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!
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.
