Yesss more trans manga!

This one is gonna get into some Stuff, I can see that. I'm not done reading all of it yet cause it's a bit serious, I wanna pace myself, but I'm impressed it seems genuinely like... non-problematic? Usually trans people are the basis in media you get a lot of bullshit. Hopefully we'll see none of that here, it's nice to see actual representation.

EDIT: finished it up to where we are so far. So far so good, a bit worried. I can already see where we're gonna go, prolly with some rough spots where the guy is crushing on our protagonist, and when he finds out he's going to feel freaking awful about it, cause being crushed on by a guy makes him feel more feminine. This story so far is pretty typical of a trans experience, but this kinda stuff still needs representation. We almost never get stuff like this =w=

last edited at Oct 11, 2022 7:03PM

How did I miss this?!

How did I miss this?!

You didn't, it was only uploaded to the reader today, the prior release dates refer to the original (or the initial translation, not sure)

Down the track it might go the yaoi route.

wow this rules. thanks y'all <3

Rika and the art capture the moods of coming-out, without dwelling in angst a lot. It's so wholesome! This looks like it's going to be amazing, accessible, and hopeful.

Down the track it might go the yaoi route.

I expect representation, for sure. But though Satsuki seems to be attracted to Rika, I don't think we're headed towards a roommates-to-couple plotline. I'm guessing Rika is het and Satsuki is cisgender.

last edited at Oct 11, 2022 11:26PM

Rika and the art capture the moods of coming-out, without dwelling in angst a lot. It's so wholesome! This looks like it's going to be amazing, accessible, and hopeful.

Down the track it might go the yaoi route.

I expect representation, for sure. But though Satsuki seems to be attracted to Rika, I don't think we're headed towards a roommates-to-couple plotline. I'm guessing Rika is het and Satsuki is cisgender.

it would be funny if Satsuki came out as a girl and we actually had het that way

Huzzah, trans manga, we love to see it. I have known Rika for all of the 30-ish minutes it took me to read the available chapters and he is already a Capital Fellow. Homeboy's making friends (shut up, Satsuki) and influencing people (shut up, mom). He's going to get himself an education and become a pillar of the community and trade in the hoodie for something nattier (in that exact order; the hoodie is a man's best friend and notoriously difficult to part ways with). I love his dynamic with Satsuki too, because you've got two fellas who don't quite fit into their society's exact ideals of masculinity, and must constantly grapple with conflicting desires for legitimacy in a world of shifting goalposts where there are No Balls, and so if you want to dribble yourself a route to the finish, pass (har har) or score, you gotta make your own (I am proud of my terrible trans metaphor, but even prouder of my gifted son Rika).

Besides the excellent central 'Aight, I'mma adopt this ratty-ass cis boy and make an honest man out of him' plotline, I also love how this series portrays the shifting, uncertain nature of so many aspects of what's seen as the modern queer experience, the fact that it's not a straightforward track with set stations of increasing 'outness', but a constant negotiation with interlacing sociocultural webs of performance and expectation. Rika can't just 'come out' once full stop, but must constantly assess the people to whom his coming out would even be seen as such, the people he might be able to convince, the people who'd indulge him in the moment and then patronize him the moment he's done talking, the people who mean well and yet retain quiet prejudices that'd strike in unsuspecting moments, and a million other variables that require the queer kid who's 'come out' of the closet to variously climb back in, knock firmly upon the door, replay a video shot of said emergence, build a new closet for a new environment with better ventilation, stock spare closets at a relative's place, knock on another's enclosure, and so forth. The same, of course, goes for 'running away from home', which is less a simple escape and more a quest for breathing room threatened by the monsters of housing, surveillance, basic needs and looming recapture, because running away from something is so often running away to something else, but those who're so oppressed by a hostile environment that they'd suffocate if they stayed a moment more don't have the luxury to plan their prison breaks, nor an abundance of refuges, because when basic aspects of your self are a crime, the very world becomes a gaol.

I also hope the series branches out to more locations if it actually continues past Rika getting to college and becoming independent? Young queer people in unaccepting societies are so often required to juggle a variety of roles with their own complex relationships to each other at all times, a balancing act that requires them to be a dozen different people without losing contact with their 'true self' at precisely such a time when said self is at its most amorphous and uncertain during the process of discovery. Rika already chafes under the weight of it all, space and time pinioning and inscribing his body-that-is-not-quite-a-self, disparate traces, scars and snapshots of ideal daughters and demure schoolgirls and blazing rebels and working adults and secure manhood and happy children figured past, present and future boiled down into costumes that then boil down his self, some all too easy to whip off regardless of his wishes, others clinging painfully tight when he tries to tear them away, and in the end, there is no world in which the body below may be seen as entirely naked, nor the costumes above as entirely clothing, each garbed and stripped by the endless abrasions between expectation and presentation, performance and reception, stages and cages, visions and viewpoints.

This story then, for both Rika and his work-in-progress bro Satsuki, is about finding the space to be different, because there's no perfect model for masculinity or set way to do manhood right, but simply rare places of acceptance where you're seen first as what you claim to be and thus free to claim what you please, staking claims on your own self that is then cultivated per your dreams. And this is not a cultivation of the productive, scenic farmland that hegemonic conceptions of gender would have you yield endlessly identical and profitable harvests from, but indeed the cultivation of a personal wilderness of queerness, a veritable fairyland born of the courage to hope again, a valor that Rika has already learned the value of as he gradually comes to learn the shifting ways of queerness, knowing when to rush forth and when to blend back, but always with a view to reclaiming himself, gaining a ground he creates. Stories about these journeys are so important and I'm always happy to see there's more of them for trans men especially, firstly because they desperately need more representation, and secondly because narratives of trans men provide reflections, models, avenues and possibilities of masculinity that offer a hope for its restoration from patriarchy. In tales like these, there's the admission that masculinity is messy and complicated and caught up in a labyrinthine network of privileges and repressions, obligations and obstructions, but despite it all, there is and must be something redeemable and worthy about it, ways to manhood that are kind and gentle and accepting and revolutionary, the kind of masculinity that shines in hollow and hopeless corners of society where authenticity seems impossible and asserts, as Rika so brightly does to Satsuki, that those dreams of friendship and trust and community were not lies at all, and may still be achieved. That's a message a lot of people need to hear, and I'm glad to have found it featured here.

Goggled Anon posted:

Did you read Hourou Musuko?

Pretty sure that series ended with the trans female protagonist telling her girlfriend that she wants to be a girl and her girlfriend responds with "I guess that makes me a lesbian"

Pretty sure that series ended with the "transboy" Yoshino, who went as far a buying a binder and felt their identity was a boy for most of the series, finally deciding that being a girl and being called cute wasn't all that bad and it made things easier in life, so just abandoned that whole gender identity thing and wasn't feeling worse for it. Just felt a bit guilty to have abandoned her friend on the trans road. It was just a phase.

I sure hope this one doesn't go that route for the MC where they finally find love and accept the gender they were assigned at birth with.

last edited at Oct 12, 2022 2:20AM

I was pleasantly surprised to see the story show the mother in a sympathetic light despite her problematic mindset. The way to bring understanding to the world is not by rejecting the ignorant, but to educate them and give them time, after all.

I'm definitely reading hints that Satsuki is feelings things for the protag (name forgotten, it's a new series so sue me!) but it's too early to tell if it's platonic or romantic. It's also too early to tell if it's "attraction" to protag's "female self" or him in general, so there's potential for a conflict brewing in the far distance if the author chooses to go there.

Oh, and a japanese father figure who's traditional but also a fantastic fellow! Those are rare and far between, I should go buy a lottery ticket...

“Fuck you lady we’re not friends”

“I’m trans”

“Ok fuck you dude we’re not friends”

The literal definition of "Respectfully, fuck you."

last edited at Oct 12, 2022 4:45AM

I was pleasantly surprised to see the story show the mother in a sympathetic light despite her problematic mindset. The way to bring understanding to the world is not by rejecting the ignorant, but to educate them and give them time, after all.

The mother is pretty interesting, I'd say she's "transphobic" in probably the most literal sense. She may not be afraid of trans people and she's also not deliberately hateful, but she's afraid of her child having to suffer the consequences/side effects of being trans (or rather, of not conforming to her idea of gender roles and identity), thereby inadvertently contributing to those consequences/side effects in a huge way.
In her zealous desperation to protect Rika and give him the "best life she could" from her staunchly gender conservative perspective, she just kept alienating her child further and further. She wouldn't even tolerate Rika as a tomboy because it didn't gel with her traditionalist view of gender roles and family structures, which at first reminded me of Stripping the Flesh quite a bit.

Ah yes, I too would like an uncle where I could just stay like this.
lots of nice relateable stuff so far, not often I have that with a trans manga(well, the 2 I read so far)

This feels like it could be messy and beautiful. Definitely worth keeping an eye on.

I hope Satsuki doesn't fall in love with Rika

I was pleasantly surprised to see the story show the mother in a sympathetic light despite her problematic mindset. The way to bring understanding to the world is not by rejecting the ignorant, but to educate them and give them time, after all.

I'm definitely reading hints that Satsuki is feelings things for the protag (name forgotten, it's a new series so sue me!) but it's too early to tell if it's platonic or romantic. It's also too early to tell if it's "attraction" to protag's "female self" or him in general, so there's potential for a conflict brewing in the far distance if the author chooses to go there.

Oh, and a japanese father figure who's traditional but also a fantastic fellow! Those are rare and far between, I should go buy a lottery ticket...

“Fuck you lady we’re not friends”

“I’m trans”

“Ok fuck you dude we’re not friends”

The literal definition of "Respectfully, fuck you."

Reminds me of that one deltarune meme with Susie that goes like

Inspiring, a bully using the right pronouns while beating the shit out of the student

gay gay homosexual gay

Reminds me of that one deltarune meme with Susie that goes like

Inspiring, a bully using the right pronouns while beating the shit out of the student

Inspiring: This Progressive Bully Torments Transgender Students Using Their Preferred Pronoun

I'm really enjoying the story so far.

In my opinion, and I can't accurately explain to you exactly how I know this, but I think that Satsuki doesn't have romantic feelings for Rika. I think it's more, "Damn, no matter how little I let him see of me, he still wants to be my friend. That's a first". Like, I think he may be neurodivergent or on the spectrum in general. I can relate in some ways, me being the queer middle child with ADHD and most likely other things. From my experience, making friends and, even more difficult, maintaining relationships are hard to do with people who aren't wired similarly as you. But, damn, when you find your people, it's a beautiful feeling. You start to learn more and improve yourself without even knowing it, just from someone willingly reaching out and being patient with you.

I do definitely have other thoughts on how the story can go, but for now until there is more development, I'll keep my views open and just enjoy the story. But yeah, that's what I think. Could be wrong, could be right, could be something else. No matter which way, this is a gorgeous story. Always glad to see more representation

Japanese: multiple first person pronouns
Translators: used a clever solution
My brain: DEEP♂DARK♂FANTASY

I didn't read the raws, but what strikes me, as a translator, is the usage of "He/him/that guy" by the uncle and Satsuki.

I'm pretty sure that beside "Rika-kun", there's no language in the original referring to Rika as a guy.

It's purely something added by the translator. Neither the uncle nor Satsuki call Rika by masculine pronouns in Japanese, because they don't have to: in Japanese there's no need to use pronouns at all when referring to someone. When Satsuki says "that guy", it's probably actually "koitsu/aitsu" which is gender neutral.

I don't have anything against the characters using the right pronouns for Rika. It's just that it's something invented by the translator for the western readers.

I didn't read the raws, but what strikes me, as a translator, is the usage of "He/him/that guy" by the uncle and Satsuki.

I'm pretty sure that beside "Rika-kun", there's no language in the original referring to Rika as a guy.

It's purely something added by the translator. Neither the uncle nor Satsuki call Rika by masculine pronouns in Japanese, because they don't have to: in Japanese there's no need to use pronouns at all when referring to someone. When Satsuki says "that guy", it's probably actually "koitsu/aitsu" which is gender neutral.

I don't have anything against the characters using the right pronouns for Rika. It's just that it's something invented by the translator for the western readers.

It's a tough call. No matter what choice you make, it sends a message. I'd probably have gone with they/them, at least at first, but I understand why the translator would just go with the linguistically and contextually correct option. I suppose it'll only be an issue if one or both of the characters end up not being as supporting as they seem now.

I didn't read the raws, but what strikes me, as a translator, is the usage of "He/him/that guy" by the uncle and Satsuki.

I'm pretty sure that beside "Rika-kun", there's no language in the original referring to Rika as a guy.

It's purely something added by the translator. Neither the uncle nor Satsuki call Rika by masculine pronouns in Japanese, because they don't have to: in Japanese there's no need to use pronouns at all when referring to someone. When Satsuki says "that guy", it's probably actually "koitsu/aitsu" which is gender neutral.

I don't have anything against the characters using the right pronouns for Rika. It's just that it's something invented by the translator for the western readers.

Wow, I mean, it's almost as if it's my fucking job to make these decisions since they're necessary for the English language as Japanese lacks them pronouns in the same way? And since Rika's is very VERY clearly stablished as identifying as a MAN, of course it's HE/HIM?! And yes, it is あいつ、but like, what do you want me to translate it to?! "That girl"?! No, they all refer to Rika AS A GUY. So of course it's "THAT GUY"!

I'm sorry, but it seems to me you're only being edgy for the sake of being edgy.

"It's just that it's something invented by the translator for the western readers."

Well, duh?!

last edited at Oct 15, 2022 10:19AM

I also happen to be a translator, but for a different series. I only typeset here, but I do observe both the japanese and translated english and I talk with the TL in case I notice something is off.

It's just that it's something invented by the translator for the western readers.

For your info: inventing stuff is actually a major part of your job as a translator. If the pun used in the original relies on specifics on how language works, you replace it with a different pun that both makes sense in the context and evokes the same reaction in the target audience. If a japanese reader reads a pun in japanese and has a chuckle, but the english reader reads a "literally translated pun" and then a TL note explaining how the pun works then the english reader will get a "aha". This means you failed as a translator.

A random anecdote: I have translated "maou shoujo" as a "maniacal girl" (which is, yet again, something I invented as a translator) before and a bunch of people asked me why couldn't I keep it as "maou shoujo." Turns out that "maou shoujo" is a compromise between "conveying the pun in english (with regards to magical girl/mahou shoujo)" and "conveying the meaning in english" by achieving none of these goals.

You yourself admitted that typical usage of japanese genders people less often than english, so here we're doing the most natural thing to make the english fluent and idiomatic, and we create the pronouns basing off the context, with the most obvious example being Uncle Kengo who first used "-chan", until Rika came out to him and he started using "-kun" (which you also yourself admitted is gendered), which means he assumed Rika was a girl, but later on he corrected himself. Therefore it makes perfect sense for him to use "she/her" before and "he/him"/that guy afterwards, as this is what would have happened if they spoke english.

I'm smelling some bad faith argument here, but I'm not going to address it, and instead I'll go with "I see what you're doing here."

As for using "they/them": would not work here as "using they/them until we learn other people's gender" is a progressive stance, and it's not that common. And using they/them some contexts can be weaponized - when a person doesn't respect someone else's gender, but would get trouble for misgendering they instead resort to using "they/them" on purpose even when that person doesn't use these pronouns. Neither of these cases apply.

And also would not evoke the equivalent reaction in japanese and english reader.

last edited at Oct 17, 2022 1:10PM

This looks so good

Excited to see the story progress!

alright this is neat, a crisis of faith brought in by the fact that Satsuki likes Rika and having to grapple with how he kind of actually still sees Rika as a girl and that's not cool of him.

What I especially like about this is that Satsuki isn't denying Rika of the respect he deserves, like it's clear now that on some level he sees Rika as a girl and specifically as a girl he'd like to be in a relationship in but this is HIS problem and not Rika's, this is something that Satsuki realizes and immediately needs to leave over because he needs to sort this out for himself.

Also Rika sure seems to be interested in Okazaki and I'd love to see where that goes too.

Really makes me look forward to seeing the next chapter

last edited at Oct 23, 2022 5:11PM