In a manga industry still learning how to sincerely represent LGBTQ+ lives, Umi Takase’s I Wanna Be Your Girl Vol. 1 stands out—not because it gets everything right, but because it’s unafraid to depict queer youth with emotional complexity, contradictions, and all the messy, real-life nuance that comes with growing up.

Written and illustrated by Umi Takase and originally serialized on the GANMA! platform, this debut volume plunges us into the emotional turmoil of Hime Sakuragaike, a shy but passionate high schooler who is grappling with the fact that her childhood best friend—and longtime crush—Akira Yonezawa is transitioning into a girl. While the premise alone could have set off red flags in less capable hands, Takase approaches the subject with grace, restraint, and subtle realistic, emotional intelligence.

Please note: This review may contain spoilers. We recommend reading with caution if you haven’t experienced the story yet

A Tale of Love, Identity, and Unspoken Boundaries

In the opening pages of I Wanna Be Your Girl, we meet Akira, a quiet and sincere high school freshman who shows up to her first day in a girl’s uniform. It’s a brave act—because while Akira has always felt like a girl on the inside, she’s only just begun to live openly as one. This isn’t a fantasy transformation story. There’s no magical realism. Instead, Umi Takase offers something far more rare in manga: a grounded, emotionally, realistic and honest depiction of a transgender girl trying to find her place in the world—with a little help (and a lot of chaos) from her childhood best friend, Hime.

From the moment Akira steps onto the school campus, we’re invited into her internal world. She’s not trying to stand out—she just wants to blend in. To be “one of the girls.” To giggle with classmates, talk about hair styles, and share lunch like any other high schooler. But fitting in isn’t so simple. Takase draws Akira with visible discomfort in some panels—her shoulders slightly hunched, her glances cautious, her voice hesitant. And yet, even without narration-heavy exposition, we can tell how much it means for Akira to finally exist authentically.

A Story of Two Girls: Akira and Hime

Akira’s quiet journey is given contrast by her best friend Hime, a bold, expressive girl who storms into school in a boy’s uniform—partly to support Akira, partly because she’s impulsive like that. The two have known each other since childhood, and there’s a powerful intimacy between them. Hime has always known Akira’s truth and has stood by her side, but now, with high school changing everything, even that friendship is starting to shift.

What sets I Wanna Be Your Girl apart is how naturally it portrays these evolving dynamics. Hime’s protective instincts are fierce and sometimes overwhelming, but they come from a place of real care. She insists she wants to be Akira’s girlfriend, but doesn’t quite know what that means—or whether Akira feels the same way. Their relationship dances between comedy, romance, and confusion in a way that feels very real for two teenagers navigating identity, hormones, and complexity of high school all at once.

Transitioning, Quietly and Honestly

What makes I Wanna Be Your Girl so moving is its honest portrayal of transitioning—not as a spectacle, but as a series of small, deeply personal experiences.

Akira doesn’t have a dramatic coming-out speech. Instead, she fidgets with her uniform hem. She hesitates before speaking in class. She glances at her reflection, wondering if she’s convincing enough—or, more painfully, if she even needs to be.

Moments like joining a group chat, trying on lip gloss, or laughing with other girls aren’t treated as plot points. They’re acts of courage, hope, and deep yearning to belong. It’s clear that Takase understands these feelings intimately, and she communicates them with subtle expression work, gentle pacing, and silent panels that speak louder than words.

Despite its emotional weight, the series still carries a warm tone, using comedy and awkward teen moments to keep the story approachable. Hime’s antics are often exaggerated and hilarious, giving the story bursts of energy that balance out Akira’s softer, more introspective journey. It’s a harmony that mirrors the way real friendships operate—especially when one friend is carrying more invisible weight than the other, while the other may not understand or even see their friend’s dilemma.

Artistic Tone

The art style complements the tone beautifully—expressive eyes, subtle posture shifts, and tight paneling give even mundane classroom interactions emotional weight. You’ll notice the manga avoids “fanservice” entirely, a conscious choice that helps center the story’s emotional intimacy rather than reducing characters to tropes.

That said, it still knows its audience. The classroom drama, unspoken feelings, and exaggerated reactions are pure shōjo fuel. If you’ve binged Kimi ni Todoke or A Silent Voice, you’ll feel right at home here. There’s even a mild yuri-coded tension in Hime’s feelings for Akira that’s likely to stir up discourse in queer anime spaces. Is it romantic? Is it platonic? That ambiguity is the point—and it’s handled beautifully. To put in our own words, its a trans slice of life manga.

Final Thoughts

I Wanna Be Your Girl Vol. 1 is not here to educate. It’s here to show a deeply personal story between two teenagers trying to redefine what they mean to each other. And in doing so, it ends up saying a lot—about trans identity, about friendship, about the bittersweet pain of watching someone you love change and realizing that maybe you need to change, too. I Wanna Be Your Girl isn’t loud or preachy, it simply is—and in being so, it becomes one of the most emotionally sincere, slice of life, queer narratives in modern manga.

For fans of grounded, emotionally resonant manga with LGBTQ+ themes, this is a must-read. It’s a soft, sometimes awkward, but deeply honest first step in what promises to be a powerful story. And if you’re an otaku who thrives on character-driven tension and queer-coded nuance, you’ll find a lot to love here.

Join Akira on her transitional journey on July 1st, follow Penguin Random House for updates.

A Personal Note

As a transgender woman myself, I found something deeply resonant in Umi Takase’s depiction of the unspoken emotional labor that comes with transitioning—especially in the way it affects friendships and the ways people perceive us even when they mean well.

What struck me most was Takase’s decision not to idealize the experience. She shows both the beautiful and ugly sides of coming into your identity: the strength, the fear, the awkwardness, the bittersweet feeling of outgrowing people who once felt like home. It’s rare for a manga to hit those notes without dipping into melodrama or flattening trans characters into meaningless, exuberant characters. This one doesn’t. It gives Akira room to exist as a person first, and as a trans girl second.

The awkward pauses. The inner monologues. The half-finished sentences when someone gets your pronouns wrong but you’re too tired or too scared to speak up. But also—the small wins. The validation. The friendships that shift but don’t break. The “gal pal” moments that feel like everything. Seeing a character like Akira navigate all of that—while still building new connections, while still trying to smile—felt quietly empathetic.

About “I Wanna Be Your Girl” Vol. 1

Being in love with your childhood best friend can be complicated, especially when, right before high school, she transitions to living as a girl. Printed for the first time in English, this manga series tells a thoughtful story about the complications of first loves, friendship, and what it truly means to be an ally.

Hime has secretly been in love with her childhood best friend Akira for as long as she can remember. She was the first person who knew that Akira identified as a girl, and she made it her mission to be her Akira’s protector against the world. Hime is thrilled that Akira has finally decided to live as her true self now that they are starting high school.

However, as Akira starts to attract all types of attention, Hime takes it upon herself to aggressively stick up for Akira whenever necessary. Not wanting her to be singled out or bullied, Hime decides that her only option is to put herself in Akira’s shoes. Hime dresses like a boy in support of the friend she loves…too bad her plan only backfires on them both.

INTERVIEW

Want more of Takase? Read our exclusive interview with Umi Takase here.

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