Manga Review: Wandering Son volume 2

First off, I recommend anyone reading this volume to read the "Transgendered in Japan" essay by Wandering Son's translator, Matt Thorn, before reading the rest of the volume. You'll have a better appreciation of the context for some scenes in this volume's final arc if you have the knowledge imparted by one of the topics touched on by the essay first.

And it's a great essay all-around, explaining what it takes to legally change one's gender in Japan, societal views of trans people (framed within the context of how the lgbt community as a whole is perceived in Japan), and the roles/portrayals trans people get in the media. There's some interesting, if unsurprising, discussion of how views/portrayals of trans women and gay men are interrelated. Thorn also discusses manga portrayals, a couple wonderful lgbt celebrities (a trans comedienne who publicly called out Governor Ishihara for some homophobic remarks and a lesbian fashion model who blogs about lgbt issues), and the inaccuracies of Western views of Japanese views about lgbt people. Really a fantastic essay.

Anyway, onto the main review~

Nitori, Takatsuki, Chiba, and Sasa start the sixth grade, but Chiba gets placed in a different class. Nitori's new teacher assigns the kids to write an essay about their dream. Nitori's dream is to grow up to be a beautiful woman, but that can't exactly be turned in. Maho, bless her blunt sincerity, suggests BSing the essay, but Nitori doesn't write down any dream at all.

Nitori and Takatsuki start an exchange diary, and worry about including Chiba and Sasa (meaning they'd have to out themselves to Sasa), but Chiba and Sasa start their own exchange diary, so phew. Nitori and Takatsuki expect Sasa to be supportive but, understandably, coming out to her (especially when they don't feel ready) would still be stressful.

And Yukiiiiii. I love that Shimura Takako includes older role models for her protagonists in this series and Aoi Hana. Yuki, who seems suspect at first, when we don't really know her, turns out to be one of the best things to happen to Nitori and Takatsuki. I also like how the story shows that Nitori and Takatsuki's friendship with Yuki is good for her too. She didn't know anyone else who was transsexual growing up, so it's cathartic for her to see them as friends and make things easier for them.

Finally, the field trip arc. A boy classmate targets Nitori for bullying, causing Chiba to (understandably) lose her temper. And, of course, the teacher only notices what she did. Still, Chiba tells Nitori that they're "bosom buddies" (I love the Anne of Green Gables references in this volume; it was one of my favorite books as a kid because I loved Anne), Nitori and Takatsuki run into Yuki and her boyfriend Shii-chan on vacation, and Nitori works up the courage to tell off the bully. (Yay Nitori!!)

Besides the essay, extras includes a Pronunciation Guide and an Honorifics Guide. The translation is still excellent. Just one quibble- I don't mind "Sayonara" being left untranslated at one point, but it's a bit weird that Nitori's teacher saying "H-hai" to Yuki isn't translated as "Y-yes."

There is also an Afterword in comic form by Shimura Takako. No matter how self-deprecatingly she presents herself, I will still turn to jelly if I ever meet her.

Story: A
Art: A-
Overall: A

Legally Streaming Yuri and Yuri-ish Anime Series (Updated)

Color me shocked. (Really; I'm not being sarcastic.) Oniisama E has been licensed for streaming. It's viewable everywhere except Italy and Japan. Now you can watch this dark classic, which I consider the earliest yuri anime series, legally and with good video quality instead of the unfortunate graininess of the fansub.

This bit of news put me in the mood to list every series containing (what I consider) canon yuri that's streaming legally in English. "Canon yuri" runs the gamut from something focusing squarely on yuri, like Sasameki Koto, to a series in which the only canon yuri is a one-sided crush from a side character, as with Noir's Chloe or Gokujou Seitokai's Kaori. Thankfully, the one-sided crush shows tend to have some nice subtext also. I'm not looking up the region restrictions for all of these shows. I'm sorry if you're blocked from watching something and agree that region restrictions are stupid. If I've missed a show, feel free to let me know!

Enjoy!


2x2=Shinobuden (Ninja Nonsense) episodes 1 and 2 on YouTube

Air Master on Crunchyroll and Funimation 

Blue Drop on The Anime Network, YouTube, and Crunchyroll.

CANAAN on The Anime Network and YouTube 

El Cazador de la Bruja on Funimation

Gokujou Seitokai (Best Student Council) on Crunchyroll

Hidamari Sketch season 1, season 2 and season 3 <- The first two episodes of each season are available for free. The rest are only available to people who subscribe to The Anime Network.

Hourou Musuko (Wandering Son) on Crunchyroll

Ikkitousen seasons 1 and 2 on Crunchyroll

Jormungand on Funimation

Kanamemo on Crunchyroll

Kannazuki no Miko (Destiny of the Shrine Maiden) on The Anime Network

Kiddy Grade on Funimation <- Dubbed only. I still haven't watched this show, but I'm told there's some canon yuri. 

Koihime Musou, Shin Koihime Musou and Shin Koihime Musou: Otome Tairan on Crunchyroll

Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora (Shattered Angels) on Funimation <- Dubbed only.

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon (Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere) seasons 1 & 2 on Crunchyroll

Noir on Funimation

Maria-sama ga Miteru (Maria Watches Over Us) season 1, episodes 1 through 9 on YouTube

Morita-san ha Mukuchi on Crunchyroll

Mouretsu Pirates (Bodacious Space Pirates) on Crunchyroll <- If this series is faithful enough to the novels it's adapting, there should eventually be a canon couple. Update: Couple confirmed!

Oniisama E (Dear Brother) on ViKi and Hulu

Psycho-Pass on Funimation and Hulu

Puella Magi Madoka Magica on Crunchyroll

Queen's Blade seasons 1 and 2 on Crunchyroll

Revolutionary Girl Utena episodes 1 and 2 on YouTube

Rose of Versailles on Viki (5 more episodes will be added each week.)

Saki on Crunchyroll

Saki Achiga-hen Episode of Side A on Crunchyroll

Sasameki Koto on Crunchyroll

Sengoku Otome: Momoiro Paradox (Battle Girls: Time Paradox) on Crunchyroll 

Senki Zesshou Symphogear on Funimation 

Taisho Yakyuu Musume (Taisho Baseball Girls) on The Anime Network <- The first two episodes are available for free. The rest are only available to subscribers. 

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun (A Certain Scientific Railgun) on YouTube and Hulu

YuruYuri seasons 1 & 2 on Crunchyroll


And here are some subtext-only shows that are popular now:

Removed Black Rock Shooter from this listing because Funimation removed its stream of it.

Last Exile: Fam no Ginkyoku (Last Exile: Fam the Silver Wing) on Funimation and Hulu

Rinne no Lagrange (Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne) on Viz and Hulu

Anime of Interest to Yuri Fans in 2011

To make a decent-sized list possible, I had to use series that aren't really necessarily yuri, but are of interest to us- a problem that I will not have with my manga list. As Erica pointed out, the pickings this year are really freaking slim. But there's still some good stuff out there. I'm just listing everything I've tried that has come out this year alphabetically.

A Channel made me fall asleep. Not kidding. That's why I never made it past episode 2.

Fate/Zero wins the Most Delicious Subtext award for Saber's suit and her knightliness towards Irisviel, which some may have noticed I like.

Edit @ 9:23 pm: Whoops, accidentally didn't include the following title earlier.

Ga-Rei-Zero on DVD and Blu Ray: A solid pick for the action fan who likes yuri subtext, dubious though it may be. Just make sure to have tissues on hand at the end.

Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere: Malga and Margot win the Best (well, only) Canon Couple of the Year Award. The series that they're in is a piece of crap. Even with a yuri couple in it, I cannot fault anyone for skipping or dropping it. And Malga and Margot don't get very much screen time. (To be fair, Horizon is crammed with characters and most of them don't get any more screen time than Malga and Margot.) But after coolly taking down a flying battle mech in episode 10, Malga and Margot had the only yuri kiss of the year (in front of a sunset, to boot), and it was tender and had actual love behind it. (Fujieda Miyabi likes them too.)

Hourou Musuko is a brilliant coming-of-age series. No magic, no fights, just a cast of likeable people- lgbt (Nitori, Takatsuki, Yuki, Momo, Mako, etc) and not- interacting realistically. This series wins the Show Most Likely To Filter Out People Who Don't Actually Care About LGBT People award. Not to say that not getting into it means that you don't care about lgbt people. But if you meet a non-lgbt person who likes this show, chances are better that they would care about lgbt rights than, say, your average non-lgbt person enjoying the lgbt elements in Kashimashi.

K-ON! on DVD and Blu Ray: Mugi, and a lot of people like slashing the characters.

Koihime Musou seasons 1-3 on DVD: It has a lot of yuri characters. There's a cute canon couple, but they can't really compete for the Best Canon Yuri Couple award because the third (and probably last) Koihime Musou season aired in 2010. I'm not a Sousou fan, but I did like that she outright said that she "only takes women to bed" in that scene with the doctor. How often are yuri characters that plainspoken about being gay, without an "I hate men, icky men are brutes" qualifier, a la Sakura from Kämpfer? Sousou doesn't have anything against men, she just doesn't want to sleep with them. Whatever faults Koihime Musou has, it did that bit right.

Last Exile -Ginkyoku no Fam-: I tried an episode. Aside from the awful opening scene, it was fun, but I didn't stick with it because I was already content with what I was watching at the time.

Mawaru Penguindrum was gripping, intelligent, and frequently poignant to watch, but unlike its older sister Utena, I can't recommend it for its yuri.

Morita-san ha Mukuchi: A cute little show that had some non-obnoxius yuri. The way that Mayu's classmate Yamamoto handled being confessed to by a girl who had one-sided feelings her was nice. If there's one thing that I would be willing to watch another season of this series for, it would be Yamamoto herself admitting that she's gay, which happens later in the manga.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is my Top Yuri Anime of the Year pick. The plot was driven by yuri (won't spoil how), and it was excellent. It doesn't hurt that [spoiler] was an incredible badass in her quest to [spoiler spoiler spoiler]. I expected this series to be kind of lame, but was surprised like almost everyone else by how gripping it became. (Side note: I've shown some anime over the years to my utterly non-otaku dad, like Miyazaki's films, Grave of the Fireflies, Fullmetal Alchemist, Kannazuki no Miko, and Utena- just to share titles that I like and de-mystify my hobby. I showed him Madoka Magica. He was initially intrigued by the crazy visuals, and thought that it was "a terrific show" after I showed him the last episode. Madoka's core base may be hardcore otaku, but it clearly can appeal to people who wouldn't know SHAFT from Gainax and don't know what it's deconstructing.) I was also amused by how similar you-know-who is to a certain character from KnM. I'm looking forward to seeing the alternate direction that the upcoming Madoka Magica movies take.

Revolutionary Girl Utena easily wins Best English-Language Release on DVD or Blu Ray. A yuri classic and one of the best shows ever ever ever, re-released with remastered visuals and audio.

Sengoku Otome had yuri in it.

Sound of the Sky (Sora no Woto) on DVD: As a yuri fan, I had to make soup from stones to see anything in this series. And episode 8 was awful. But as a slice-of-life/war story hybrid with pretty music, it's still enjoyable for me.

Yuruyuri: May it herald other, better Yuri Hime adaptations.


Agree, or have differing opinions? Feel free to share!

More Shimura Takako Goodness: the Hourou Musuko anime

This series was a joy to watch... and re-watch. Even though I was initially surprised by its not opening with the beginning of the Hourou Musuko manga's storyline, I think that change was a good move. Like the Aoi Hana anime, the Hourou Musuko anime feels like it was made by people who really respect the source material they're adapting, and that's all that any fan could hope for.

Nitori Shuuichi and Takatsuki Yoshino (who became close friends after each found out that the other is transgender) are entering their first year of middle school with their friendship on the rocks because of a love triangle involving their friend Chiba Saori (the first person who recognized that Nitori prefers girls' clothing). Chiba likes Nitori who likes Takatsuki who doesn't like anyone.

Nitori and Takatsuki quickly repair their friendship, and Nitori gets over Takatsuki and starts dating a model named Anna. While Nitori's preference for girls' clothes doesn't bother Anna, it evokes hostility from Nitori's older sister Maho, the only member of Nitori's family who knows. Thankfully, Maho's bark is worse than her bite. She's much more supportive than she likes to think she is. Conversely, Anna breaks up with Nitori after Nitori shows that she really wants to live life as a girl (as opposed to being a boy who dresses in girls' clothes as a hobby he'll eventually tire of) by going to school one day in the girls' uniform.

Predictably, even though no one kicked up a fuss about Takatsuki and the flamboyantly eccentric Chizuru wearing the boys' uniform to school previously, Nitori couldn't reach the school gate without being sent to the principal's office- and then sent home. Nitori's mom doesn't freak out as badly as she might have (Yuki, the transsexual woman who acts as a friend and role model for Nitori and Takatsuki, got disowned by her family), but Nitori's dad deserves the Parent of the Year award for his reaction.

The biggest theme in this show is coming of age, as Nitori and Takatsuki have to deal with (and becoming more capable of dealing with) their bodies changing in ways that they really don't want for obvious reasons. Ironically, Chiba becomes closer to Takatsuki than Nitori because her still-unrequited feelings (compounding her general awkwardness in dealing with people) make it harder for her to comfortably interact with Nitori. By the end, Nitori, Takatsuki, and Chiba are friends as a group again, and the bullying reaction to Nitori wearing girls' clothes to school dies down. (I'm really glad that the bullying Nitori goes through isn't as bad as it would be in real life, although I'm also glad this series acknowledges that worse can happen via Yuki's school background.)

So yeah, great series. Great character interaction and development, freaking gorgeous art, and perfectly cast seiyuu. I thought it was a nice touch that Hatakeyama Kousuke, the seiyuu who plays Nitori, was more or less the same age as Nitori when the series was made. And regarding how yuri-relevant this series is...

This is the hardest part of writing this review- not helped by the fact that there's no way not to directly address it on this blog and my chronic over-thinking of things. Nitori = girl. Nitori likes girls, e.g. Anna. I would say that Nitori's bisexual, since the idea of liking Takatsuki as a boy didn't put a damper on her feelings for him at all. (Being rejected did.) Anna might be also. I will be shocked if she and Nitori don't wind up together in the manga, considering how long she has been set up as The Love Interest. At one point in the manga Nitori even brings Anna to Yuki and her boyfriend Shi-chan's apartment, which feels a lot like a Meet the Parents visit. (Despite my speculation above, whatever they are- bi, gay, straight, queer, pan, unlabeled, etc- doesn't affect my opinion that they're cute together.) She basically dumped Nitori at the end of the anime for being too much of a girl, but later in the manga, she seems to be gradually, gradually gravitating back towards the idea of them having a relationship. At this point, I don't feel like I can label Anna's feelings "yuri" (I don't think she would either), but I can confidently do so for Nitori, just as I wouldn't label Yuki's feelings for Shi-chan "yaoi." And to be completely honest, even though Nitori is a girl and her feelings for other girls are lesbian, I do agree with the idea that as long as she's in a male body, any relationship she has with, say, Anna, isn't straight, but isn't really lesbian either; the queer label makes the most sense to me. I'm convinced that Momo has a crush on Chi-chan also, although I'm much less confident that that will work out. (Or that Momo's even aware of it.) And there you have it. Like the rest of Shimura's work featuring GSM characters, Hourou Musuko has an unambivalent "There is nothing wrong with liking whoever you like" message, which we can all agree on.

Massive over-thinking on my part as a reviewer aside... this series is poignant and brilliant and lovely and you should at least try it.

Story: A
Art: A
Overall: A

This will be my only post this weekend.

My opinion in this review will shock you. SHOCK YOU: Wandering Son volume 1

Shimura Takako's Wandering Son has been running for over one hundred chapters, since 2002. For people who have watched the anime first or read much farther ahead, it's going to be a little weird to read the beginning, when the core cast is smaller and still in grade school.

But whatever stage of its characters' lives it takes place at, Wandering Son is a quietly beautiful story with the makings of a modern classic.

Nitori Shuuichi, a quiet, introverted fifth-grader, is the new kid at school. Nitori makes friends with Takatsuki Yoshino, who sits in the next seat over, along with Takatsuki's cheery friend Sasa Kanako and the class loner Chiba Saori. Chiba quickly realizes that Nitori would rather wear girls' clothes than boys' clothes and acts supportive about it. She even suggests that the class play cast the boys in female roles and vice versa, to give Nitori a chance to dress in girls' clothes. Takatsuki, however, is the one who becomes closest to Nitori after they each find out that the other is transgender.

Nitori's class rehearses for their performance of Rose of Versailles (the choice suggested by their homeroom teacher, a Takarazuka fan), with Chiba playing Fersen and Takatsuki as Andre. Nitori initially gets cast as Oscar, but isn't butchy enough and switches to playing Rosalie. Nitori accidentally hurts Chiba's feelings by returning her birthday gift, an expensive dress. Chiba burns it in front of Nitori, then feels guilty about what she did and has a hard time facing Nitori for a while. Takatsuki sometimes rides the train far away to spend time in boys' clothes without being recognized, and starts to bring Nitori along. After bringing pads to school for the first time, Takatsuki also deals with the asinine "Neener, neener! So you are a girl!" reactions of a few boys. The performance of BeruBara goes off without a hitch (Shimura sure loves to have her characters participating in plays), and life seems pretty good.

I'm very happy with the treatment that Fantagraphics gave Wandering Son: a larger than normal page size, high quality paper, a hard cover, preserved color pages, an excellent translation, a pronunciation guide, and an essay on the translation. I'm interested in what else might be included in future volumes. Regardless of the extras (I'm not collecting this series for that), this is a beautifully-written, introspective coming-of-age story. None of the characters are types, and Shimura, thankfully, makes them easy to empathize with (who can't relate to having fights with friends at school and the crappiness that is early adolescence?) without feeling like she's trying too hard to make the audience like them. If I remember clearly, the next volume will prominently feature Nitori's (realistically) bratty older sister Maho, as well as Yuki, a transsexual woman who befriends Takatsuki and Nitori. (We only see Yuki briefly in this volume.)

Story: A can't-miss if you want to read a realistic coming-of-age story by an author who knows what she's doing when she writes GSM characters. A
Art: B+
Overall: A

BGM: "Oath Sign" - LiSA

The Season So Far

Beelzebub (watched 1 episode): 

The delinquent-takes-care-of-demon-baby show from Weekly Shounen Jump. Unlike Level E (which ran in Weekly Shounen Jump from 1995-1997), everything about Beelzebub (art, characters, music) screams Shounen Jump. It has some amusing moments, but I just don't feel like following it. The gag about Baby Beel electrocuting everyone near him when he cries already started getting old in this episode, but it's obvious that it's going to be a recurring gag throughout the series. Props to Sawashiro Miyuki for doing such a convincing job as a baby.

Watching: No.

Dragon Crisis (watched 1 episode):

A teenage boy (kind of) saves a dragon girl who doesn't know how to say anything except his name and only wants to snuggle with him. (Incidentally, so does his busty, scantily-clad second cousin who just returned from studying abroad. The ED showcases several other girls who will probably want Ryuuji too.) Kugimiya Rie must have needed throat lozenges after repeatedly screaming "RYUUJI!!!!" in her character's dog-whistle high voice.

Watching: No.

Fractale (watched 1 episode): 

It was okay. Zac Bertschy nailed it when he called it a magical girlfriend show with notes of Miyazaki. I've heard that it gets better with episode 3, but I'm...just not really interested. (Maybe if it gets strong enough buzz after it finishes.)

Watching: No.

Freezing (watched 1 episode, hated every minute): 

The only decent thing about this misogynistic piece of garbage was hearing Noto Mamiko's sweet, velvety voice...until her character died with the camera pointing up her rear.

Watching: *hack*

GoSick (watched through episode 3): 

A mystery series set in the Victorian era with sharp-looking art. Too bad it still manages to wedge in a bland Gary Stu protagonist. (His sexism-disguised-as-chivalry scene in episode 2 certainly didn't help.) Victorique was likeable, though. The mystery wrapped up in these three episodes was decent, but not good enough to make me want to watch more.

Watching: No.

Infinite Stratos (watched 1 episode):

So you have this fighting robot technology that only women can use, but it turns out that there's one boy who can use it. Thus begins his new life at the elite academy where girls learn to use that technology, and they all want him! (Aside from the class ojou-sama, but you know she'll come around.)

Watching: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Kimi ni Todoke season 2 (watched through episode 3): 

Sawako outclasses Ushio in how dense she can be when it comes to her love life (although her issues stem not from being shunned because of homophobia, but being shunned because...she reminds people of Sadako from The Ring), and she might be the most innocent high school girl in anime outside of the seinen genre, but she and Kazehaya are still adorable together. (Me during episode 1: "Awwww....GIVE HIM THE CHOCOLATES!! GIVE HIM THE CHOCOLATES, DAMN IT!!! Awwww.... JUST GIVE HIM THE CHOCOLATES.") Like the first season, this is a really sweet show, definitely recommended for folks who like romance. Also, yay for Noto Mamiko in a good show!! ^__^ Sawashiro Miyuki and Hirano Aya fans also get them back as Yano (yay!!) and Kurumi (boo) this season, along with Miyano Mamoru as Kazehaya's goofy new "rival" Kento.

Watching: Yes.

Kore wa Zombie desu ka? (watched 1 episode): The protagonist is a zombie, but only in the sense that he died and came back to life. He lives with the quiet, moe necromancer who resurrected him and later takes in a sharp-tongued, moe magical girl. KoreZom cobbles together nearly every trite fan favorite element out there, and delivers it with a light coating of dark, tongue-in-cheek humor. The best parody by far in this episode is our male lead being subjected to a sleazy magical girl transformation, followed by the camera pointing at his crotch while he fights. (How's it feel to be on the receiving end of that, HUH?)

Watching: No.

Level E (watched through episode 3): 

A funny sci-fi show with charming chemistry between its ex-delinquent baseball player lead and his flaky alien roommate. Thumbs up.

Watching: Yes.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica (watched through episode 4):

This was a surprise hit for me, since I don't like most of Shinbo Akiyuki's work and the promo for it didn't do anything for me. MadoMagi is a dark, visually inventive take on the magical girl genre that throws a massive curveball at the audience at the end of episode 3. Episode 4 doesn't hit the same peak, but it's setting the stage for developments to come. I'm really looking forward to seeing how everything turns out. As a bonus, the Kajiura Yuki soundtrack rocks.

Watching: Yes.

Rio -Rainbow Gate- (watched through episode 4):

This series is terrible, but in a bizarre way. I keep thinking that I should drop it, but then I think, "What the heck," and watch the next episode after it comes out on CR. The scriptwriters probably knew that they couldn't make a good show out of a series starring a cheesecake slot machine game character, so they threw in whatever weird crap they could think of. (Probably while drinking.) The "best" episode so far is the ghost episode. My least favorite thing about Rio by far is Rio's pervy, "funny" boss Howard, who deserves a punch in his smug, perpetually grinning face. The writers also threw in a brief scene of Rio waking up naked in bed with another woman (without any explanation of it) to get yuri fans talking about the show, which worked beautifully for them.

Watching: ???
Update on 01/04/2011: Dropped. Finally dropped.

Starry Sky (watched through episode 2): 

I just found out that this is an ONA series instead of a TV series, which explains why each episode is about 12 minutes long. When I found out that Starry Sky is based on an otome game in which the protagonist is the only girl attending an all-boys' school, I assumed that she would be the protagonist of the anime. Nope. It turns out that each arc will take place from the POV of one of the twelve boys who are interested in her. (Each boy is identified by a constellation.) The first two episodes, which cover the Capricorn arc, are about a guy named Yoh who has been in love since childhood with a girl he once met, who told him that he has pretty eyes. For some reason, he's convinced that she will be at Seigetsu Academy. His arc climaxes with him kissing her on the cheek and thinking more about his feelings. I don't see the appeal. Nobody in this series has a personality, and I can't understand why any of these characters would be attracted (however chastely) to each other. The animation is below the norm also- maybe to authentically recreate the experience of playing the original visual novel?

Watching: No.

Wandering Son (watched through episode 3): 

Still the best thing airing this season. Watch it, watch it, watch it!! ^___^

Watching: Yes.

Hourou Musuko / Wandering Son Episode 1

Episode 1 of Hourou Musuko surprised me. It was great, but it wasn't what I expected.

Episode 1 starts at the end of volume 4 of the manga, with our protagonists, Nitori (who was born male and wants to be a girl) and Takatsuki (born female and wants to be a boy), entering middle school. In flashbacks, we see how how their friendship fizzled out because Nitori fell in love with Takatsuki, their classmate Chiba (the first person to understand that Nitori prefers girls' clothes) fell in love with Nitori, and Takatsuki wasn't in love with anyone. (Their classmates didn't help by joking about how Nitori and Takatsuki would make a great couple.) The first episode drops us in the middle of the aftermath of these developments, and it does a good job of bringing the audience up to speed without being abstruse.

As the school year begins, we get a brief glimpse of Nitori and Takatsuki's old and new classmates. I especially hope that Chi-chan (the biggest eccentric in the class) will get a good amount of air time in future episodes. Like in the manga, she wears the boys' uniform to school when she introduces herself, sparking Takatsuki's admiration. (And a little sad irony since Takatsuki also wanted to wear the boys' uniform, but didn't do it because it means more for him.)

Since Takatsuki and Nitori aren't speaking, Takatsuki meets Yuki (a transgender woman who acts as a role model for Takatsuki and Nitori) at a restaurant and Yuki gives him a new boys' uniform, while Nitori goes shopping in a girls' uniform alone and buys a four leaf clover hair pin.

After going home, Nitori sees her older sister Maho and her friend Anna, who both model, looking at a magazine in which Anna is posing with the model Maho idolizes, Maiko-chan. After Maho and Anna leave the apartment (Anna snapping a picture of Nitori with her cell phone before exiting), Nitori tries on the dress that Maho plans to wear for her photo shoot the next day.

Of course, Maho walks in, and even though she isn't surprised, she gets pissed and forces Nitori to take the overblouse off before Nitori pushes her away and runs out of the apartment barefoot.

Nitori and Takatsuki run into each other outside and Takatuski gives Nitori his sweatshirt and finds a four leaf clover to put in Nitori's hair. This episode looks good throughout, but I still boggled a little at the cherry blossoms in this scene.

Later at dinner, Maho gives Nitori one of her fried shrimp, with the excuse that she doesn't want to gain weight before her photo shoot. Nitori's happy about finally making up with Takatsuki.

It was a great episode. The watercolor-textured art was lovely and, at times, dream-like, capturing Shimura Takako's gentle, low-key art style well, the music was suitably pleasant, and the voice acting was all very good. (Including the new talent playing Nitori and Takatsuki, Hatakeyama Kousuke and Seto Asami. Seiyuu geeks, of course, can enjoy listening to Horie Yui, Mizuki Nana, Toyosaki Aki, and Chiba Saeko in their side roles.)

While there were some surprises with this episode, I thought it was a good adaptation that captures the feel of the original story and characters. There were sweet moments and sad moments that evoked emotion without feeling manipulative, in keeping with Shimura Takako's usual brand of storytelling. Because of the changes from manga to anime (including some truncations), I'm really curious about how much ground this series will cover before it ends.

Overall: Watch it!

I'll give this series a letter grade after I finish it.

Crunchyroll is simulcasting this series each Thursday at 1:00 EST, for people in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and Portugal. My condolences to anyone who the simulcast doesn't cover.