It's real.
There are a lot of other great manga that are written with great realism. The kind of realism that lets you really connect with the characters, not as a form of fantasy escapism but on a human level. A couple such manga I've encountered include Ikoku Nikki and Hirayasumi. However, even though those manga could honestly even be considered more "realistic" than Ore ga Watashi ni Naru made (on account of being less dramatized), such manga also clearly feel like they have been "written" by the author in third-person, rather than "experienced". What I mean by this is that, from the outset, the reader gets a sense of the author's views and perspective which have been put into the story, and that view never changes; they set out to write the story they wrote and, as great as the story is, it is simply what was written.
Ore ga Watashi ni Naru made is different. This is a manga where you will feel the perspective changing as the story goes along, as if the author started out writing it with a strong gender bias and then gradually comes to realize the world has more colours than a manga page. The author is Akira, and Akira is the author.
As a result, I strongly advise approaching this manga with the patience to let Akira (i.e. author!) catch up to your own views, and then to let your views change along with Akira as the story goes on. I almost dropped this manga when I first started reading it because of how the author (i.e. Akira!) depicts, or rather *views*, girls. I only kept reading because, derogatory depictions aside, I am a genderswap otaku and will read almost anything featuring it. I am exceedingly glad that I didn't give up on it. Anyways, it's only really the first chapter or two that is off-putting, in my opinion. Though, it takes until partway through the second volume before things really start opening up.
I eagerly await the next volume of this manga so that I can once again join Akira on her journey of self-discovery.
*Note: This is a review of the original Japanese hardcopies, which I own. I initially found this manga via fan translations, in which I noticed some pages that do not match the published original. They may be from pre-serialization? This review cannot speak to any version except the published, Japanese-language serialization.
