Summary
Pride Month is here again, and while it’s rarely been a great time to be LGBTQ+, it’s been especially rough in the past few years. Just being oneself, or standing up for queer friends, has felt less like a celebration and more like a rebellion as time has gone by, as one party or another has tried to pull LGBTQ+ rights back.
Still, whether they’re getting stuck in politics, or are just trying to get by in life, people always need to wind down, and getting lost in a show is a good way to do that. Anime fans have plenty of BL and GL shows to explore. Some even use magic or tech to genderbend characters. But which shows approach love, gender, and more from a trans perspective? Here are a few that became big hits.
9Simoun
How a Yuri Show Got More Queer Than Anticipated
On the surface,Simounis more of an intriguing mecha yuri anime in which the plucky rookie, Aer, tries to partner up with the veteran, Neviril. But Neviril is reluctant to get back into action, as she’s still grieving Amuria, her previous partner who died when the two tried (and failed) to do a tricky aerial maneuver. With their nation in a three-way war, it sounds like a straightforward tale of coming to terms with loss while fighting.
But things get interesting in its worldbuilding. Everyone inSimoun’s universe is born physically female and lives that way until the age of 17. Then, they undergo a ritual at a spring where they’ll choose their permanent sex. It’s arguably a conceit just to tell a teen yuri story, but in execution, it’s produced a world where trans men fly mech ships with cis women before they transition. Its gender lines are more blurry than they appear.
Many genderbending stories, likeRanma ½,are more about a cis person getting struck with an unfortunate condition than showing a trans-like experience. That’s not a knock against them; they just belongon a different list. By contrast,Cheeky Angelis closer to the mark. It shows what would happen if Ranma was stuck as Ranko, no matter what kind of water they got splashed with.
It follows a boy named Megumi, who finds a magical book containing a genie that offered to grant him a wish. He wishes to be a tough, masculine man, only to get turned into a woman instead. In anger, Megumi throws the book away on a riverbank, losing the chance to change back when it gets swept away. Now, with the help of her friend Miki, she has to adjust to life as a girl while trying to find a way to change back. This proves easier said than done when her tomboyish antics earn her a host of rivals and admirers.
When Ai Ohto wins a wonder egg from a gacha machine, she gets warped to a dream world where the egg hatches and reveals a person she must protect from monsters called ‘Seeno Evils.’ A voice tells her that, if she keeps getting more eggs and protecting them, she might revive her late friend Koito in the process. Thus, the stage is set forWonder Egg Priority, a surreal and brutal take on magical girls.
Ai’s not the only one seeking to bring a friend back from the dead. The androgynous Momoe wants to revive the one friend who treated her like a girl when everyone else didn’t. Her last quest involved her protecting a trans boy from a monster in the form of a traumatic experience he had at the hands of his P.E. teacher. The show is commended for its approach to sensitive topics, but that doesn’t make it easy to watch.
6They Were Eleven
Letting Shojo Get Serious
They Were Elevenwas a standout manga produced by the Year 24 group, a collection offemale manga artistswho wanted to make something complex. InTWE’s case, it told a hard sci-fi story where the crew of the Esperanza, meant to be a 10-person team, must figure out which of their 11 members is an impostor. The Y24 Group’s works leaned into complex approaches to love, romance, and gender.
TWE’s Frol is a feminine-looking alien who won’t develop into one sex or another until adulthood, while the reptilian Knu remains non-binary altogether. Both the manga and its 1986 movie adaptation are rough around the edges. Some things that were surprising in 1970s Japan, like women going to university, aren’t headline material today. But on their release, they were way ahead of their time.
Zombie Land Sagadoes the same keeps things relatively light and upbeat, despite its key cast being undead. It’s about a group of girls who are brought back from the dead by their producer to form Franchouchou, a zombie idol group.
The group’s sixth member is Lily Hoshikawa, a trans girl child star whose early death was brought on by the stress of needing to ‘grow up’ while nearing puberty. Being undead means she’ll never need to ‘grow up’ or go through the wrong puberty, so she sees it as a plus. Her story clicked well with fans and critics alike, leading to her becoming the face of pro-trans memes, often usedin response to anti-trans figures.
4Stop!! Hibari-kun
Styling on Transphobes Since 1983
Stop!! Hibari-kunis about Kosaku, a high school student who ends up living with a yakuza boss after his mother’s death. He ends up taking a shine to Hibari, the boss’ prettiest daughter, and she’s interested in him. However, he learns a secret only her family members know: she’s actually trans. He keeps her secret while keeping his distance, but over time she begins to rub off on him.
Being a trans-based romcom from the 1980s, some of its jokes have aged badly. Yet, Hibari isn’t treated as a stereotype. She’s just a fashion-conscious girl with a difference, and smarter than any fool who tries to prove otherwise. Compared to other works made at the time, and many more made after it, it’s surprisingly forward-thinking.
Senpai is an Otokonokois a more modern and serious take onStop!! Hibari-kun’s theme. It follows Makoto, a cross-dressing high school student. He doesn’t care for love, but has it foisted on him when he meets Saki. She’s a bisexual classmate who, though mistaking Makoto for a woman at first, isn’t dissuaded by his true gender.
Conversely, Makoto’s friend Ryuji knows about his crossdressing and accepts it, but has hadgrowing feelings for him. While it’s not strictly about a trans person, the show struck a chord with viewers in its approach to gender fluidity without being too light or too heavy. It’s a more level-headed approach to a topic that usually plays for shock value.
While trans topics are important, some viewers might prefer media where trans people can be people first, and a talking point second.Tokyo Godfathersis about a lot of things: loss, family, reconnection, how cities themselves and their structures can feel alive. Having one of its protagonists be trans is just one part of the broader picturethat the creators wanted to put together.
Hana is open about her queer background, the connections it built, and the heartbreaks it led to. She shrugs off any jibes about her being trans (though not about her age). It doesn’t stop the movie making her the motherly figure of the trio, taking charge of caring for the abandoned baby they find while driving the others in their search for the baby’s mom. She’s just as intriguing and multi-faceted as the other members of the baby’s found family.
Wandering Sonhas become the go-to series for an anime about trans people. When it comes to depicting a trans childhood in realistic terms, it’s a hard one to beat. It’s about two friends, Shuichi and Yoshino, who, while nominally being a boy and a girl respectively, don’t really feel comfortable being their assigned gender.
They bond over their mutual feelings and gradually form a circle of friends who accept them for their differences. But they face new challenges as they come of age, meeting new people and developing feelings that complicate things. The series isn’t without its flaws, as it’s stronger at tackling things from a trans-fem perspective than a trans-masculine one. Yet, it holds up as a touching and thought-provoking anime about trans people.
