I'm aiming to be a great actress because I was reincarnated as a beautiful girl!

Torka

volume 1

Alt title: 美少女にTS転生したから大女優を目指す!, Bishoujo ni TS Tensei Shitakara Daijoyu wo Mezasu!
Author: Kannuki Mutou
Artist: Atte ⇒Nanakusa
Publisher: Hobby Japan (HJ Bunko)
Volumes: 1 (ongoing)

Synopsis:

The main character, Keiji Matsuda, has been ill and bedridden for more than 5 years.
He was in bed and looked back on his life with regret. How did this happen? If he were born as a woman, maybe...
The moment he thought about it, he heard a voice out of nowhere, and Matsuda's consciousness was swallowed by the darkness. The next moment he woke up…
He was in a room in a nostalgic apartment where he used to live.
But was now in the body of a baby girl.
An old man in his late thirties, who was pessimistic about life, is a modern fantasy of TS and redoing his life!

Comments: So it’s about a thirty-something guy who dies and is reborn as a baby girl. Very similar to Reborn to Master the Blade, complete with the same publisher, but with a few major differences.

It’s a contemporary series. From my limited MTL skills looking at the webnovel, Keiji here just restarts his life - same birthdate, same parents, etc - but if he was born as a girl instead.
The focus is instead on drama. Keiji, now reborn as Sumire, decides to become an actress. Unlike Reborn, it also focuses a bit more on Sumire’s early life instead of just timeskipping to when she’s older.
It’s literally a trans series. Like, on his deathbed Keiji’s like “maybe things would be better if I was born a girl” and then God’s all “okay bro I got you”. I mean, you could maybe argue in Reborn to Master the Blade that Inglis is beyond genders, but here there’s no subtlety.

I dunno, I saw it on the discord and it seemed interesting. Given that both Reborn to Master the Blade and Oshi no Ko are getting anime, why not get a series that blends the two together?

Lily Garden

This sounds really interesting, I would love to read it. I’m curious to see how the author executed the story

Planguy

I thought stories like this were iffy when it came to the whole trans issue. Like the fact that the character magically changes gender trivializes a real world issue that doesn't have such an easy fix.

Still, seems like harmless wish fulfillment, to me.

Torka

@Planguy

Eh, I see it as something similar to what happened with The Twilight Zone. Rod Serling originally wanted to make a television series about racism and other hot topics, but the networks wouldn't allow him. So instead he just made science fiction shows which had similar themes, which even though they're less realistic by their very nature, still allow the author to convey their message.

In other words, consider a magical gender change a metaphor for transitioning or something like that.

Torka

Short update, I guess: It's getting a manga.

That said, there hasn't been a second volume so it looks like it's stalling out?