Hourou Musuko – 02
You and me baby ain’t nothing but somewhat sexually confused mammals…
My favorite time of the week! After seeing the first episode (as well as the feedback) I’ve been eagerly awaiting the next episode. It’s been a mix of ‘OH MY GOD WHEN’S THE NEXT EPISODE’ and ‘WAIT, DON’T AIR TOO FAST BECAUSE IT’S ONLY ELEVEN WEEKS’. Nothing I’ve seen has really intrigued me as much as Hourou, so I’ll be following this one religiously (In other news, what about that XIII-2, eh?)
We open once again with a monologue this time helmed by Chiba Saori, the dark-haired twin-tailed girl. She talks about how she was the first person to notice that Shuuichi enjoyed dressing as the opposite gender. She and Shuuichi were always close, that was until Takatsuki showed up. I guess that means Chiba really likes him, yeah? As everyone piles into classes the next day, Chizuru (the girl who showed up in a boys uniform) has already gotten into a fight with a junior and she continues to impress Takatsuki. Although during the seating change, things get a little messy as Chiba starts insulting Chizuru. From what the show has been telling us, she a little firestarter and seems to hate everything (she even says she does). Chizuru manages to stop it all before someone got slapped, but it doesn’t look like Chiba is friendly.
After this little incident the class is preparing for gym before lunch. Shuuichi and Makoto, being the kind of people they are, change away from everyone else. And remember that dude from the first episode that got smacked with a book? He’s back, and he calls Shuuichi a girl for being so nervous. Funnily enough, Shuuichi actually enjoys that and look like her just achieved nirvana. He also gets called a girl again when he drops his sisters lunch off. Her class mates say he looks like a girl, and he’s pretty pleased with himself. After the class decided what sort of clubs they will be joining (Takatsuki says she’ll be joining the basketball club, and I think Makoto was flirting with the teacher…), Chiba manages to get herself into another fight with some juniors. That is until she just shuts them down and walks off.
When school ends things only get worse, because as it turns out, the basketball and the volleyball teams practice on the same court. And with Takatsuki playing basetball and Chiba playing volleyball, it looks like Sasa is stuck in the middle. It’s really quite obvious that these two hate each other. Something happened between them, and it’s really had quite an impact on them. At least one of them. After practice Sasa runs off after yelling at the two, and Takatsuki asks if they can put their past behind them for Sasa. Chiba just replies with a stern ‘No’, and even digs up her own comeback. With Takatsuki extremely pissed off, we cut to Makoto and Shuuichi, both wearing the clover hairpins from the first episode. What’s interesting is that Makoto actually wonders whether he’s attracted to guys (with Shuuichi being an exception). I really didn’t expect anything like that.
However, now isn’t the time for Makoto, because we want to know what happened between Chiba and Takatsuki. It turns out that 9 months ago, Shuuichi confessed to Takatsuki (Ohhhhh, scandal!). But that’s not the only thing. It turns out that Chiba also confessed to Shuuichi after hearing that he liked Takatsuki. Chiba paid Takatsuki a visit, seeing how she felt about Shuuichi, but it didn’t end too well. Takatsuki ended up yelling at Chiba, bringing up events even further back, and returning Chiba’s hate for her. Yeah, that’s right. They both hate each other. And to make matters worse, Sasa was pretty serious about hating them too. She started avoiding Takatsuki and now she’s pretty worried and confused about what to do.
But Makoto and Shuuichi are pretty onto it. They tell Takatsuki to suck it up and just make up (not out) with Chiba. So she does just that, walking up to her and pretty much telling her that the three of them would be walking home together. Chizuru gets wind of the awesome that’s happening and eventually everyone ends up joining in for some ice cream and fun times. When it seems that everyone is all happy again, Shuuichi’s is gonna go ahead and throw a spanner in the works. He’s falling for Takutsuki again.
End Thoughts
Shuuichi‘s Mum kinda looks like a dude. Maybe cross-dressing runs in the family.
That awkward moment when you realize your friend is a nutcase.
That awkward moment when your friend gets off by eating ice cream.
I just KNEW there would be a complicated back and forth plot like this. While it’s entertaining and rewarding to watch, boy is it hard to write. I left out a few things unfortunately (Shuuichi’s Sister’s boyfriend(?) thought Shuuichi was a girl when he first me him. Shock!), but I just couldn’t think of a good way to slide them in. And I think after watching this we can all agree that Chiba was being a bit of an unreasonable little girl. Takatsuki was ready to put things behind them, but it really was Chiba who told her ‘No’. Merely because 9 months ago Takatsuki was all like ‘Yo yo, I hate you too, dawg’? I’m sure they could’ve worked through it. It’s possible that Chiba still likes Shuuichi (she most likely does (thank you, opening monologue~)), so she’ll probably end up hating Takatsuki again very soon.
Even more surprising this episode was the fact that Makoto actually questioned himself to be gay. I kinda suspected him to be into cross dressing like Shuuichi (Did you see the way he was hugging that bear in episode one? Wow.), but I didn’t think he could be straight up gay. I hope we get an episode dedicated to him later on in the series, because I’m sure there will be a character or two to say something about his gayness. I’m glad Shuuichi is such an awesome character as well. I haven’t seen (nor have the knowledge of) many shows that deal with an issue like homosexuality (hurr hurr Hato watches yaoi hurr hurr), but Shuuichi was so chill, it was brilliant. Then again, if he did freak, he can’t exactly judge Makoto, yeah? I mean, just look what he gets up to in his spare time.
It’s gonna be interesting to see how Takatsuki will react to Shuuichi’s confession this time around. I’m pretty sure there will be one and because of this awkward love triangle, how will it all play out? I mean, Chiba likes Shuuichi. Shuuichi likes Takatsuki, and too our knowledge, doesn’t like Chiba. So where does that leave Takatsuki? Maybe she’ll go lesbian with Chizuru. Then would it be Chiba and Shuuichi? And then Makoto and the teacher, lol. Ew, actually, that’s weird. Forget I said that. I guess I don’t even have to worry about the show anymore. I have good faith that’ll it’ll be great. It’s gonna be one hell of an awkward beach episode when it happens though…
Preview preview preview. Do I always pick shows with such awkward previews? I can never actually deduce what is going on. I saw a swan, on a weird lake with people in it. It looked like a dream, so maybe they find an LSD stash? That would be sweet. Also, if you for some reason talk about XIII – 2 in the comments, no spoilers from XIII or I’ll hurt you.
About Hato-kun
I'm Hato, born and raised in glorious New Zealand and a self-proclaimed awesome person. I started writing here in July and I'm loving it so far! I'm Metanorn's go-to Moe Man (lol) and the games guru, so don't be shy to say hello!
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
Alright, I was prepared this time around and I enjoyed it, Hourou Musuko is really really good, it’s unique and original (for me that is…) and I like romance ^^ Especially slice-of-life and romance put together eg: Toradora and such. I know this is a very mad comment I’m gonna make but do abnormal people tend to coincidentally make friends with other abnormal people? (that’s a bit harsh…) I mean, I thought the glasses boy was normal who accepted him for cross dressing but was actually gay himself, alright, fine by me, I’ll still enjoy this anime either way, jealousy and love always don’t go good with each other, nor have they EVER, good thing they kinda made up ^^
BRING ON NEXT EPISODE!!! Such a nice fluffy atmosphere~ =3
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 21 comments
Hahaha, being bisexual myself, I guess we have what you call an “abnormality radar” xD. We tend to know who is an outcast in society, whether he’d be someone who is visibly “weird”, or a secretly gay jock xP.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
That’s pretty impressive, and I’m not teasing you or anything, by all means if I am then I apologize in advance ^^
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 21 comments
I’M FLAMING WITH ANGER; *RAWR*!!…
*ehem*
Joking, I guess it’s quite impressive, I like to see it as me having telekinetic powers >D.
POWUH: 400-499 and Manly Russians lover with 401 comments
I have something like that, but for some reason, I attract all the lolicons.
No idea why.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 209 comments
Man, so much tension from middle schoolers but this what makes this show great is the characters development and the character understanding of who they are and of others.
Also Chi is great and a person I would totally hangout with.
POWUH: 400-499 and Manly Russians lover with 401 comments
Yeah, Chi gets my B.A.M.F of the day award. She’s just badass.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 305 comments
My new OTP: Takatsuki x Chizuru
XD
POWUH: 400-499 and Manly Russians lover with 401 comments
Yeah, totally agreed. But then what would Shuuichi do?!
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 339 comments
Oh dear god I loved the boys little camp hair pin moment. Fffuuuuu- all my adoration
POWUH: 400-499 and Manly Russians lover with 401 comments
That’s just me and Panda, all day long.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 339 comments
.___.
POWUH: iLurker with 18 comments
Having difficulty with this one. Loved the premise and was excited about it but just find it too difficult to relate to or enjoy all the preteen angst and temper tantrums.
The standout moment was indeed when one of the boys nonchalantly thought out loud “I wonder if I’m attracted to boys?” but I couldn’t name the character for the life of me because the cast is too large to give any of the characters (mains included…) significant screen time in a show that got shortchanged by being slated for only 11 episodes.
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 21 comments
Makoto is the sassy gay friend xP.
POWUH: 400-499 and Manly Russians lover with 401 comments
Fair enough. I myself think at times the characters seem a little too well thought out for middle school. I mean, I pretty sure I wasn’t that smart in middle school.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 93 comments
Aaaaah the drama of middle school. Character developement and understanding of each other is great… but the thing that annoys me is how shiny their heads are. =-= Ughhh it looks like they have dandruff.
POWUH: 400-499 and Manly Russians lover with 401 comments
They need some Head and Shoulders up in.
POWUH: iLurker with 1 comments
Isn’t his name Shuuichi? °w°
Anyway, i love the show and the manga, and your reviews are fun to read. You always pick such nice screenshots! <3
POWUH: 400-499 and Manly Russians lover with 401 comments
Hurr, his name is Shuuichi. That’s what you get when you watch one episode of that Onii anime. And thank you so much! :3
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
This is so glorious! Such maturity from middle schoolers. Man. I’m loving all the characters and will read the manga once the anime is done.