An effeminate boy who wants to be a girl, a masculine girl who wants to be a boy, and a girl who comes to her first day at a new school dressed in a boy’s uniform just because. On its own it sounds a bit like the beginning of a joke that begins with three people walking into a bar, and with the word ‘anime’ added into the mix, it probably sounds like a recipe for a series involving a lot of fanservice and not much else.
You could be forgiven for that, since the amount of anime titles that deal with gender identity and cross-dressing in a realistic and non-comedic way are extremely few and far between. In fact, counting this particular anime, I can think of exactly one.
That title is Hourou Musuko.
It seems a little redundant to discuss the story of Hourou Musuko since, like any slice-of-life title, the plot consists of what anyone might expect – a group of young teens attempting to carve out a place for themselves amongst their peers and families while going through all the joys of navigating puberty and school life.
What makes this anime stand out from the countless similar-sounding titles are the characters.
Shuichi, a cute but unassuming male, begins to cross-dress with the encouragement of his friends, is nonetheless still attracted to girls and worries about the physical changes his body will go through. Yoshino, a tall and more emotional young girl, prefers to dress an act like a boy but doesn’t like to draw attention to herself and refrains from cross-dressing unless she travels outside of her home city. Then there are personalities like the outgoing and impulsive Chizuru, who occasionally dresses as a boy as a gesture of independence, yet who seems perfectly happy just the way she is.
In short, every character in this series is unique in their own way, yet also comes across as far more down-to-earth than many, if not the majority, of those presented in other slice-of-life titles.
While Hourou Musuko does have its humorous moments, it avoids straying into primarily comedic fare as with anime such as Azumanga Daioh and K-On!. At the same time, it also manages to steer clear of any real melodrama, which some of the more serious slice-of-life anime like Honey and Clover and AnoHana never quite achieved.
Technically speaking, there is little about Hourou Musuko that I can criticise.
The artwork is reminiscent of watercolour, soft and almost fuzzy around the edges to give the entire series a very gentle style. There are no unnatural hair colours or huge eyes to be found here; it’s more akin to Miyazaki’s work than anything else in terms of general tone, although the drawback of this is that character recognition based purely on design is more difficult than viewers may be used to. It certainly suits the tenor of the anime, but the cast is relatively large and so it may take the audience at home a while to pin everyone down.
Likewise, the voice acting is well above standard, and there are some talented actors among the cast including Chiba Saeko (Kare Kano and Nodame Cantabile), Horie Yui (Toradora! and Loveless), Fujiwara Keiji (Full Metal Alchemist, Durarara!!, and Death Note), and of course Mizuki Nana, who needs no introduction unless you’ve only been watching anime released before the late 90s.
Hourou Musuko is not for everyone.
You’re out of luck if you have a particular penchant for those slice-of-life titles that rely mainly on moe charm, and if you’re expecting to see flawless bishounen or pseudo-lesbian scenes just because there’s lots of cross-dressing involved, then you’ll be quickly disappointed.
However, for those anime fans after something touching and heartfelt but a little off the beaten track, then I suggest you give Hourou Musuko a try. At the very least, you’ll finally be watching something that doesn’t stoop to using gender reversal as an oversexed plot device.
