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In the vein of manga like Hourou Musuko or Shishunki Bitter Change, Ore ga Watashi ni Naru made attempts to tell a serious story grappling with gender dysphoria, but approaches the subject sort of in reverse. Our main character is Akira, whose physical sex changes in elementary school, and we follow them as they come to appreciate the changes and find that their identity wasn't quite what they thought. It's essentially a trans coming-of-age tale with the biggest roadblocks already removed.

From the beginning, Orewata catapults recklessly into the plot. It's not uncommon for these sort of stories to feature the Big Change™ in the first ... chapters, but this one wastes so little time and executes it so poorly that it felt like reading the intro to a one-shot eromanga. Combined with the very mediocre art early on, I was very close to putting it down as quickly as I'd started it.

Much like its main character, however, Orewata does grow into its own somewhat. The story progresses briskly through Akira's school years, with drama mainly centering on how they navigate physical changes, friendships, upended societal expectations, and other life challenges. The usual fare is present, all the way down to the Rose of Versailles class play and other stock scenes.

But these scenes unfortunately feel pretty lacking here. The character conflict is pretty shallow, and a lot of Akira's internal conflict just boils down to them struggling with gender roles. There are some nice, heartwarming moments, but not much more than that. Were it not for the very jarring early scenes, I would assume that was essentially what the author was going for—a Trans Lite™ story with more good vibes than the roller coaster of emotions and pain that dysphoria normally brings. It seems to be aiming for more, though, and I can't help but feel underwhelmed.

Ultimately, it's an okay read. Just okay. If you're specifically looking for a story like this in the first place, you'll probably get something out of it, but I wouldn't really recommend it to anybody otherwise. I honestly hate having to write this review, because more earnest attempts at dealing with this subject matter in Japanese media are sorely needed amidst the sea of lowbrow comedy and fetishistic romance. But Orewata is just far too derivative and lacks the quality of writing needed to really stand on its own merit.

Princess Jellyfish is a wonderful manga. I went in with no idea what to expect really, having not even read the tagline summary but merely a screencap of a funny panel, and absolutely fell in love with its fun, extremely goofy cast of characters. It wonderfully balanced a plot that got way more intense than I ever expected (and gave me a lot of anxiety while reading...) with a group of friends that had me laughing nonstop almost entirely from just their personal interactions. (Especially Hanamori, who had me laughing pretty much every time he appeared.)

There's a review on here that insisted that the author ... lost interest in her work near the end, but aside from a conflict wrapping up a little too neatly, I felt like Higashimura's love for her work shone brightly through both the entire story and through her very consistent bonus chapters in each volume as well.

The art is really impressive (and cute!), and perfectly silly when it needs to be. I never once got the sense that she was taking cheap shortcuts. Princess Jellyfish is clean and consistent all throughout.

I enjoyed this manga intensely from start to finish, and while the Amars probably deserved more backstory outside of bonus chapters, they never wore on me. Although their antics are a bit exaggerated, the whole group all felt pretty true to a bunch of shut-ins that just want to pursue their interests and don't care to share details of their lives, honestly. (speaking as one of those people)

I wouldn't call it flawless, but it's definitely landed a spot in my favorites.