僕が私になるために

BOKU GA WATASHI NI NARU TAME NI

Slice of Life

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
1
RELEASE
April 21, 2016
CHAPTERS
8

DESCRIPTION

After graduating university, Yuna spent several years going through the motions and working an office job. Until one day, while in pursuit of an essential missing piece of her life, she receives a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, which opens up new doors for her. As she takes on medical treatments and tries out new makeup and outfits, she sees just how lonely and difficult the process of transitioning can be. But in 2015, when Yuna travels to Thailand for her gender-affirming surgery, the support of her siblings, new strangers, and documenting her experience through manga helps her begin to heal in more ways than one. Told in an honest and, at times, humorous tone, this memoir is a blend of manga and detailed prose that does not shy away from sensitive topics, such as suicidal ideation, transphobia, and the simultaneously harrowing, yet joyous, experience of gender-affirming surgery.

(Source: Kodansha USA)

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

SoulBlade17
75/100
The path to becoming a woman is not easy.
Please note
This review is all subjective and my own personal opinion. You do not have to agree with it, nor am I asking you to. I hope that this just helps you get an idea of what the manga I am talking about is like and form a basic and general consensus on it. The ratings I give anime and manga are mostly my personal overall enjoyment. This review may contain some spoilers, but all of them will be hidden using the spoiler tag. There will be some images sourced from the manga, but they should not contain any major spoilers. TL;DR will be at the bottom.

Introduction

'Boku ga Watashi ni Naru Tame ni', an autobiography by Hirasawa Yuuna, presents her story her journey of getting sex reassignment surgery in order to become a woman. The title of the manga can be translated to 'In order for me to be me'. Boku is more of a masculine pronoun, whereas in contrast watashi is more of a general pronoun, but is considered feminine, with less men using it outside of formal occasions.

Being an autobiography, splitting the review up into different sections like I do in my reviews normally will not work well here as a lot of it will not apply given the nature of the manga, so I will just discuss the manga without them.

Around the time of puberty, many find ourselves asking "what am I?", questioning our existence and who we really are. For some, that leads to them questioning their own sex.

Some individuals may find themselves thinking they were born in the wrong body. They may be distressed about the gender they were born as. Some may find themselves wishing that they were the other gender. These are just some of the signs of gender dysphoria.

Becoming transgender is one option those with gender dysphoria can take. There are a couple of ways to go about this, but one such option is sex reassignment surgery, which is the process of permanently altering one's appearance and their body parts associated with their biological sex to the one they identify as.

Hirasawa was one such person who chose the path of sex reassignment surgery. In order for her to become who she really was, it was something that she needed to do. And so, she travelled to Thailand, a country leading in sex reassignment surgery in order to get it done.

'Boku ga Watashi ni Naru Tame ni' describes her journey becoming a woman, illustrating with great detail the prerequisites of the surgery, the process of the surgery, the after effects, and the final process she had to go through long after the surgery had been completed. Along the way, she educates us not only on the surgery and the process involved itself, but also other related elements such as sexuality, gender dysphoria and so on.

What I felt that this manga excelled at was the education part of it. Clearly, this manga set out to educate its readers on the topics it presented, and I must say it did that very well. As I read the manga, I found myself learning more about what being transgender means, sex reassignment surgery and more. The way it was all presented was mostly in a easy to understand and engaging manner, making it even easier to learn what Hirasawa was speaking about.

Overall this manga was quite easy to understand and get into the flow of. There were not too many characters that I needed to keep track of, and it was not like the events were confusing either. Most of it revolved around Hirasawa and her transition, so it remained pretty consistent.

Within this manga there are also a lot of comedic elements. These help break up the heavy themes that sometimes appear in the manga, and also assist in making it all a more light hearted enjoyable read. It is a contrast to the profound themes present in the manga, perhaps too much for some, but it was fine for me.

The art style in this manga is pretty simple, but gets the job done. The art is not really the point of focus in this manga, so that was fine anyway. The art style was able to illustrate comedic scenes in a manner where it had the potential to evoke humour into the reader.

Conclusion and TL;DR

I cannot think of much else to say so I think I will wrap up the review here. This manga is aimed towards a certain demographic and it is not for everyone. There will be many people who will have no interest in this manga, but it will be of great interest to some. To that end, I can easily recommend this to individuals who want to learn more about sex reassignment surgery and the process of becoming transgender. That is the main reason one would read this manga. 'Boku ga Watashi ni Naru Tame ni' certainly helped me learn a lot, and I am quite grateful for that. To summarise this review:
- This manga focuses on the process of becoming transgender and sex reassignment surgery, but it also explores other things too.
- The author describes the process in great detail, whilst also educating the reader.
- She educates the reader in an easy to understand and engaging manner, leaving most readers likely to come out with much more knowledge after they have completed the manga.
- To break up the heavy themes of the manga, comedic elements are inserted in which can sometimes be a great contrast.
- The simple art style is not the focus, but gets the job done.
That brings us to the end of the review. If you want to send me feedback on my reviews, please post a comment on this thread. Hopefully you were able to get something out of this review. If you did not like this review, then I apologise for wasting your time.
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