dansou

In Japanese, dansou 男装 normally means crossdressing, in the sense of girls wearing "male clothes." The opposite, guys wearing "female clothes," is called josou 女装, and is more common in anime.

Character: Fujioka Haruhi 藤岡ハルヒ
Anime: Ouran High School Host Club, Ouran Koukou Hosuto-Bu 桜蘭高校ホスト部 (Episode 1, Stitch)

• Vocabulary
• Examples

Vocabulary

Some phrases related to girls crossdressing:

• dansou-suru
  男装する
  To wear male clothes.
  To crossdress.
• dansou-suru joshi
  男装する女子
  A girl [who] {wears male clothes}.
  A girl [who] {crossdresses}.
• dansou-joshi
  男装女子
  A crossdressing girl.
• dansou-sugata
  男装姿
  Male-clothes shape. (literally.)
  Dressed in male clothes.

• dansou-sha
  男装者
  Female crossdresser.
• dansou-ka
  男装家
  Female crossdresser. (as a craft, e.g. TV personality.)
• dansou-ko
  男装子
  Female crossdresser. (ko 子 generally implies cute.)

• otoko no fuku wo kiru
  男の服を着る
  To wear male clothes.
• otoko no kakkou wo suru
  男の格好をする
  To do a male appearance. (literally.)
  To make [yourself] appear like a man.

• otoko ni shika mienai
  男にしか見えない
  To look like nothing but a man.
• otoko yori otoko-rashii
  男より男らしい
  Manlier than a man.
  More masculine than a man.
• onna no ko
  雄んなの子
  Slang for "reverse trap." See: otokonoko 男の娘 for details.
• otoko-masari
  男勝り
  Superior to men. A woman that men can't beat.
  In anime, generally a female character that beats male characters in a fight.

• orekko
  オレっ娘
  A girl that uses ore 俺, a masculine first person pronoun.
• bokukko
  ボクっ娘
  A girl that uses boku 僕, a masculine first person pronoun.

Character: Konoe Subaru 近衛スバル
Anime: Mayo Chiki! まよチキ！ (Episode 2)

• Context: a girl makes herself appear flat chested.
• sarashi
  さらし
  The term for this strip of cloth wrapped around the chest.
• sarashi wo maku
  さらしを巻く
  To wrap a sarashi [around one's chest].
  To bind. (English LGBT slang, in the sense of binding one's chest.)

Examples

For reference, some examples of girls crossdressing in anime.

Character: Ayuzawa Misaki 鮎沢美咲
Anime: Kaichou wa Maid-sama!, 会長はメイド様！ (Episode 7)

• Context: a crossdressing maid café.

Left: Pauline ポーリン
Middle: Reina レーナ
Right: Mavis von Austien メーヴィス・フォン・オースティン
Anime: Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne! 私、能力は平均値でって言ったよね！ (Episode 10, Stitch)

• Context: three girls dressed as typical delinquent characters, the right one, Mavis, crossdressing as a male delinquent, while the other two wear typical female sukeban スケバン outfits.

Left: Utsumi Shou 内海将
Middle: Takarada Rikka 宝多六花
Right Hibiki Yuuta 響裕太
Anime: SSSS.GRIDMAN (Episode 8, Stitch)

• Context: a crossdressing event in school.

Left: Makoto マコト
Right: Minami Touma 南冬馬
Anime: Minami-ke みなみけ (Episode 10)

• Context: a boy pretending to be girl drags a girl pretending to be a boy to behind the curtains.