The Best Manga About Trans People

Summary

• LGBTQ+ manga offers diverse and relatable stories about gender identity and sexuality struggles.
• Various manga titles feature trans individuals navigating societal expectations and self-discovery.
• Despite challenges, manga like Boys Run the Riot and Wandering Son showcase personal growth and community support.

This year’s Pride Month might feel more tense than prior years as the political situation has gotten worse for LGBTQ+ people recently. Particularly for the T group, as one bill, ruling, law, or another tries to make their day-to-day lives more difficult. It’s a tough time to relax and have fun when it seems like there’s more bad news coming around the corner.

Thankfully, it’s not all doom and gloom, as there’s a broad community out there providing help and support. Queer people and their allies are still going to tell their stories, whether they’re light and fun, heavy and dramatic, fictional, or based on real-life experiences. This includes manga, where there are plenty of great tales about trans people for readers to check out.

10

Welcome Back, Alice

Gender As A Prison

• Creator: Shuzo Oshimi
• 7 Volumes, 40 Chapters
• Available in English via Kodansha USA’s Vertical Comics imprint

Shuzo Oshimi, better known for psychological thrillers like Flowers of Evil and Blood on the Tracks, is no stranger to tackling gender topics. However, as far as direct tales about trans people, his standout story is Welcome Back, Alice. It’s about three old friends, Yohei, Yui, and Kei, who meet back up when Kei moves back into town.

The thing is, they’ve all gotten more feminine, more flirty, and often go by ‘Alice.’ Yet they can’t say whether they’ve transitioned or not, because they’re not sure either. Are they Kei, Alice, both, or neither? And how will Yohei and Yui handle their new outlook? Given Oshimi aimed to explore “the hell of sexuality” and how restrictive gender notions can be with this strip, one can guess it doesn’t go well.

9

Haikei, Seken-sama

How One Trans Man Broke Out of Their Shell

• Creator: Shin Kanzaki
• 3 Volumes, 27 Chapters
• Fan Translations only

A lot of media about trans people tends to revolve around trans women, as, for better or worse (often worse), they get the most attention. Meanwhile, trans men and trans masculine people get treated like cryptids, in that there seem to be plenty of people who don’t think they exist, or at least treat them like they’re not real. Not that that stops them from being abused and patronized when the wrong people find out.

As such, trans male mangaka Shin Kanzaki decided to tell a story inspired by their own life in Haikei, Seken-sama. It recounts the story of Rino Tachi, a seemingly ordinary ‘girl’ at an all-girls school who always felt a sense of unease, like they didn’t fit in with the others. Rino tries to figure it out, but faces an uphill struggle when society expects him to be a ‘her’ rather than his true self.

8

Last Gender: When We Are Nameless

Where Everybody Knows Your Interests

• Creator: Rei Taki
• 3 Volumes, 23 Chapters
• Available in English via Kodansha USA’s Vertical Comics imprint

Last Gender: When We Are Nameless is often listed as a romance story, but that isn’t strictly the case. Particularly when it’s more of an anthology of short stories, where different characters explore their sexualities and identities at the mysterious BAR California. Like when Minami goes there to discover why her husband has been cheating on her and learns more about herself instead.

Once her tale is done, the story moves on to another protagonist, like a bisexual trans woman who wishes her love life were more ‘normal.’ Later, it follows an aromantic cis woman who prefers to make love rather than seek it. Instead of a standard romance, readers will get a potpourri of short stories about queer love lives and what becomes of them by the end of their chapters.

7

I Wanna Be Your Girl

The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions

• Creator: Umi Takase
• 4 Volumes, 51 Chapters
• Available in English digitally via Mangamo

Readers who want something longer and more focused than a collection of stories might check out I Wanna Be Your Girl. It follows Hime, who’s been in love with her friend Akira since they were kids. When Akira came out as transgender, she stuck with her and gave her support, even when they took the bold step to start dressing as a girl when they reached high school.

When Akira starts getting the wrong kind of attention, Hime becomes protective and decides to dress as a boy in an act of solidarity. While it seemed like a good idea at the time, it backfires on them both in the long run. Both have a lot to learn about the nature of identity and sexuality, and some lessons are harder to learn than others.

6

Until I Love Myself: The Journey Of A Nonbinary Manga Artist

Self-Discovery Gets More Fraught Thanks To Workplace Abuse

• Creator: Poppy Pesuyama
• 2 Volumes, 20 Chapters
• Available in English via Viz Media’s Viz Signature imprint

As Welcome Back, Alice and Last Gender (among others) desmonstrate, gender isn’t binary. Even when people transition, they’re not necessarily flicking from one thing to another like a light switch. They’re finding their own niche, which could seem like an even ground between two extremes or be completely unique to themselves. As artist Poppy Pesuyama’s journey in Until I Love Myself shows, being non-binary isn’t exactly a barrel of laughs either.

Their struggles to figure out who they are get exacerbated when their dream job becomes a nightmare. They get to work as an assistant to a famous manga artist, known only as ‘X,’ only to be subjected to sexual harassment and worse, which just makes them feel worse about themselves. Unable to find closure, they find a way to vent through their work, and a way to accept themselves in the process.

5

The Bride Was A Boy

Transitioning A Relationship Into A Marriage

• Creator: Chii
• 1 Volume, 9 Chapters
• Available in English via Seven Seas Entertainment

Haikei, Seken-sama isn’t the only biographical trans-tale around either. The Bride Was a Boy is more direct as it’s an outright autobiographical manga by Chii about her upbringing, transition, relationship, and eventual marriage. All of this is delivered through a cutesy art style that illustrates her highs and lows with charm, from coming out to her parents to receiving surgery abroad.

It’s one of the more inviting manga on this list. Even when things don’t go well for Chii, it’s done in a funny, light-hearted way. The manga illustrates the difficulty of transitioning in Japan without making the reader feel overwhelmed. It’s more like taking a dip in the shallow end of a pool, rather than diving into the deep end like some of its longer counterparts. As such, it’s a nice introductory manga to the ins and outs of being a trans woman.

4

Boys Run The Riot

Trans Man Strikes Back Through Fashion

• Creator: Keito Gaku
• 4 Volumes, 37 Chapters
• Available in English via Kodansha Comics USA

In a category that deserves more attention, Boys Run the Riot has become the premier manga about a trans man, as Ryo Watari is forced to be something he’s not at a school that only sees him as a ‘tomboyish girl’. Without anyone to turn to, Ryo feels alone and unable to express himself, but his luck changes when he meets Jin, a blunt and upfront classmate.

They bump into each other at a clothing store, where they bond over their shared interest in menswear. Jin suggests that they set up their own fashion label, where the two can express themselves freely. Ryo is initially unsure and reveals his status to Jin, but when he’s cool with him being trans, he agrees to get their label, ‘Boys Run the Riot,’ off the ground.

3

Wandering Son

Coming Of Age And Gender

• Creator: Takako Shimura
• 15 Volumes, 123 Chapters
• Available in English via Fantagraphic Books

Even if readers haven’t often delved into LGBTQ+ manga, let alone manga about trans people, they’ve likely heard of Wandering Son. It’s gained a reputation for being one of the more tender, realistic stories about growing up trans, as 5th grade students Shuichi and Yoshino bond over their shared gender dysphoria. The former feels more like a girl, while the latter leans towards more masculinity.

As they get older, they make new friends, meet new people, and experience new things that give them more to think about, even before puberty comes along to test them even further. Wandering Son excels at depicting dysphoria and the anxiety of exploring one’s gender identity, which also comes through in its anime adaptation. Shuichi, Yoshino, and their friends are surprisingly mature about the topic for school kids.

2

Love Me For Who I Am

Even Those In The Know Have Much To Learn

• Creator: Kata Konayama
• 5 Volumes, 28 Chapters
• Available in English via Seven Seas Entertainment

By contrast, Love Me for Who I Am’s cast of characters can have flaws and make mistakes, even when they mean well. For example, Tetsu sees the new transfer student, Mogumo, being ostracized for looking and dressing femininely. He befriends them and suggests they take a part-time job at Question, a cafe his family owns, which is themed around crossdressers and trans women.

Unfortunately, Mogumo is non-binary and doesn’t appreciate being treated as one or the other just because of their looks. Tetsu manages to convince them that the offer wasn’t based on their gender, one way or another. However, as Mogumo starts working at Question, they and their fellow staff members, including Tetsu, learn more about their family, friends, and gender as a whole.

1

Boy Meets Maria

An Identity In Crisis

• Creator: Kosei ‘Peyo’ Eguchi
• 1 Volume, 7 Chapters
• Available in English via Seven Seas Entertainment

Short, sweet, and serious, Boy Meets Maria seems like a standard crossdressing romance tale, as Taiga joins the drama club, hoping one day to play the daring hero role. While there, he meets Maria, the star of the club. She’s graceful, alluring, and captures Taiga’s heart on sight. Then he learns Maria is actually a male classmate called Arima, who’s more brusque in person than his ‘role,’ so to speak.

Nonetheless, Taiga finds himself entranced and wants to learn who Arima truly is. It ends up being a thornier subject, as he’s not necessarily the starlet he seems to be, nor is he the angry and impulsive man behind the tresses, either. Boy Meets Maria ​​​​​​is more complex than it seems, balancing its brutality with a gentle touch that makes it an endearing read.