Wandering Son

Hourou Musuko is an 11 episode slice of life drama based on the manga of the same name by Takako Shimura.  The series aired in Japan during the winter of 2011.

    Shuichi Nitori is a quiet 7^th grader who is more comfortable with dressing as a girl and yearns to be one.  A small group of close friends from elementary school know his desires and are supportive.  One such friend is Yoshino Takatsuki who is also in the same gender identity situation.  In elementary school he confessed his love for her but was rejected.  Regardless they still remained friends and confidants.  One of the only people who knows about his feelings and does not support him is his older sister, Maho, who is disgusted by her brother.  As the children start their lives as middle school students Shu and Takatsuki work at coming to terms with their desires and their identities, wrestling with how to approach them in more public ways.  Takatsuki is emboldened by a new classmate, Chizuru Sarashina who showed up for the first day of school wearing a boy’s uniform.  Chi is not interested in cross dressing, she just has a peculiar personality.   The anime shows a year and a half of the characters lives and how they progress with their desires and feelings towards each other.

    This was a fantastically written series.  I don’t have any concerns for my gender identity but can still greatly appreciate a well written and well told story.  Not only does it deal with gender identity/cross dressing, it also deals with homosexuality and transgender issues.  These subjects are less taboo in Japan than in America but are still points of tension with those who identify themselves LGBT.  Shu is continuously and rightly concerned with how the world will view him for his feelings and desires.  He struggles against that constantly as he tries to be true to himself.  On top of the identity concerns with the characters, there are a few threads dealing with unrequited love and general adolescent confidence issues.  Shu’s best male friend, Makoto Ariga, deals with being a mostly closeted homosexual and with jealousy issues involving Shu.  There were some parts where I was expecting Makoto to confess his love for Shu…perhaps that is a story thread in the manga (it is).  The relationship between Shu and Takatsuki has a third member that causes tension for everyone.  Sauri Chiba was friends with both Shu and Takatsuki in elementary school, she encourages his cross dressing but when she discovers her love for him is one sided she becomes cold and aggressive towards both of them.  Shu’s sister is a fashion model and much of her distaste with her brothers’ habits is that she thinks he is prettier than she is.  There is plenty of drama but there is also some humor, especially with Chi and her antics, she reminds me of a more intelligent version of Tomo-chan from Azumanga Daioh.

    In the end this was a fantastically well done series.  The subject matter may be difficult for some people to handle, but to them I say, get the fuck over it.  There is little in the way of typical anime convention in this series.  Sure the characters have classical anime features but it doesn’t follow any of the typical trappings of the school aged shows.  One common thing that shows up is the school festival, but unlike other series’ this is a catalyst, allowing the characters to quietly out their true selves to the rest of the school.  The animation is dream like, with washed out water colors for the backgrounds and the characters alike.  It is a very mesmerizing show.  From reading some background information on the manga, which has been running for quite a while but may now be done (it ended in 2013 with 15 tankoubon), I think I need to read it as it shows much more of the history and future of the characters than the anime does.  So if you enjoy a well told dramatic story this one is a great one to watch.

    The anime is only available via Crunchyroll in North America and the manga is being released by Fantagraphic Books.