Boku ga Watashi ni Naru Tame ni

It's hard to rate/critique someone's personal story, but here goes.「Boku ga Watashi ni」details part of mangaka Hirasawa Yuuna's male-to-female (MtF) transition process. It's a highly educational read - about three-quarters of the manga is devoted to her sex reassignment surgery (SRS) in Thailand, and there's a lot of in-depth information on the medical and legal procedures involved, including corresponding terminology, the whole nine yards.

Occasional comic relief comes from her tongue-in-cheek explanations using food ingredients as substitutes for anatomical parts (sausage for chinpo, etc) and interactions with quirky Thai staff. Parts of the narrative made me wince in vicarious pain (phantom limb...er...appendage + dilation, anyone???). And while she reveals some level of anxiety and unease as expected, being a stranger in a strange land undergoing a life-changing operation, I get the sense that on the whole Hirasawa is deliberately downplaying the emotional/psychological aspects of her journey. And as a cis-gendered reader, that is perhaps what interests me most in trans-gender stories - the stuff that you don't find in pamphlets and medical literature - the heart and soul of the storyteller.

Then again, it's easy to be an armchair critic and say: "I wish the story had more this and that," without giving thought to the broader implications of what that might entail. Hirasawa states in her epilogue that her intent is first and foremost to educate - not to enforce equality or demand societal acceptance, but to simply share her experiences and let the reader draw their own conclusions. And with a sensitive topic as such, I can see some necessity in her taking this approach, and I applaud her ability to take a step back and keep a buffer distance from certain expectations and/or biases.

Towards the end Hirasawa raises some important questions which she invites the reader to reflect upon: What is gender? What is "normal"? What constitutes "normality" or "otherness" in our world today? While the story may not have directly addressed these topics, its overarching theme presents much food for thought in this regard: one individual's struggles, both physical and psychological, in order to achieve a state of "normality" that most of us take for granted.

And, for what it's worth, I will never look at a sausage the same way again.

As you may noticed this is a personal story about part of the transition process that author has been through so my 9 on Story is mostly for how the whole thing is presented to us.

Sometimes playful, sometimes frightening and all around informative, this manga reads almost like a Trans For Dummies and I say it with the best of intentions - it's a great work to show to that trans-ally you all either have or are in a circle of friends or co-workers.

It is FILLED with information regarding the Sex Reassigment Surgery and many of its post-op issues - even legal ones - all presented in a nice and comedic tone using food. Yeah. It is kinda hilarious.

The art is just... there. It gets the job done - sets the mood and makes the plays it needs to make. If you're meant to be see happiness or sadness or despair you'll see jsut that.

Most of the enjoyment one may have with this series comes from a place of delight by being informed about something that you either REALLY want to you for you or for someone else or you just like to read about things that you may not consider directly related to you.


Go take a look. It's great.