(no subject)
Jan. 19th, 2011 00:31![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
haflSince I've finally got volumes 7-10 of the Hourou Musuko manga and the anime has started last week, I've decided it is time to embark upon a big re-read of the manga, to refresh my memory. I'm obviously behind everyone, who reads the scans as they come out, but I like Hourou Musuko too much to put up with reading it on the computer screen. Because I also want to be able to express my thoughts on the series in a more coherent manner than a bunch of squeeing and annoying fanboyism, I've decide to chronicle my way through the anime and the manga. It will still probably contain a lot of squeeing, but I'll try to subdue it. There will be spoilers, but hopefully nothing explicit.
Probably, the most surprising thing about the manga is how cheerful it seems. There are not any seemingly irreconcilable differences between the characters and everyone is more or less friends with everyone else. I'm not saying there are not any sad moments, but it does not yet fall into horrifyingly depressing territory.
Since she is my favorite character, I'm obligated to spend a sizable part of this post babbling about Saori. Okay, here goes. Pretty much every single main character says that they don't understand Saori or that she's a mysterious person. She was a bit clearer to me, since I've been able to see her inner monologue, but she is still a puzzling character in this volume. Most of the major traits of her character start in this volume beginning with the fact that she is mostly part of the group only because of Nitori and therefore is not really a friend with others. She facilitates a lot of the important events in this volume, from suggesting that the roles in the class play will be gender-swapped through giving Nitori the role of Rosalie (As a side note, which elementary school has the children play Rose of Versailles, which is not really appropriate for kids, French Revolution and all that? I get that it is thematically appropriate to the story, but still... To be fair, I can't think of any story with crossdressing that would be appropriate for kids, there is Torikaebaya monogatari, but since that is from the Heian era, there is sex all over the place.), to giving Nitori a dress as a birthday present. I don't think she understands the contradiction of helping Nitori to become a girl, while being interested in Nitori as a boy, but from some of her scenes, I think that she kind of feels it.
While I said that this volume is pretty cheerful, there are still some pretty depressing moments. The whole plotline about Takatsuki's menstruation comes to mind, because while Takatsuki is not my favorite character, it is hard not to feel sorry for him at this point, especially when he does not speak about it. This plotline comes at the end of the volume, and it is a decent foreshadowing of things to come.
As a whole, the first episode of the anime is pretty good and there are actually two moments that I think to be brilliant. Starting the anime a little later in the plotline, when the characters start junior high, instead of fifth grade was probably a little dangerous decision, but it worked out. The episode did a good job of introducing the characters and their relationships, so even if I did not read the manga beforehand, I think I would understand who the characters are and what are their relationships to each other.
Since Makoto does not appear in the first volume of the manga, I'm going to speak about him here. He is, along with Saori, my favorite character, because I love both his interactions with Nitori and his general attitude to all the drama that's going on around him. He really is what Nitori needs most, a friend who understands her, but who is cool headed enough to look at the whole situation with some perspective.
A character who surprised me when watching the episode and re-reading the manga was Yuki-san. I was rather indifferent to her, when I was first reading the manga, but now she is, like Makoto, a generally well-adjusted person and a bright spot in all the gloom. She also highlights the fact that both Takatsuki and Nitori are extremely lucky that they have someone around, who understands exactly what they are going through, something that she had never had. I guess that actually makes Yuki-san also a hope for the future.
The episode has two really brilliant moments. The first one is the Anne of the Green Gables to the head smash I wrote about in a previous post. The second is the more subdued of the two, but for me it is the saddest moment of the whole episode. I'll let a screencap speak for it:
It also speaks about my suckiness in regards to taking screencaps, but that does not matter. Despite there are more dramatic sad moments later in the episode, this one is just too much desolate.
As for the voice actors, I'm really impressed with the work of Nitori's VA, who is excellent at the job, despite being only fourteen and having next to no experience. Everyone else is also competent, so there is nothing to complain about.
Since I also created the Czech fansub for the episode, let me say this: Fuck Czech language and its gendered verb and adjective endings. Though writing this post helped me clear one thing. I've used masculine pronouns and endings for Nitori and feminine for Takatsuki, because I thought that while they want to be the opposite gender, there is a lack of conscious decision that they actually are transgendered. It felt a bit wrong and now, after writing this, I definitely know that it is wrong. So, off to correct and reupload the subtitles.
Probably, the most surprising thing about the manga is how cheerful it seems. There are not any seemingly irreconcilable differences between the characters and everyone is more or less friends with everyone else. I'm not saying there are not any sad moments, but it does not yet fall into horrifyingly depressing territory.
Since she is my favorite character, I'm obligated to spend a sizable part of this post babbling about Saori. Okay, here goes. Pretty much every single main character says that they don't understand Saori or that she's a mysterious person. She was a bit clearer to me, since I've been able to see her inner monologue, but she is still a puzzling character in this volume. Most of the major traits of her character start in this volume beginning with the fact that she is mostly part of the group only because of Nitori and therefore is not really a friend with others. She facilitates a lot of the important events in this volume, from suggesting that the roles in the class play will be gender-swapped through giving Nitori the role of Rosalie (As a side note, which elementary school has the children play Rose of Versailles, which is not really appropriate for kids, French Revolution and all that? I get that it is thematically appropriate to the story, but still... To be fair, I can't think of any story with crossdressing that would be appropriate for kids, there is Torikaebaya monogatari, but since that is from the Heian era, there is sex all over the place.), to giving Nitori a dress as a birthday present. I don't think she understands the contradiction of helping Nitori to become a girl, while being interested in Nitori as a boy, but from some of her scenes, I think that she kind of feels it.
While I said that this volume is pretty cheerful, there are still some pretty depressing moments. The whole plotline about Takatsuki's menstruation comes to mind, because while Takatsuki is not my favorite character, it is hard not to feel sorry for him at this point, especially when he does not speak about it. This plotline comes at the end of the volume, and it is a decent foreshadowing of things to come.
As a whole, the first episode of the anime is pretty good and there are actually two moments that I think to be brilliant. Starting the anime a little later in the plotline, when the characters start junior high, instead of fifth grade was probably a little dangerous decision, but it worked out. The episode did a good job of introducing the characters and their relationships, so even if I did not read the manga beforehand, I think I would understand who the characters are and what are their relationships to each other.
Since Makoto does not appear in the first volume of the manga, I'm going to speak about him here. He is, along with Saori, my favorite character, because I love both his interactions with Nitori and his general attitude to all the drama that's going on around him. He really is what Nitori needs most, a friend who understands her, but who is cool headed enough to look at the whole situation with some perspective.
A character who surprised me when watching the episode and re-reading the manga was Yuki-san. I was rather indifferent to her, when I was first reading the manga, but now she is, like Makoto, a generally well-adjusted person and a bright spot in all the gloom. She also highlights the fact that both Takatsuki and Nitori are extremely lucky that they have someone around, who understands exactly what they are going through, something that she had never had. I guess that actually makes Yuki-san also a hope for the future.
The episode has two really brilliant moments. The first one is the Anne of the Green Gables to the head smash I wrote about in a previous post. The second is the more subdued of the two, but for me it is the saddest moment of the whole episode. I'll let a screencap speak for it:
It also speaks about my suckiness in regards to taking screencaps, but that does not matter. Despite there are more dramatic sad moments later in the episode, this one is just too much desolate.
As for the voice actors, I'm really impressed with the work of Nitori's VA, who is excellent at the job, despite being only fourteen and having next to no experience. Everyone else is also competent, so there is nothing to complain about.
Since I also created the Czech fansub for the episode, let me say this: Fuck Czech language and its gendered verb and adjective endings. Though writing this post helped me clear one thing. I've used masculine pronouns and endings for Nitori and feminine for Takatsuki, because I thought that while they want to be the opposite gender, there is a lack of conscious decision that they actually are transgendered. It felt a bit wrong and now, after writing this, I definitely know that it is wrong. So, off to correct and reupload the subtitles.
