Yuzu no Koto
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I really like this series. Having been in a similar situation, so far it's pretty realistic and cool about it's subject matter. Hope the translators keep up the keep work on this.
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@gallifreyan100
Are trans guys under represented? I always thought it was the opposite, on top of there being more long running FTM cross dressing manga and an abundance of series, as well as being better represented and not played as a joke usually (how many FTM characters are always cool and attractive), while anything MTF (both trans and cross dressing) is either played as a joke and used for comic effect or fetishized.
There are tons of FTM characters in series and them living as male isn't usually seen as an issue or mentioned which I think makes sense since that how it is IRL, since FTM's are usually forgotten since they have a bit of an easier time blending in.
Are trans guys under represented? I always thought it was the opposite, on top of there being more long running FTM cross dressing manga and an abundance of series, as well as being better represented and not played as a joke usually (how many FTM characters are always cool and attractive), while anything MTF (both trans and cross dressing) is either played as a joke and used for comic effect or fetishized.
There are tons of FTM characters in series and them living as male isn't usually seen as an issue or mentioned which I think makes sense since that how it is IRL, since FTM's are usually forgotten since they have a bit of an easier time blending in.
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@descending_angel87
Are they represented as men or crossdressing women though? I mean, yeah, they don't seem to be treated as a joke and the whole "am I a pervert?" thing doesn't seem to come up but at the same time a lot of these series don't seem to even consider the fact that these characters have gender dysphoria, there's almost always some big reason central to the plot and then they just go right back to how they were before. But with MTF characters, there's a lot of manga explicitly, or implicitly, saying they have gender dysphoria.
Are they represented as men or crossdressing women though? I mean, yeah, they don't seem to be treated as a joke and the whole "am I a pervert?" thing doesn't seem to come up but at the same time a lot of these series don't seem to even consider the fact that these characters have gender dysphoria, there's almost always some big reason central to the plot and then they just go right back to how they were before. But with MTF characters, there's a lot of manga explicitly, or implicitly, saying they have gender dysphoria.
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@gallifreyan100
In some series they are represented as men, some start off as just cross-dressing women, but in a lot of cases they are represented as and treated as men, whereas in the other direction it's usually always a man in a dress drawn cutely.
As for MTF characters stated explicitly most of the characters are played for a joke that they are trans and are almost always secondary characters. I can only think of only a handful of series where the MTF is a main character (outside of auto biographical series) as series always seem to follow the characters around the trans person (like Sunu Sumu which derails into a story about a dude who liked the trans character but the trans character isn't seen for the last half of the manga) and even then most of the time just regular cross dressed characters are often confused for trans characters (and labeled as such by people reading into things) while actual trans characters are considered cross-dressers or "traps".
I mean half the list of trans characters on Anime planet aren't actually trans those that are are all from a handful of series.
I think the biggest problem isn't the LACK of representation but of the interpretations of the works. Too often a FTM character's are often treated as still female by the fans and readers so I think that kind of makes it difficult to gauge properly without going down the rabbit hole (I only really read gender bend series and yaoi so I see more then the casual reader). For example even the grand daddy of gender bender stories Rose of Versailles has a FTM man as the lead in a relationship with a female character but most people consider it to have been yuri and Oscar the lead not to be trans, and while characters like Yoshino Takatsuki from Wandering Son (Hourou Musuko)
But it also happens on the opposite, an example of it on the MTF side is Hato-chan from Genshiken Nidaime who creates a separate persona for because of her love of yaoi
yet she isn't considered trans and is listed as a cross dresser.
Though it's also worth pointing out sometimes people just aren't aware some characters are trans because sometimes it's mentioned in passing (like Tiger from My Hero is a FTM), or they don't follow genre's enough to know certain series exist, newer smaller series like Sakura-chan and Amane-kun about a verified trans boy and a possible trans girl (who is questioning her identity.
https://mangadex.org/title/25476/sakura-chan-to-amane-kun
I dunno I think it's less lack of representation and more just nothing is properly organized and most of it is left up to the reader to decide, and sometimes translators lose meaning in certain books as well and that doesn't help, especially since Japanese doesn't really use pronouns.
In some series they are represented as men, some start off as just cross-dressing women, but in a lot of cases they are represented as and treated as men, whereas in the other direction it's usually always a man in a dress drawn cutely.
As for MTF characters stated explicitly most of the characters are played for a joke that they are trans and are almost always secondary characters. I can only think of only a handful of series where the MTF is a main character (outside of auto biographical series) as series always seem to follow the characters around the trans person (like Sunu Sumu which derails into a story about a dude who liked the trans character but the trans character isn't seen for the last half of the manga) and even then most of the time just regular cross dressed characters are often confused for trans characters (and labeled as such by people reading into things) while actual trans characters are considered cross-dressers or "traps".
I mean half the list of trans characters on Anime planet aren't actually trans those that are are all from a handful of series.
I think the biggest problem isn't the LACK of representation but of the interpretations of the works. Too often a FTM character's are often treated as still female by the fans and readers so I think that kind of makes it difficult to gauge properly without going down the rabbit hole (I only really read gender bend series and yaoi so I see more then the casual reader). For example even the grand daddy of gender bender stories Rose of Versailles has a FTM man as the lead in a relationship with a female character but most people consider it to have been yuri and Oscar the lead not to be trans, and while characters like Yoshino Takatsuki from Wandering Son (Hourou Musuko)
aren't trans but were just questioning their identity as they never transition but are labeled as trans
But it also happens on the opposite, an example of it on the MTF side is Hato-chan from Genshiken Nidaime who creates a separate persona for because of her love of yaoi
(after being accused of being gay), but eventually realizes she isn't pretending to be a girl but is one, and in the manga goes on to live full time as female (chapter 95 https://mangadex.org/chapter/260562/1 seriously my favorite coming out in a manga ever ), and in the epilogue manga Spotted Flower (which is considered a sequel by the author and has grown up versions of the same characters but is hated by fans due to one scene and isn't considered canon to them) getting breast implants and living as female,
Though it's also worth pointing out sometimes people just aren't aware some characters are trans because sometimes it's mentioned in passing (like Tiger from My Hero is a FTM), or they don't follow genre's enough to know certain series exist, newer smaller series like Sakura-chan and Amane-kun about a verified trans boy and a possible trans girl (who is questioning her identity.
https://mangadex.org/title/25476/sakura-chan-to-amane-kun
I dunno I think it's less lack of representation and more just nothing is properly organized and most of it is left up to the reader to decide, and sometimes translators lose meaning in certain books as well and that doesn't help, especially since Japanese doesn't really use pronouns.
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@descending_angel87, I'm sorry I haven't read everything you wrote yet but Hato started living FULL-TIME?!?!?! I've only seen the anime and read Spotted Flower (which the mangaka seems to be using to critique fans), so I didn't know that. I'm extremely happy to hear that Hato finally came to reality on that(and also apologetic for going on a tangent about a trans girl on a trans man manga's comments). Some idiot blogger led me to believe Hato had some kind of complicated delusion instead of actual dysphoria.
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As for the rest of your comment, there's like three different series detailing trans women's GRS, there's that one popular manga with all the AMAB trans people at that one cafe, there's all the gender benders which are like Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl or Maomorino (I'm sorry did I get that right?). How many gender benders end with FTMs staying male? As for "crossdressing" yeah that happens more often and is more accepted, and handled better.
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I don't like how the characters still refer to him as she, when they're a guy. And it's not like they became a guy, it's always there, just hidden.
@descending_angel87, @gallifreyan100: No, Hato only accepted his cross-dressing that chapter, he still and always considered himself a male. In the last chapter he says he'll continue being a fudanshi (and not a fujoshi). Towards the end of the manga when they go on a trip he's introduced as an MTF to another member's parents but that was just to make it simpler to explain his cross-dressing to them only, and he does explicitly says that label isn't correct.
Spotted Flower has not-Hato still identifying as a crossdressing male.
Spotted Flower has not-Hato still identifying as a crossdressing male.
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@gfreeman
https://mangadex.org/chapter/261134/6
Re-read this chapter it paints a much different light (it's one of the last few Chapters 117). It's pretty much Hato saying it straight up after denying it for so long.
As for spotted flower, which is a continuation but was through another publisher so they couldn't actually link the two series officially (it says in the authors notes of genshiken nidaime).
https://mangadex.org/chapter/261134/6
Re-read this chapter it paints a much different light (it's one of the last few Chapters 117). It's pretty much Hato saying it straight up after denying it for so long.
During that argument with Yajimacchi, Hato says how much she envies her because no matter how hard she tries she will never be fully female. She will always be a man no matter what she does. Hato might deny it in earlier chapters but as her sister in law points out (in Chapter 77) that denial is just a flag and foreshadowing.
As for spotted flower, which is a continuation but was through another publisher so they couldn't actually link the two series officially (it says in the authors notes of genshiken nidaime).
"Not" Hato has transitioned to female (and is referred to as Miss Mangaka and referred to as female by numerous characters but does mention being born male), has breast implants (which they let hang out in Chapter 18.5 in the hot-spring and numerous other chapters) and a very feminine body.
Though it's implied she hasn't had the bottom surgery (which is why she can't use female facilities since that requires the bottom surgery in Japan). Plus there's the exchange with "not" Sue where "not" Hato says "I know that we've both strayed from the blueprints our bodies were built on" (which implies Sue got implants as well). I mean living as female, being treated as female by everyone around her, and having implants really implies she's trans. And after that rant in Chapter 117 I can see it completely.
Though it's implied she hasn't had the bottom surgery (which is why she can't use female facilities since that requires the bottom surgery in Japan). Plus there's the exchange with "not" Sue where "not" Hato says "I know that we've both strayed from the blueprints our bodies were built on" (which implies Sue got implants as well). I mean living as female, being treated as female by everyone around her, and having implants really implies she's trans. And after that rant in Chapter 117 I can see it completely.
@ descending_angel87: Yes, Hato is envious but what matters is how he identifies himself at the very end and he states he's just a fudanshi with an interest in crossdressing.
About Spotted Flower - Japan has no laws on which gender must use which facilities, so I think not-Hato's use of male bathrooms isn't just him being pedantic but also him still identifying as male.
Anyway, at the end of the day, it was a not really that interesting manga turned into an awful romcom harem, with as expected a bad and indecisive view on gender and sexuality. I don't need to comment on Spotted Flower.
About Spotted Flower - Japan has no laws on which gender must use which facilities, so I think not-Hato's use of male bathrooms isn't just him being pedantic but also him still identifying as male.
Anyway, at the end of the day, it was a not really that interesting manga turned into an awful romcom harem, with as expected a bad and indecisive view on gender and sexuality. I don't need to comment on Spotted Flower.
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Shoujo Ai AND Shounen Ai?
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Definitely
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