Wandering Son Reflections, Episode 5 - Natsu no Owari ni (The End of Summer) ~Long, Long Shadow~

This is a continuation of my Hourou Musuko reflection series. You can see all the entries here.

You can watch the episode here.

Also, I’ve changed the name of this series. This felt more accurate, since it is not a review, really, as much as my reactions to the story on a personal level. I’ve also opted to start using the English translation of the series in the title. Also, now that the entire series has aired, I will be making occasional references to things that happen later in the series.

So, without any more delay, episode 5.

Trigger Warning: this entry contains discussion of cissexist slurs, in particular the T-word. If you want to skip that, start reading below the ‘End of Trigger Warning’ message

Also, Spoiler Warning

Thoughts on Hourou Musuko (放浪息子)

So, there is an anime called Hourou Musuko (problematic Wikipedia article is problematic, possibly due to translation issues at some point), and it appears to have, as its protagonist, a trans girl in the 5th grade. Other major characters include her friend, a trans boy, and several other peers who are supportive. It is a drama, and appears to portray the entire thing earnestly.

Now, the anime hasn’t aired yet. Crunchyroll appears to have secured rights to webcast the show in several Western countries as it airs in Japan. Now, this will be of limited use to me, because I know about, oh, maybe 200 - 500 words of spoken Japanese. I’m not sure if Crunchyroll has some kind of magic time-travelling subtitling machine. That’d be awesome.

The thing is, I might watch it anyway, even if I can’t understand the language.

This show is ambitious. It is, to my knowledge, the only television show ever to star a transgender main character. It is, as they say, relevant to my interests. The fact that the trailer made me cry, without understanding a word of it, should be some indication of how powerful the idea of this show is for me (and hey, the trailer appears to have subtitles now. Those crunchyroll folks don’t mess around! and with subtitles, I find it moves me just as much).

So. Let’s compare this show, which appears to be a sympathetic portrayal of two trans youth facing the onset of puberty, with other portrayals of trans people (these are in the order that they popped into my head):

• Cowboy Bebop (Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, I think) - a very masculine character in a night gown answers a door when one of the main characters knocks. Played for shock value and laughs.
• The Big Bang Theory - again, trans woman / cross-dresser (unspecified which one, since the character only exists for 10 seconds or so) answers a door in a flashback, when a main character knocks at the wrong address. She says something to the effect of “you’re looking for that weirdo across the hall”, which the main character then says “should have been a clue”, i.e. obviously trans people are weird. Again, played for shock value and laughs.
• Ace Ventura: Pet Detective - okay, yeah, I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel here. The movie reeks from beginning to end. But it is also one of the worst examples of transphobia in mainstream media that comes to mind.
• Glee - you know, I’m just gonna leave this one here. They think slurs against trans people are okay, which at least none of my other examples do.
• Guilty Gear - Bridget. Let’s not forget poor, fetishized Bridget.

Now, there are shows that have done it better:

• Ugly Betty has, I am told, a fairly sympathetic portrayal of a trans woman. I’ve not seen it, so I can’t comment further.
• Veronica Mars - an early episode had a portrayal of a trans woman that was fairly realistic and sympathetic. It included a scene where the woman’s son discovers who she is and responds by yelling some hateful things, but the show (especially given events later in the episode) gave me the impression that he was reacting out of ignorance, shock, and unquestioned cissexism. It was a sadly realistic example of cissexism, and seemed to do a lot to portray it without endorsing it.
• Castle - one episode featured a reveal that involved a discovering that a woman was trans. It was not played for shock (any more than any reveal in a detective show is); it was simply one more bit of the typical crime show puzzle. None of the characters reacted as if it were any more unusual than discovering she had simply changed her name.

But even these examples are lukewarm, or involve minor characters that spend very little time in the center of the story. Hourou Musuko gives us a show that focuses explicitly on trans issues. The fact that this show exists at all gives me hope, and I really look forward to watching it (especially in a form I can understand, come quick subtitles!). If this story is told well, I think it has the potential to create help, at least a little bit, to normalize trans experience in our culture.

It would be really exciting to see this show on the air in the US. I have no idea how likely that is, though, given the tone of most anime that ends up on the air in the States. The manga, at least, is being translated for an English release, though.

I don’t know if I actually expressed the point I was trying to make. I don’t even know what the point was, if I had one at all. It’s late, and my brain is fuzzy now.