Finally! Another good AIC series!. These guys really got on my nerves in 2010, in which they released a truckload of series and I only ended up liking one of those (Tentai Senshi Sunred, to be exact). This however is an excellent depiction of the bustling school life. It’s perhaps a bit on the angsty side, but the creators somehow succeeded in making a very slow paced slice of life series in which a lot of stuff is happening at the same time.
As someone who hasn’t read anything about the manga, I like the decision to start out in the middle of the manga. There are already too many series that only end up animating the first X volumes of their source material, and this is an interesting twist on the matter, especially considering how there is no way that Hourou Musuko is going to be longer than 11 episodes (Noitamina and all).
At first it’s a bit confusing, but this show explains where necessary and at this point I’ve finally got a good image of who the characters are. Whereas Aoi Hana’s cast was really small, Hourou Musuko’s is quite large, but that’s what I like about it. My problem with a lot of high school series is that they only bother to give a character to four or five important characters. Here, the entire classroom feels alive.
During this episode, I also nearly forgot at times that this is about cross dressers. It’s so unlike any other cross-dressing show I’ve seen, and this episode was about many more things than just the male lead’s gender issues. A major theme was with the female lead and her friends. It was nicely built up in the way that you only realize that it was building up to this when the major parts already started.
Overall I really like slowly learning more and more about these characters who already have a heap of backstory prior to the start of this series. The main downside is that I still have no idea which character is named which. I usually have to look up some characters’ names while writing these blog entries, but in this series it is really extreme: I even have no clue what the names of the two lead characters are…
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Hashihime has a really nice character page with many of the characters. It’s the newest post.
Here’s a character chart for ya: http://shizuka.mine.nu/pics/hourou_chars/chara/htm
Just so you know, the two main characters are in the 4th pic (2nd pic from the top right) on the right. The brown haired one is Shuichi Nitori (the boy who wants to be a girl) and the one with the boyishly short black hair is Yoshino Takatsuki, the girl who wants to be a boy.
Nitori (girly boy)
Takatsuki (boyish girl)
These are basically the names you need to remember.
It’s kind of easy to get confused, though. People mix up surnames and forenames, shorten names, have nicknames and there are even two girls with the same name, so don’t be surprised.
It really doesn’t help that the characters look so similar, but it’s in a good way – normally you just get lazy sameface syndrome in a badly animated show, but in HM’s case it just helps to build the setting of a bustling school where people aren’t meant to stand out that much.
I think I’m not gonna be able to judge this anime correctly since I’m such a fan of the manga. I pretty much like anything they do with it xD! I do agree that it was a good decision to start in the middle, especially if they were looking for drama (since the anime starts after the big friendship breakdown). I also like that each of these characters you probably knew someone like that in your childhood: the weird one, the follower, the nice girl, the tomboy, the effiminate guy, the bitchy girl, etc. And I will stop my rant now 😀
This episode is one of the few instances where I felt I was too old to be watching it. It’s just too hard to relate to the preteen angst and temper tantrums. I want to like this show and I love the premise but I’d hope they pick things up.
Slating this material for 11 episodes was probably a mistake when the show can’t even afford to give significant screen time to the two main characters in the opening episode.
I’d probably feel differently if I read the manga but it’s hard enough to name the large cast let alone feel happy or sad for them when they’ve been given no time to develop.
The only part of the episode that really stuck out as a cool moment for me was when one of the boys said “I wonder if I’m attracted to boys?”. Nice and subtle.
This episode is one of the few instances where I felt I was too old to be watching it. It’s just too hard to relate to the preteen angst and temper tantrums. I want to like this show and I love the premise but I’d hope they pick things up.
Slating this material for 11 episodes was probably a mistake when the show can’t even afford to give significant screen time to the two main characters in the opening episode.
I’d probably feel differently if I read the manga but it’s hard enough to name the large cast let alone feel happy or sad for them when they’ve been given no time to develop.
The only part of the episode that really stuck out as a cool moment for me was when one of the boys said “I wonder if I’m attracted to boys?”. Nice and subtle.
After reading everyone’s opinions on how this series benefits from starting in the middle I guess my rage about it(starting from the middle) calmed down a bit,and I enjoyed this episode much more than the previous one. One thing though, I really hope they don’t pull off an anime original ending,or at least not one that blocks them from continuing the story later on(though a 2nd season from noitamina serious is highly unlikely,I know).
Really loved the episode. The interactions, how you can relate those characters to some people you knew in your childhood and just seeing how they grow up, start affirming themselves and all. Really good drama. This is my early pick for best anime of the season.