manga: Hana no Kishi
Kurono Ran's older brother was the "First Knight," (aka, bodyguard/butler) to Ohtori Sei, heir to the Ohtori empire. When he died protecting Sei, Ran decided to live her life as a man (because girls can't be knights) and be Sei's First Knight. As the main part of the series begins, Ran and Sei enter high school which is also their testing ground. The enemies of the Ohtori's also attend the school, and are permitted to make attempts on Sei's life. In addition, there are 11 other Ohtori knights who can challenge Ran for her position as Sei's First Knight. They do this in a dueling arena called Avalon that just happens to be on the school grounds. After the first duel, no one in the school finds it odd at all for students to carry around swords, challenge each other to duels, or dash off to the arena to try to kill each other. But only lazy weirdos skip class to read manga on the roof.
I went into the series thinking Ran was trans based on the description, but she seems to regard herself as a woman who has to live like a man to achieve her goals. (Other's probably interpret it differently?) Despite this, Ran is consistently drawn like a shoujo bishounen, is very tall, and has broad shoulders and is fairly muscular by shoujo standards. There are also numerous chapter pages depicting her in traditional "hot shoujo hero" poses, and her and Sei in conventional romantic poses. The mangaka, Nishikata Mai, also includes Sei's fiance, Ibara, to try to convince us that they're totally straight despite all that and multiple dramatic speeches about their eternal devotion to each other and how Ran will stay by Sei's side FOREVER to help her achieve her goals for the Ohtori organization. The engagement is for business purposes and arranged by their fathers, but Ibara and Sei appear to be casual friends at the start of the series, but become closer as it progresses. Ibara also learns that Ran is a girl early on, and decides that the uptight but funny knight is uptight and funny and totally hot.
There is, pleasantly, absolutely no triangle to speak of there. In volume 2, Ibara starts making "But you're a girl, and I'm a man, and I should protect you!" noises and I started to fear that this would be like the other manga of Nishikata's that I read, Venus Capriccio in that it had a really good first volume that subverted a lot of shoujo tropes, and then everything went south from there. Thankfully, Ran informs him that "THAT IS NOT HAPPENING, SIR (and if you continue in this vein and progress to trying to interfere with my work and/or keep me from dueling, I shall punch you out and never ever forgive you)", reads him in on the situation, and says he should shape up and help Sei by behaving better and helping them watch for attacks on Sei. So he does, and apparently not to impress Ran, but because he thinks she's right and wants to help. He has more "me man, you woman" moments in the series, but they tend to be milder after the first set down, and he gets over them. Late in the series, Ran has to fight a duel that she's in considerable emotional turmoil over, and against an opponent who might be physically more skilled than her, but instead of attempting (too hard) to interfere, he believes in her and her belief that she can handle it, and goes off to take care of his own business. When another guy in love with Ran shows up and tries the " you are a girl and I and a man and I should protect you" bit (and is given the same setdown) he also tries to claim that Ibara is interfering and not letting Ran do her thing, and which point Ibara essentially informs him that there's a difference between supporting and interfering. And also that he likes his teeth right where they are. (Ok, he doesn't say the last, but he was thinking it.)
The Revolutionary Girl Utena references are numerous (and also, as you may have noted, there are a few Arthuriana references scattered throughout) and she doesn't even try to hide it. I mean, the title translated into English as something close to "The Flower Knight," it has a genderbending heroine who is constantly being challenged to duels to maintain her position as the second female lead's protector, and Sei's family name is even "Ohtori." It might as well be called "My Love Letter To Revolutionary Girl Utena."
It's far from perfect-it regularly starts skirting close to "romance will cure Ran of her unwomanly ways" and "absolute heteronormativity is how all things must eventually go," even though it almost always safely bounces back. In addition, while it has the common shoujo and shounen trope of portraying charcter growth and having the protagonist gain confidence and a greater sense of self through friendships, all those friendships are male. While there are a couple of minor female antagonists early one, every major character other than Sei and Ran is male. Despite that, though, I feel it does much better in the endgame than many genderbender manga do, despite the romance angles, it always prioritizes Sei and Ran's goals and desires over romance and the male characters, and I really really really liked it.
I went into the series thinking Ran was trans based on the description, but she seems to regard herself as a woman who has to live like a man to achieve her goals. (Other's probably interpret it differently?) Despite this, Ran is consistently drawn like a shoujo bishounen, is very tall, and has broad shoulders and is fairly muscular by shoujo standards. There are also numerous chapter pages depicting her in traditional "hot shoujo hero" poses, and her and Sei in conventional romantic poses. The mangaka, Nishikata Mai, also includes Sei's fiance, Ibara, to try to convince us that they're totally straight despite all that and multiple dramatic speeches about their eternal devotion to each other and how Ran will stay by Sei's side FOREVER to help her achieve her goals for the Ohtori organization. The engagement is for business purposes and arranged by their fathers, but Ibara and Sei appear to be casual friends at the start of the series, but become closer as it progresses. Ibara also learns that Ran is a girl early on, and decides that the uptight but funny knight is uptight and funny and totally hot.
There is, pleasantly, absolutely no triangle to speak of there. In volume 2, Ibara starts making "But you're a girl, and I'm a man, and I should protect you!" noises and I started to fear that this would be like the other manga of Nishikata's that I read, Venus Capriccio in that it had a really good first volume that subverted a lot of shoujo tropes, and then everything went south from there. Thankfully, Ran informs him that "THAT IS NOT HAPPENING, SIR (and if you continue in this vein and progress to trying to interfere with my work and/or keep me from dueling, I shall punch you out and never ever forgive you)", reads him in on the situation, and says he should shape up and help Sei by behaving better and helping them watch for attacks on Sei. So he does, and apparently not to impress Ran, but because he thinks she's right and wants to help. He has more "me man, you woman" moments in the series, but they tend to be milder after the first set down, and he gets over them. Late in the series, Ran has to fight a duel that she's in considerable emotional turmoil over, and against an opponent who might be physically more skilled than her, but instead of attempting (too hard) to interfere, he believes in her and her belief that she can handle it, and goes off to take care of his own business. When another guy in love with Ran shows up and tries the " you are a girl and I and a man and I should protect you" bit (and is given the same setdown) he also tries to claim that Ibara is interfering and not letting Ran do her thing, and which point Ibara essentially informs him that there's a difference between supporting and interfering. And also that he likes his teeth right where they are. (Ok, he doesn't say the last, but he was thinking it.)
The Revolutionary Girl Utena references are numerous (and also, as you may have noted, there are a few Arthuriana references scattered throughout) and she doesn't even try to hide it. I mean, the title translated into English as something close to "The Flower Knight," it has a genderbending heroine who is constantly being challenged to duels to maintain her position as the second female lead's protector, and Sei's family name is even "Ohtori." It might as well be called "My Love Letter To Revolutionary Girl Utena."
It's far from perfect-it regularly starts skirting close to "romance will cure Ran of her unwomanly ways" and "absolute heteronormativity is how all things must eventually go," even though it almost always safely bounces back. In addition, while it has the common shoujo and shounen trope of portraying charcter growth and having the protagonist gain confidence and a greater sense of self through friendships, all those friendships are male. While there are a couple of minor female antagonists early one, every major character other than Sei and Ran is male. Despite that, though, I feel it does much better in the endgame than many genderbender manga do, despite the romance angles, it always prioritizes Sei and Ran's goals and desires over romance and the male characters, and I really really really liked it.