Trans manga author Yuna Hirasawa shares her experience living with gender dysphoria, as well as her trip from Japan to Thailand for her gender-affirming surgery in this acclaimed graphic memoir. She covers topics like coming out to family and the loneliness of traveling to a new place—all while illustrating the legal and medical processes of her own transition.

Winner of the 2025 Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic! Picked for the Best New Comics for Adults 2026 List by New York Public Library!

After graduating university, Yuna Hirasawa 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.

This is a heartfelt, emotional, and humorous manga that feels like a warm hug. While I do not have experiences with gender dysphoria and am cisgender, I feel like this would be a great manga for anyone dealing with the same issues Hirasawa has, or even questioning what their place in the world should be.

Dominating the manga is the trip to Thailand for gender affirmative surgery, but we also get hints of the life before all of this happened. It turns out, Hirasawa has been dealing with gender dysphoria for a very long time. The manga opens with a helpful definition and Hirasawa’s commentary on it.

These are interspersed as flashbacks while the Thailand surgery story works as the main plot. Hirasawa is delighted to finally be able to get affirming surgery, but is also lonely and nervous at the same time. The night beforehand is especially lonesome and sad.

It’s Hirasawa’s first time abroad and she doesn’t know the language–although she did hire a team of Japanese interpreters and guides for this process. And she is undergoing a huge change in her life, which can be completely scary. She reflects on how hard it has been to live as her true self in Japan. One particular panel that got me teary-eyed was the one where she comments on all of the strange looks she got in Japan, and the panel is filled with judgmental eyes on a black background.

But this is not a manga that dwells on suffering or tough times–they’re simply mentioned as a clear point in the past, while the manga remains optimistic and straightforward about everything Hirasawa has been through. Most importantly, her siblings have supported her through everything and have been rooting for her and her surgery. They are eager for her to come home, too.

The manga is educational in terms of how gender affirming surgery works, plus the process of changing your gender marker on the family record in Japan. I lived in Japan for six years and knew that it was hard to do, but I had no idea about the details of it.

But you root for Hirasawa when she finally feels she can love herself, and that Japan legally and medically recognizes her as a woman.

It’s an emotional journey and I am so glad I picked up this manga. While there are sad moments, there are more moments of inspiration to be experienced. This is well-deserving of the Eisner Award and being picked by the New York Public Library as one of the Best New Comics for Adults. It’s a five-star read and I hope as many people as possible pick it up, especially in this dangerous time for trans people in America, and this dangerous time for LGBTQIA books in America.

I highly recommend this one.

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This is a review of a digital ARC provided by Kodansha Comics.