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Earlier this year, a clever idea caused waves in the anime community when one cosplayer hit upon the idea of using strap-on breasts to give yourself the sort of expansive bust so common in the world of Japanese animation. But while you can strap on costuming accouterments to add volume to your body where needed, that’s not an option if you’re instead going for the sort of exaggeratedly slender build of a male lead from a girls’ manga.

But even if a mix of genetics, diet, and exercise have given you a square jaw and a thick trunk, there is one leading man of shojo manga you can easily take on the appearance of, as shown in these spot-on My Love Story!! cosplay photos.

If you limit your focus to just a couple of its plot points, My Love Story!! (Ore Monogatari!! in Japanese) sounds like any of a hundred other clichéd girls’ comics in Japan. Due to a chance encounter on the train, high school girl Rinko meets fellow teen Takeo. Although Rinko is smitten, their young love doesn’t immediately blossom into bliss, partly because Takeo is worried that she might rather be with his best friend, Makoto.

Sounds like a pretty standard shojo manga, right? Well, not really. First, the romantic rivalry seems to be all in Takeo’s head. Second, there’s the fact that while Makoto and Rinko have par-for-the-course character designs…

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Takeo looks like this.

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Being far beefier in build than most shojo heartthrobs not only makes My Love Story!! a unique take on teen romance, it also gave this cosplayer an opportunity to pull off a perfect recreation of the gentle giant, copying his poses and expressions from both the anime and manga versions of the series in these photos shared by Twitter user azunyan1203.

https://twitter.com/azunyan1203/status/595221382687956993

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▼ The Rinko cosplayer does an admirable job too, but can’t quite match the big guy’s level of faithfulness.

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▼ He even made sure the candy’s shape and color matched the original!

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Not only are these pictures a real treat for fans, they’re a shining beacon of hope for every guy who’s been looking for a way to get into cosplay without having to shave his bushy eyebrows.

Source, images: Twitter (edited by RocketNews24)