This Fall 2024 Shojou Anime is a Hidden Gem You Need to Check Out

In 2024, it’s incredibly hard to find a pure romantic comedy anime with a unique plot that is entertaining without excessive fan service or repetitive plotlines. Most of the genuinely good comedy anime are either a part of the fantasy or shōnen genre or spare no expense at exploiting their characters for sexually charged scenes that do nothing for the plot. While there is nothing wrong with fan service, it’s nice to find a pure romantic comedy that relies on situational humor, rather than treating the comedy as a side quest instead of the main appeal.

There are little anime that fill that hole lately; Love is War and Spy X Family being our best contenders. How I Attended an All-Guy’s Mixer, however, is shaping up to be the answer while we wait for the next installments of the previously mentioned titles. This romantic comedy has 5 episodes out at the time of writing this article, but even as we approach the halfway point of this romcom, there isn’t any sign of the laughs slowing down yet. It should also be noted the author of this article has also read up to the current chapter of this manga and can provide insight to what will happen throughout the rest of the show over the next few weeks, spoiler-free.

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The Plot

Wholesome Romantic Hijinks And Exploring Societal Boundaries

One of the main characters is a college student named Toikawa is invited to a mixer by a female friend of his and brings a few of his friends so they can all try to pick up girls. They end up shocked when they arrive at the mixer and see only other men their age. As it turns out, these aren’t men; they are his female friend and her coworkers who just got off work as drag kings, AKA people who dress as men for comedy or musical performances.

This leads to wacky comedy and gender-based hijinks throughout the episodes as the three boys fall in love with their cross-dressed female counterparts. It is also beginning to explore the confusing feelings of dating someone who seemingly swaps gender appearance at will and how society reacts to their relationship. At the time in the anime, and as far ahead as the manga is, there aren’t any love triangles or harems; refreshingly, the pairings get together early and stay that way, making way for a wholesome romantic comedy without infighting or significant drama.

Why Does This Work?

If There’s Little Drama, Why Watch?

Firstly, the anime is chock-full of comedic moments. There’s rarely a minute without an overly exaggerated situation or funny quips and full-on jokes directed at the main characters. If someone wants to watch a funny and light-hearted anime just for the sake of laughing, or more realistically just snorting and blowing air out your nose instead of laughing out loud, How I Attended an All-Guy’s Mixer is perfect for that. These comedic moments also personalize each character, allowing the audience to fall for the characters deeper than their initial impressions.

Another element is the romance in the anime thus far. The show isn’t relying on love triangles, harems, or intense drama to carry the romantic subplot to this comedy anime; while those creative devices are often fun to watch, How I Attended an All-Guy’s Mixer offers a wholesome experience you can relax to while you watch, making it a perfect cozy weekend type of anime binge. The manga up to this point has also continued this trend for the most part.

Will There Be A Second Season?

Probably Not, But We’d Like To Be Proven Wrong

A well-known “secret” of the anime industry is the lack of second seasons for a majority of seasonal anime. This isn’t because an anime doesn’t work, however; it’s typically because the anime was never intended to continue, even with significant success. Seasonal anime with 12 to 24 episodes are typically created to advertise a currently serialized manga. They will purposefully end after the first major arc of a manga, so you’re inclined to go read further in the story after falling in love with the characters, stories, and world or subscribe to the magazine a manga is serialized in.

The only real exceptions to that rule are action shōnen, which are historically the most popular genre in anime at this point in time, or first seasons that successfully increase manga sales to encourage a second season that would further boost future manga sales. While it’s weird to think of anime as a manga advertisement, that’s typically the reason a decent anime won’t continue past the first season. Especially considering the anime is airing on HiDive rather than anime industry giant Crunchyroll, it isn’t the most legally accessible anime compared to this season’s giants Dandadan and Re:Zero.

That said, How I Attended an All-Guy’s Mixer already has a highly-rated manga on MAL and the anime is slowly climbing up to meet it’s score. While that’s only indicative of a Western audience, an anime featuring characters working at a gender-bending café would hook Japanese viewers through comedy based on a popular part of Japanese café culture that isn’t often explored in anime. These facts might help boost popularity and sales enough to allow the anime to continue and adapt more of the manga… or let this anime lay to rest in the anime world as a hidden shoujo gem we will recommend to comedy lovers when we can.

How I Attended an All-Guy’s Mixer is currently airing on HiDive

How I Attended an All-Guy’s Mixer

How I Attended an All-Guy’s Mixer is a 2024 anime series directed by Kazuomi Koga and written by Deko Akao. The anime follows the same premise as the Japanese manga, with a college student named Tokiwa meeting three handsome men after he is invited to a men-only mixer.

Number of Episodes

5+

Streaming Service(s)

HIDIVE

MyAnimeList Score

7.35