Kanojo ni Naru hi, or The day he becomes a woman, is a fascinating manga that pushes its narrative far beyond the high school romance. The author kindly and smartly clickbaits us (the readers) with vibes of overused high school ecchi popcorn comedy. Immediately, (Chapter 2), our fanservice heart, is pleased with the famous or infamous beach episode. But this is just a facade.
In this alternative or futuristic reality - due to an overabundance of “males”, mother nature decided, as it happens in certain animal species, to give a balance to the ecosystem, to have an “emergence”.
Some pre-teens males, suddenly become genetically women. The target is in general kids around 10/12 years of age. That is not the case for Nao Mamiya a brilliant, charismatic, womanizer 17 years old who is hit by this_ emergence_, which gives him at such later age a high chance to pass away. On the counterpart, there is Kyosuke Miyakoshi Nao´s best frenemy, mostly a friend who starts to develop an attraction towards his former male friend, now blossoming into a beauty.
The fascinating thing about this manga is that creates many questions, without giving a real answer. This is one of the narratives that I find entangling as in most cases the audience is always searching for an answer. While here we do not have. Why does this happen? How does this happen? And so on.
The plot pushes immediately on the couple's side through the years, we do not need to wait for 21 volumes for a kiss, and all is solved in 5 chapters. From then onward it is portrayed the daily life of this former buddys turned into lovers.
We have already an established woman but is it so? The interesting psychological aspect is that slowly Nao accepts herself, but is a slow process. Her behaviour sometimes is very manly; she doesn't accept the idea to be less strong than a man, and even in the beginning she plays with the boys showcasing her body, it looks like a play to her. But then the hormones kick in, and the menstrual period kicks in, and love kicks in, and uncertainty, and sexual desire, towards her partner.
The two of them are challenged in their daily life with - I would say - not extreme dramatic events. They both try to understand each other, and they question themselves: Is it love? Is it solitude? Am I gay? Maybe he was gay?
It is not a masterpiece but the manga sure raises a strong voice, because in a world where emergence is a normal natural phenomenon still Kyosuke´s cousin (who represents the voice of the current morality? ) says that: “They are an abomination”. A strong statement as we understand that the route to acceptance - sadly - is still long and challenging.
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