the beautiful world: Hourou Musuko-1. Roses are red, violets are blue

the trap promotion poster

the protagonists and their school friends

In a nutshell: The story depicts a young boy named Shūichi Nitori who wants to be a girl, and his friend Yoshino Takatsuki, a girl who wants to be a boy. From the mangaka who also gave us Aoi Hana.

Wandering Son was selected as a recommended work by the awards jury of the 10nth Japan Media Arts Festival in 2006.

Believe me, I don't know about the manga, but just by watching the first episode, this series is going to be one of the best anime ever!

Let's see... where shall I begin? Perhaps with an introduction of characters, because 90% of the viewers had serious problems getting things clear ( it's only natural since the series begins from the middle of the manga). I'll lend some scans from the manga to do so.

Ok, here we've got their families. Shuuichi's and Yoshino's respectively. They didn't appear that much in episode 1. We'll most probably see them, though. Below are the protagonists and friends- 'social network'.

You can click to enlarge

There are some characters missing from those images, but because some other scans have much more characters in them, that we still haven't seen at all, I decided not to give spoilers.

Of course already from the trailers and summaries on anime sites we had gotten a vague idea of the splendour this series was going to grace us with, both from content aspect as well as visual. This first episode from it's very first moments let us know what it's about:

screenshot from the first seconds of the opening theme: the stereotypical sex symbols, pink for girls and blue for boys- isn't the title 'Roses are red and violets are blue'?

As announced, it deals with the tough and delicate issue of transgender people and it carried that out in this episode quite well, with seriousness and gentleness. The opening, although not very special, is a good example: it is consisted mostly of school spaces, completely empty, faded out since the whole series is watercolour-drawn, and the credits -pay attention!- are multicoloured (what does a rainbow remind you?) and are a bit unusually put onto the screen- not flat out, but like in a 3D space, hanging from nowhere or floating around. Doesn't the whole setting create the viewer a sweet, tender feeling inside his/her heart and at the same time a tiny bit of sadness/bitterness/ emptiness? In my mind came Takaki's words from 5 centimeters per second:

By just living one's life, sadness accumulates here and there, be in the sheets hung out in the sun to dry, the toothbrushes in the bathroom, and the history logs of a mobile phone.

Notice the lyrics:

Is your heart always faithful there? [...]

If you knew the true me,

would you still smile like that?

[...] You can stay the way you are.

Crossdressing here isn't used as fanservice or comedy element. The lyrics imply gender identity issues, speak about the 'true self' generally, the wish for acceptance and the right to be yourself.The tone is upbeat and gives hope.

We get a tidbit of the themes this series will center around quite clearly:

puberty, coming out of age
gender issues, sexuality (gender roles, stereotypes, gender identity not coinciding with biological sex)
bullying- social rejection

Puberty in Hourou Musuko is used very cleverly. There are many coming out of age anime out there, some excellent ones, focused mainly on love relationships, the hardships of conveying emotions and the process of maturing. Yet this time period rarely is seen as a period of not only emotional instability, but also as a period when huge physical changes occure- much more as a period of questioning ones identity. And I say used, because this one theme underlines and supports the main topic of gender issues. Crossdressing becomes more and more difficult when breasts grow and a penis gets an errection. Even if a person tries to hide from him/herself his/her preferences (be it sexual desire or self-image), it becomes gradually impossible to ignore completely.

The discomfort is apparent, although the skirts are just a few cm above the knee! The way they used to see the world and the way the world functions around them now has changed.

Things get more complicated when you have to define what you want and at the same time get clear what's going on on your love life...too many things to handle together

And although one would assume that crossdressing girls wouldn't have much inner conflicts, since in every day life most of the women wear trousers, that isn't the case. Especially in a very strict society and a school environment where uniforms (different for each sex) still exist.

black screen for inner thoughts and emphasis on the inner tourmoil

But if society is one time hard on women, it's ten times harder on boys, as far as roles and expected behaviour is concerned. We see one of their female classmates, Chizuru, in a boy's uniform and she's quite confident herself about it.

But I don't think that any of the boys would dare going school in a girl uniform. Shuuichi might have dressed up quite a few times in the past as a model (we surely need more details on this and the parents knowledge and reaction), but it's not the same. He dared taking a stroll in town dressed as a girl, but he remained anonymous in such a huge crowd. The danger factor wasn't that high. oh, right, there's a flashback with him in primary school in a girl's uniform, but the details are unknown. It's just the first episode, after all.

Gender issues are all around though as it seems and not constrained to the Shuuichi and Yoshino pair. Many secrets seem to be shared. Now how healthy can that be? Hiding who you are?

Yoshino after talking with Chizuru, although I don't she refers to herself and her when she says 'we', rather than with the close friends from primary school.

Makoto has just left the scene and he's the one whom Shuuichi phoned to tell he crossdressed publicly.

Saorin's feet - she likes Shuuichi's crossdressing- a bit perplexed, isn't it?

And I get a feeling the secret they are talking about isn't just one and it's not only this picture- from left to right: Yoshino, Shuuichi and Saorin

For the time being the focus is on Shuuichi. And at a second level on Yoshino. It's the first person we see and in a first person narrative, when the episode begins. He speaks with a smile that is akward and timid. The things he tells us aren't something to smile for. His words are words of discomfort. That's the japanese etiquette- showing too many emotions isn't allowed. It could be also a tiny bit of his character or just the weirdness factor of a new situation.

He's talking about his uniform. But here his uniform is a symbol for his male body and roles the others have put on him.

He feels estranged to this body and cold inside. That's not what suits him.

And he's the one posing a question throughout the episode. In fact it's a nursery song- one though that resonates and troubles Shuuichi:

"What are little girls made of?"

"What are little boys made of?"

I don't think that Shuuichi likes at all the answer that the song gives about what are boys made of... he wants to be pretty, he likes it when he gets complimented as a cute girl... slimmy frogs and snails and hyperactive dogs sure aren't his cup of tea. He has a more serene personality, not quite energetic. And not fitting to the stereotypes that want boys tough. It's interesting to notice that the answers are given with very casual places/ objects (toilets and washing machine that is on). It's creating contradiction between the gravity of his interpretation of the song and the casualty of life.

The director used a clever 'trick' to show us the feelings of a 'wandering' son, the ups and downs: the 'mirrors'. Mirror is said to reflect the soul.

Look at that smile!

He isn't looking directly at these mirrors

Only his side is visible

The first mirror is a window. People open it to get some fresh air. The second mirror is a car's window, but this window doesn't only exist for vendilation purposes. It's also to check who's passing by you, to be able to drive safely. And the third mirror has similar meaning only that it distorts the image, making the reflection small at it's ends and big at its center. The first mirror, indoors, reflects a 'girl', the other two, outdoors, a boy with a skirt running...If associated with the happy and sad feelings of the boy they provoke interesting thoughts, don't you think?

The last two images are after Shuuichi was caught by his sister crossdressing with her clothes again. And I think we can speak of sister bullying here and the social intolerance in the eyes of the strangers.

First round of bullying- lectical abuse. Note: Pansy is a violet. The title of the episode is 'roses are red, violets are blue'. The irony is that blue is considered a boyish colour, yet it refers to a (feminine) flower...

Caught on the action... his gaze shows agony

She's ugly angry, isn't she?

Is there anything really to comment on? One could only give her an excuse due to her age. I guess she's jealous of her pretty brother, she doesn't want to share her clothes. She's freaked out with how different he is.

This time though he doesn't let it be her way. He reacts (perhaps because the other girl is watching them, too). And that's a first for his sister who initially gets surprised and...

then angry, infuriated even. She calls him sick :(

His sister's word get internalised and he repeats them

Pain is piled up inside and he runs and runs, barefoot, without even knowing where he's going. He stops after seeing Yoshino at the bridge. She offers him the boy's uniform, but immediately recognizes her mistake. "That's not what you need now". She gives him her hoodies, so he can pass as a girl. They walk together for awhile and talk. Yoshino preclaims her determination to achieve what she wants.

All the beautiful backgrounds give off a sweet melancholy, a pain that stemms from the contradiction between beauty, carefreeness and the transient nature of it, combined with the problems those kids face at the dawn of puberty.