Hourou Musuko

Wandering Son
Cover of volume 1 of Wandering Son, published by Enterbrain, showing Yoshino (left) and Shuichi
放浪息子 (Hōrō Musuko)
Genre	Drama, Slice of life
Manga
Written by	Takako Shimura
Published by	Enterbrain
English publisher	NA Fantagraphics Books
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Comic Beam
Original run	December 2002 – August 2013
Volumes	15 (List of volumes)
Anime television series
Directed by	Ei Aoki
Produced by	Jiyū Ōgi Makoto Kimura (Fuji TV) Shunsuke Saito
Written by	Mari Okada
Music by	Keiichi Okabe Satoru Kōsaki
Studio	AIC Classic
Original network	Fuji TV (Noitamina)
Original run	January 13, 2011 – March 31, 2011
Episodes	12 (aired as 11) (List of episodes)

Wandering Son (放浪息子^?, Hōrō Musuko) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takako Shimura. It was originally serialized in Comic Beam from the December 2002 to August 2013 issue, and published in 15 tankōbon volumes by Enterbrain from July 2003 to August 2013. The series is licensed in English by Fantagraphics Books, which released the first volume in North America in July 2011. A 12-episode anime adaptation produced by AIC Classic and directed by Ei Aoki aired in Japan between January and March 2011. Eleven episodes aired on television, with episodes 10 and 11 edited into a single episode, and were released individually on their respective BD/DVD volumes.

The story depicts a young student named Shuichi Nitori, described by the author as a transgender girl, and Shuichi's friend Yoshino Takatsuki, described as a transgender boy. The series deals with issues such as being transgender, gender identity, and the beginning of puberty. Shimura was originally going to write the story about a girl in high school who wants to be a boy, but she realized that a boy who wants to be a girl before entering into puberty would have a lot of worries related to growing up, and changed the story to fit this model. Wandering Son was selected as a recommended work by the awards jury of the tenth Japan Media Arts Festival in 2006. The series has been lauded for its use of gender reversal as the core of the story, though the emotional realism of the young characters has been called into question.

At the start of Wandering Son, Shuichi Nitori is a young, feminine child assigned male at birth (AMAB) in the fifth grade who transfers into a new school. Shuichi quickly becomes friends with another student, tall, boyish Yoshino Takatsuki. Yoshino soon learns of Shuichi's desire to be a girl. In a show of friendship, Yoshino confesses a similar desire to be a boy. Shuichi also becomes friends with Saori Chiba and Kanako Sasa, two other girls in the class. Saori instantly takes a liking to Shuichi and continuously encourages Shuichi to wear feminine clothes. After Shuichi, Yoshino, and their friends enter sixth grade, Shuichi meets Makoto Ariga, another AMAB student their age from another class who also secretly wants to be a girl. Shuichi and Yoshino become friends with an adult transsexual woman named Yuki who is living with a man named Shiina. Shuichi's older sister Maho becomes a model and eventually becomes friends with Maiko, a teen model whom she idolizes, and two other teen models: Tamaki Satō and Anna Suehiro. Maho gets a boyfriend, Riku Seya, and Shuichi confesses a crush on Yoshino, but Yoshino cannot reciprocate Shuichi's feelings. After Saori learns of this, she confesses she likes Shuichi, but Shuichi too cannot return her feelings. This results in a falling-out between Shuichi's friends as they prepare to enter junior high school.