HAPPINESS! A twelve part anime about teenagers in an imaginary co-ed high school. Part of their curriculum is magic which dominates the plot of each episode. One of the supporting characters is a boy named Jun Watarase who lives openly as a crossdressed boy going to school in a girls' uniform. His explanation is simple - girls' clothes fit him the best and besides that he likes them! He is accepted as part of his school friendship group which consists of both boys and girls. He is most often seen with the girls and seems to lean toward transitioning. Frequently he is teased by his male schoolmates for dressing like a girl but he is good-natured and lets such comments go by seemingly without worry, anger, fright or the wish for revenge (Couldn't we all do with a bit of that?).
We never find out how Jun got that way though the producers have put together a whole 13th espisode with him as the central character (I won't spoil it for you) titled WATARASE JUN NO KAREINARU ICHINICHI. The series can be found on the VEOH website though in a few episodes the voice and subtitles annoyingly don't connect. Try CRUNCHYROLL for a few episodes though it doesn't have all of them. YOUTUBE is supposed to carry the series however I didn't have time to check it out. Otherwise the series is light entertainment which I would rate as middling.
The website ANIMEXDRESS has this title as its new name. Not as extensive as I hoped it might be but it's done in color and for its size is well-designed. Someone has good taste and real artistic ability. A must-see for TG readers.
Characters from CHOBITS were part of the inspiration for Madeline Bells' GABY -THE ANIME DAYS, particularly the costumes of the waif-girl android, Chi. CHOBITS does not have a TG theme but deals with the issue of love between two different kinds of beings, in this case a human boy and an artificially intelligent android girl called a persocom. This comes in an eight volume manga series and a seven disc DVD anime set with twenty-four plus episodes. Among related products like dolls etc. there is book titled CHOBITS ART BOOK: YOUR EYES ONLY devoted to Chi, the main character in all of her girly costumes and settings. The anime story varies slightly from the manga series and includes several episodes that were put in to bulk up the product (e.g. trip to the beach, ghost story and one or two others). If you watch the dubbed-in English version you will lose some of the story thread. If you can take English sub-titles you'll get a clearer sense of what's happening. CHOBITS is one of the classic anime/manga series which no lover of the genre should miss.
As usual all comments positive or negative are welcome, but especially wanted from you TG readers is to hear about other anime/manga which you've run across.
Hourou Musuko
Marie, HAPPINESS! sounds interesting. I'll have to check it out. Is it a fansubbed series? If so, it may be easiest to aquire it through the various fansub bittorrent sites (animesuke, scarywater, etc...). Also note, that Veoh requires you to download their software to watch longer videos (usually those >20-25m). There is a lot of anime on youtube, though it can be a bit hard to find; often requiring the use of various 'listing sites'.
For my own suggestion:
Hourou Musuko is a manga about two young (fifth grade) transsexuals (one transboy, and one transgirl) who befriend each other, and how they deal with this while being one gender at home and school, and another when out around town together, and how they help each other through the ordeal.
http://kotonoha.monkey-pirate.com/ongoing-series/hourou-musuko/ has a translation project going for the manga (into english), and has finished the first three volumes and most of the fourth, but translation seems to be fairly slow going as they have many concurrent projects on their site, but more chapters are still being added.
It's a cute story with good characterization and tone. The tone reminds me of Confidental Confessions, a manga that has been brought to NA by TokyoPop. Though I only have the first volume of Confidental Confessions, both mangas bring out similar feelings to me, as they both deal with 'teenage coming of age' type themes and story plots; focusing on the less-often-dealt-with issues (in a serious manner anyway), such as teen pregnancy, alternate sexuality, depression, bullying etc.... Hourou Musuko, obviously, deals with transsexuality in young people, and the social and emotional issues that stem from that.
The story is well done, quite respectful, and realistic. For that reason, it may hit a little too close to home for some TS readers depending on ones mood/state of mind at the time of reading. It has a good balance of sentimentality and struggle. It isn't over-the-top happy go lucky, nor is it overly dark; but a good balance of both that I feel makes it more believeable and 'true' to what many TSs may have experienced IRL growing up. The way the characters interact and deal with their transsexuality rings very true to me, and really addresses the fear and hesitation a lot of us feel, especially in those early stages, quite well. I don't know how the LGBT scene/matters is/are in Japan, but I felt the story fit well with my own western experiences/viewpoint.
All in all, I think the manga is one of the better published TG-theme products out there, and was an ejoyable change from western products; where TG issues are generally only addressed in talk shows and comedies. The former often failing to properly address the issues, or giving misleading or downright incorrect information; while the latter is generaly insulting and has negative social impacts on the lives of the transgendered in a broader sense.
Takako Shimura, the manga-ka of this series (and a number of others with LGBT themes) clearly took the effort to really 'get' TG issues, and portray them faithfully; which even among the LGBT scene here in the west can be quite rare, if not non-existant, at times.
Anyway, it's a good read, and my only real complaint is that there isn't enough of it out there yet, especially if you can't read Japanese. It's slower, more passive, pace exasperates this a bit as well (at least, in the 3 volumes I've read), but I also feel this really adds to the atmosphere and fits transition nicely. Most TG stories move into transition or full-blown full-time very rapidly (which is often good for the story-telling, and gets you into the TG content which many readers are reading TG stories for in the first place; or is even a byproduct of plot devices (transformations, for example)), but this is often at odds of the way that things occur IRL where things generally come in baby-steps.
Hourou Musuko Sounds Interesting!
Calei Esprit - Thanks for the reply. I'll make a note of the title. From what I can gather translating from Japanese to English, especially getting "street language" or slang expressions into European languages is quite difficult. But it's probably worth it given the market for anime/manga in the States and Europe. I've run into some very amateurish anime subtitle translations which make the episodes impossible to view.
Most of the TG material in anime/manga I've seen tends to be comical. The only manga I found to be somewhat serious is YUBISAKI MILK TEA in which the lead character actually struggles with the idea of living a crossdressed life and considers getting breast augmentation. However the story goes no further than that other than to include scenes depicting the responses of others to his practice.
The genre strongly suggests that TG issues are of broader popular interest in Japan than in the States though at times I have heard otherwise.
marie c.
marie c.
Hourou Musuko
I've read the first two volumes of Hourou Musuko, and all I have to say is: "Wow!" It's easily as good as anything found here, and I'm completely hooked. Thanks for telling us about it!
-- Michelle