<b>Review of Wandering Son #5 by Sarah</b>
“Look at her! You’d think it’s the end of the world!”
Shuichi ‘Nitorin’ Nitori (a boy who would rather have been born a girl) and his friend Yoshino Takatsuki (a girl who would rather have been born a boy) are starting junior high. The four previous volumes have followed the two (and their friends and relations) as they go through elementary school and now we see them, filled with apprehension, about to undergo the next ordeal: the school entrance ceremony. Takatsuki-san is amazed and appalled as another female student does what she would have loved to do but didn’t dare: wear the traditional boys’ black uniform, where all the other girls are in skirts and blazers. Sarashina Chizuru is the bold newcomer and thus begins a difficult time for poor Takatsuki, as she tries to get along with ‘Chii-chan’. Meanwhile, Nitorin is having troubles enough of his own adjusting to the new school and the idea of puberty, although his friend Mako-chan, another boy with gender confusion issues, thinks it might be a good idea if they both recorded their voices before they break. Takatuski’s moment of truth comes when she’s told at school to go and get a bra. Her shopping expedition with Chii-chan doesn’t go as well as either girl expects, especially as Chii-chan has the tendency to boldly do things her way, without ever anticipating the consequences (wearing a bikini for school swimming?).
And then there’s the upcoming play for the school festival. The class’s teacher, apparently blissfully unaware of the seething and confused feelings of his pubescent charges, decides to ask his students to put forward their ideas. Nitorin comes up with a play proposal in which everyone’s gender is swapped. His friend Saori-san would like to put on a modern Romeo and Juliet in which no one dies. The teacher wants to stage a murder mystery. Can a compromise be found?
Shimura Takako has created an engaging slice-of-life manga that gently captures much of the day-to-day anxieties everyone experiences when moving from childhood to the teenage years. Her characters designs are attractive yet realistic and she is particularly good at capturing feelings through a subtle range of expressions: an essential gift for a mangaka who has chosen to depict this age group. The colour pages are especially attractive, done with a light, water-colour/pastel feel.
Fantagraphics are giving the Wandering Son series a deluxe presentation: in hardback, with some colour illustrations and a fluent, sensitive translation from the excellent (as always) Matt Thorne who also provided helpful notes at the back of the earlier volumes. This is a handsome book – but the downside is that it’s expensive at £16.99 (and it’s heavy to hold as well.) I can’t help wondering whether opting for the expensive hardback route was the best way to bring this sensitive exploration of transgender issues and the pleasures and pitfalls of growing up to a YA audience (especially in these days when library budgets have been so savagely cut.) That niggle aside, Wandering Son makes for a charming, amusing and, at times, painful read. It would be make great material to use in PSHE lessons to break the ice when discussing LGBT issues.
<b>Final score: 8 out of 10</b>
“Look at her! You’d think it’s the end of the world!”
Shuichi ‘Nitorin’ Nitori (a boy who would rather have been born a girl) and his friend Yoshino Takatsuki (a girl who would rather have been born a boy) are starting junior high. The four previous volumes have followed the two (and their friends and relations) as they go through elementary school and now we see them, filled with apprehension, about to undergo the next ordeal: the school entrance ceremony. Takatsuki-san is amazed and appalled as another female student does what she would have loved to do but didn’t dare: wear the traditional boys’ black uniform, where all the other girls are in skirts and blazers. Sarashina Chizuru is the bold newcomer and thus begins a difficult time for poor Takatsuki, as she tries to get along with ‘Chii-chan’. Meanwhile, Nitorin is having troubles enough of his own adjusting to the new school and the idea of puberty, although his friend Mako-chan, another boy with gender confusion issues, thinks it might be a good idea if they both recorded their voices before they break. Takatuski’s moment of truth comes when she’s told at school to go and get a bra. Her shopping expedition with Chii-chan doesn’t go as well as either girl expects, especially as Chii-chan has the tendency to boldly do things her way, without ever anticipating the consequences (wearing a bikini for school swimming?).
And then there’s the upcoming play for the school festival. The class’s teacher, apparently blissfully unaware of the seething and confused feelings of his pubescent charges, decides to ask his students to put forward their ideas. Nitorin comes up with a play proposal in which everyone’s gender is swapped. His friend Saori-san would like to put on a modern Romeo and Juliet in which no one dies. The teacher wants to stage a murder mystery. Can a compromise be found?
Shimura Takako has created an engaging slice-of-life manga that gently captures much of the day-to-day anxieties everyone experiences when moving from childhood to the teenage years. Her characters designs are attractive yet realistic and she is particularly good at capturing feelings through a subtle range of expressions: an essential gift for a mangaka who has chosen to depict this age group. The colour pages are especially attractive, done with a light, water-colour/pastel feel.
Fantagraphics are giving the Wandering Son series a deluxe presentation: in hardback, with some colour illustrations and a fluent, sensitive translation from the excellent (as always) Matt Thorne who also provided helpful notes at the back of the earlier volumes. This is a handsome book – but the downside is that it’s expensive at £16.99 (and it’s heavy to hold as well.) I can’t help wondering whether opting for the expensive hardback route was the best way to bring this sensitive exploration of transgender issues and the pleasures and pitfalls of growing up to a YA audience (especially in these days when library budgets have been so savagely cut.) That niggle aside, Wandering Son makes for a charming, amusing and, at times, painful read. It would be make great material to use in PSHE lessons to break the ice when discussing LGBT issues.
<b>Final score: 8 out of 10</b>