Life as a Girl
女子的生活
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A trans woman working in fast fashion in Kobe takes in a broke old classmate, on condition that he sets up group dates for her.
Miki Ogawa is a trans woman who works for a fast-fashion company in Kobe, dresses exactly as she likes and is attracted to women. Her boss and her colleagues, Kaori and Nakamura, know and take her as she is. One day Tadaomi Goto, a boy from her class at school in her home town, turns up at her door. He is startled to find his old classmate living as a woman, but he is broke, has no one else to ask, and wants somewhere to stay until payday. Miki agrees on one condition: he has to set up group dates for her.
At the first one she meets Yui, a woman who plays the natural, unaffected type. The two spar, Miki tells her she is trans, and they end the night together at a hotel. Yui has a boyfriend, but she and Miki go on seeing each other. Goto then brings round another old classmate, known as Minnie, who has lost his job and seems depressed. He sneers at Miki; she sees that what he wants is someone to look down on, and answers by making him over in women's clothes. Back home, he posts the pictures online.
A problem at work sends Miki to Kasumi, her home town, where her family does not know. A client there, dominated by her own mother, takes Miki's sympathy badly: isn't Miki a man, she asks, and the city must allow that sort of thing. Goto, worried, follows her, and on the way back they run into Miki's father, who recognises his son at once. Her brother turns on her. Their father tells him that no parent wishes for anything but a child's happiness, and not to raise a hand to a woman.
In the last episode a work party brings Miki a new admirer, Manami, a sheltered rich girl who turns up at the flat with her fiancé, Kenichi. He sneers that Miki looks like a woman but is really a man who likes women. Goto answers that Miki works every day towards the person she means to be, and calls her his dear friend. Mortified, Miki runs out. When Goto finds her, he tells her that Manami ended up punching her fiancé herself. At midnight it is Miki's birthday. They eat a late-night feast of carbohydrates, she thanks him, and the two decide to keep sharing the flat.
Starring
Jun Shisonas Miki Ogawa
A trans woman working for a fashion company in Kobe, sharp-tongued and self-made, who loves women and her own way of living.
Miki Ogawa’s story
When Goto, a classmate from her home town, turns up broke, Miki lets him stay if he sets up group dates. At the first she meets Yui, spars with her, tells her she is trans, and they spend the night together; they go on seeing each other though Yui has a boyfriend. When another classmate, Minnie, sneers at her, she sees he wants someone to look down on and makes him over in women's clothes. Work takes her back to Kasumi, where her family does not know; her father knows her at once and stops her brother from raising a hand to her. Manami's fiancé, Kenichi, sneers at her, and she shrugs it off as nothing new, but Goto's defence of her sends her running out. At midnight, on her birthday, she thanks him.
Keita Machidaas Tadaomi Goto
Miki's old school classmate, broke and tactless but decent, who moves in with her and becomes her fiercest ally.
Tadaomi Goto’s story
Goto turns up at Miki's door with nowhere else to go, startled to find the classmate he remembers living as a woman. He stays until payday and earns his keep by setting up group dates. When work sends Miki back to Kasumi, where her family does not know, he follows her out of worry and is with her when they run into her father. Manami's fiancé, Kenichi, sneers at Miki in her own flat. Goto tells him that living with anyone takes resolve, that Manami will need more to marry a man who looks down on people, and that Miki works every day towards the person she means to be and is his dear friend. When she runs out, he finds her. At midnight they eat a feast of carbohydrates, and he stays on in the flat.
Fuka Koshibaas Yui
A woman Miki meets at a group date, who poses as the natural type, and becomes her lover despite having a boyfriend.
Shiori Tamaias Kaori
Miki's easy-going colleague at the fashion company, who knows her story and treats her as simply one of the girls.
Hyunrias Nakamura
Another of Miki's colleagues at the fashion company, part of the office circle that accepts her without fuss.
Why it matters
Life as a Girl follows a trans woman through four ordinary episodes, a group date, an old classmate, a visit home, a birthday, and lets the prejudice she meets arrive the way it usually does: as a joke, a question, a man at her table explaining what she really is. Miki does not ask to be understood and does not waste much breath on people who will not try. The series cares as much about the straight man who takes her side, and it lets their friendship be the love story. Its makers also changed the source. The drama moved the novel from Tokyo to Kobe and made Miki a trans woman who loves women, and a trans woman, Satsuki Nishihara, coached Jun Shison's voice and movement and played Miki's friend Tomo. Shison won the lead-actor prize at the Confidence Award Drama Prizes. The question it leaves is what it costs to live as oneself, every day, in public.