It's the end of the first chapter of a manga, and then comes the dreaded trope. A man wearing a dress. It's usually a source of mockery. He’s played off as a perverted joke. He's weird, and that anyone who would dare to defy gender roles like that could only do it because there was something wrong with them, but then... Nothing; there is no big explosion. The main character is shocked, but in the end nobody else is, so a few chapters into the manga, she's cheering him on for wearing one of her favorite magical girl costumes while he kills at karaoke. Shigemoto from Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. almost always wears dresses, and it makes me love him so much more. The casual way that he goes about it makes me love the mangakas more.
Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. is a manga about the business of magical girls. In this version of Japan, “magical girl” is a career, and they're all grown women. These magical girls fight off evil Kaii. Monsters fueled by excess magic in the world. Our main character joins a start-up company that is looking to take a low-magic output approach to fighting Kaii so that the Kaii don't feed off the magic leftover from a fight. It's like global warming, but with magic.
The boss of this startup is Kouji Shigemoto. He is agreeable, respectable, and an excellent engineer. He is very much the heart of the entire agency, with his belief in everyone on his team. His insistence on doing things for the better of humanity and his respect for magical girls as not only cute girls who fight hard but as his employees that he is in charge of their safety. He also frequently wears dresses. These ideas are typically meant to conflict with another. A man in a dress is meant to be comical, not respectable. I won’t lie, the manga does play it off as a joke sometimes, but most of the time they don't, as Shigemoto is someone to look up to.
It is considered absurd for a man to willingly participate in femininity. Masculinity in the culture is always thought of as superior, so why would men lower themselves to be associated with the lesser gender? Why would a man who would do something like this be seen as respectable, let alone someone to aspire to be like? However, in Magilumire, Shigemoto is the moral compass of the manga. His employees look up to him. His peers admire him. Most characters find his dress eccentric and, in the end, accept it as just a part of his quirks.
I adore how Shigemoto’s breaking of gender norms is something that is seen as admirable. It is a part of his dedication to help magical girls. I love how he takes pride in his appearance. He goes out of his way to not only dress cute but to match his outfits to the occasion. When they go out for karaoke, his outfit has a music motif. He sings the magical girl anime intros perfectly, and it revealed that he spent the whole day warming up for karaoke with his colleagues. This is silly, but silly because it shows the love Shigemoto has for his job, not just because he's being feminine. Shigemoto is a loving, genuine man to a hilarious extent, and that's the joke of his character. When he reveals that he has secretly had his magical girl costume all the time, it's funny, not because he's a man, but because he has had that outfit on waiting for this big reveal. He doesn't even know how ridiculous that is because he is just that genuine! These traits in the manga are positive traits about him and don’t make him any less of a man. Shigemoto is a likable person; everyone is drawn to the pure need to help in his heart. People love his dedication to helping magical girls.
I would love to discuss his reasons for dressing this way, because even though I think he is a great representation of breaking traditional gender roles, there still needs to be a big question of “why?”. The answer cannot simply be “because he wants to,” as people who exist outside gender norms are forced to explain their existence to appease cishet patriarchy. However, this manga is very underrated, so I wouldn’t want to spoil anyone. I encourage you to check it out! It's fun, and the characters are very easy to fall in love with, and watching the startup grow is a blast! An anime is releasing this fall, so please give it a chance. I just wanted to explore why Shigemoto’s expression of gender touched me so much. He is one of my new favorite manga characters, and I share my love.
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