Iguana Girl is a semi-autobiographical story that reflects Hagio's own strained relationship with her mother, while also utilizing fantasy elements to comment on the role of women in post-war Japanese society.

After studying family psychology for two years, she published her 1980 manga series Mesh [ja], which focuses on a boy who sets out to kill his drug dealer father.

"[7] The documentary inspired Iguana Girl, which was published in the May 1992 issue of the manga magazine Petit Flower as a one-shot (single chapter series).

[9] Hagio began to publish stories set in Japan more frequently following the publication of Iguana Girl,[7] though troubled mother-child relationships would continue to recur as a theme in her work;[10] notably in her subsequent 1993 manga series A Cruel God Reigns, which focuses on a boy whose mother allows her new husband to physically and sexually abuse him.

[18] As a work of psychoanalysis, Yuriko's rejection of Rika can be seen as an allegory for "the self-hatred that women develop as they attempt to fulfill impossible social expectations to be beautiful and otherwise perfect mothers, daughters, and wives.

"[17] Despite reforms instituted during Japan's post-war period that provided equal educational opportunities for women, the 1950s through 1970s saw a resurgence of the pre-war "good wife, wise mother" ideology.

[20] Yuriko prefers Mami as a daughter because she displays traits associated with traditional femininity: she is fair-skinned, enjoys girlish activities like baking, and gets average grades, in contrast to the dark-skinned, athletic, tomboyish Rika.

[20] Kuribayashi concludes that regardless of which of the three interpretations one prefers, Iguana Girl "serves as a vantage point from which to study the ways in which femininity, specifically motherhood, is culturally defined and leveraged to regulate women's behavior.

[24] Critic Kōtarō Iizawa favorably compared the art style of the anthropomorphic characters in Iguana Girl to the artwork of manga artist Yumiko Ōshima.

[22] Writing for The New York Times, George Gustines described Iguana Girl as "oddly appealing and surprisingly bittersweet", with a message about acceptance that is "subtle, not saccharine.