TG Anime and Manga.5

HOUROU MUSUKO: I followed up on Calei Esprit's suggestion and have read as much of Hourou as is available - four volumes at present. I had a hard time using the address she gave and used instead www.onemanga.com/hourou_musuko. It's much easier as the manga is already downloaded . All one has to do is click on a button to turn the page.

Hourou is a remarkable graphic novel in progress that deals with among other issues: being the person you want to be vs. what society wants; self-hatred; schoolmate teasing and bullying; normal changing affections between the very young; maturing into independence with parents who may or may not understand what's going on; sibling rivalry and the host of problems with normal day-to-day family life of boy who wants to be a girl and a girl who wants to be a boy - mixed in with all of the transgender issues that most of you know better than I.

And of course in a Japanese cultural setting with customs, practices and phrasing unfamiliar to most of us. By the way the translations into colloquial English are first rate and smooth. I hope the translators get a decent wage for the job of turning Japanese slang and offhand conversation into language that you hear every day on the street in the States. The translators pay attention to tiny details as well, especially explaining odd customs and even wall and street signs!

I look forward to future translations.

OTOBOKU: the story of a boy required to attend a girls school under the terms of his grandfather's will. Back in TGAM.3 I called the series OTOME WA BOKU NI KOISHITERU which is now available as OTOBOKU in a three DVD anime set, the third one not yet issued. I recommended watching it on CRUNCHYROLL or VEOH. It's becoming more apparent that the fansub presentations on these web sites are often abbreviated. That much was obvious in viewing the first two discs of Otoboku. At least two long scenes were present on the discs that were not in website versions. Likewise the subtitles were more detailed. All in all the additions add more clarity to the story line. So keep that in mind when you go websurfing for good TG anime.