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: Kei and Ren both probably qualify, as well as possibly Yo, who feels so frustrated by the pressures of masculinity that he attacks his penis with a knife.
- Apologises a Lot: Yo stammers out a “sorry” every time he runs into the slightest conflict with someone else.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: As is typical for Oshimi, Mitani eventually reveals herself to be this. At first she wants a chaste, "just friends" dating life with Yo (to his frustration), but as his relationship with Kei becomes more intimate, Mitani feels threatened and starts to force Yo into having sex with her.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Applies to some extent to all main characters – especially Yo, to an almost comical degree. Any time the conversation turns towards sex or romance he starts stammering every sentence. This leads to a lot of communication problems, although in some cases characters can drag the info out of him.
- Character Development: In high school Kei initially comes off as strange and unsettlingly sexual towards their old friends. As the story goes on more about their motivations is revealed, and they emerge as possibly the most level-headed and rational main character.
- Coming of Age Story: Every character is struggling mightily to navigate adolescence, and end up hurting each other in their attempts to get a handle on how they feel about gender and sexuality.
- Creepy Crossdresser: Kei initially comes off as this, acting mysterious and sexually aggressive towards Yo and Mitani.
- Double Standard: Rape, Male on Male: Yo mentions his handjob from Kei wasn’t consensual, but Mitani is just disgusted that he did something sexual with someone who’s biologically male.
- Dysfunction Junction: Every main character has serious problems; gender and their sex drive are particular issues.
- Everybody Wants the Hermaphrodite: Kei’s androgynous appearance gets them admiration and attention from boys and girls. Discussed by one of Yo's classmates, who smugly says that any guy would want Kei because they have the appearance of an attractive feminine girl but understands a guy's perspective and has none of the "problems" of biological women.
- Groin Attack: Yo tries to cut his penis off after coming to the conclusion that sex hurts everyone who participates in it.
- Intimate Haircut: Yo cuts Kei's hair short in chapter 37, as they decide to become a couple.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Yohei is almost always called simply Yo.
- Psychotic Love Triangle: The manga eventually starts to head in this direction, with all four main characters having complicated and conflicting feelings towards each other.
- Relationship Upgrade: Yo and Mitani start dating in chapter 11. It gets rather complicated after that.
- Sanity Slippage: Mitani and Yo start suffering this as they find themselves frustrated in their attempts to find fulfillment in relationships and deal with gender norms.
- Sex Is Evil: More often than not, sex in this story is terrifying more than it’s gratifying or unitive. To large extent, characters are ruled by their libidos and can’t help hurting others thoughtlessly.
- Smug Smiler: In the earlier part of the manga, Kei’s constant smiles in the face of their friends’ evident discomfort come off as inconsiderate if not creepy.
- Socially Awkward Hero: Yo is definitely awkward, although he gets along fine with his more normal friends at school. Any hint of conflict or sex, though, and he turns into a blushing, stammering, apologizing mess.
- Trans Tribulations: Several main characters struggle because their internal feelings about how they should act and look conflicting with society's view of how men and women should behave.
- "Which Restroom?" Dilemma: Averted by Kei; they go in the boys' bathroom and hike up their skirt at the urinal without any sense of shame.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: In the early chapters Kei zigzags in and out of this trope; uncomfortably sexual one day but supportive and friendly the next, and eventually starts to solidly land here.
