Otoboku - Maidens Are Falling For Me (also known as Otome Wa Boku Ni Koishiteru): Mizuho Miyanokouji is a nice guy from a rich family. When he hears that his grandfather left behind a request in his will, he's happy to oblige. Though he becomes a little less enthusiastic when he finds out that said request is for him to disguise himself as a girl and attend a specific private girls' school. Don't worry, it's all explained later...
Now he has to deal with keeping his gender a secret, helping the girls who admire "her", and learning how to be a better person.
Based on the girls love visual novel by Caramel Box, although it is more closely related to the Otokonoko Genre than the Yuri Genre.
Compare and contrast Maria†Holic. Incidentally, both series have a character called Mariya.
Has a sequel, Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru ~Futari no Elder~, that was released on June 30, 2010. The sequel received its own anime version in 2012.
Otoboku - Maidens Are Falling For Me provides examples of the following tropes:
- The Antagonist: Takako acts as one in several plots, such as during the swim challenge and the ribbon issue.
- Arranged Marriage: Shion is engaged to Takako's brother via one of these. Said brother is apparently an awful person.
- Bishie Sparkle: Several times, mainly for Takako and Sion. Mariya once gets rainbows as well.
- Bittersweet Ending: Yukari and Ichiko. Yukari's has her happily married with Mizuho, but she forsook all her talents for that. Ichiko's has her in love with Mizuho and allows her to leave the school grounds, but she hasn't ascended yet. It's also questionable as to whether Mizuho loves Ichiko back as much.
- Blatant Lies: "I am perfectly calm!"
- Bridal Carry: Mizuho uses one of these to carry a sick Shion from the auditorium to the nurse's office.
- Cat Smile: Kana often has one during her Chibi-mode.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Mariya, of course. She's loved Mizuho for a long time, but wanted him to grow up a little. When he did, she realized that that's not what she really wanted at all.
- Compressed Adaptation: The anime skips over the arc regarding the ghost in the auxiliary music room and Mizuho's teacher. Also, while it follows the Mariya/Takako branching and implies a Takako ending, it actually skips over most of the content exclusive to her route. Finally, little if any content from the other story branches make it into the story.
- Conflict Ball: Despite finding out and being okay with it in other routes, when Yukari discovers Mizuho's true sex at the beginning of her route she gets very upset and causes the turn for the dramatic in her story.
- Cooking Duel: The swim competition between Takako and Mariya.
- Cute Ghost Girl
- Ichiko, the hyperactive bisexual ghost who was in love with Mizuho's late mother.
- Another one appears later in Hisako's focus chapter.
- Defeat Means Friendship: While Takako was never overly hostile towards Mizuho, once she loses the Elder vote to Mizuho (and seeing Shion and Mizuho's actions afterwards), she becomes friendlier.
- Disappears into Light: Subverted when Ichiko disappears after "marrying" Mizuho, only to reappear back at the dorms later in the episode.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: The reason Mizuho can pull a very convincing disguise as a girl. He's also been dressed up in female clothing very often since childhood.
- Even the Girls Want Her: For a given value of "her", anyway.
- Excuse Plot: The plot is kickstarted by the death of the main character's grandfather and how the only way he will become chairman of the school is dressed in drag. Don't question how the criteria for chairman has a paradoxical clause that they must be alumni and the ethical questions that follow, all that matters is that you get a Harem disguised as Yuri.
- Flung Clothing: Takako and Mariya fling their clothes when challenging each other for a swim competition.
- Fully-Clothed Nudity: Averted. Shion was never embarrassed to change in front of Mizuho not because she didn't like him but because she figures underwear and bathing suits show equal amounts of skin anyway.
- Gone Horribly Right: From Mariya's perspective only. She wanted Mizuho to grow to care about people more and he did, at which point she realizes she just wanted him to care about her more.
- Gratuitous English: Anime opening.
- Hair Antennae: Mizuho.
- If It's You, It's Okay: Yukari's confession happens when she still thinks Mizuho is a girl and has decided that she's not a lesbian. But she actually gets pretty upset when she discovers the truth moments later.
- I Have No Son!: Takako disowns her family in several endings due to really hating them.
- It Makes Sense in Context: The whole idea of the plot.
- Late for School: Lampshaded in Ichiko's flashback. She even calls it cliché.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Late in the game, Mariya reads a window saying something bad about her, only to get mad at that. The next window apologizes to her.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Mizuho, aside of his Dude Looks Like a Lady. It's kind of a plot point: one of his dead mother's last wishes was for him to be allowed to keep his hair long.
- Love at First Sight: When Shion said she'd cherish that giraffe eraser as the first gift Mizuho ever gave her, she meant it.
- Love Triangle: One only Kimie knows about: She's torn between Mizuho and Takako and cares deeply about them both.
- Motor Mouth: Ichiko ("Oneesamaoneesamaoneesamaoneesamaoneesama....")
- Mundane Made Awesome: Cheesy violin music and closeups during practice for a certain scene.
- No Periods, Period: Averted: Mizuho, despite being male, claims to have one to get out of PE class. Shion commiserated and spent several moments going into how hers have rather heavy flow too, before remembering that Mizuho isn't a real girl. He's just THAT good at faking it.
- The PE class Mizuho avoids is a swimming class. Mizuho is aware that it's almost impossible for anyone of either sex who has hit puberty to successfully crossdress while wearing a swimsuit.
- Ojou: Apparently everyone.
- Princely Young Man: Mizuho, before starting to crossdress and pose as an Ojou. Even afterwards, some of the girls talk about his more impressive moments as him acting like a fairy-tale prince. Even the ones that don't know he's a guy.
- Puni Plush: In the manga. It makes Mizuho's assertions of manhood less credible than they already are.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Kimie gets prettied up at the end of Takako's route to help get the student body to know her beyond the stuffy glasses girl image.
- Sins of Our Fathers: Mizuho lives in the room that his late grandfather arranged for him: which is the very same room that belonged to his Missing Mom during her school days and it is also the room where Mrs. Miyanokouji's devoted kohai, Ichiko, died of exhaustion while waiting for her to return. Things ain't that grim, however, as it turns out that said kohai survived as a (rather cheerful) ghost and it is Mizuho's task to make amends to her for his mom's untimely departure 22 years ago.
- Skinship Grope: Done to Mizuho surprisingly enough.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Averted. The story briefly makes a point of how Takako's family is the enemy of Mizuho's, but in the end it's brushed aside when Takako simply disowns her family.
- Stupid Sexy Flanders: Mizuho is waaaaaay too pretty.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality
- Takako defaults to being cold and businesslike because she thinks it's expected of her.
- Shion instead has the Aloof Dark-Haired Girl thing going for her because she was raised to control her emotions and act refined.
- Super-Deformed: A lot of the girls go into chibi-mode on a regular basis. This is their default form in episode 13.
- Sweet on Polly Oliver: Yukari is kind of upset to realize how strongly she feels about Mizuho and eventually decides it's not that she's a lesbian, but rather If It's You, It's Okay.
- Tamer and Chaster: The anime compared to the original version of the visual novel, which was an H-game.
- Token Mini-Moe: Kana.
- Tsundere: Takako in the OVA, with her role as Tsunderella in a hilarious reinterpretation of Cinderella.
- Twelfth Night Adventure: One of the sweetest and most heartwarming examples of this genre.
- Verbal Tic: Kana's "Nanodesuyo"
- White Sheep: Takako's family is a bunch of manipulative, cruel and petty jerks while at worst she's a stickler for the rules. She leaves the family in several endings due to her disgust.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: (foremost character, above)
- Why Did It Have to Be Ghosts? Takako's voice breaks and her body shakes as she denies ghosts existing. Yukari is scared of them too, but warms up to Ichiko after spending some time with her.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Shion was raised to have these values, which comes as a bit of a surprise to Mizuho.
Episode 13, the OVA, provides examples of:
- Calling Your Attacks: In the battle between the fairy godmother and the evil queen.
- Dramatic Thunder: Lighting strikes in the beginning of Tsunderella. Since she has the high ground, she's also struck.
- Drop the Washtub: Occurs more than Takako is comfortable with.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: The setting:
- Cinderella: Takako is Tsunderella, with Marija, Ichiko, and Yukari as the evil step-sisters. Also the main plot.
- Fairy Godmother: Sion
- Gingerbread House
- Little Red Riding Hood: Michiko
- Snow White: Kimie
- Genre Savvy: Tsunderella seems to know about the fairy tales she's put in.
- Happily Ever After: The story ends with the usual Happily Ever After ending with the prince and Tsunderella together. Then it's subverted when they don't live prince's life, but Tsunderella's, and have to work for the evil step-sisters. And finally double subverted, since they're actually happy anyway.
- Love at First Sight: The prince and Tsunderella, complete with discussion.
- Leprechaun: Sion is dressed like one.
- Magic Mirror: Kei asks her mirror who the most evil one is. She's happy to hear she is.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Takako laughs like this in the beginning of the story. Just after she wonders why she was laughing so much, in a few scenes showing her as extremely accomplished. Then she laughs some more. And is struck by a falling washtub, which causes her to fall off the cliff. Then she's struck by lightning again.
- Nose Bleed: Takako's nose bleeds when looking at the prince.
- The Nudifier: Sion's first attempt at creating a ball gown for Takako fails. She only manages to remove both of their clothes, and turn them normal-proportioned.
- Prehensile Hair: Sion captures Takako with her hair when she tries to run away.
- Stat-O-Vision: Kimie's glasses apparently have this function.
- X-Ray Sparks: Happens to people struck by lightning, mostly Takako.
