Hourou Musuko, or Wandering Son, starts out in the middle of the action and just keeps on running, relying on little tricks through the series in order to flesh out the events that happened before the series started (in the manga) and give insight into the characters. This works out really well, in terms of storyline. This is a crossroads for the characters, a turning point in adolescence as Shuichi makes more definitive moves to define who he is as a person. It also doesn’t take long to establish who the characters are and bring out their own internal conflicts… or, occasionally, the lack of them.

Puberty is a hard time for most people, and this anime highlights something we all deal with, but does so in a vastly different ways. Most girls discover that they want to be women, and go about it by discovering makeup, practicing kissing, and generally behaving in ways that emphasize their feminine qualities. Boys, in turn, discover they want to be men and emphasize their masculinity. Shuichi and Yoshino also have these desires, but for the opposite gender. There is no confusion on their part about wanting to be the other gender- it’s how to go about it that sends them (mostly Shuichi, however) into confusion. Will they cross-dress in public? Will they get surgeries when they are old enough? It’s tough enough dealing with family with these issues, so how can they deal with the public at large?

The story not only deals with questions of how to present their identity, but also touches on gender issues on society at large. The inherent sexism built into issues of clothing comes up when Yoshino has no problem dressing up as a boy, but when Shuichi comes to school as a girl he’s treated as a freak. The hypocrisy of an entire class being able to put on a gender-bender play with no issue, but an individual being excluded for it. The issues of love when one’s own gender identity comes into question.

Love is a big issue in this series, and one of the questions that was on my mind was whether homosexuality factored into this. For Yoshino and Shuichi, there’s no sign of it- they would love each other no matter what their genders were. It’s just love, and it’s only for each other. But others are affected by this, such as a girl who’s in love with Shuichi as he is. There’s also a transsexual woman who is living with a man. A transgendered, married woman helps Shuishi talk about and explore the probalem and issues that come with how he feels, and provides a safe place for him to talk. None of these issues are really explored on a deep level, only as to how they affect the character’s lives, which means I will be checking out the manga as soon as possible.

It does show the effects on their lives quite well, though. There’s no clear path for them to follow, no definitive answers as to where this need to be another gender will lead them. The growth and change in their relationships is realistic, at times hard to watch, but at the same time beautiful in its own way. It ended at a good spot, with many things left unsaid, but a lot of room to infer what’s happening between the characters.

Overall, while there was an abrupt throw into the story, and a few dangling plot threads at the end, this still manages to come out as a wonderful, sensitive look into the issues of gender identity.

Nudity/Sexual Content- This deals with the issues of gender identity. None of the main characters are homosexual, they just wish they were a different gender. A side character who appears infrequently is a mother/mentor character to the boy, and is a transgendered woman who married a man.