I keep harping on the Japanese manga HOUROU MUSUKO by the woman author Takako Shimura (on ONEMANGA) with its almost documentary though fictional treatment of a transgendered boy and girl. For writers about transitioning some of the scenes in HM might be of inspirational value.

In the most recent chapters (Nos. 65-71) the children “come out” to their friends, schoolmates, teachers and family. The responses to their choices are a catalogue of public attitudes toward anyone who wants to live differently. In the story Takatsuki-kun, the girl, is little bothered except for the occasional snide remark which passes as soon as the next item of gossip becomes popular. And she also fights back physically when the ribbing gets to be too much. Teacher attitudes are casual remarking only that her attire is improper, don’t do it again and then turn to their clipboards. Takatsuki-kun’s problems are more internal - who am I? what am I? - and she agonizes hour after hour over her identity especially during menstruation. She has friends to whom her dressing in a boys’ uniform makes not a whit of difference. In the latest chapter even a boy she doesn’t know “confesses” his love to her. To him her dressing in boys’ clothes is irrelevant.

For the boy, Shu, social ostracism for wearing a girls’ uniform to school becomes the paramount experience. His girl friend who usually tolerates his cross-dressing avoids him and his sister hides herself embarrassed at his behavior. Boys at school lock him out of class, acquaintances call him “weird” and run away, others shout “tranny” and still others while outwardly friendly inwardly despise him. However, Shu, unlike many TG kids does have a group of loyal friends who love him regardless of his choices though they are not much help with his internal agonies. Parents and teachers all remain utterly clueless and if anything seem to go out of their way to do something else rather than admit that he has a life crisis.

In the latest chapter Shu announces to a friend that he wants to be a woman “so that I can wear cute clothes.” While his reasoning might not satisfy those who have transitioned or the legions of physical and mental health professionals who deal with the TG community 13 or 14 year old Shu is up front to the world in what he wants. He regards the choice as his alone and no one has forced him. So far his future seems uncertain and fraught with the seemingly insurmountable.

TG COMICS: I have found this website to be one of the most active and open of the TG series. Its specialty is TG graphic art showing various male to female change drawings, retitled magazine covers and the like. The Forum series is very lively with a busy coterie of literate participants. There is an excellent Links page as well. Personally I’m not drawn to much of the art work except for a work by two Koreans, Sizzkun (the author) and Burntwitch (the artist). The story, GIRL IN MY DREAM, is a complex tale about a school boy who is possessed in his sleep by an attractive female spirit, a succubus of some kind, who gradually transforms him into something he doesn’t want. The art style is a series of sketches unlike most manga, but has a magic of its own. I find this manga or manwha (in Korean) to be one of the most engrossing I’ve encountered. There are a lot of “forced” stories on this website so it may not be for all.

MY BARBARIC GIRL FRIEND (on MANGA FOX): The story of a boy and girl whose bodies are swapped because of an incompetent grandfather scientist and his experiment machine. What raises this manga above the others is the agony of the boy who has become a girl and his/her process of accepting a life that he did not anticipate. It’s not one of those giggly panty mangas and to the contrary displays a rather serious element. While the “forced” theme may not appeal to some the plot, dialog and art work certainly should.