Girl in My Dream
is an online manhwa with a different take on the usual TG Transformation Comic.
Ordinary High-School Student Ji-Hoon is practically delirious with the heady feeling of young romance with his first real girlfriend, shy and reticent Bespectacled Cutie Ji-Soo. So delirious, in fact, that he heedlessly walks out in front of a bus on their very first date, leading Ji-Soo to sacrifice her own life pushing him out of the way.
Inconsolable with grief, Ji-Hoon withdraws from his friends until he starts dreaming of a beautiful girl named Yuna who promises that someday they will meet for real. Unfortunately, it's soon apparent that disturbing changes are occurring in Ji-Hoon's body as he dreams - He's slowly becoming female!. Confronted on this, Yuna eventually reveals the truth: she is a vengeful aspect of Ji-Soo's spirit, intent on stealing Ji-Hoon's body so she can have a relationship with his best friend, the handsome Ji-Young. Confronted with the fact that he's become fully female, Ji-Hoon's mind retreats, leaving behind a confused amnesiac female personality who calls herself Ji-Hyun. Eventually, Ji-Hoon, Yuna, and Ji-Hyun end up in a three-way battle for control over Ji-Hoon, body and soul.
Has examples of:
- Above the Influence: Subverted. Ji-Young tries to ignore his attraction to Ji-Hyun, even going so far as to date another girl he doesn't love in the hopes that Miya will awaken Ji-Hoon's memories, but ultimately can't deny his feelings for long. Once Yuna takes control, it doesn't take her much effort to start seducing Ji-Young, with the only reason it doesn't go too far being a slip of the tongue on Yuna's part, as well as Ji-Hoon wrestling for control and reawakening Ji-Hyun's personality. After Miya gives up on getting Ji-Hoon back and moves away, Ji-Hyun and Ji-Young start going out, even after Ji-Hoon's personality reawakens.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: Ji-Hoon is ignored by the girls in his school for Ji-Young, being an unpopular boy for years. When Ji-Hyun attends school, she quickly becomes a Dude Magnet to all the boys, with the girls showing interest in her beauty regiment.
- Bittersweet Ending: Ji-Hoon is back in control of his body, has a loving and understanding family, and the friendship with Ji-Young remains solid. Yuna and Ji-Hyun are still around, but their appearances are becoming less frequent as Ji-Hoon's memories and sense of self get stronger, and it's implied that, in time, they'll eventually fade away. However, he is still stuck as a girl and he has lost Miya.
- Body Horror: Ji-Hoon doubling over in pain and coughing up blood as he feels his internal organs rearranging and changing to become female.
- First Law of Gender Bending: While Yuna and Ji-Hyun's influence diminishes over time, the changes made to Ji-Hoon's body seem to be permanent, leaving him stuck as a girl for good. The fact that they still persist means that Ji-Hoon still needs to subject himself to things he wouldn't rather do, like being Ji-Young's girlfriend or wearing feminine clothes.
- Gender Bender: Ji-Hoon is slowly turned into a girl as Yuna tries to take control of his body, and the transformation itself as well as the results of it are heavily Played for Drama.
- Gender-Bender Friendship: Ji-Hyun sees Miya as her best friend only, showing none of Ji-Hoon's attraction to her at all. This ends up being Played for Drama, as Miya tries to awaken Ji-Hoon's memories by attempting to go out with Ji-Hyun, but it fails miserably because the latter doesn't reciprocate and only has feelings for Ji-Young.
- Grand Theft Me: Yuna actually wants to take Ji-Hoon's body for herself so she can finally have a chance to seduce Ji-Young.
- Girl of My Dreams: Subverted. Yuna wants Ji-Hoon's body in every sense except the one implied by the trope.
- Heroic BSoD: Ji-Hoon is so traumatized by being betrayed by Yuna and his physical transformation that he withdraws and creates Ji-Hyun as a coping mechanism.
- High School
- Identity Amnesia: Ji-Hyun lacks all of Ji-Hoon's memories and shows just how different she is from the latter by identifying as female while guessing Ji-Young is her boyfriend and Miya is her Best Friend.
- If It's You, It's Okay: Miya feels this way towards Ji-Hoon/Hyun. Unfortunately for her, Ji-Hyun doesn't reciprocate.
- Irony: Before the transformation, Ji-Hoon was best friends with Ji-Young and starts dating Miya. After the transformation, Ji-Hyun believes Ji-Young is her boyfriend and Miya is her best friend, an irony that isn't lost on everyone not Locked Out of the Loop.
- Jumping the Gender Barrier: Played with regarding Ji-Young. He acknowledges that Ji-Hyun is beautiful, but also his best friend and not in full control of himself. Yuna is banking on this as part of her plans.
- Lighter and Softer: A side story depicts an alternate tale of events where Ji-Hoon randomly turns into a girl one day instead of it being Yuna's doing. While he still doesn't like it, he comes to terms with his transformation in a matter of hours. Ji-Young seems to get over it quick too, as finally having a girl that truly understands him is enough for him to ask Ji-Hoon to become his girlfriend. The shock of it makes Ji-Hoon realize that it was All Just a Dream.
- Loss of Identity: This happens gradually as Ji-Hoon becomes female. Even in the end, he's still permanently a girl.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: The Ji-Hyun personality.
- Manipulative Bitch: Ji-Soo never had any feelings for Ji-Hoon. She just went out with him to try and get closer to Ji-Young. When she dies, she uses him more.
- Ordinary High-School Student
- Put on a Bus: Miya leaves the school when her advances towards Ji-Hyun fail, and she believes Ji-Young is romantically involved with her.
- Red Herring: Ji-Hoon sees Yuna's appearance overlap Miya's and wonders if the two girls are the same person. This turns out to not be the case at all, and in fact is an early sign that Yuna is slowly taking over Ji-Hoon's body.
- Second Law of Gender-Bending: Played with. Ji-Hoon outright averts this, showing great horror at his Slow Transformation, more so when he finds out the truth about Yuna. While Ji-Hyun does believe her family and friends that she was formerly male, she identifies as female, refusing to let others call her a guy and wanting to be referred to as a girl.
- Split Personality: Ji-Hyun is one created by Ji-Hoon to cope with his gender change and not be fully taken over by Yuna. She eventually fades away as he has time to mentally come to. Even then, Yuna is still residing in his head and has a tendency to act up.
- Split-Personality Merge: Ji-Hyun is an amalgamation of Yuna and Ji-Hoon, with the former's love towards Ji-Young, and the latter's naivete towards being a girl, mixed with near-complete amnesia and childlike maturity levels.
- Third Law of Gender-Bending: Played with just like Second Law of Gender-Bending above. Ji-Hyun embraces femininity all too quickly, wearing dresses and even falling in love with Ji-Young while also seeing Miya as a friend only. When Ji-Hyun regains control, he's forced to do this trope to prevent whatever remains of Yuna from taking control by wearing dresses and acting as Jin-Young's girlfriend.
- Transformation Comic
- Transformation of the Possessed: While Yuna tries to take over Ji-Hoon's body, she slowly turns his body female to match Ji-Young's ideal girl.
- What the Hell, Hero?: As one final effort to bring her boyfriend back, Miya starts molesting Ji-Hyun in the bath, and forces herself on her. Ji-Hyun is very naive and doesn't even know what a lesbian is, or much about sex at all. It doesn't end well.
