A, A¹ (A, A Prime) (edition 1997)

Actually, three stories.
One involves the death of Addy, who had a clone of herself made earlier on (Thus A,A'.) The clone goes to take up Addy's old assignment and meets the man who was "her" lover, bringing up interesting questions of identity.
The second (4/4) focuses on a boy with powers of telekinesis and his relationship with a young girl, a member of a rare race , who is so withdrawn that she supposedly has no emotions at all.
The third, and longest, "X+Y" takes one of the characters from 4/4 and has him meet another of this rare race ("Unicorns".) This one, especially, is packed full of questions of gender and sexuality (but is not extremely explicit in its graphics.)
They're all interesting character studies, though they do have the sort of manga emotional tone that can grate on me - people act in ways that are extremely unlikely.Characters fall in love in a few moments - declaring "I'm in love with you!" - then later are not in love for some unknown reason. They set forth ideas that would be the mark of a very clichéd sf book in English - A race of super-smart people with a red stripe of hair running along their scalp from front to back, called "Unicorns", (who are either genetically manufactured or atavistic, I can't really tell which) who are all emotionally strange and talk about themselves in the third person.
But there's a slice of manga (usually of the "romantic" type) in which this is the accepted way of things, so if you can take it in stride you will be treated to
Moto Hagio using the science fiction framework to get at ideas of identity, sexual choice, and gender. He shows an understanding of the potential of the sf genre, and utilizes it skillfully in a way that many writers could take to heart. ( )