Hōrō Musuko

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Hourou Musuko
放浪息子
(The Wandering Son)
Manga
Author Takako Shimura
Publisher Flag of Japan Enterbrain
Demographic Seinen
Magazine Comic Beam
Original run December, 2002 – ongoing
Volumes 7

Hōrō Musuko (放浪息子 Hōrō Musuko?, lit. Wandering Son) is a Japanese manga authored by Takako Shimura. It is serialized in the monthly published manga magazine Comic Beam and is currently ongoing. Fifty-seven chapters have been compiled into seven tankōbon as of 2008. The series deals with issues such as transsexuality, gender identity and the begin of puberty.

Contents

[edit] Summary

Shūichi Nitori, a boy who wants to become a girl, meets the tall, handsome girl Yoshino Takatsuki at the school he transferred to. In the beginning he hides his feelings of wanting to be a girl, but he gets caught while cross-dressing by his classmate Saori Chiba on accident. Fortunately, Saori holds good will for Shūichi, and thus supports him with his hobby, going so far to even giving him a dress for his birthday.

One day, Yoshino is over at Shūichi's and discovers the dress. Shūichi is bewildered, but then learns that his friend is a girl who wants to become a boy herself, who sometimes wears gakuran. Sharing their secret, the two of them go to faraway places, Shūichi wearing a seifuku, Yoshino a gakuran. The story follows the two of them growing up, worrying about the bodily changes they will be going through, and trying to find their own way of life.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Main Characters

Shūichi Nitori (二鳥修一 Nitori Shūichi?) 
The main character. His nicknames are Shū (シュウ Shū?) and Nitorin (にとりん Nitorin?). He is a boy who wants to become a girl. At the start of serialization, Shūichi is a ten year old fifth grade student at elementary school. His family consists of father, mother and his older sister Maho. In general, he has a very obedient, peaceful attitude, but sometimes experiences outbursts of emotion. He is skilled at baking and making sweets. When cross-dressing, it is impossible to tell that he is a boy because of his cute appeareance, just like that of a normal girl.
By being the protagonist, he often is in the center of occurences and developments, but has the tendency to tire out easily. He only rarely acts out. On the occasions of trying to feel more positively about himself his plans often backfire, resulting in him feeling down.
He has many female friends, but is bad at associating with boys. He holds a strong yearning for cute girls, for that reason he proposes to Suehiro Anna to go out with him, her being a pretty teen model herself.
Yoshino Takatsuki (高槻よしの Takatsuki Yoshino?) 
The other main character. She is a girl who wants to become a boy. At the start of serialization, she is a fifth grade student at elementary school. Her family consists of father, mother, older brother and older sister. As she is a handsome girl and tall in height, she is called Takatsuki-kun (高槻くん Takatsuki kun?) by other girls (see Japanese honorifics).

[edit] Friends

Saori Chiba (千葉さおり Chiba Saori?) 
A good friend of Shūichi. Her nickname is Saorin. At the start of serialization, she, too is a fifth grade student and in a classmate of the two protagonists. She appears selfish, but is actually a sensitive, emotionally instable girl. Because of her self-centered attitude she is disliked by most of the girls, but her physical attractivity gain her popular status with the boys. She generally is obedient, but because of her rash, sometimes even extreme actions taken when she is overly emotional, the author herself called her a "dangerous beauty" (“デンジャラスビューティー”?) repeatedly[1]. Because of her yearning for Shūichi, if he is ridiculed or teased by others because of his femininity or cross-dressing, she goes after the bullies and furiously reprimands them, even zhough she is aware of Shūichis probable dissaprove.
Kanako Sasa (佐々かなこ Sasa Kanako?) 
She sees herself as everyones friend. Her popular nickname is Sasa-chan, but she is called Kanabun (カナブン lit.?) (drone beetle) by her younger brother and Chizuru. At the start of serialization, she too is a classmate of the protagonists. She is very short in appeareance and seems innocent, almost naive and thus comes off as very young and childish. She mentioned of herself that if she thinks too hard, her brain becomes itchy. As a straight-forward girl, she often serves as a mediator in times of crisis between her friends. She is a childhood friend of Yoshino and since entering junior high school became close friends with Chizuru.
Makoto Ariga (有賀誠 Ariga Makoto?) 
Chizuru Sarashiya (更科千鶴 Sarashiya Chizuru?) 
Momoko Shirai (白井桃子 Shirai Momoko?) 

[edit] Adult Friends

Yuki (ユキ Yuki?) 
Shi-chan (しーちゃん Shii chan?) 

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Character summaries of volume 4 and 7

[edit] External links

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