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From left to right: Saori Chiba, Makoto Ariga, Shuuichi Nitori, Chizuru Sarashina, Yoshino Takatsuki, and Kanako Sasa.

"My sister's dream is to go to a school for idols and to be classmates with Maiko-chan. I think that's stupid. My dream is..."

Wandering Son (Hourou Musuko in Japanese) is a Slice of Life manga created by Takako Shimura, which was serialized in Comic Beam from 2002 to 2013. It follows two ten-year-old children whose genders are different from the biological sex they were born into. The first is Shuuichi Nitori, a shy and sensitive girl with a love of baking who wishes she could become the kind of girl that truly reflects her heart. The second is Yoshino Takatsuki, who is admired by his classmates but bullied by other boys for things about himself that he cannot control, and who wishes to become a proper man.

When Shuuichi transfers to a new school, she is sat next to Takatsuki and the two children become fast friends. Eventually, they are able to figure out their nature, and do their best to realise their personhood despite the adversity and shame imposed upon them by the surrounding society in which they live: for example, they begin to dress as their correct genders using clothes acquired or gifted from other people.

The story follows the lives of Shuuichi, Takatsuki, and those closest to them as they struggle with matters of identity, adolescence, and how they relate to the roles of the society in which they live. The plot is made up of the milestones that come with adolescence, including the day-to-day occurrences and everything in-between, while the dreams and secrets of the young cast create its drama. The dialogue primarily refers to Shuuichi with "he/his" pronouns and Takatsuki with "she/her" pronouns because most of the other characters in the story are unaware of the correct genders of the protagonists, and the main characters cannot use the correct pronouns for fear of social ostracization. However, as readers, we are aware of which gender the characters are, and refer to them within this article with the correct pronouns.

An 11-Episode Anime for the series aired in winter 2011. The manga has been licensed by Fantagraphics Books and has been released in hardcover since June 2011. Crunchyroll obtained the license to stream the series overseas, but the license expired in 2021.

No relation to the early '70s shoujo manga and anime Sasurai no Taiyō, whose title translates to Wandering Sun in English (perhaps to avoid confusion, the official English title of that series is Nozomi in the Sun).


This series features examples of:

  • Adaptation Dye-Job:
    • Eye variation. In the manga, everyone has brown eyes. In the anime, characters have golden eyes, black eyes, blue eyes, or even red eyes and purple in Yuki's and Anna's cases.
    • The manga colors the gakuran as pastel, though it could be artistic stylization and they're not really bright blue or green. The anime uses the standard black.
  • Adaptation Expansion: The anime. For example, the climax of episode 1 was an adaptation of a scene in volume eight (around four volumes ahead of the point the anime began). In the manga Shuuichi just stares at the clothes, until her sister comes in and yells at her. They've also pieced together scenes, for example the scene where Shuuichi hits Maho is from another part in the manga (when Maho tries to read a letter).
  • Adaptational Gender Identity: Zig-zagged: the anime depicts Nitori and Yuki as trans women like in the manga, while Makoto is a Camp Gay boy instead of a trans girl who has yet to transition.
  • All There in the Manual: Some backstory on Yuki was given in He Said "I'm a girl".
  • Ambiguously Bi: Several of the characters:
    • Momoko hasn't really shown any interest in boys, aside from Chi mentioning she likes Oka, instead just being extremely clingy toward Chizuru and saying that she "loves" her.
    • Arguably Maho has shown bisexual tendencies with her fangirlism of Maiko.
    • Takatsuki apparently might have liked one of his male teachers. This is vague because not even Takatsuki understood if it was admiration or not. At the end of the manga, she begins crushing on Nitori as well.
    • Shuuichi has shown an interest in Anna and they are dating, but she may be bisexual because of her possible feelings for Seya and Takatsuki.
    • Chiba's obsession with Shuuichi is a fringe example. While Shuuichi is a she, and Chiba enjoys seeing her dressed as such, it is likely she (Chiba) has a hard time seeing her (Shuuichi) as such, leading to much of her personal angst.
    • It is also worth mentioning that the relationship between Shuuichi and Takatsuki ended before it began largely because Takatsuki is uncertain of his own preferences.
  • Ambiguous Gender Identity:
    • Takatsuki. Most of the manga presents her as a counterpart to trans girl Nitori and depicts her as a transgender boy. In high school the line starts to blur and ultimately she comes to the conclusion she would rather live as a girl, though she is still depicted as confused over her gender. Considering the situations surrounding the revelation and the bittersweet way it's presented, fans are stumped. Word of God is that it's up to the reader on whether they see the character as trans or not.
    • Makoto was this for the longest time. Introduced as a foil to Nitori but never got the same amount of transgender-related focus as Nitori, most fans thought Mako was a Camp Gay Wholesome Crossdresser. In high school it's shown otherwise and she even comes out to her mom. The anime didn't seem to think she was female either as she's dressed as a boy in an Imagine Spot, while the manga parallel has her in a girls uniform.
  • Art Evolution:
  • It's quite noticeable if you compare the early volumes to the later volumes, as the style became much more detailed. Justified since time passed, and the main cast began puberty.
  • Attractive Bent-Gender:
    • Shuuichi is very popular with girls, such as Chiba and an elementary school friend she met again in high school. They think she looks good as a boy.
    • Chiba, Chizuru, Seya, and Takatsuki also garner attention when they've crossdressed for whatever reason.
  • Berserk Button:
    • For a while, if your name is Takatsuki, you will basically be Chiba's living berserk button, due to him being very close to Nitori, whom Chiba has an unrequited crush on.
    • For Takatsuki himself, he really doesn't like his periods and his slowly growing breasts. Also, don't even think about bullying Nitori in front of him. He will make sure you experience Hell.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The manga. On the plus side Nitori is going to transition soon, she's going to college, and she's still dating Anna. Kanako is dating her grade school crush and Mako's end is rather ambiguous but still not negative. On the opposing side Takatsuki has gradually drifted away somewhat from Nitori, has an unrequited love for her, and is possibly confused about her gender. Though the two of them do share a final tender moment together, and it’s left clear their friendship has meant a lot to both of them.
  • Bland-Name Product:
    • The gang goes to "Wcdonalds" in the anime.
    • Averted in most other cases though, where the names are correct. Maho even mentions Starbucks once.
    • The characters have been seen playing video game consoles, but they have no logos on them. Doi has a Playstation Portable, both Oka and Takatsuki have a PlayStation 2, and both Maho and Anna have a Nintendo DS.
  • Characterization Marches On:
    • Chiba's personality and design were different for the first 3 volumes, before she changed to her more well-known self. Before she was more peppy, on par with the other children (albeit more socially awkward at times), and didn't look nearly as mature. This is probably one of the few instances of this trope being justified, given that this series revolves entirely around the often-dramatic changes children go through at the age the main cast are at.
    • Kanako's personality wasn't defined in the first volume. She was originally a random classmate before being retconned into Takatsuki's friend. Thus she lacked several of her normal attributes such as being The Ditz.
  • Class Trip: Chapters 16 - 17, to Nikko; also Chapters 56 - 57, to a ski area. The anime didn't adapt the field trip.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl:
  • Chiba Saori for Nitori, big time. In fact, the reason she becomes so awfully moody and such a Jerkass in middle school is because she feels bitter about Nitori's closeness with Takatsuki, leading to her resenting him out of jealousy. For a long while, aside from Sasa, only Nitori can normally talks to her without her acting like a jerk, but as soon as she mentions Takatsuki, Chiba will get mad, again.
  • Covers Always Lie:
    • The covers tend to have Shuuichi in feminine clothing, while in-story she rarely gets to dress like that. Colors also tend to be off such as Maho having blonde hair on the dark cover of volume 1 (despite inside clearly showcasing her with brown, and her family having brown hair), and Anna having brown eyes in one volume when the inside showed her with her (new) black eyes.
    • The covers to the boxsets for the anime have the manga school uniform colors (green and blue) while the anime goes for more generic colors (black for the boy uniform and blue for the female uniform).
  • Creepy Crossdresser: Fumiya Ninomiya crossdresses just to impress Chiba. While not an outright villain, he is portrayed as a bit of a Slimeball when compared to the actual trans characters in the cast.
  • Crotch-Grab Sex Check: Shiina did this to Takatsuki in chapter 12. Though in the scenario he thought Yuki was cheating on him with Takatsuki, so he probably grabbed his groin to see if he had an erection.
  • Curtains Match the Window: Later chapters have made most characters fit this. Originally everyone had brown eyes, but now if you have black hair you're probably going to have black eyes. Brunettes have brown eyes.
  • D-Cup Distress: Downplayed with Takatsuki as his breasts are not as big as this trope tends to be, but he's not amused when he begins to grow breasts as he won't be able to put on the male uniform anymore, and saves money for a binder to hide them.
  • The Ditz: Kanako Sasa. Too much thinking makes her brain itchy.
  • Double Standard:
    • Shuuichi gets hit with this hard since it is especially taboo for transgirls to be themselves in public versus the more permissive attitude to transboys in chapter 65 when she gets the idea to go to school dressed in the girl uniform after Chizuru and Takatsuki successfully dressed in the boy uniformnote .
    • A slight, and justified, example happens in chapter 94. It's Valentine's Day, so Makoto decides to give out chocolates to some people; in Japan typically girls give chocolates on Valentine's Day though. She shies out of giving a teacher she likes chocolates, thinking it'll be weird since she's seen as a boy. When she tries to give a friend, Oka, he freaks out of the thought of another boy giving him chocolate.
  • Dude Magnet: Chiba. Any straight boy character can't seem to be indifferent toward her.
  • Early Installment Character-Design Difference:
    • The hair colors in the first three volumes were different for several characters. For example Takatsuki was a brunette instead of a raven and Shiina had bleach blond hair instead of black hair.
    • Saori and Takatsuki had brown eyes at first but they're later shown with black eyes (which is a stylized brown).
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: Many characters had different hair colors in the first two volumes' artwork, the manga was more slow-paced, and the personalities were different (Justified in the latter case).
  • 11-Episode Anime: Started airing in Japan on January 14, 2011. Twelve episodes, with one being Blu-Ray onlynote . It skipped the first several volumes and focused on the middle school portion, though it ended before the characters hit high school.
  • Embarrassing Damp Sheets:
    • Up until she began high school Maho slept in a bunk bed with her younger sibling. In an aversion to No Periods, Period, Chapter 30 showed her waking up in the night with bloody pajamas and sheets.
    • A flashback that shows trans woman Yuki had her first Nocturnal Emission at a school field trip as a child. She was embarrassed and confused but her future boyfriend Shiina didn't mention it when he caught her washing her underwear in the bathroom.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change:
    • Beginning at high school, Chiba stops wearing pigtails to school. She's worn pigtails ever since she began middle school, though only when she was in school. She began wearing pigtails when she was at her most angry and depressed, starting around the time her characterization changes permanently. She's later works on making herself more appealing and less aggressive in later chapters, and only wears her hair down.
    • Sasa stopped wearing her pigtails for the first time in years for high school, which makes her come off as trying to mature.
  • Fashion Hurts: In the anime pilot, Shuuichi complains about the collar of her uniform being too tight.
  • First-Name Basis: Maho forces her boyfriend Riku into this. Sasa also refers to Chiba as "Saorin", which comes from the fact that a lot of Japanese girls add "-rin" to their friends names as a nickname. Shuuichi is on a First-Name Basis with Makoto, though Shuuichi calls her "Mako-chan", while she is called the feminine form of her last name in return (Nitorin).
  • Forced Out of the Closet: Fumiya accidentally outs Nitori as being transgender, or at least someone who crossdresses, around her new middle school friends. He gets called out for this.
  • Free-Range Children: Even as elementary schoolers the characters are free to run around town or even go on the train on their own (without cellphones at that).
  • Generic Cuteness: Averted. Shu is feminine, but poor Makoto just won't pass as a pretty girl even if she dresses up.
  • Gender Reveal: As seen here. However Yuki seems to have known from the beginning. It's hard to tell though, since she seems surprised when she learns it and continues to refer to the event as her not knowing it.
  • Gender Vocabulary Slip: Shuuichi and Takatsuki once noticed that Shuuichi refers to herself with the pronoun "boku" which is used by boys, while Takatsuki refers to himself as "watashi" which is gender neutral and more formal. They intentionally decide not to change this though as they agree it suits them.
  • Growing Up Sucks: Especially Shuuichi and Takatsuki feel this way, since their physical changes will make it harder to pass as their real gender.
  • Homophobic Hate Crime: Downplayed in that all examples are cases of bullying:
    • Since elementary, Nitori has been bullied by Oka and Doi for being feminine. It was predominantly emotional bullying and ostraciziation, though there was an attempt at an Outfit-Rip Sex Check once.
    • Saori's relationship with Nitori and especially Takatsuki is heavily based on her forcing her pessimism and views onto them (especially during middle school). For example, she's constantly trying to get Takatsuki to become more feminine and putting him down for wanting to be seen as male.
    • In middle school, Yuki was forced into the girl's uniform by bullies. This scared her from going to school for years afterwards.
    • Subverted with the one transphobic hate crime. Yuki told Nitori that one of her friends was killed by a boyfriend when he learned she was trans. Yuki actually made this up and the woman is just fine.
  • If It's You, It's Okay:
    • Saori, she just cares for Shuuichi irrespective of gender presentation, although she thinks of her as a boy and would prefer she lived as one.
    • Anna is a similar way. She doesn't really mind what Nitori's gender is.
    • Nitori when it comes to Takatsuki. She's mostly attracted to girls, but Takatsuki is the only boy she will ever like.
  • I Have No Son!: Yuki's parents come pretty close to this. (Well, also, they have no son now, but... you get the idea.) There's a side-story in a collection of one-shots by the manga-ka called He Said "I'm A Girl" that shows a bit about Yuki's past. She was scolded by her father for being on a TV show about being transgender, but not disowned. Only her brother and her brother's wife are okay with Yuki's identity. Her mother chooses not to talk to (and possibly see) her, which in a sense, is worse than the father who is upfront about his disapproval.
  • Important Haircut:
  • In both cases it's subverted. Shuuichi wanted a certain (feminine) hair style, but it turned out differently from what she planned. Takatsuki grew his hair out because Saori told him it would look cool and other boys had longer hair too, but it wasn't as manly as he wanted.
  • Takatsuki started growing his hair out in high school. It's not a bob haircut, but not nearly as short as before. He eventually grew it past his shoulders, the longest we've seen on him, possibly due to being a model or deciding to live as a girl.
  • Doi got a haircut in high school due to upper classmen forcing him to. It occurs right when he stops being a bully towards Nitori.
  • Informed Flaw: Mako can't pass apparently but she looks just as passable as Nitori does with short hair. Mako does have poor self-esteem and much of the criticism comes from herself though.
  • In Medias Res: The anime begins at volume 5 of the manga, when the cast enters junior high.
  • Inopportune Voice Cracking: Played for Drama. Trans girl Nitori doesn't recognize her voice is changing at first and thinks it's a cold.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: Shiina and Yuki, who are adults, with the teenaged (originally preteen) Takatsuki and Shuuichi.
  • Kudzu Plot: Shimura increasingly juggles various parallel plot points, giving each only a few panels of attention before moving to the next, leading you to reread chapters just to keep a handle on what is going on.
  • LGBT Awakening: Nitori began wearing feminine clothes and attempting to pass as female after classmates made her put on a headband as a joke. Befriending a kindred spirit, a trans boy named Takatsuki, was also a big component.
  • Long Hair Is Feminine:
    • Nitori almost always imagines herself with long hair and wants long hair in a Hime Cut but doesn't feel she can grow it out due to Double Standards involving boys and hair length. Saori, Yuki, and Maiko all have long hair and are feminine. Averted with Chizuru (who isn't terribly feminine), Momoko (who has a medium length cut), Maho (with a bob cut) and Satomi (a pixie style). Maiko eventually averts it when she cuts her hair into a pixie cut. That change gives Nitori the idea to cut her hair into the same style but it ends up looking less feminine on her since she's begun hitting puberty.
    • This trope is used to support Takatsuki's masculinity. After infancy, he has always kept his hair short, and around age ten he chose to cut it to the standard length of most other boys his age. At one point he grows it out a bit at Saori's insistence that he can have longer hair and still be masculine, however he cuts it back immediately when he realizes she was manipulating him into being more feminine. In high school when he's left in isolation with Saori he lets his usual mop top cut grow out into a shag hair cut. Him growing out his hair in high school is different from before, as he lets it get longer than ever before as part of him questioning his gender. He wants to answer the question of is he really a man, or if he "just hates being a girl" like Saori accused him of feeling. However the overwhelming positive reception, praise, and admiration he receives for presenting as female and a growing apathy in his own self creates distress and confusion in him, making Takatsuki unable to claim a masculine identity and causing her to decide to live as a girl.
  • Long-Runners: Ran from December 2002 to August 2013.
  • Love Revelation Epiphany: Saori grows to love Fumiya after he confessed to wanting to ask her out.
  • Love Triangle:
    • Type 10 occurs temporarily between the Nitori siblings and Seya with him as B, Maho as A and Shuuichi as C.
    • Shuuichi, Chiba and Takatsuki form longer-running one, which starts out as type 5 (Shuuichi as B, Takatsuki as C and Saori as A), but growing tension between Takatsuki and Chiba, and the appearance of Suehiro Anna complicates things.
    • The triangle between Takatsuki, Chiba, and Shuuichi eventually resolved itself, with Anna taking Chiba's place now.
  • Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration:
    • One chapter has Hormone-Addled Teenager Nitori masturbating when his girlfriend Anna calls her. It's as awkward as it sounds but Anna doesn't notice.
    • In the flashbacks where Yuki describes her past it's implied twice that she was masturbating to thoughts of Shiina.
  • Mistaken for Cheating: This happens in chapter 12 when Yuki's boyfriend walks in when she's alone with Takatsuki, touching his face. This is despite the fact that Takatsuki is only around 10 or 11, so it makes her seem like she's a paedophile. Though considering how Yuki's acted toward him in future chapters... This whole situation is rather complicated. Yuki is a trans-woman who is attracted to the body and features of young girls, as they are things she always wanted for herself as a child but couldn't have. Takatsuki is a trans-boy, and is thus biologically female. Yuki did not know this at first but mistook him for simply being a regular boy but was attracted to his skin, which she mentions is smooth like a little girls. At the time the mistake scene occurred, whether she was about to do something or not is arguable. But given her behavior in a later chapter, after knowing Takatsuki's physical gender, not arguments seems a little weak.
  • Mistaken for Pedophile: As mentioned, Yuki. In the same chapter her boyfriend was touching Takatsuki's chest when a woman walked by.
  • Mistaken for Romance:
    • Takatsuki and Saori from are mistaken for being boyfriend and girlfriend by their respective Stalkers with a Crush. This assumption goes away when they learn Takatsuki's sex.
    • Nitori and Takatsuki get mistaken for a couple a few times.
  • Model Scam: Avoided. In high school Takatsuki gets picked up by a man who says he's a model agent. Takatsuki ends up discussing this with their mother and with Anna, who agree that it seems suspicious Takatsuki instead begins modeling at Anna's legit agency.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • One of the teachers is from a previous manga by Shimura, Inhabitants of the Threshold. If you look closely at the last episode you'll see a green haired guy and a girl standing in one scene - they're the protagonists of said manga. The girl waves at Kaneda and she's noticeably older than she was in her series.
    • Inverted in the Sweet Blue Flowers anime, as Nitori appeared in a cameo.
    • One of the manga scenes is lifted word from word from a chapter of Boku Wa Onnanoko. Interestingly enough that chapter of the manga is in-series a play written by Nitori.
    • The final chapter is called "For You", which was the name of the anime's ending.
  • Mukokuseki: Averted. The characters have either brown or black hair, and brown or black eyes. Early colored manga had a variety of hair colors and eye colors, but eventually they settled on the colors around volume 3.
  • Nocturnal Emission:
    • Shuuichi has had them, though for non-sexual reasons. At the end of the first episode she wakes up from a dream and has to wash her underwear, which she does other times in the manga.
    • The first flashback to Yuki's childhood was of the first time this happened, while on a field trip.
  • No Indoor Voice: Sarashina has a tendency to be a loud Large Ham.
  • No Periods, Period: Averted in the case of Takatsuki and, later, Maho. Momoko, Sasa, and Chiba have also stated they've had their periods; Momoko and Chizuru even were surprised when Sasa said she was on hers.
  • No Smoking: Averted. Fumiya and Shiina have been shown to smoke several times, and Yuki has been depicted smoking at least once.
  • On the Next: The anime incorporated the previews into the outro animation.
  • Outfit-Rip Sex Check: In the manga, Oka and some other boys attempted this during the first field trip. At a hot springs they tease Nitori about being confused about her gender and try to "check". Nitori's high-pitched scream makes them run off laughing instead.
  • Platonic Life-Partners: In the end, this is probably the best term to describe Takatsuki and Nitori's relationship. Even if he doesn't return her feelings, Nitori still notes that he's the one who understands her the best because they are similar, which she is very grateful for.
  • Precocious Crush: Kaneda is apparently popular with students. Maho mentioned him in an early chapter, before he was revealed, and background girls like him. Makoto and Takatsuki crush on him as well.
  • Progressively Prettier: While not ugly, Takatsuki does tend to make unusual and exaggerated facial expressions in the manga. The anime changed them and toned them down.
  • One-Steve Limit: Subverted. A omake reveals the Nitori siblings dad is named "Hiroyuki", which is also Yuki's birth name.
  • Prone to Tears: Nitori starts out very sensitive, but becomes less so as she ages.
  • Sailor Fuku: Shuuichi was the only one in the manga to apparently own one for a long time, though recently she's brought a new uniform that matches her high school one. Sasa's and Chizuru's high school requires Sailor Fuku, so they wear one.
  • Series Continuity Error: In the first volume of the manga Takatsuki says "Her brain gets itchy? That's weird." in reference to Sasa's nature, and otherwise acts as if they aren't close. In the second volume it's established that they've been close friends since kindergarten, so Takatsuki should already know of Sasa's habits.
  • Setting Update: The anime was made in 2011 while the manga version of those chapters happened in the mid 2000s. Thus some technological upgrades were done to the anime.
  • Shipper on Deck:
    • Quite a few characters, including Mako and Yuki, ship Takatsuki and Shuuichi.
    • Maho shipped Shuuichi and Anna early on, but later she switched camps and wants them to break up.
  • Shout-Out: Shuuichi is quite the fan of Anne of Green Gables.
  • Shown Their Work: The manga has a realistic view on different LGBT topics. Simple cross-dressing, being transgender, being trans as a kid, questioning one's gender identity as a kid but growing out of it, being gay, sexuality in relation to being trans, trying to pretend to be one's biological sex to confirm they are actually trans etc. The series is a Lighter and Softer portrayal of much of what a transgender person would go through in Japan, but it does not sugarcoat the matter.
  • Skinship Grope: Chizuru does this twice to Takatsuki. Neither occasion ends well. A random girl in the locker room of chapter 107 grabs Takatsuki's waist. One of the former examples doubled as a Funny Moment, in which Chizuru grabbed Takasuki's chest from behind after he had began binding his breasts. Chizuru's Large Ham reaction of surprise is quite priceless.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Inverted with Takatsuki. Comparing to all the trans girls this series have (Nitori, Makoto, Yuki), he is the only trans boy out of them. And in the end, she decides to detransition and live as a girl.
  • Sobriquet Sex Switch:
    • Transgender Cool Big Sis Yuki's birth name is "Hiroyuki".
    • Makoto requests for Nitori to refer to her as "Mako-chan" not soon after they begin being friends.
    • Nitori herself may avert this. Her given name is "Shuuichi" and in middle school she wanted to swap names with Takatsuki, who is "Yoshino", but that never happened. When she begins working at a gay bar the owner gives her the name "Lilly" but we don't know if this is her chosen name or not. Mako refers to Nitori by the feminine nickname "Nitorin".
  • Spell My Name With An S: Maiko's name is typically written as "Maiko" by fans, but one magazine in the manga romanizes it as "Maico".
  • Stacy's Mom: Essentially all the mothers, though Chiba's mom has been referred to as "beautiful" by a boy in-series.
  • Tragic Dream: The protagonists are unable to transition so they must deal with puberty and growing up as a gender they don't wish to.
  • Trans Relationship Troubles:
    • Nitori and Anna begin dating in middle school. Anna knew about Nitori wearing girl's clothes and was fine with it, but the full situation didn't dawn on her until Nitori tried to go to school dressed in the female uniform. The confusion led Anna to break up with Nitori, though they end up together again later. Everything ends up resolved when, before Nitori goes off to college, Anna tells Nitori that she likes her as a girl and she's fine being labeled lesbian if they're together.
    • Makoto is a closeted trans girl who has a habit of falling in love with guys. However, she can't be open about her feelings because everyone sees her as a boy and she'd likely get rejected as a result. Her main crush throughout middle and high school is a bully named Oka. Oka doesn't notice Mako's feelings and gets weirded out when Mako tries to give him "friendship chocolates" on Valentine's Day.
  • Trans Equals Gay: Several bullies mock Shuuichi about her 'crossdressing', saying that she's gay.
  • Uncanny Family Resemblance: Shuuichi and Maho, especially when the former grew their hair into a bob like her sister. Oka's little brother looks exactly like him, right down to the haircut. Funnily enough, while they don't resemble any of their parents too much, they look almost exactly like their aunt looked about their years. And said aunt, then Miss Kimishima, just happened to be the first crush of a boy... who became Shuuichi's homeroom teacher in the middle school and therefore couldn't really keep his calm in the girl's presence. Ouch.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: Nitori and Anna for quite a number of chapters. During the time they were broken up there were several tense moments between them. Nitori made it clear that she loves Anna, and Anna felt the same way, but they had difficulties making the jump to romance. A lot of blushing occured though. Eventually that tension ended when they got back together again however it was replaced with an even worse tension. They both become sexually frustrated in their high school years but never do anything about it.
  • Unwanted Harem: Almost criminal to list this one here due to the intense realism used when portraying it. A subversion of the common associated tropes, but falls cleanly into a Harem; it's arguably a deconstruction of harems.
  • Wanted a Son Instead: Nitori's grandparents had a bet on the sex of their grandkids. The grandma lost both times because she thought Shuuichi was female and Maho was male. Nitori's father ponders whether she was really wrong about Shuu after all.
  • Webcomic Time: Six years in-series was nine years in real life. The series was written throughout The Noughties so you can tell when a chapter is written by the technology. Originally not that many kids had cellphones but later on almost everyone has them; the type of cellphone has also changed from flippable to touch screen in a few cases.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: Less apparent than other examples, and more realistic, but still there. A common complaint about the manga is that the kids act "too" mature for ten to thirteen year olds. Although it's less about too mature and more about too aware. Children who aren't trans tend not to overanalyze and philosophize about gender until they're older, while trans kids feel the pressure sooner.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: In Chapter 78 Nitori gives this to Mako. After confining into Nitori about how she doesn't see herself as cute, Nitori told her that she was. This incident made Mako consider whether she may have feelings for Nitori.

Alternative Title(s): Hourou Musuko

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