looking for a serious gender-bender manga....basically on where the girl has to dress up as a guy and the reason for her doing so is actually sort of viable and serious. For example like "savage garden" where girl dresses up and pretend to be dis boy and go to a all-boyz school for nobles or else she would be framed for the murder of that dude. There should be romance.

So like reason for the girl pretending to be a guy has to be serious, not something like to get close to boyz or something. Also would prefer manga to be more serious than comedy. It is ok for it to be vice-versa, guy dressing up as girl but again reason has to be good.

Some gender-bender mangas have already read or reading

1) W-Juliet
2) Tokyo Crazy Paradise
3) Power!
4) Savage Garden---dis is the kinda thing m lukn for


THankz guyz!!



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Angel Beats--best anime of the 2010 spring season

This is such an awesome topic... Savage Garden is one of my favorite manga too...

Kaze Hikaru is my absolute top serious gender-bending manga. The heroine is consumed with the desire to avenge the deaths of her brother and father and so joins the Shinsengumi to take revenge; she assumes a male identity to do so. Brilliant manga, actually very serious and tragic at times but also contains moments of light-hearted humor. The romance is amazingly not even the point of this manga, it's mostly subtext and the focus is on the psychology of the characters and the historical nature of the plot... This manga is total win, you'll love it. Plus it's licensed so you should easily be able to find it in English at a local library or at a shop if you want to buy it.

I think you'll like The Substitute Count Adventure even if it's mildly comedic, because the girl has a good reason for cross-dressing - she has to do it to take her twin's place for a political reason or her family will likely be executed.

Basara is one of the most famous cases of a gender-bending heroine who goes to war pretending to be her brother, because he was apparently the "promised savior" of his people and after his death she has to take on his role or have all the people lose hope. (Or something... It's been ages since I read this so I can't be sure!)

If you don't mind BL then Boy Princess is a huge, epic story of serious gender-bending. Lots of politics and very very srs bzns. Lolz.

The gender-bending in Orpheus no Mado and The Rose of Versailles is very serious, again for social/political reasons. Both heroines are amazing.

To start off with the lead girl in Ingenuo cross-dresses because she wants to become an apprentice to this award-winning photographer who refuses to work with women... So she does it for a professional reason, basically. She DOES fall in love with the photographer eventually but that's not the reason she cross-dresses at first...

Edit: Forgot to add The Changelings! So much fun, has its serious moments but also some light ones - also has a heroine pretending to be her brother for political reasons. The brother is forced to pretend to be his sister in return, leading to the expected romantic and social complications.

Edit #2: Aaaand also forgot to add Operation Liberate Men, which has gender-bending out of the wazoo in not only individuals but in social thinking. I think you'll like it.

Saver is similarly serious gender-bending, it's even a tragedy - which is why it scares the pants off me, I can't normally tolerate reading tragedy.

Penguin Revolution is more light-hearted but also has a good reason for the girl pretending to be a guy AND the guy pretending to be a girl - it's to hide their identities as members of the entertainment industry.

Ruby Doll has gender-bending for inheritance reasons, the girl wants to inherit property but only guys can (or smth like that, I've forgotten the exact details).

Both Kaguya Hime and Moon Child by Shimizu Reiko have gender-bending or even gender-changing for serious supernatural reasons.

You might also be interested in Hagio Moto's exquisite and deep gender-bending/intersexual/hermaphroditic stories, X+Y and Marginal, though both contain slight traces of BL. They such amazing stories that it doesn't matter even if you don't like BL, they'll blow your mind anyway, I can guarantee it in writing. Lol.

If you're ok with actual transgendered or intersexed characters engaging in gender-bending/cross-dressing, then IS and Hourou Musuko will also be of interest, since they're both serious and lovely stories.

Last edited by tartufo at 5:49 am, Jan 12 2010

I agree with these, they are my favorite gender bending mangas. I haven't really read the others, but I have read these and I just love them.

Haven't read most of these, but they seem kinda like what you're looking for...:

Kakan no Madonna
Global Garden
Otogi Zoshi
Nononono

Claudine <== kinda
Hourou Musuko <== kinda

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Yea savage garden is awesome as. So many suggestions thankz ppl. Oh yea sorry but am totally against BL, yaoi... lol, sorry should have said dat earlier. That said Savage garden does have some shounen ai but its definetly not the point of the manga so dat kinda thing is acceptable. Also have read Basara and Saver and its good as. Saver is a tragedy one but i hope it will have a good ending or else dat would be seriously depressing cus so much bad shit has already happened to da heroine.


Last edited by John21 at 5:11 am, Jan 12 2010

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Angel Beats--best anime of the 2010 spring season

Lol that's ok abt the BL, I kind of thought so but thought I'd chuck some recs out there just in case. Heh, one of the reasons I find Savage Garden so good personally is because it has that slight touch of shounen ai. *blush*


I KNOW RITE. This is why I'm so scared of "tragedy" mangas... It's like having your heart ripped out and stomped on, I really hope this heroine is saved (no pun intended from the manga title lol) from a tragic ending.

I'm very glad you started this thread, am looking forward to more recs so I can find more to read in this theme.

Thankz... just read substitute count adventure and its quite good and funny, ruby doll seemz to be good as well, savage gardenz artwork is good as though, which is one of the reasonz i like it and the same for "saver" though but saver has impossibly good looking dudez everywhere which i dislike, like its totally inhumanely perfect lol all da bad guyz, good guyz are all damn modelzz

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Angel Beats--best anime of the 2010 spring season

Saver is a really really good manga. You should give it a try. Read past the first volume before you judge it. The tragedy readers have seen so far is Lena's mother being attacked and her brother injured. It's still being published so there's no ending out to really say that the ending is a tragedy.

Try Nicoichi, maybe?

The male main character has to dress up as a woman for the sake of his son. (The kid couldn't accept the death of his mother.)

Does Versailles no Bara count?

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What I like in Trivial Pursuit style. Pick your category:

I would say Ooku in the sense that traditional gender roles are reversed...

This is really old but I'd like to recommend Shounen Oujo

Hana no Kishi she became a knight to replace her dead brother and to fulfill her brother's dream...