In Japanese, josou 女装 means "female attire," but it's typically a term for crossdressing, in the sense of a guy wearing female clothes. It's also romanized josō, with a macron for the long vowel.
The opposite, girls wearing a "male attire," is called dansou 男装, but it's less common in anime.
Left: Tadakuni タダクニ
Middle: Tanaka Yoshitake 田中ヨシタケ
Right: Tadakuni's sister.
Anime: Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou 男子高校生の日常 (Episode 1)
Kanji
The word josou 女装 is written with the kanji for the word "woman," onna 女, and clothing, like in an "attire," ishou 衣装.
You can guess from the meaning of the kanji that josou means "female attire," and it does, but it's often used to mean crossdressing instead.
- ore no josou
俺の女装
My female attire.
My crossdressing. - boku no josou
僕の女装 - kono josou
この女装
This crossdressing.
By the way, dansou 男装 is the same thing, but with the kanji for the word "man," otoko 男 instead.
A third and less used term, iseisou 異性装, means "different gender clothes," just like isekai 異世界 means "different world," and works as a neutral term for crossdressing.
To Crossdress
The word josou can be used as a suru-verb to say "to crossddress."
- josou suru
女装する
(For a guy) to crossdress. - josou saseru
女装させる
To force [a guy] to crossdress.
- For example: a "rich girl," ojousama お嬢様, forcing her butler to crossdress.
- josou saserareru
女装させられる
(For a guy) to be forced to crossdress.
Sometimes, "to crossdress" is said by referring to the appearance of a woman.
- kakkou
格好
Appearance. How someone, or something, looks like. - onna no kakkou
女の格好
A woman's appearance.
The appearance of a woman.
How a woman looks. - onna no kakkou wo suru
女の格好をする
To make [something] the appearance of a woman.
- To wear an outfit that makes you look like a woman, thereby making your appearance that of a woman.
- To crossdress.
- josei no kakkou wo suru
女性の格好をする - joshi no kakkou wo suru
女子の格好をする
- joshi
女子
Girl. (generally young.) - In an anime set in high school, a guy dressing up as a high school girl is looking like a joshi.
- See also: Joshi-Kousei 女子高生.
- joshi
The word sugata 姿 is used to refer to someone's "appearance" while they're wearing an outfit. For example:
- kimono-sugata
着物姿
Somebody's appearance while wearing a kimono.- kimono-sugata de arawareta
着物姿で現れた
Showed up with a kimono-wearing appearance.
Showed up wearing a kimono.
- kimono-sugata de arawareta
- josou-sugata
女装姿
Somebody's appearance while crossdressing.
To Wear Women's Clothes
There are several ways to refer to woman's clothes:
- onna no fuku
女の服
A woman's clothes.
Women's clothes. - josei no fuku
女性の服
Female clothes.- josei-fuku
女性服
- josei-fuku
- josei-you no fuku
女性用の服
Clothes for women's use.
Clothes intended for women to use, not men. - onnamono
女物
"Women's things." Anything made for a woman to wear. Includes wristwatches, etc. - {onnamono no} fuku
女物の服
"Clothes [that] {are women's things}." Clothes made for a woman to wear.
You could say any of the above with a verb meaning "to wear" to form a phrase like:
- josei-fuku wo kiru
女性服を着る
To wear women's clothes.
In Japanese when you're talking about wearing shoes, the verb is haku 履く, and any clothes you put on by passing through your legs is haku 穿く, the same word written with a different kanji, although people normally just use the former and ignore the latter. For example:
- panthii wo haku
パンティーを履く
To wear panties. (because you put your legs through the panties.) - sukaato wo haku
スカートを履く
To wear a skirt. (despite what you may have heard, you don't put them on through your head.) - oobaa-nii wo haku
オーバーニーを履く
To wear over-the-knee socks.- With this we have a zettai ryouiki 絶対領域.
- hai-hiiru wo haku
ハイヒールを履く
To wear high-heels.
Some clothing use the verb tsukeru つける, "to attach," instead:
- bura wo tsukeru
ブラを付ける
To attach a bra. - iyaringu wo tsukeru
イヤリングをつける
To attach earrings. - wiggu wo tsukeru
ウィッグをつける
To attach a wig.
Some peculiar terms:
Middle: Tadakuni タダクニ
Right: Tanaka Yoshitake 田中ヨシタケ
Anime: Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou 男子高校生の日常 (Episode 2)
- Context: guys steal girls' underwear.
- sukebura
スケブラ
Seen-through bra. A bra that's visible through clothes.
Anime: Kuragehime 海月姫 (Episode 3)
- Context: a guy pads his chest.
- ginyuu wo tsukeru
偽乳をつける
To attach fake breasts.
The morpheme josou can be attached to terms of outfits, too:
- josou-meido
女装メイド
Crossdressing (male) maid. - josou-naasu
女装ナース
Crossdressing (male) nurse.
Anime: Kawaikereba Hentai demo Suki ni Natte Kuremasu ka? 可愛ければ変態でも好きになってくれますか？ (Episode 8, Stitch)
- Context: the word hentai 変態, as seen in the title of this anime, means "pervert" in Japanese.
- josou-banii-gaaru
女装バニーガール
Crossdressing (male) bunny girl.
Crossdressing Guy
There are various terms to refer to a guy who crossdressers.
- josou-danshi
女装男子
Crossdressing boy. - josou-dansei
女装男性
Crossdress guy. Crossdressing man.
Specifically in anime, you would have:
- josou-kyara
女装キャラ
Crossdressing (male) character.
A character that's mistaken for a girl due to his appearance is sometimes called a "trap" in the English anime fandom.
Anime: Kuragehime 海月姫 (Episode 2, Stitch)
- Context: ironically, the average anime girl would never wear something like this.
In Japanese, if the trap is a trap only when he's crossdressing, and looks like a boy when he isn't, he's called a josou-danshi.
Anime: Uchouten Kazoku 有頂天家族 (Episode 1)
- Context: while disguised as a girl, the male Yasaburou nevertheless looks like a guy, sitting with legs crossed Indian-style, i.e. in agura あぐら position, even as he wears a skirt.
A trap character that can be mistaken for a girl even when he isn't crossdressing, or is always crossdressing as a matter of design, would be called an otokonoko 男の娘 instead, which is closer to the term "femboy" in English.
- Context: Totsuka Saika 戸塚彩加, in spite of being male in a sauna with a bunch of guys, sits with legs closed, different from every other guy.
There are many cases where it's hard to classify a character as one or the other, however.
Anime: Gatchaman Crowds, ガッチャマン クラウズ (Episode 2)
- Context: Rui removes his feminine wig to reveal his natural, very masculine hairst—no, wait, he still looks like a girl nonetheless, only now short haired.
In Boy's Love, yaoi やおい, and moe 萌え targeted at fujoshi 腐女子, who ship male characters with other male characters, it's commonly held that in a gay ship the seme and uke, i.e. the top and bottom, are such that the bottom is "the girl" of the relationship.
As such, a character that crossdresses is typically regarded as the uke in a ship, and a gay fanfic may have the uke crossdressing.
- josou-uke
女装受け
Crossdressing bottom. (in a gay ship.) - josou-seme
女装攻め
Crossdressing top. (in a gay ship.)
These ships are generally heteronormative, so when it's the seme crossdressing instead, that's not indicative of a lack of heteronormativity, but merely a deliberate contradiction of it as a subversion of the crossdressing uke trope, i.e. it's an example of gap moe ギャップ萌え.
See also: types of seme and uke.
Male Crossdressser
There are specific terms for guys that crossdress habitually, i.e. for crossdressers who are male:
- josoko
女装子
Crossdresser. (as a hobby or profession.)- Confusingly read as joso-ko じょそこ, not josou-ko じょそうこ with a long vowel.
- Works just like the word odori-ko 踊り子, "dancer."
- See ko 子 for details.
- josouka
女装家
Crossdresser.- The ka 家 means it's their craft, just like a mangaka 漫画家 is a "manga artist," to whom manga is their craft.
- This term is less common than josoko. Both terms often refer to people who work as crossdressers, like TV personalities, etc.
- josousha
女装者
Crossdresser.- The ~sha ～者 just means "person" and doesn't imply anything. This term is more generic and less common.
A term for crossdressing as a paraphilia would be:
- ei-jii
ＡＧ - ootogainefiria
オートガイネフィリア
Autogynephilia.- Male crossdressing fetish
- jiko-josei-ka-sei-ai
自己女性化性愛
Self-female-ization-sexual-attraction. (literally.)- A less used synonym.
- See also: nyotaika 女体化.
Some crossdressers crossdress in private, but not in public, or vice-versa, rather than crossdressing all the time, perhaps assuming a female persona during the time they're crossdressing. There are terms for these time intervals. They are:
- ee-men
Ａ面
Side-A. (in music, which is the front side.)
The crossdressing side of a josoko, - bii-men
Ｂ面
Side-B. (in music, which is the back side.)
The non-crossdressing side of a josoko.
It sounds a bit weird that the front side tends to be the private one. Presumably, a crossdresser would only use these terms with someone who already knows they're a crossdresser, hence the reversal.
For example, if a crossdresser said his B-side is a shop clerk, that means when he isn't crossdressing he's a shop clerk.
Tropes
For reference, some common tropes involving crossdressing in anime:
Fangirling
Generally, characters crossdress in anime because girls like guys crossdressing. This includes both girls in real life and girls within the anime, and, in particular, the fujoshi 腐女子, "rotten girls," which is a niche audience that ships guys with other guys.
Since guys don't normally wear female clothes, it makes sense to think that most of the time a guy is crossdressing in anime it's because a girl helped him crossdress.
Right: Miyanokouji Mizuho 宮小路瑞穂
Anime: Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru 乙女は僕に恋してる (Episode 1)
- Context: Mizuho doesn't know how to put on a lipstick, because he's a guy.
Series targeted at a female audience tend to have lots of male characters, including some "beautiful boys," bishounen 美少年, "hot guys," ikemen イケメン, and some sort of queer character, called something like:
A character that's both male and feminine displays a juxtaposition of attributes sometimes called gap moe ギャップ萌え.
A moe 萌え series targeted at a female audience is likely to feature crossdressers and effeminate men as a way to include this gap moe, although these notions have existed way before the moe boom.
Jada, ジャダ
Thatcher, サッチャー
Bjorn, ビョルン
Marion, マリオン
Maraich, マライヒ
Etrange, エトランジュ
Anime: Patalliro!, パタリロ！ (Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, respectively)
- Context: a BL series targeted at a female audience. Only one of these characters is female, and the only female character to show up in the first six episodes.
Look Like a Girl,Will Dress Like a Girl
If a character is an otokonoko, that is, if a character looks like a girl even without crossdressing, there's an extremely high probability that he will end up drawn crossdressing at some point in the series.
Authors come up with all sorts of reasons, and some of them pretty bad reasons, to have the token trap character crossdress, to the point that you can basically expect such character to crossdress eventually.
Most of the time:
- The trap would look good crossdressing, the clothes would suit him.
- The trap would pass as a girl if he crossdressed, so if SOMEONE has to crossdress, that would be the trap.
Dress Up Doll
Sometimes, a character is made to crossdress for the entertainment of a girl or multiple girls, turned into a live:
- kise-kae-ningyou
着せ替え人形
Dress up doll.- ningyou
人形
Doll. (literally "human shape.") - kise-kae - a compound verb.
- kiseru
着せる
To make [someone] wear [something]. - kaeru
替える
To replace [one thing] for [another]. (in this case, clothing.)
- ningyou
The reason why this occurs so often is pretty simple, or complicated if you think about it:
- Girls like cute things.
- Girls wear cute things.
- Girls' clothes are cute.
- If a girl wants a guy to wear something cute, that might mean wearing girls' clothes, since they are cute.
The point isn't in making the guy crossdress, it's to make him wear something cute, but it just happens something cute tends to be frilly, pink, and with ribbons, which just happens to be considered girly, so it just happens he'll have to crossdress.
It's all a strange coincidence, really.
Bottom: Rimuru Tempest リムル＝テンペスト
Anime: TenSura Nikki: Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken, 転スラ日記 転生したらスライムだった件 (Episode 1, Collage)
- Context: an assembly is held to decide which outfit would look the cutest on Rimuru, who is a sexless, androgynous slime, but identifies as male, as he used to be a guy on Earth until he died and got reincarnated in another world.
The point isn't to make the guy look like a girl, either. It's to make him wear something cute, which means he might end up having to wear an overly cute outfit, which, ironically, no girl would normally wear, since it's basically cosplay at this point.
Anime: Hayate no Gotoku! ハヤテのごとく！ (Episode 8, Stitch)
- Context: Hayate was forced to wear "cat ears," nekomimi ネコミミ, and cosplay as a cat girl, or is it a cat boy?
Anime: Steins;Gate 0 (Special, Stitch)
- Context: Ruka is made wear a fox girl outfit.
- This pose, W-sitting, is known as onna-no-ko-zuwari 女の子座り in Japanese, "girl sitting." The name comes from the idea that only girls are physically capable of sitting in this way.
Female characters can also fall victim of the same treatment, being made cosplay for the entertainment of other female characters in cute outfits, except these won't count as crossdressing.
Anime: Shinryaku! Ika Musume 侵略！イカ娘 (Episode 2)
- Context: Ika-musume was forced to cosplay in countless ways, including ballerina, high school girl, kindergarten, nurse, maid, china dress, gothic lolita, teacher, and school swimsuit.
Taking Photos
Sometimes, or rather, way too often, girls will take photos of the guy crossdressing, for who knows what purpose.
Photographer: Sanzen'in Nagi 三千院ナギ
Anime: Hayate no Gotoku! ハヤテのごとく！ (Episode 8, Collage)
- Context: taking a:
- kinen shashin
記念写真
Commemorative photo. A photo taken to turn an occasion into a memory.
Photographer: Kiryuu Moeka 桐生萌郁
Anime: Steins;Gate 0 (Episode 24, Special)
- Context: the typical scenario.
- Girls want to make a guy crossdress.
- He is made worn a cute outfit.
- Girls are surprised by how cute he looks.
- He's embarrassed.
- A girl takes photo, in this case with her phone.
Photographer: Kazami Yuri 風見ゆり
Anime: Sunohara-sou no Kanrinin-san すのはら荘の管理人さん (Episode 3, Collage)
- Context: Yuri, who makes clothes, asks Aki for help with something, who would be glad to help, until he realizes he's supposed to wear a maid outfit. He does it anyway. And then he's made cosplay in a nurse outfit, china dress, gym outfit, and as a cat girl.
- oneshota
おねショタ
The term for a pairing between a boy character (shota ショタ) and an older girl (oneesan お姉さん).
- oneshota
Instant Crossdressing
Generally, guys don't want to wear female clothes, but sometimes a guy is handed a feminine outfit, and he somehow undresses, wears the outfit, takes a look at it, and only then he realizes it's a dress or something of sort, typically making a retort like "wait, this clothing is for girls," at himself.
I Created a Monster
Sometimes, a girl nonchalantly makes a guy crossdress, which has an outcome that far exceeds her expectations, typically that the guy crossdressing looks far cuter than she could have ever imagined.
- Context: Ayasaki Hayate 綾崎 ヤテ, who is a butler, is made crossdress as a cat girl by Sanzenin Nagi 三千院ナギ, with the help of Maria マリア, the maid.
- uú... hidoi desu yo, konna no...
うう゛･･･ひどいですよ こんなの･･･
*sob*... [you're] [so] mean, [doing] something like this. - nyaan❤
ニャーン❤
Meow ❤. - shiku-shiku-shiku
シクシクシク
*weeping* - .........
- ko... kore wa...
こ･･･これは･･･
Th... this [is]... - share ni natte-imasen wa...
シャレになっていませんわ･･･
[This] hasn't become a joke. (literally.)
- They intended for it to be funny, but it turned out to be something else.
- kaaaa...
かァァァ･･･
*lovestruck* - {soshitsu wa aru} to omotte-imashita kedo...
素質はあると思っていましたけど･･･
[I] thought that {[you] had aptitude (for crossdressing)}...- soshitsu
素質
Raw quality. Talent for something you haven't done. E.g. this character WOULD look good in girls clothes, but they have never worn such clothes.
- soshitsu
- masaka kore hodo towa...
まさかこれほどとは･･･
[I] didn't expect [it] to be this much... - shiku-shiku-shiku
シクシクシク
*weeping*
Alternatively, introducing a guy to crossdressing can end up making him crossdress habitually.
- In Minami-ke みなみけ, a series full of idiots, Makoto マコト pretends to be a girl to visit a girl he likes, and is helped crossdress by the girl's older sister, who lends him a set of her old clothes. This start him to get more and more into crossdressing.
School Culture Festival
Sometimes, characters crossdress due to a school's "culture festival," bunkasai 文化祭, because their class decided to hold a crossdressing event.
Middle: Takarada Rikka 宝多六花
Right Hibiki Yuuta 響裕太
Anime: SSSS.GRIDMAN (Episode 8, Stitch)
- Context: crossdressing cosplay.
In Japan, schools hold a culture festival yearly, in which students of each class have to decide what will be their contribution to the festival, like a maid café, for example.
In real life, classes DO sometimes decide to hold a crossdressing event. That's why the crossdressing in anime comes from. Some events, like haunted houses, don't make a lot of sense in real life, though.
There are cultural reasons for the acceptance of crossdressing in performance in Japan. For example, the kabuki 歌舞伎.
Around the early 17th century, onna-kabuki 女歌舞伎 was a kind of show performed by women that was associated with prostitution.
The government intervened and banned women from performing kabuki, resulting in men crossdressing performing kabuki in place of the women, which would then be called yarou-kabuki 野郎歌舞伎 instead.
Even today, kabuki exists, still traditionally performed with only men, and one crossdressing man performing the "female role," oyama 女形.
Maid Café
Sometimes, the event of a school festival isn't a maid café, but a crossdressing maid café, which means the male characters will have to wear maid outfits, while the female characters wear butler outfits.
- In MayoChiki! まよチキ！, Konoe Subaru 近衛スバル is a girl pretending to be a boy, i.e. a reverse trap, and she's extremely popular with the girls from her class, who think she's a boy, and who decide to have a crossdressing maid café, to have her cross-cross-dress in a china dress.
Anime: Mayo Chiki! まよチキ！ (Episode 6, Stitch)
- Context: how did nobody notice she was a girl in spite of dressing like this is a mystery wrapped in an enigma.
- tanima hooru
谷間ホール
Cleavage hole.
Theater Piece
Sometimes, the event of a school festival is a theater piece, and at least one male character is cast in a female role, which means they'll have to crossdress.
- Context: two different classes decide to do the same theater play, with trap Shuri Kojuurou 朱里小十郎 being cast as the female heroine of one play by his class' president, who is a fujoshi.
- W-shirayukihime
Ｗ白雪姫
Double snow white.
Anime: Love Stage!! (Episode 1, Stitch)
- Context: Izumi, whose mother is an actress, was at a filming location when a female child actor who was going to play a part didn't show up. Since he was the only child around, they simply put a dress on him and made him play the part.
Contest
Some series have bikini contests, while others have crossdressing contests.
Anime: Persona 4, ペルソナ４ (Episode 19, Stitch)
- Context: Narukami Yuu takes part of a crossdressing contest in a school festival, wearing a sukeban スケバン outfit.
Right: Mizutani Airi 水谷アイリ
Anime: Phi Brain: Kami no Puzzle, ファイ・ブレイン 神のパズル (Episode 9)
Disguised as a Girl
Sometimes, a character has to disguise himself, which means he'll have to pretend to be a girl, which means he'll have to crossdress.
But wait a second, where did the "pretend to be a girl" part come from? Why not just disguise yourself as a different guy? I guess it's harder to guess that a girl is actually a guy you know. Better not think too hard about it.
Anime: Black Butler, Kuroshitsuji 黒執事 (Episode 4, Stitch)
- Context: Ciel pretends to be a girl to infiltrate a dance party.
If one guy has to crossdress for some reason, and there's a bunch of male characters to choose from, logically, it's the trap that will crossdress:
Anime: Assassination Classroom, Ansatsu Kyoushitsu 暗殺教室 (Episode 20, Stitch)
- Context: a class of assassins infiltrates a club. They decided the boys will stay behind, and the girls will move in a group, since a group of girls moving around in a club isn't suspicious. The teachers say it's too dangerous for the girls to move alone, so Nagisa, who is a guy, ends up having to accompany them, while pretending to be a girl like them.
If the character isn't a trap, there's a chance they'll fail to pass as a girl if they try to crossdress.
Anime: JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 (2012) (Episode 12)
- Context: Joseph Joestar crossdresses to infiltrate a nazi checkpoint, but the Nazi soldiers manage to see through his disguise.
- kuso! sasuga Doitsu-gun da ze. yoku zo ore no josou wo mi-yabutta na
クソ！さすがドイツ軍だぜ。よくぞ俺の女装を見破ったな
Shit! As expected from the German army. [I commend you] for seeing through my crossdressing.- yoku よく - literally done "well," can be used as a compliment, or in the sense of "damn you for doing this." See yoku mo よくも for examples.
Female Occupation
Some occupations are only done by female characters, or at least characters that appear female. Sometimes, the character turns out to be a guy crossdressing instead. These include:
- Idol, member of a female idol group.
- Kanzaki Hideri 神崎ひでり, from Blend S, wants to be an idol (female), in spite of being a guy, so he's constantly crossdressing.
- Suzuki Iruma 鈴木入間, from Mairimashita! Iruma-kun 魔入りました！入間くん, once disguised himself as a girl to pretend to be an idol.
- Magical girl, mahou shoujo 魔法少女.
- Since magical girls transform, it's sometimes the case the character physically changes sex, i.e. nyotaika 女体化.
- Mitsuka Souji 観束総二, from Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu. 俺、ツインテールになります。, turns into a girl called Tail Red テイルレッド when he transforms.
- High school girl, in a school that only has female students.
- Miyanokouji Mizuho 宮小路瑞穂, from Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru 乙女は僕に恋してる, has to enroll a girls school as requests in his late grandfather's will.
Language
In Japanese, some language is used particularly by women, called "female language," joseigo 女性語, and some particularly by men.
For example, the wa わ sentence ending particle is considered feminine, while ze ぜ and zo ぞ are considered masculine.
Sometimes, a guy pretending to be a girl may end up still "speaking like a guy" by using masculine language, such as da ze だぜ, instead of feminine language, like desu wa ですわ.
An overly feminine subset of female language is particularly used by gay men and trans women. This subset is called onee-kotoba オネエ言葉, and people who use it are called onee オネエ.
Pronouns
In Japanese, there are various first person pronouns, and some of them are masculine, like ore 俺 and boku 僕, while others are feminine, like atashi あたし.
It's possible for a guy pretending to be a girl to end up using a masculine pronoun by accident.
Some female characters use masculine pronouns. These are called bokukko ボクっ娘 and orekko オレっ娘, respectively.
The pronoun ore is considered more masculine, so it's less likely to be used by female characters, and also less likely to be used by trap characters, who tend to use boku instead.
It's Just a Hobby!
Sometimes, a character will claim crossdressing is their hobby, prompting weird looks from whomever they're talking to.
- josou shumi
女装趣味
Crossdressing hobby.
This tends to be a lie. The idea is that the truth is worse than having a crossdressing hobby, and it tends to happen in situations like:
- The character is found crossdressing.
- Girl clothes is found in the character's possession.
- Female underwear in found in the character's possession.
The truth could be:
- The character plans to infiltrate somewhere. Rather than revealing his master plan, he says it's his hobby.
- A girl came by.
- A girl came by, and is naked somewhere.
Alias, Fake Name
Characters who crossdress often have a special name for their crossdressing forms, an alias. Sometimes this name is canonical, other times it's name made up by fans.
Often, it's a name created by adding a ~ko ～子 suffix to the character's name, since that's a common suffix in girls' names.
- In Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu バカとテストと召喚獣, the first time Yoshii Akihisa 吉井明久 crossdresses, his class names "her" Aki-chan アキちゃん. The second time, when he entries a contest, the name chosen was Akiko 秋子.
Anime: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni'!, !バカとテストと召喚獣 にっ！ (Season 2) (Episode 2)
In Gintama 銀魂, Katsura 桂, also known as Zura ヅラ, becomes Zurako ヅラ子, and Gintoki 銀時, for having a "perm" hair, paama パーマ, becomes Paako パー子.
In Sword Art Online's Gun Gale Online arc, Kirigaya Kazuto, whose virtual name is Kirito, ends up with an avatar that's not female, but looks like a girl. The avatar was named Kiriko by the fandom.[キリ子 - dic.nicovideo.jp, 2019-02-19]
Right: "Trap Kirito キリト", a.k.a. Kiriko キリ子
Anime: Sword Art Online II, ソードアート・オンラインＩＩ (Season 2) (Episode 8, Collage)
Girl Mode Admirer
Sometimes, a male character sees another character crossdressing and falls in love with him at first sight.
Right: Kubo Toshimitsu 久保利光
Anime: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu: Matsuri, バカとテストと召喚獣 ～祭～ (Episode 1, Collage)
Sometimes, the crossdresser is someone the admirer knows, or is around often, but he's still unable to realize that the girl he fell in love with is actually that guy.
Right: Klaus Seishirou 倉臼征史郎
Anime: Hayate no Gotoku! ハヤテのごとく！ (Episode 8, Collage)
- Context: both Klaus and Hayate are butlers working in the same mansion, and yet Klaus fails to realize the cute cat girl in front of him is actually Hayate.
It's a trope for the trap character to look cuter than the average girl, even if they're only a trap when they're crossdressing, which means a crossdressing hanging around with girls is likely to get hit on even as other girls are not.
Right: Norita Yuuji 法田勇治
Anime: Assassination Classroom, Ansatsu Kyoushitsu 暗殺教室 (Episode 20, Collage)
- Context: Nagisa was in a group with several girls, and Yuuji went straight (?) for him.
Blackmail
Sometimes, a character is photographed when crossdressing, and that photo is used as blackmail material.
- kyouhaku
脅迫
Intimation. Coercing someone with threats, blackmail.
Right: Akabane Karma 赤羽業
Anime: Assassination Classroom, Ansatsu Kyoushitsu 暗殺教室 (Episode 20)
This is commonly accompanied by phrases like "if you want this photo erased, do everything I say," or the victim begs for the other character to erase the evidence, famously saying the magic words:
- nandemo shimasu kara
なんでもしますから
[I'll] do anything, so [please delete the photo.]- Yes, "anything."
Of course, there are cases where the blackmail is more specific.
Right: Sakamoto Yuuji 坂本雄二
Anime: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu: Matsuri, バカとテストと召喚獣 ～祭～ (Episode 2)
- Context: in a tournament, Sakamoto blackmails Nemoto into surrendering the match using a book full of photos of Nemoto crossdressing.
- wakatta Sakamoto, kousan suru!
kono shiai wa omae-tachi no kachi de ii!
dakara, sono shashin wa...!
わかった坂本、降参する！
この試合はお前たちの勝ちでいい！
だから、その写真は･･･！
I got it, Sakamoto, I'll surrender!
I'm fine with this match being a win by you two! (I agree to your terms.)
So, about those photos...! (give them to me so I can destroy it!)
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