There are hundreds of GL out there where everything works out way too well, and the protagonist's biggest worry is whether or not she looks cute enough to catch her potential girlfriend's eye. If that's what you want, then it'd be better to give Otome Cake a pass.

While I do understand that unrealistic happily-ever-afters are the whole point of the romance genre, I also see absolutely no need to penalise something which tries to represent reality a bit more closely. The cliche and brainless world of same-sex romance manga in particular could do with a good dose of real life, in my opinion. Going the "everything is rosy in LGBTQ-land" route is actually an insult to the daily struggles that sexual minorities go through: not just concerning love but life in general. It invalidates the strength behind individuals who can admit to being different and embrace it, and completely ignores the many heartbreaks they indubitably had to go through before getting to the point where they found a partner they could be happy with. Otome Cake is a step towards righting that wrong, and that's what makes it shine in an otherwise bland, stereotype-ridden, moe-centric genre. I only wish there were more GL (and BL) like this, actually.

Don't be put off by the art - if you're looking for melancholy, beautifully realistic shoujo-ai, this is a good choice. It's not all misery, either. A lot of the stories have a hopeful note; because, obviously, one lost love is not the end of anybody's life.

... Last updated on March 7th, 2017, 7:53am

First of all the author is wayyyyy too realistic about the success rate of female to female crushes.... almost every single one of these ended up with the girl not responding, or going after a guy.... its just plain depressing tbh, I came for sweet romance and just got disappointment after disappointment. Fortunately there were 1 or 2 that look like they could get to being in a realtionship, but that's it. This really needs a bit more happiness x.x.