If you don’t mind something a bit older, 第四間氷期 by 安部公房 or ゼウスの檻 by 上田 早夕里 might work. They’re both science fiction.
The first one involves the coming of another ice age, where humanity has to biologically change themselves to survive. It has different perspectives and a rather wild plot. It’s by Abe Kōbo, so it’s not the easiest.
The second one involves questions around gender and sexuality as scientists living on Mars create a new gender (?) of humans. It also has some action scenes and lots of moral questions. It’s slightly older (from the early 2000s) so not everything tracks today, but it’s an interesting and thought-provoking read.
Do be warned that you may or may not like the protagonist of either one of these, but that the themes of identity exploration are definitely there, although on perhaps a slightly larger scale than what you’re looking for.
Like the one you mentioned (which I haven’t read but know of) you’ll get this “who am I” plot line with gender exploration stories in general. The one I can suggest (a manga) that most closely fits is ぜんぶきみの性 | L21. It’s about two people with a condition where they spontaneously change gender and discovering who they are because of that. Of course, I also love and would suggest 放浪息子 | L27, but that’s more a traditional coming of age story and doesn’t have any fantasy or sci-fi elements.
Oh, I do maybe have one novel suggestion: レッドデータガール | L34. I don’t really want to describe it because it’s been two years since I read it and I don’t remember what would be a spoiler. But I think it’s fair to say it involves self discovery of the main character and it definitely has fantasy elements. I found it to be a bit slow but still interesting, though I also found it challenging so only read the first volume.
I read it. I enjoyed it, but there’s no identity exploration in there.
(Also, I had read another book from the same author before, so I could catch how it would end really early, which was a bit disappointing)
Red Data Girl is a good call, actually - I’m two books deep into it though and yeah it’s excruciatingly slow. I remember really liking the anime though. Thanks.
Any good oneshot manga anyone can recommend? (Or something that’s two or three volumes max or something.) I’m putting together a CDJapan order, and I’d like to add another book, but most of my wish list is really long series. I have too much to read already, send help. I’m pretty open to genre.
Does anyone know of manga about parent child relationships where the child is an adult? I’m currently reading おとなりに銀河(6) | L26 and I was very much into that aspect of the story. But I’m disappointed with where that arc seemingly ended.
Alternatively, teenage children or adult/teenage siblings might also be interesting.
I was looking at my bookshelf, trying to pick a book for the random Bingo square when I realised - this isn’t random enough. All of those books are ones I picked myself. I want to try stepping out of my comfort zone a little.
So I need some help from you guys. I’m looking for a book I wouldn’t pick myself, which means:
No mystery or fantasy
Nothing from Aozora
No manga/short stories since I’m trying to complete the Bingo without those
Difficulty-wise up to level 40 is ok
Other than that, feel free to suggest pretty much anything. Since I tend to read physical books I’ll wait until there are a few suggestions and then see which one the second-hand gods bless me with.
You could try picking one randomly from Natively?
We discussed this for a bit in the Bingo thread: Come up with a random number (there are online generators available) and then go to that book on Natively (you need a bit of maths skills to determine the book from the paginated list of all books)
Maybe きらきらひかる | L30? It’s a human drama, no real plot but I found it very satisfying to read nonetheless. It’s only available as a physical book, but there is an audiobook as well.
おいしいごはんが食べられますように | L31 is one of my favorite books ever, but it’s a bit polarizing. You either love it or hate it.
I picked it up digitally, though; it was surprisingly cheap. Something like ￥200.
