From: bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com   
      
   On 07/26/2013 01:13 PM, Bobbie Sellers wrote:   
   >    Spoiler alert:  I have tried to avoid anything that   
   > would ruin the story for the reader of this group but   
   > I am sure that anyone feeling spoiled will let me know   
   > about it.  I wanted the format to look right and spent   
   > a lot of time shortening these lines to get a consistent   
   > appearance.   Well I messed up the newsgroup address line   
   > again so if you replay add the rec.arts.anime.misc to   
   > it please.   
      
   	I have reread the whole story over the weekend and   
   finished it last night.  One problem is that the story is   
   taken out of the author's hands so that Shuichi is writing   
   his/her own story at the end.  Or at least that is the trope   
   and he is projecting present trends in his life into the   
   future with reporting events that have not happened yet in   
   his life or the lives of the people he knows who are covered   
   in the story (s)he is composing.   
   	Of course this may be a way to conclude a series that   
   may not have had mass market appeal but it is well done.   
   I would rather have read this story and watched this anime   
   than not.  Below is the data and a further comment.   
      
   HOUROU MUSUKO Manga   
   æ”¾æµªæ�¯å­�; 放浪男孩; HÅ   
   rÅ   
    Musuko; The Transient Son; Wandering Son; El   
   Hijo Transitorio   
   Released: 	Author & Artist  	   
   2002 		Shimura Takako		   
   Genre(s):Drama, Gender Bender,Romance, School Life, Seinen, Slice Of Life	   
      
    From Fantagraphics Books:   
   Fifth grade. The threshold of puberty, and the beginning of the end of   
   childhood innocence. Nitori Shuichi and his new friend Takatsuki Yoshino   
   enjoy happy homes and loving families, and are well-liked by their   
   classmates. But they share a secret that further complicates a time of   
   life that is awkward for anyone: Shuichi is a boy who wants to be a   
   girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy...   
      
   Written and illustrated by Shimura Takako, acclaimed for her sensitive   
   take on LGBT topics, Wandering Son portrays Shuichi and Yoshino's very   
   private journey with affection, sensitivity and gentle humor.   
      
   	So the author/artist is, according to what I have read, a lesbian and   
   it is a little surprising to find that she can deal so   
   well with this topic.  Many  of that community in the USA tend to   
   look down on transgendered people especially those that start out   
   male.   
      
   	As i mentioned before I have bought the hardcover Fantagraphic   
   edition to give as a present to a transgendered friend.   
      
      
   >   
   >      Well the anime is 12 episodes long though the   
   > 10th and 11th episodes are run together. The manga is   
   > 123 chapters long so we can tell right away that there   
   > is considerable time compression and with compression   
   > and localization for the English speaking market comes   
   > some distortion not only of time but of events.   
   >    For example:   
   >    The first play in the manga is not an adaptation   
   > of "Romeo and Juliet" (as in the anime)but of "Rose of   
   > Versailles" as done by the Takarazuka troop with Tatasuki   
   > playing Fersen and Nitori playing Rosalie though Tatasuki   
   > says Marie Antoinette would be a better  choice for Nitori.   
   >    It is not happening at the school festival but at the   
   > Farewell Party for the 6th graders.   
   >   
   >    Other than that a lot of detail is included in the manga   
   > that is left out of the anime but the most important stuff   
   > is referred to in flashbacks.   
   >   
   >    Now despite these inevitable compressive distortions   
   > of the manga the anime works very well and the final   
   > scene of the anime is of the beginning of the second   
   > play now entitled "I am a girl" and works very well.   
   > Well enough to make me cry.  Very close in final tone   
   > to the manga ending.   
   >    The art of the anime and manga are very close to   
   > the artist/author's original and I have to say the   
   > idealized children shown look much more like children   
   > than many other manga or anime.  I say idealized   
   > because there are no really fat or terribly ugly   
   > children depicted.   
   >   
   >    I think anyone who likes serious manga will enjoy   
   > the manga and anyone who reads the manga should watch   
   > the anime.  The unfortunate thing is that there are   
   > no licensed versions of the anime available and the   
   > manga is in an over-sized and hard cover edition   
   > which is not very cheap. The North American title   
   > is "Wandering Son" which should have been perhaps   
   > "Transient Son".   The unlicensed versions   
   > of the anime available from various retailers are   
   > apparently not only extremely digitally compressed   
   > but incomplete, lacking the 12th episode and those   
   > 11 are on one dvd.   
   >    The manga release will be finished in it North   
   > American release in a couple of years it looks like   
   >   as I am waiting for the 5th volume to be delivered   
   > and the 6th volume should be out by the end of the   
   > year.  I subscribed to this release, an option that   
   > should be available for the anime as well.   
   >    The manga in fan-scanned and translated form is   
   > online and seeing it online is the only reason I   
   >   am buying the hard cover expensive version from   
   > Fantagraphics.  This is in line with my idea that   
   > fan-scanned and translated manga is the equivalent   
   > to the fans of the weekly or monthly releases in   
   > regular Japanese magazines and promotes the series   
   > that are translated rather than impedes their sales.   
   >   
   >    I have to say that this is a star-crossed anime   
   > as it was being shown as the tsunami hit Japan and   
   >   the fan-subbed episodes are taken from the TV show   
   > at the time and have the story running in Japanese   
   > at the bottom of the screen.  This is why the 12th   
   > episode was either not shown or was much delayed in   
   > Japan.  The subject matter seems to have scared off   
   > the business groups that might have subtitled   
   > the show and brought it to the USA.   After all   
   > hey are in business to make money not to make   
   > educational and artistic statements. They don't   
   >   believe many people would be buying an anime   
   > about transgender characters living & evolving   
   > happier lives for themselves.   
   >   
   >    If you want to watch the fan-subbed anime it   
   > comes up to about  2.5 GiB including two or three   
   > soundtrack albums which I haven't had time to   
   > listen to yet.  It is from a fansub group called   
   > [umee] if you want to be sure of the contents.   
      
   	And the sound track and various cover albums   
   are available on line as well.   
   >   
   >      You may need to install VLC a cross platform   
   > media player to enjoy this.   
   >   
   	bliss   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)