Gift Category: Read a manga

Double House

Double House is a josei (women's) manga from 1996, illustrated by Nanae Haruno. I consists of three chapters collected in one volume.

Double House is a beautiful little 90s manga about a trans woman and the friendship/camaraderie she develops with a young queer woman who moves in next door. It's one of my favorite manga- in art: its beautiful period style with elegant and efficient linework, and in story: its depiction of trans and queer women just getting by, day to day.

The first two chapters follow our main characters, in which Maho deals with gawkers, survives work at her bar, saves Fujiko from a assaulter, develops a neighborly routine with Fujiko, and learns more about her and her struggles establishing her identity and independence. The last chapter follows another character, a larger trans woman who dreams of having a baby, and is allowed a few fleeting days of fantasy when she rescues an abandoned infant in a park.

It's not a tight, singular narrative or anything, but is a really touching, broad portrait of queer women forming bonds and relationships and surviving together despite different backgrounds, needs, and desires.

Read it here on DynastyScans. This is a fan-made scanlation, and it has never been published in English.