There’s No Way I Could Fall in Love With Another TS Girl!
Okay, I’m finally done with my busy season at work and finished my latest novel— which is TSF by technicality, but not spiritually. So before that goes live… in an hour, let’s get one more small fry out before ending this year with some big ones.
TSF Showcase 2024-43
Shoujo Nyuumon by Yasumi Holiday
Shoujo Nyuumon follows Hajime Kuno, a fairly typical boy who just wants to quietly coast through his high school years, yet has found themself tussled into a ‘friendship’ with Yusura Sainami. A feisty, short, girl with a fanged tooth, blonde twintails that go down to her butt, and a teasing tsundere personality. The type of girl who teeters the line on being a brat, without ever crossing it, and views teasing as the highest form of affection.
After some casual ribbing to establish these two’s not so unfamiliar dynamic, Hajime goes to the hospital to address a latent illness and learns that they have contracted a rare sex change syndrome. Also known as TS Syndrome and Nyotaika Disease along with like fifty other fringe variants. A familiar concept to any TSF enjoyer, and no stranger to this segment. I believe the last time I showcased it was in Transjitter Ibitsu na Karada earlier this year.
Normally this revelation would be followed with the protagonist coming to grips with their body, or the usual surprise classroom (re)introduction. But here? Hajime gets outed right after summer break when they get brought out to the stage during an assembly so they can receive a certificate for their art project. I’m tempted to go off on how this is malicious or just a way to expose Hajime’s situation to the whole school, but I view this more as a display of the rigidity of institutions. Of course, you would not want to expose a student who underwent a dramatic and sudden physical change… but as a school, they have rules and traditions, and don’t want to make any frivolous exceptions.
The entire school flips out about this, the fact that a boy just showed up with a body like a gravure idol, and Hajime is predictably left shaken by this. They try to hide their newfound curves behind track pants and a track jacket, but if anything, they will just make them stand out even more. Yusura tries to confront Hajime in her own special way, and after some antics, confesses that she is just like Hajime. She was born and lived as a boy up until a year or so ago and wants to help Hajime through this transition.
…But Hajime straight up does not believe her. And why should they? Hajime had one of the roughest days of their life. This is a rare disease, so how would someone else in the same school, a year older than them, also contract it? And Yusura is known for her teasing and directed pranks, making that the more likely scenario. So this is not them being stubborn as much as them protecting themself from a ‘friendly bully.’.
From this initial introduction, the series becomes a lot more episodic, falling into the chapter-based slice-of-life romcom conflicts common in the genre. However, through the dates, school scuffles, and miscellaneous antics, the two gradually grow closer and bond beyond a close senpai and kouhai into something far more romantic. Conceptually and narratively, that is not too unique, but Shoujo Nyuumon fares wonderfully in its execution. Resulting in a work that, while only two volumes long, manages to feel complete and satisfying in what is provided. Much of which has to do with how well its two leads are handled.
Yusura and Hajime are basically two sides of the TSF transformation spectrum, and the contrast between the two is excellent. Hajime is desperate to cling onto their masculinity, while Yusura has fully embraced her life as a woman. Hajime is reserved and wants to fade into the background, while Yusura is loud, emotional, and abrasive. And pretty much every quantifiable part of them is, in some way, a parallel of the other.
Hajime looks basically the same as they did before their transformation, just with more ass and a pair of big boobs. They always had a girly face and don’t grow out their hair, as they are trying to hold onto some level of their masculinity. While Yusura is more than a head shorter than Hajime, tiny, highly expressive, and so outwardly feminine that it is hard to believe that she was a boy only a year ago, if not ever.
Despite being opposites in many respects, they are still two people going through the same thing, and as they clash and spend time together, it becomes increasingly clear that they do care for each other. Yusura goes out of her way to help out Hajime and is eager to spend time with them. Hajime might act like they want to be left alone, yet they always have some manner of fun when they hang out with Yusura. And the more time they do spend together, the more obvious the romantic subtext ultimately becomes.
This is good character development, yet I have noticed a lot of Japanese works like this, including TSF works, tend to shy away from showing young people in established and open relationships. With one of the worst examples probably being Idol Pretender, which ends pages after its confession. Now, I understand why creators do that. Because burgeoning romance has more uncertainty, more intense emotions, and see characters finding themselves, learning what they want, and acting upon it. And besides, there’s no drama, tension, or narrative texture to be had in a story about two people navigating life as a couple, growing together, and learning how to love each other as much as they love themself. …Wait, that doesn’t sound right.
While it is only a two volume series and could very easily cap the relationship with a tacit confession… the story actually does it at chapter 12 of 14. With the latter two doing a nice job of evolving the two’s relationship, showing Hajime come to terms with their body a bit more, and what has to be my favorite ‘bit’ in the entire series. Normally I’d go into detail with what that means, but this work is recent and short enough that it is well worth checking out. Especially because of where the greatest strengths in this series lie.
Something I regularly express praise over in comics is how expressive artists make their characters, instilling them with a life through cartoonish fundamentals and their own artistic sensibilities. Everybody does things a bit differently, and I would never want to impose some sort of hierarchy. But goldarn is Shoujo Nyuumon a treat for the eyes.
The expressiveness, the comedic timing, the regular use of deformation to turn Yusura into a little doodle-gremlin-critter with expressions so basic yet succinct that every one of them made me smile. There is a deliberate ebb and flow that makes every chapter, every page, feel significant and important. Both in its artwork and the layouts of its scenes and the way they feel converse with each other. This is an unofficial translation, so I cannot trust the quality of the words themselves. But Hajime and Yusura have a familiar way of speaking to each other and the way dialogue is both framed and paced like two well-worn friends awkwardly going through their lives.
Though, I do have to say that while the story rightfully focuses on and fleshes out Hajime and Yusura, that does leave secondary characters without too much to do. Like Hajime’s sister Rei, a popular girl who is psyched that her little bro became her little sis. Hajime’s attempted girlfriend for one chapter, Saotome. Or any other characters who are promptly introduced in one chapter… only to be promptly forgotten about. I’d call this a casualty of a serialized story, as the creator likely did not know if they were committing to a 10 or 100 chapter project. It’s a fairly common problem with the way manga are approved, released, and distributed.
How does it fare for a TSF story though? Well, as I said earlier, Hajime and Yusura are opposite ends of the TSF spectrum, both in terms of their looks and how they go about their lives, but there is an undercurrent of genre savviness throughout the work. The subversion of expectations with chapter 2 when Hajime shows up to the shopping date looking like a classy lady instead of sweats. It reframes a lot of the things Yusura says and does, making her more girlish behaviors seem more extreme and making some of her teasing or critter-esque mannerisms read as more boyish.
Sexuality is regularly referenced and the two… act like a pair of awkward transbians (transgender lesbians) when the topic of sex is brought up. Sometimes reverting back to thinking things through a male lens and being a bit more attracted to the female form than either would care to let on. The comic also goes into an appreciated level of detail in showing how Yusura’s life changed and how echoes of her former self remain even as she is forging a new identity. And despite Hajime’s semi-regular claims to still be a guy, the comic sees them gradually learn to accept this new part of themself.
TSF is simply a core part of the story, gives it a lot more texture and depth to enjoy, and is ultimately written by someone who both gets and enjoys the genre. Where’s my evidence for that? Well, one of Yasumi Holiday’s first public comics was 2016’s Nyotaika Homo, a series of shorts about boys who suddenly became girls that mostly followed prototypes of Hajime and Yusura. They have released a bunch of one-shot shorts on Twitter over the years, more than a few of which involve something TSF related. And going through their Pixiv follows, which indicate the sort of art they like to see from others… TSF artists aren’t even close to the most interesting thing I saw there.
…Okay, I think that’s about everything I wanted to say about Shoujo Nyuumon. It’s a short and sweet romcom with plenty for TSF fans to enjoy, and made for a wonderful 60 to 90 minute read. So go check it out for yourself… and if you feel like it, let me know your thoughts on it down below, because I think it’s nifty when that happens.