In some shows, most notably Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, they use crossdressing as comedy. This mostly involves a male dressing as a female to make it really difficult to tell the real gender of the person. However, in Hourou Musuko (aka Wandering Son), the show takes a more serious and realistic approach. They focus on the issues of transgender people similar to what transgendered people faces and growing up through two people, Nitori and Takatsuki.
The story skips ahead when Nitori and his sister entered middle school. There are some flashbacks where Nitori dressed as a girl and took pictures as a model with his sister and later Takatsuki. The next flashback shows his confession with Takatsuki, which brought embarrassment. These are shown while he changes into female attire in the restroom after school. When he locks his stuff in a locker, he went out in public and went to a shop to buy a four-leaf clover pin.
The most important part in this episode is his sister’s reaction that happens after trying on her clothes alone. He probably wants to try it since he is curious how he would look. Unfortunately, his sister comes into the room and suddenly realized that he crossdressed. They get into this fight until he punches her and runs away. Afterwards, she called him “sick.”
The reaction from his older sister is pretty important since she doesn’t understand what he is going through. He is a very delicate person, especially at his age where he faces puberty. He loves to be cute. This is the reason why he prefers wearing female clothing. It allows him to feels better about himself. Unfortunately, people don’t understand and society looks down male crossdressing and thus, they face ridicule or even bullying. Ultimately he finds Takatsuki that understands his feeling since she likes wearing boys clothing. She eventually calms him down and then escorted him back.
Ironically, Takatsuki does not face the same discrimination like Nitori faces. Society seems to accept a female dressed as a male since it’s not too obvious as the former. Nevertheless, the issue is easier said than done since there is a psychological part with gender identity.
Lastly, the production values are very good from only the first episode. The colors are pretty soft and the characters look great. It’s in no doubt that this show has very high productions values. On the other hand, the OP/ED was unexpected with a male singer doing the opening and an English ending. Nevertheless, I give props to AIC for a great production just from the first episode.
Overall, Hourou Musuko covered the transgender topic in a rather emotional and seriously. While there is no clear genre for the show, it has a few comedic moments and drama. It’s more like a documentary in anime form that wants to share important issues in story form. Lastly, the first episode had some plot holes since it jumped ahead in the source material. As a result, it made the first episode slightly unclear, but it still understandable for people new to the show. Otherwise, I can’t wait until the second episode to show more of the issues that both of these character face gradually. ¶
Hopefully this does for transgendered folks what Koi Kaze did for incest. Instead of portraying it in a comedic light and trivializing it in the process, hopefully they can capture what it must feel like to have ones identity so confused at times. So far, it looks to be really well-written and once I figure out who’s who, the show should be a lot easier to sit through.
I agree. The show has merit on being focused on the transgender issues in the first episode. While there were a few scenes were it can be cute or fun, it’s a very serious topic to me in face of the bullying of LGBT students in the news. However, I disagree what some people said about the show since they don’t understand the scope of the topic.
“While there is no clear genre for the show, it has a few comedic moments and drama. It’s more like a documentary in anime form that wants to share important issues in story form.”
You found just the right words to describe it. I kept looking for the reason why I decided to follow through with this title (seeing as how the keywords to describe it are something I would normally avoid at all costs), naturally assuming that since it’s anime it has got to have something to do with satisfying an individual’s kink or taking him to a fantasy land of preference, but here it seems to be just a story well told.
In actuality, it was difficult to categorize Hourou Musuko since it doesn’t really follow any type of genre like RP mentioned in his post. Documentary in anime form would fit the title, except it’s a fantasy. Nevertheless, I still interested on how this show would play out.
I’m hoping the rest of the series is as well-done as the first episode. Other than some minor confusion, I sincerely enjoyed it. The issues were handled well, and I appreciate that about the series.
I have to admit, I was confused a bit with the first episode since they skipped ahead to the 6th grade. I hope these issues will get cleared up as time goes on so it would be more understandable.
as many others that watched the first ep i shared in the cofusion as to wat was going on but considering this is going to be a short series it is understandable. with that said im looking forward to how this story will conclude and im also intriged in how this anime will be able to show the obsticles transgender individuals go through specially during childhood.