Don't think this needs content warnings. Thanks, Cromalin!
I have either high standards or low tolerance for queer manga I guess, it's uncommon that I finish them. At first I figured this one was just another for the pile, because I loaded up the first chapter and it was like
"Aw for fuck's sake, cmon, you fuckin' loser manga. Do better!" Thankfully it actually does do better.
So yeah, it's the usual "he got turned into A GIRL overnight!!!1!" appropos of nothing setup, and the first couple chapters almost rolled my eyes out of my head. At times I was getting hints of transmasc-ness from it, protagonist Akira is so averse to being a girl early on.
Sorry dog, cannot fucking relate. A lot of it is taken up with the kind of goofy "golly gee girls have it hard! I'm bored I wish I was doing BOY THINGS", super painfully obvious gender-binary observations, standard issue stuff. It also does that thing where because Akira LIVED AS A BOY he UNDERSTANDS THE OTHER BOYS SO WELL or whatever, invoked here when a guy in class gets mad and tries to fuckin punch Akira. Wild, I almost dropped it a couple times, even if it is good for screencaps.
What makes this one worth it is the genuine trans positivity that comes through about ten chapters in. Not even subtextually! Skirt do be going spinny, and I had a tough time not enjoying watcbing Akira get used to skirts and get comfy having girls as friends, stuff like that.
It's the little things, the small and quiet affirmations that stand out from the mess. I remember this, I recall what it felt like. Extremely good feeling. The doctors Akira goes to, for her magical overnight transsexualism condition(PLEASE), are all enthusiastic and accepting of her deciding that Actually, being a girl is rad. Her family even is too!!
It's charming and fluffy and made me smile, which made it well worth the hour or whatever I spent reading it. Some of the school-social stuff I find unpleasant but it's par for the course when a ten year old magically becomes an gril. Every other gender-bender manga I've read has ended up on my shitlist, but this one's okay actually. Very nice!
yeah i really like it. it manages to handle it way better than i expected when i first saw it recommended. the thing that really sticks with me is the constant fear she has of being outed. it felt super similar to a lot of anxieties i have about passing
