Hourou Musuko/Wandering Son Transgender Anime

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Has any of you here on BC ever watched the Japanese anime Hourou Musuko/Wandering Son?

If not, you should, it is an amazing series dealing with a middle school child and her friend dealing with there Transgender identities.

As I have mentioned before on comments and so on, I am a BIG anime fan. And for those who are not clued up, Japanese Anime and western Cartoons are not the same thing. Japanese Anime tend to be far more aimed at an intelligent thinking audience and western cartoons are mainly aimed at children, except maybe South Park and the Simpsons and their spin-offs. There is a lot of horrible Japanese Anime too, make no mistake. And anime purely aimed at young children, but Hourou Musuko/Wandering Son is not one of those.

Here is its synopsis as found on MyAnimeList:

https://myanimelist.net/anime/8426/Hourou_Musuko?q=Hourou%20...

"Effeminate fifth grader Shuuichi Nitori is considered by most to be one of the prettiest girls in school, but much to her dismay, she is actually biologically male. Fortunately, Shuuichi has a childhood friend who has similar feelings of discomfort related to gender identity: the lanky tomboy Yoshino Takatsuki, who, though biologically female, does not identify as a girl. These two friends share a similar secret and find solace in one another; however, their lives become even more complicated when they must tread the unfamiliar waters of a new school, attempt to make new friends, and struggle to maintain old ones. Faced with nearly insurmountable odds, they must learn to deal with the harsh realities of growing up, transsexuality, relationships, and acceptance.

Lauded as a decidedly serious take on gender identity and LGBT struggles, Takako Shimura's Hourou Musuko is about Shuuichi and Yoshino's attempts to discover their true selves as they enter puberty, make friends, fall in love, and face some very real and difficult choices."

This series is hard to get, but there are some websites that do have it available for download. If you want the links I can give them to you.

This is really the only Japanese anime that deals with transsexuality in a very realistic way.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/RG2JiRohtmQ?enablejsapi=1&wmod...

Comments

What a coinkydink!

LookingGlass's picture

I have seen it and mentioned it a couple of times to people. It was nicely done considering how anime usually portrays non-gender conforming characters.

Have you tried...

Mantori's picture

... the following websites before?

KissAnime probably has the widest variety of anime for download
https://kissanime.ru/Anime/Hourou-Musuko

And then there is 9Anime where one can sometimes find some really rare anime.
https://www3.9anime.to/watch/wandering-son.2p05

I have completed just under 1500 titles on MyAnimeList. And for me, there is no life without anime.

"Life in general is a fuck up,
but it is the rare moments of beauty and peace
in between the chaos,
That makes it worth living."
- Tertia Hill

Read the manga

I found the manga of this a fair while ago. It got up to chapter 123 and then went AWOL.

https://www.mangareader.net/hourou-musuko/1 (and elsewhere, probably)

I liked it a lot, it is a very thoughtful look at a situation that would be confusing for the participants.

Penny

It's realistic

But it's also a tragedy. If you cant stand seeing a trans girl and trans boy being tortured because of their gender... I don't recommend it. it's very serious and very painfully blunt. Like... the transphobia that is prevalent in Japan is very much shown here. And... it's not pretty. Not to mention... the scene where her voice broke... I broke down in tears...

Please understand, there is no happy ending, this is real life, if you can handle that, enjoy.

I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Transgender, Gamer, Little, Princess, Therian and proud :D

Yes, I fully agree...

Mantori's picture

... it is a tragedy. But I would rather see the realistic portrayal of what it means to be TG than a fantastical pie in the sky version. All the abuse, all the prejudices, all the rejection front and centre. Because when it is shown to the world at large in a realistic non-preachy way, and the so-called 'mystery' of being trans is laid bare and naked for all to see, maybe then is when we will see real change in the attitudes of the public at large towards us as a valid part of society.

"Life in general is a fuck up,
but it is the rare moments of beauty and peace
in between the chaos,
That makes it worth living."
- Tertia Hill