Seibetsu "Mona Lisa" no Kimi e.
Just Like Mona Lisa

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One of the few manga I would give a 10/10. It's a beautiful story about identity, and even if you don't find identity struggles personally relatable it's still a great read. Aside from that (I would have left it short and sweet, but it's demanding I make my review longer) The characters are written masterfully, and while some may come off as unlikeable, they realize thier mistakes, and they grow. The art is also beautiful, and the black and white, with occasional spots, or at times splatters of blue make what would otherwise be a well drawn black, and white manga pop with color, and ... personality. The reserved use of color is gorgeous.

The Gender of Mona Lisa is a wonderful piece of media that I recommend to everyone who is even slightly interested in alternate gender identities and expressions. Or just teenagers working through their doubts and feelings, that is.

In the world of Hinase Arima everyone chooses their gender, once they get to a certain age. As time passes, everyone around them has already selected their preferred gender, leaving Hinase Arima behind as the only non-assigned person around.

Being informed that deciding on a gender might be vital for their future (quite literally), Hinase Arima goes on a journey to find their “right” gender.

Hinase Arima's best friends ... help them through this journey. At first, they are confused and don't quite grasp the concept of being non-binary. But as the story progresses, they eventually come to the conclusion that the things they previously defined as masculine or feminine, never had anything to do with their own gender identity after all. They established that such activities hence don't make you manlier or more feminine – that such things are simple embellishments of your own personality.

The story ends with two alternate volumes, with several ending for each biological gender. Those two volumes really are so wonderful!

I'm giving this a "mixed feelings" rating in the end because while this manga does tackle various issues regarding gender social norms and the problems they bring, I still get feelings of gender essentialism. I don't mind necessarily Hinase having to choose a sex to counteract the "hormone imbalance" or whatever causing mental issues, because in the end sex is not tangentially related to gender or presentation. This is also one of the few manga to discuss the idea of love for a specific person transcending their gender. However, I am disappointed in the fact that Hinase starts conforming to gender norms and identity ... once their sex is chosen in both ending timelines. A person who has been essentially living as a nonbinary person for their entire adolescent life does not even consider nonbinary identification once their sex is chosen. Not only that, their clothes, hair, and all forms of presentation move towards feminine when they become female, and masculine when they become male. This left me sort of confused in the end on what exactly the final message of this manga was supposed to be. Why critique social norms that the protagonist ultimately fails to break free from? Maybe the author never had that intention in the first place, but despite all the good things that come from this manga I'm still left with mixed feelings. Big "Wandering Son" vibes I guess.