I Wanna Be Your Girl Manga Review (Spoiler‑Free)

Synopsis

Hime and Akira have been best friends since they were little. Now, they’re heading into high school, and Akira has made the brave choice to come out as her authentic self and tell the world that she’s a girl! Hime, who was the first person Akira ever told her truth to, tries her best to be supportive by wearing the boys uniform too, but is that the right choice to make? And why is she suddenly feeling so brutally jealous now everyone else knows what was once a secret?

Gender Euphoria

I Wanna Be Your Girl has a wonderful cast of vibrant characters who’ll feel relatable to anyone who ever got labelled an outsider and a weirdo. There’s an exploration of girlhood happening within these pages that is missing in a lot of contemporary manga. Akira’s absolute euphoria at being included in a girls trip to a cafe is beautiful to behold, but so is seeing Hime work out all this stuff for herself, too. Whilst Akira is experiencing girlhood in all its highs and lows with wide-eyed wonder, Hime is questioning what girlhood means to her. In Akira’s gender euphoria, we see Hime questioning what that even means.

The portrayal of the adults in their lives and their fellow classmates feel realistic and reassuring. However, there is a fair amount of misunderstanding and casual transphobia at the start as the class and the staff are introduced to Akira. Some of the behaviour from the teachers is well meaning but ignorant, to reluctantly accepting, to obviously only keeping their transphobic outbursts in check so as not to get reprimanded. There is one teacher who is unflinchingly behind them, with no prejudice or patronisation. Their maths teacher, Sasaki, treats them like any other students, which means telling them off when they mess up. It presents them as an antagonist at first, as the strict teacher nobody likes. However, it quickly becomes clear that this teacher is their strongest ally, with the best understanding of what Akira and Hime are going through.

As the story unfolds, the students become more accepting of Akira, and their misgendering goes from deliberate to accidental. Akira is able to be herself more, check out the clubs she wants to, not the ones she thinks she should, and makes friends. This shows both Akira’s bravery in not giving in to the pressure to conform to her assigned gender, but also the importance of the support of those around her (even if it’s well meaning but ignorant) and how the majority of people are good and decent. They just need a minute to adapt to new ideas.

Room for Improvement

My main complaint is that Akira is not given control of her narrative. Whilst it’s true that it does revolve around her, and there is no story without Akira, we don’t hear from her all that much. Whilst part of the narrative is about Hime learning not to make assumptions of Akira’s wants and needs, it would be good to be able to see things directly from Akira’s point of view. I’m hopeful that as the series goes on, we will get chapters from her particular point of view, but as stands, it’s disappointing to see Akira being used as a plot device rather than a human being.

In terms of the nuts and bolts of making manga, I Wanna Be Your Girl is nothing to write home about. Hime’s facial expressions are a lot of fun, but they’re not any better or worse than other YA manga. They pale in comparison to series like My Love Mix-Up and Demon Slayer. The artwork serves its function, and I have no real complaints towards it. But again, it’s not anything special. It’s the base standard we’ve come to accept from manga in 2025.

A New Old Publisher

I Wanna Be Your Girl is the first book under Penguin’s new Ink Pop imprint in North America. In the UK, though, for one reason or another, it is explicitly published under Penguin’s long running children’s imprint: Puffin. Puffin has been going since 1940, and has had an impact on the childhoods of countless people. From Peter Rabbit to Tracy Beaker to Percy Jackson, the chance of your childhood having been defined by Puffin is high. Puffin is a trusted, and respected publisher known to everyone in the UK, whose books are welcome in school libraries and bookshops around the country. And that’s what’s so exciting for me. In recent years, successive UK Governments have implemented more and more draconian laws seeking to remove access gender affirming care. This is especially true for under 18s. By having their first manga be a transgender affirming story aimed at under 18s, Puffin are showing their support for kids like Akira.

Librarians have often mentioned that one of their difficulties with manga is that they do not know what is and isn’t suitable for a particular age range. Manga publishers rarely have specific imprints in the way mainstream publishers do, and when they do, they reflect the Japanese publishing industry more than the Western one. For example, Chainsaw Man and Dragon Ball Z both come under Viz’s Shonen Jump imprint. However, the target audience age range on those two books is vastly different! It can, therefore, be difficult for librarians who have no intimate knowledge of manga to know whether they should be getting in these books for their charges or not. But Puffin is a publisher buyers will recognize and immediately trust. It shows that this manga belongs on the same shelf as The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Nimona, and Raina Telgemeier’s entire back catalogue. I can see this becoming a gateway manga in the same way that Fruits Basket was when I was twelve.

Final Thoughts

I Wanna Be Your Girl is a thoughtful and genuine high school romance, and the exact kind of story we need YA librarians to be buying. The best part of this manga is the story, with its realistic and sympathetic portrayal of LGBTQIA+ characters and the joy of following their personal journeys. It treats these teenagers like teenagers, still learning, still figuring things out, and not perfect examples of humanity by any means at all.

Whilst the manga is not without its flaws, and could do with centering Akira’s journey rather than Hime’s, there’s so much potential there for the series to grow on. I’m hopeful that the series will head in this direction, and have Akira be a more equal protagonist.

Penguin taking the choice to publish this under Puffin specifically is a real positive step forward for comics in general. I am very much looking forward to what other stories are going to be delivered to us from this imprint. I hope we get more excellent LGBTQIA+ series that kids can discover on library shelves and be welcomed into this wonderful world we weebs love so much.

Although, if Puffin are reading this: I know that you’re new to this, but please credit your letterers! They’re a vital part of this whole process and deserve recognition.

If you liked I Wanna Be Your Girl you may also like…

• Girlmode by Magdalene Visaggio and Paulina Ganucheau
• Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story by Nicole Maines, Rye Hickman, and Bex Glendining
• Senpai is an Otokonoko by Pom

Credits

Story and Art: Umi Takase
Translator: Erin Procter
Publisher: Puffin

Article edited by: Anne Estrada

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