Hourou Musuko and Love

Originally published March 2016

Commentary

I have a really soft spot for Hourou Musuko, since it opened up my eyes with regards to some of the trans situation in Japan. I was a member of the Straight-LGBTQ+ alliance during high school and have a few LGBTQ+ friends, so getting into this anime wasn’t a big deal, not were the issues the characters face particularly strange.

In fact, one of the only things that confused me was exactly why I would be tackling this anime at the point I did. I don’t remember what led me to cover this, perhaps it was just because I didn’t have anything else to cover at the time and just thought it would be fun, but I’m largely glad I did. For a long time it was, in effect, a poor performer, but it’s sorta picked up steam.

I spoke with the sort of serious Nerdwriter cadence in this video that, in hindsight, feels a little inauthentic. At the same time, I think it was because I spoke so slowly that I was able to express myself much more clearly than before. However, nowadays, I would definitely not speak so closely to the mic.

Stray Notes

  • I had to read A LOT of stuff on this topic, cause trans literature is not something I'm very familiar with. If you are familiar with the literature and there's something I misquoted or misspoke, please feel free to tell me!

  • Before anyone gets to me, I used 'her' for Shuichi at moments because that's the gender Shuichi dominantly identifies as

  • You should check out the manga - there's a lot of references in the anime of the manga's first major arc, which recontextualizes a lot of the characters in specific lights

  • Great anime, highly recommended! Fantastic editing style

  • I know that Suite Bergamasque is a suite and not technically a 'song', but by the time I recorded and found myself saying that, I was already video editing, so my sincerest apologies!

Your soul is a chosen landscape Where charming masqueraders and bergamaskers go Playing the lute and dancing and almost Sad beneath their fanciful disguises.

All sing in a minor key Of victorious love and the opportune life, They do not seem to believe in their happiness And their song mingles with the moonlight,

With the still moonlight, sad and beautiful, That sets the birds dreaming in the trees And the fountains sobbing in ecstasy, The tall slender fountains among marble statues.

Suite Bergamasque

Texts

  • "Bergamask." Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/Bergamask

  • hahnl. "Gabriel Faure's Style: 'Clair de Lune' as a Link between Romanticism and Impressionism." Music 242, 2014, https://pages.stolaf.edu/music242-spr...

  • "Fate/Zero Director Aoki Ei One-on-One Interview." Comptiq 2012, http://tsukikan.com/misc/fate-zero-di....

  • Mackie, Vera C. "Necktie nightmare: narrating gender in contemporary Japan." Humanities Research XVI (1), 2010: 111-128.

  • McLelland, Mark J. "'How to Sex'? The Contested Nature of Sexuality in Japan." The SAGE Handbook of Modern Japanese Studies (2015): 194-209.

  • McLelland, Mark J. "From the stage to the clinic: changing transgender identities in post-war Japan." Routledge (2004): 1-20.

  • McLelland, Mark J. "Western Intersection, Eastern Approximations." Haworth Press (2003): 203-230.

  • McLelland, Mark J. "Japan's Queer Cultures." Routledge (2011): 140-149.

  • "Onnagata." Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onnagata - Peterson, Britt. "Japan's Trans-Friendly Comic Book Revolution." Foreign Policy (2015), http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/30/m... -

  • Schinz, Albert. "Literary Symbolism in France." PMLA 18 (2), 1903: 273-307. - "Suite Bergamasque." Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/Suite_bergam...

Video

  • Hourou Musuko

Audio

  • Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy

  • Gymnopedie No. 1 by Erik Satie, played by Kevin MacLeod

  • Itsu Datte by Legenda BR

 
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