Login
Note: I will refer to the protagonist as a she, and the co-protagonist as a he.
I don’t know why I never got around to watch this short title, when I wanted to do it for years. Since I recently rewatched and reviewed Aoi Hana, another adaptation of the same mangaka, I decided to do the same with this one, and I have to say, it’s clearly a better title.
Coincidentally (or not), it has a similarly looking visual style, consistent artwork, seemingly purposely unfinished yet beautiful backgrounds, and this time, much more vivid and expressive motions, expressions and body language, making these characters feel more alive than the ones from that other show. It even has the same issues of having way too simple character designs which even look alike to others from the same series, and just like that another title, and many other anime out there, there is a problem with the lighting, making the brightness too high to the point of not being able to see what’s on screen at times, but again, this goes away near the end. It almost feels like the same team was behind both adaptations.
The opening decided to show the classroom with the lyrics on screen for some reason, it’s an ok jpop song but nothing much, it is even quite a bit too energetic for this show. The ending is cute and more fitting. The overall background music is cute and relaxing, it fits the series but good luck remembering it once the show is over. The sound effects are decent as well. The voice acting is a curious case, initially they sound weird for the characters, eventually they adjust to them well, and everyone did a good job in the performances, which are even atypical for their usual tones and acting. The main character has a more mature voice than expected, but the anime seemingly made it on purpose for an in-story point, so it’s ok.
Although it has recurrent elements of a middle school romance, Hourou Musuko is primarily a coming of age drama about transgender people, more precisely, the two protagonists. The premise alone makes it stand out from the get go. Despite that, it’s not like only the main characters matter, the focus is obviously placed on them, but the anime bothers to follow its secondary cast as well, covering their thoughts of the situation, their own insecurities, and the different dynamics between all of them, thus becoming more complex than it seems at first.
The plot structure isn’t very different than any other school show however, as it has the characters doing typical stuff, from a stage play for a festival, to activities on their own clubs, getting together on vacations, then being separated in different classes the next year but still going home together, all that stuff. But at least it bothers to make them relevant to the main plot, as the classes make cross-dressing plays for the protagonists to play the character from the opposite sex, and that’s the reason why they reunite. And even then it flips the expectations by having the roles fall on to some friends of them, thus it fleshes those characters as well, instead of having them only as the supporting cast.
The series focuses primarily on showing the mentality of its two protagonists, biologically male transgender girl Shuuichi, and biologically female transgender boy Sakatsuki, how they feel with their bodies and clothes and about the way everyone else watches them and perceives them. It also covers how first everyone on the group of friends find out and act towards them once they come to know, adding some romantic tension between them, internal differences because of that, some of them being supportive, others trying to be but still not accepting the whole of it or at least not as sincerely as they claim to do, some of them standing on a confusing indecisive position, and some others straight wanting to stay away from them. Not only that but because of the own initiative of the main characters, other implicated characters come to know about them, from relatives, to acquaintances, to love interests, even the whole school, and just with the main group of friends, there are also divided reactions about it.
This makes the characters that don’t accept the main two to be plainly unlikable themselves obviously, but from a writing standpoint this is good, as it shows how transgender people are rejected even by their own families. Despite that, no character is presented as being plain good or bad, they are more confused about the situation because of how unexpected it is, rather than plain despising Shuuichi, even subverting her own expectations, as her father ends up being the supportive one in her family, when she expected him to be the one to be against her the most. Her sister is the most ambiguous, as she cares about her “little brother” in her own kind of tsundere way, but still does not accept Shuuichi being a girl, even calling her a freak and a pervert and more mean things. Despite that, at some point she is very happy for how her own boyfriend is supportive of her sister, so, I’d say she ends up standing on a strange middle ground.
Another ambiguous character is former bully Doi, who used to mock Shuuichi for her feminine traits, yet in present time seems to be supportive of her, and even ends up being the co-writer of the second play and some people even theorized that he likes the protagonist. This is the hardest to read person in the whole show.
The series also bothers to show the differences in prejudice and judgment towards the main two genders, as almost nobody makes a big deal when Sakatsuki comes out as a boy, yet it becomes a big scandal when Shuuichi does the same, but as a girl. So I guess you could say how it portrays patriarchy being oppressive towards men and masculinity in its own particular ways, at least in Japan.
With that said, not everything in the script is very good. There are clearly pacing issues, as the adaptation begins from the 6th volume of the manga, leaving everything from before to be referenced through conversations or quick flashbacks. This is a mixed bag, as the presentation shows instead of telling, and it lets the viewer to figure things on their own, something that I appreciate as a positive when it’s well done and clear, but this way it also leaves the backdrop of the characters and some of their dynamics as background and incomplete information. Well, at least the people behind it did a good job to follow the two main characters as well as giving inner dialogues to the rest of them to flesh them out well, despite not showing their backdrops in their entirety.
That’s not the only clear issue in its pacing, as love confessions, change in seasons, months, and years, breakups and more stuff are shown in quite a hurry, making some events to happen in a more rushed way than what would be optimal. Two episodes even got re-released as specials with extra scenes because of that, flowing better in those alternative versions, but still losing something from the aired version, so I guess the original manga is the only of the three to feel really complete.
Another issue is the ending, which is not a closure in the least, it feels open to make you go read the source, while at the same time it goes for a quite lukewarm and mixed take. Despite the big fuss everyone made about Shuuichi, and some of her classmates mocking her, from one episode to another it seemed like everyone came to accept her, which would be a good but weirdly presented finale, as it feels like something is missing in between. That’s not the only problem with it though, as some of the closest characters to her, and ambiguously even herself, seem to still see Shuuichi as a he at the end.
Well, that, and everyone still refers to Shuuichi as a boy and Sakatsuki as a girl throughout the whole show, nobody uses the proper pronouns for them. So the series ends up having an ambiguous take, but I guess it would be much to expect from a 2011 anime, based on a manga that began in 2002. Despite being a bit critical on the perception of transgender people, it focuses more on showing and exploring them, than explicitly make a statement and take a supportive position about them. This does not take away its importance and value theme wise, but it will probably feel like it didn’t dare to go all the way out there and a bit outdated when consuming it today.
Since I’m an Argentinian cisgender male born in a catholic and LGBT+phobic house, I don’t know how accurate the portray of the struggles of the characters is, much of it felt like they wanted to wear the clothes of the opposite sex, but incorporating their inner thoughts and the perspectives of everyone else took the topic to a grander level. I still have to say, I have my doubts of the credibility of some circumstances within the work as a whole. First is how lucky were the main two to encounter a transgender (and I think also transsexual, but I’m not sure, as it isn’t very clear) woman to talk with them and help them in some way, as well as another girl that sometimes uses a male uniform to encourage them in her own way.
Second, lots of characters seem to be ambiguously conflicted about their own sexualities at some point, at least that’s how it seemed to me with Chiba, who desired to be the Romeo to Shuuichi’s Juliet both in and out of the play, Mako, who at points seem attracted to his friend, and like I said Doi himself, the hardest to understand in the whole series. Having lots of possibly LGBT characters together in a series of its time seems unlikely, it also makes it harder to believe of their ambiguity to take a supportive position of the protagonists, but like I said, as a whole this criticism is not that important because this point is left rather ambiguous.
Third, despite the big fuss made on the last couple of episodes and all the people mocking the main character, nobody strongly opposed the idea to have cross-dressing events in the following festival, and even the people making fun of Shuuichi would come to respect her position as the scriptwriter and director of the second play. Again, something seems to be missing near the end.
Fourth, I have a hard time believing that they would let one student take their classes away from everyone else, in the infirmary no less.
A point I’d like to address is that ten years later, Blue Period was adapted, and a character over there seems to be able to wear whatever they want, I thought it was weirdly accepted there as well, but apparently nowadays the rules in Japanese schools allow that, or so I remember reading two years ago when I began watching and reading those other works. This does not take away the credibility of Hourou Musuko, but it’s important to keep in mind that the situation it displays might be different nowadays.
As for the characters, they have a bit of the same issue as the ones from Aoi Hana, they come off as much more mature as you would expect from their age and this genre, even more so in here because they are younger than the ones from that other series, but at least here they still have some childish traits and more petty conflicts and impulsive reactions to be more believable. The incomplete ending and how different the last episode was from what was shown earlier makes the catharsis to feel lacking, incomplete and incoherent, but there’s a strong development for the two main characters, who come to accept themselves and confront others as the show goes on, even when Shuuichi is far bolder and more straightforward as she seemed at first.
Characters I would like to say a bit more in specific include:
-Chiba, who wants to be supportive of the two protagonists, but because of her own feelings, ends up being quite conservative on her views, resulting in a very conflicted character. She is also “at that age” and comes off as a very rude and bratty bitch of a girl, but interestingly, she also has the self-awareness and self-reflection of being like that, even accepting it when being confronted by others, and is also sincere of disliking herself for not being as kind and open minded as others. Part of the series is also dedicated to how this character comes to terms with herself and others.
-Anna Suehiro, a character without much depth on her own, but a strong contender for one of the best girls and girlfriends in the whole medium. Mature, kind, understanding, and supportive. She seemed a bit too perfect but the series bothered to show some childish and impulsive traits of her, proper to her age, like starting relationships impulsively, and it also shows the limits of how open minded she really is, resulting on two great scenes near the end of the anime, one of them in the specials.
-Characters like Maho and Momo, despite being unlikable themselves on their own, are needed for the sake of the writing, as they represent how transgender people can be rejected even by those close to them, and that not everyone is supportive. At least there are salvageable traits for the first that I already covered earlier, I can’t say the same about the second, she was close minded, a hypocrite, and not even much of a character by herself, as she is only defined for being close to another girl. This character doesn’t add anything to the whole, honestly, her role could have been filled, and better, by anyone else, but at least she doesn’t have much screentime to count as an important flaw.
Despite the issues in its credibility, pacing, ending and own position, I find Hourou Musuko to be one of the most thematic relevant anime out there, even more so considering the time period it came out, and even more so for its source material. Plus, it’s a slice of life where everything feels like it’s moving the plot forward, and it did the good thing of showing multiple different perspectives, to add complexity to a premise that seemed interesting but simple. Not only that but it also had an either very appealing, looked into and fleshed out cast with interesting dynamics, or a well handled one in terms of writing for the case of those characters that aren’t that good on their own, all in just eleven episodes. I don’t think there’s much rewatch value in it, but it is definitely a worth watch for at least one time, as long as you don’t hate on anyone that isn’t cisgender. Now I have to go, there’s a complete story of 123 chapters that I want and have to read as soon as possible to see how all of this truly ends.
7/10
