#sgvy

"Like EGS” is a tall order - it does a whole lot of fun things with gender, heavily exploring both fantastical magic stuff and complicated real-world identities. Other stories I know tend to be more narrow in one or both regards, so it’ll depend a lot on what specifically you’re looking for.

Incidentally, for anyone not familiar with EGS (El Goonish Shive), I recommend checking out the post I made two days ago for its 20th anniversary.

Anyway, here’s some things that come to mind out of stories I’ve enjoyed:

Ranma 1/2 probably needs no introduction, as a well-known classic genderbending story. I started watching the anime just this past week - I haven’t gotten far yet, but it’s very funny. It’s a lot older than the rest of this list, giving it a particularly distinct feel which makes for a really interesting change of pace.

Fabiniku (”Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to”, aka “Life With an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated Into a Total Fantasy Knockout”) is a much newer genderbending series, about two friends who get pulled into a fantasy world and are now trying not to fall in love. The manga has been running for a couple of years, while the anime (which is what I’ve been following) started just this past month. It’s extremely funny, and the writing and visuals are beautiful. (I heard about Fabiniku from following @demilypyro​, who’s been posting a lot about it and other anime and manga in this vein. If you’re looking for more, she’s likely to be a good source.)

Narcissist, Coward, Fool, and Traitor is a fantasy web novel about a team of four incompetent adventurers. Includes a lot of gender-related magic and exploration of the fantasy setting’s take on trans issues, particularly in the story’s first act. Features quite possibly the funniest (and kinkiest) trans character I’ve ever seen.

Doing God's Work is a web novel about an organization of gods across the pantheons, from the perspective of Loki and their faction of rebellious gods. This setting’s take on Loki is a lot of fun, and puts their shapeshifting powers to a great deal of use.

Misfile is one of the early transformation webcomics I read, before even EGS. I haven’t kept up with it in about a decade, but it still has a special place in my heart, and thinking back to it now, I may have to read the rest of it one of these days. The main character is Ash Upton, a high school street racer whose personal information was accidentally edited by a careless angel.

SGVY (Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki) is another transformation webcomic I read around the same time as Misfile, and have a lot of similar feelings about. It’s about Yuuki, a guy who gets turned into a valkyrie to fight monsters, and is an extremely silly magical girl parody. Seems the original site is no longer available.

Your Name (Kimi no Na wa) is an anime movie about a guy and girl who periodically swap bodies while living far apart, and have to find ways to communicate and work together. One of the most popular anime movies ever, which I hadn’t realized until looking it up again while writing this, but I can believe it.

Those are the ones that really play around with gender-related transformation stuff. Some other stories I’ve really enjoyed that aren’t necessarily “genderweird” per se, but have neat portrayals of major trans/nb characters:

Dreadnought and its sequel Sovereign are a series of superhero novels about a trans girl who inherits the powers of the strongest hero. She also gets a new body in the process, resulting in some interesting complications. It’s one of my favorite book series, and the characters are wonderful disasters - in particular the main character, Danielle Tozer, is a delightful ball of rage. There’s a third book planned to complete the trilogy, although it’s been taking a while.

High Guardian Spice is a magic school cartoon that released its first season a few months ago. It’s about several girls at a magic school, including Snapdragon, a closeted trans girl who begins to consider magical means of transition. Apparently its inclusion of trans characters has lead to a lot of people trying to sabotage it by spamming bad ratings, but the show itself is adorable.

Ikenfell is an RPG also set in a magic school, with a charming and very queer cast and a playable character lineup including multiple flavors of nonbinary. It’s a lot of fun and has a neat grid-based battle system, as well as great music made by the same people who did the music for Steven Universe.

Venus Envy is an old webcomic about Zoe, a trans girl going through high school and encountering a variety of forms of trouble. Frequently very unsettling, in some fascinating ways. Lot of content warnings here, probably more than anything else on this list.

Kanojo ni Naritai Kimi to Boku (”I Wanna Be Your Girl”) is a manga about a high school girl and the friend she’s in love with, who’s a trans girl. It’s really cute and does a lot of exploring attitudes around queer topics. It’s the only story on this list not to have any fantastical elements (although counting Venus Envy is debatable).

Mask of Shadows is a two-book fantasy novel series about Sal, a genderfluid thief who joins an assassination competition while seeking influence and revenge. I’ve only read the first book so far, but I’m planning on reading the second next week.

The Murderbot Diaries is a sci-fi book series (currently five novellas and one full novel) about “Murderbot”, a delightful agender cyborg built to work in security, and the humans and other AIs it reluctantly bonds with. Has a prequel mini-story posted here.

Infinity Train is a cartoon about a magic train that draws people onto it and compels them to solve a series of puzzles. It doesn’t technically have anything concrete, but I have to give it a mention here since pretty much everyone I’ve seen has interpreted the second season’s main character as transmasculine. Great show, and I’m still bitter about it getting canceled.

Wayward Children (by @seananmcguire) is an ongoing fantasy series that recently released its seventh novel. It’s about a school for kids who’ve gone through doors to fantastical other worlds and now have returned home, changed by the experience. It’s got a lot of great characters - a major recurring character is Kade, a trans boy, and more recent books also feature Regan, an intersex girl.

Zombieland Saga is an anime about seven girls who’ve been raised from the dead as zombies and are trying to become idols. It’s cute and funny and very ridiculous, and the team includes Lily Hoshikawa, an adorable trans girl.

Also I can’t pass up the chance to mention my own story, Blood Knight! It’s a short fantasy novella about the absolute disaster of a trans girl in my icon.

I like to think of SGVY and misfile as sister comics of sorts. they’re both genderbend comics from the early 00s that start with a pretty similar tone, and I read them at a pretty similar time - I think SGVY was the first genderbend-focused story I got into and misfile was the second. in both cases, I got into them in high school and then stopped keeping up with them a few years later, before finally returning to them this year

(they’re also the two stories on my genderweird stories post that I considered leaving out but decided to stick with, which was what inspired me to return to both of them. in retrospect, I think mentioning them was the right call but might have needed some more clarification of their distinctive characteristics)

that said, while misfile ends up tying itself into knots from a halfhearted attempt at a more serious approach, SGVY knows exactly what it wants to be from day 1. it’s an extremely comedic and horny magical girl parody involving norse mythology, and it goes all in on that

(featured: SGVY’s takes on freyr, thor, and loki)

even as the story progresses, SGVY is extremely ridiculous at all times. it has a very 00s feel which certainly isn’t for everyone, but personally I think it’s really funny and loved revisiting it

Hey guys! I know it's been a while but I got a retail job which has sapped some of my time, but I'll be in Sydney for SMASH!! It's going to be August 9&10 and I'll be sitting with KittyHawk, aka the artist behind SGVY!

I'll have my two new Transistor prints, a new portal Print, some Gravity Falls stickers and prints, as well as my usual array of Dr. Horrible prints. As far as comics go I'll have two mini-bat comics as well as FIVE different recipe comics!! Oh my! Get ready to make some yummy things!

Also I'll be doing COMMISSIONS! So if you like my art style you should totally get something original done by me. It'll be awesome.

Hey guys. I just wanted to plug a game I am extreemly excited about, Gender Bender DNA Twister extreme. Back in February, I found this game on Indiegogo, and was very interested in it. Gender bending is something that really interests me, and seeing a Visual Novel based on that was unique and new. So I backed it.

They have been working on the game since, and have 2 characters done for us Beta Testers, and the third is coming out soon. they have 6 core characters, funded 2 extra's from the campain, and got 5 more characters designed by the backers. one of them will be yours truely! Yeah I go nuts, but I always wanted to try writing out a story for an actual game, and this also lets me experiment what it would be like if SCIENCE turned me into a girl.

They just put their game on Steam Greenlight, and I hope all you guys check it out and upvote it, and Spread the word. Getting this game one steam would be so awesome! it's very unique and explores a lot. And with 13 characters to play as, that is a hell of a lot for a Visual Novel

And before you guys think, "Oh genderbending, must be smut and porn" It isn't. This game is going to have some comedy, but it will be seriously looking into what could happen if this happened, and is not just a reason to give men boobs. Seriously guys, it's legit. They also have the writer and Artist of SGvY supporting the comic, and doing a special crossover with it!

http://montrose.is/sgvy/

So please, check it out, and Spread the word!

EDIT: I forgot to include the link to their Desura page. You can buy the game there too and play the alpha!