Cinderella Closet: Being Yourself Is a Revolutionary Act

I must confess that, when TBS’s Cinderella Closet first came out on Netflix, I didn’t expect much from it. Its 20-minute episodes and a light-hearted premise, however, persuaded me to give it a shot. The story that blossomed in front of my eyes had the shell of thousands of other romantic Japanese dramas, but it shone bright with a unique, powerful core. Suddenly, Cinderella Closet transformed from a standard rom-com into a series that challenges the conservative nature of its culture and inspires its audience to embark on a journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance.

Aired from June to September 2025, Cinderella Closet is a 12-episode adaptation of Yanai Wakana’s manga of the same name, directed by Fukawa Ryosuke, Okano Hironobu, and Torii Kana. Within the limitations of its means and running time, Kato Ayako and Orito Satsuki penned a script that follows its source text with admirable faithfulness. The story follows Fukunaga Haruka (Osaki Ichika), a young woman who moved to Tokyo to attend university. However, campus life seems to be far more glamorous than she’d expected and she feels out of place. After being invited out for dinner with a senpai (a “senior” at work) she admires, Haruka is helped by Hikaru (Matsumoto Leo), a mysterious young man who dresses her up for the occasion.

This review contains very mild spoilers. Read it at your own risk! If you’d rather read our spoiler-free summary, you can pin it at the bottom!

Exploring Gender Expression Without Labels

The twist here is that Hikaru is a young man who dresses in traditionally feminine attire. He wears make-up and a long, beautiful wig too. But Hikaru isn’t a caricature, a joke, or the target of weird glances. No, he’s the protagonist of this story, and he’s treated as such. Even more than Haruka, Hikaru becomes the true heart of Cinderella Closet, a tale that allows its characters to be who they want to be without judgment or over-explanation. The script never shies away from exploring gender expression, sexuality, and attraction, but it never labels any of its characters. Haruka, Hikaru, and their friends are just… well, them. The way they express their gender or sexuality is completely up to them, making the universe of the series a playground in which they can explore who they are, what they want and need.

In that way, Cinderella Closet successfully breaks stereotypes, destroying gender expectations and standard concepts of “femininity” or “masculinity”. This is a story that embraces and celebrates the kaleidoscopic combinations that make up our identity, gender, and sexuality. By giving its characters such freedom, the series allows us to project onto them our own experiences and feelings, finding in their journey the acceptance we might be looking for ourselves.

This is where the show’s core themes of self-esteem, self-respect, and self-discovery come in. At first, the story places Hikaru and Haruka as complete opposites. While Hikaru, a talented stylist, seems very happy with the way he presents himself to the world, Haruka suffers from a total lack of self-confidence. As her “modern fairy godmother”, Hikaru knows exactly how to style Haruka’s hair and make-up to make her shine, helping Haruka build her confidence. But, as her friendship with Hikaru becomes stronger, we realise that their appearance only serves as a mask that tames their fears and allows them to face the world.

Haruka isn’t the only one who needs to change. Hikaru is also hiding under a pretence of confidence. So Haruka and Hikaru don’t contrast but complement each other.

Cinderella Closet: A Story of Self-Acceptance

Haruka’s and Hikaru’s character arcs focus on one thing: genuine self-expression and self-acceptance. As they grow closer, they encourage each other to truly love, believe in, and value themselves. Haruka and the community around her offer Hikaru the acceptance he never received from his family, while Hikaru inspires Haruka to build her self-esteem. Through their relationship and the friendships they develop with secondary characters, they understand the importance of finding their own voice and not being scared to use it.

Throughout the series, the narrative uses shoes as a strong motif. Of course, inspired by Cinderella’s story, shoes represent freedom and identity. But in Cinderella Closet, the motif goes even further. It illustrates Haruka’s ability to stand up on her own two feet and walk ahead confidently, with her head held high. With every episode, you can see Haruka’s shift in perspective. She goes from a person who needs external approval to someone who can identify whether her behaviour honestly represents her values. She stops trying to please others and to conform to what’s expected of her. Haruka starts making a conscious effort to evaluate her actions — and by the end of this story, every single one of her choices reflects her identity, her beliefs, and her desires.

The finale of Cinderella Closet sees Haruka and Hikaru as more self-aware individuals whose masks have been replaced by a simple idea: true beauty lives within. Beauty isn’t about your hair, clothes, or make-up. It’s about being proud of who you are, expressing yourself freely and confidently, and accepting your uniqueness.

Handling Romantic Clichés with Maturity

Cinderella Closet also stands out for its mellow narrative, whose conflicts are often solved through mature and healthy means. Even though they aren’t perfect, the characters in the series respect, empathise, and openly communicate with each other. Conflicts are never dragged out but are almost instantly solved without the melodrama, misunderstandings, and toxic possessiveness that you often see in the genre.

Through Haruka’s romantic endeavours, the series also paints a surprisingly healthy picture of relationships. Characters are encouraged to love themselves first, not to rush from one relationship to another and instead, spend time on their own to figure out exactly what they are looking for.

In Cinderella Closet, affinity between men and women isn’t automatically romantic, creating a narrative that celebrates friendships. The narrative also dismantles the idea that romance is all about butterflies and excitement, which highlights the importance of mutual care, consideration, and companionship. Finally, Hikaru’s character once again emerges as a breath of fresh air, often subverting old-fashioned beliefs and pointing out sexist attitudes.

What’s Missing in Cinderella Closet?

All this praise doesn’t mean that Cinderella Closet is absolutely flawless, however. As the series makes such a single-minded effort to build its characters’ sense of self-confidence and self-acceptance, it forgoes the rest of their characterisation. Despite being of crucial importance for Hikaru’s character, his relationship with his parents and his past with his family receive little attention.

Meanwhile, Haruka’s personal objectives go almost unnoticed. Even though you see that Haruka’s growth leads to some introspection, there’s no real portrayal of what Haruka wants for herself professionally — we never find out what she’s studying or what career she’d like to follow. We’re led to believe that the decisions Haruka makes in the last episode reflect who she is, but there’s no proper setup — there’s no evidence, in the show’s previous 11 episodes, that Haruka would willingly opt for that path herself. The impression that we get, instead, is that she just wants to be with Hikaru, helping and supporting him. Professionally, it’s almost like Haruka takes a step back to let Hikaru take the front stage.

Events can be sloppily connected, and performances can be fairly exaggerated. These two can be easily excused, however, seeing that this is an adaptation. First, adapting eight volumes of a manga into 240 minutes is a challenge. Making it all connect seamlessly is almost impossible. Second, characters in the manga — especially Haruka — are extremely expressive, and it just seems that actors were directed to follow the original as closely as possible.

When I said that Hikaru is the heart of the series, that also goes for the performance. Matsumoto Leo is simply extraordinary, offering such a nuanced, charismatic delivery to Hikaru. His eyes say so much, and he can be, at the same time, loud and subtle. As much as Osaki Ichika does her best and definitely finds the right chemistry with her co-star, there’s no doubt that Matsumoto absolutely outshines everyone else in the cast.

Should You Watch Cinderella Closet?

Considering that Cinderella Closet emerges from a country still tied to traditional customs and strict gender expectations, there’s much to be admired in Hikaru and Haruka’s journey. Its flaws become insignificant in the face of the fact that this story dares to be different — it dares to go against centuries of conservative attitudes to welcome diversity and freedom of gender expression. Sincere, respectful, and humane in its messages, this is an adorable, entertaining romance that cleverly repurposes the clichés of the genre. Beyond its sweetness and simplicity, Cinderella Closet reminds us that being yourself can be a revolutionary act.

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