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Forum - View topicJason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Futaba-kun Change
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giapet
Industry Insider
 Posts: 205 Location: Washington DC |
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I remember seeing this manga oh so long ago and thinking that it looked like a poor man's Ranma; now I wish I'd actually picked it up :\
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Parsifal24
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Good article the link to the mormon ant i masturbation pamphlet takes me back I remember when I actually thought that was good advice. Also I didn't know Ranma ended with no conclusion to the romantic drama.
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wandering-dreamer
 Posts: 1733 |
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I never really liked Ranma and never heard of this series but I really want to check it out now. And thanks for the link to the article about Erika Moen, I'd come across DAR before but didn't check it out at the time and I keep meaning to get back to it, guess I'll read that while I see if I can find any of Futaba-kun Change.
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PingSoni
 Posts: 195 Location: Lansing MI |
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I'm an actual trans person. (Perhaps I'm not a typical trans person, because I think Erika Moen is fabulous and I love her work.) I've collected quite a bit of gender-bending and gender-queer manga, including four volumes of the Studio Ironcat release of Futaba-kun Change, and I find very little of this genre to be truly offensive.
Misinformed, perhaps; put no more so than are many people, and not as rude, crude and downright malicious as many comments left on web forums when anyone mentions a tranny, lady boy or new half (which, by the way, are not generally considered polite terms). I'd love to see more realistic treatment of gender issues (and inclusion of the FTM side of things); something as sensitive as With the Light's (Keiko Tobe) treatment of autism, for example. But so far as I know, aside from a few single volume manga versions of text works such as Ayana Tsubaki's I Went to a Boy's School and many short-lived web comics, such things do not exist. I think everyone, especially when trying to come to grips with their identity, likes to find someone like themselves in a story told by another person. (Especially one that has a happy ending.) I think that's part of the appeal of fiction and comics. There isn't much, especially positive treatments, for people coming to grips with their gender identity. I certainly agree that transsexual people are awesome. Thanks for doing this review! |
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Durga
 Posts: 103 |
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I guess I can blame manga like Ranma 1/2 and Futaba-kun Change for helping me realize my gender dysphoria. What drew me to this manga was that it actually dealt with the gender issues that Ranma did not. I would like to see more anime and manga take the idea of someone transgendered or gender confused and treat it more seriously.
The only problems I had with Futaba was that it got a little too weird sometimes and that there was a certain part of the ending I didn't like. I didn't mind the aliens, however. |
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poisondusk
 Posts: 67 Location: Brighton, UK |
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Wow, I never thought I'd see the day when the term genderqueer appeared on ANN. I appreciate seeing an article willing to mention actual trans people instead of just focusing on the fetish aspect of cross dressing and sex changes in manga.
As someone who is trans and genderqueer, I won't say that these sort of titles offend or upset me, but I'm not really inclined to read them. To me it's unappealing and gets a little tiresome to see gender bending manga playing with sex changes as a fun plot device, and it can be a bitter reminder of just how far from real life stories like that really are. I don't think they're harmful and I don't have any objection to their existence though, and if some people are able to come to terms with themselves or adopt better attitudes towards trans people in real life through reading them, then that's great. My favourite trans manga is the little-known shoujo title Ai no Shintairiku, which while pretty light-hearted and fluffy doesn't treat being trans as some sort of grand adventure or comic relief, and does touch on a few of the more serious issues without turning depressing. |
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Moomintroll
 Posts: 1600 Location: Nottingham (UK) |
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I've not read the manga but the Mormon website linked to in the article is surely far, far more amusing than Futaba-kun Change could ever hope to be:
Priceless. |
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RadicaLElly
 Posts: 194 Location: Coral Springs, FL |
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For some reason I was totally unaware of the amount of controversy Erica Moen managed to stir up specifically with her comic about FTMs, but maybe that's just because DAR was already controversial in GLBTQ communities. Moen's received criticism over labeling herself as lesbian before dating (and later marrying) her boyfriend, which she wrote about in this strip http://www.darcomic.org/2009/12/08/queer-marriage/
I also always liked the strip she wrote about her variation in her own sexual identity over time http://www.darcomic.org/2009/06/23/identity/ I read Futaba-kun Change years ago and at the time didn't think much more of it than being a much more pervy version of Ranma. Kinda makes me wish I could read it again now. Maybe 23-year-old me would get more out of it than middle school me. |
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AnimeMaine
Posts: 123 |
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I have these books packed away from my last move, so I have not read them for years. But I bought them because I enjoyed Ranma 1/2, and I enjoyed them for the same reason. Not because of any social statement, but because I found them funny.
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musouka
Posts: 718 |
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No, they do exist, they just never get translated. Shouji Youko did a two volume series called "G.I.D." that had the same sensitive "educational" feeling of With the Light about a FTM transsexual and her transition. I own both volumes and it's quite good. There's also a very long running series called "I.S." about intersexuality that runs along similar lines. (I don't own any of it because of the huge gaps in my local bookstore's stock of it.) On the more entertainment side of the spectrum, you have Hourou Musuko. It's still a sensitive portrayal, but it's obvious that it doesn't have the "teaching" dual purpose that that the other two examples have. Last edited by musouka on Fri Oct 22, 2010 3:51 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Pippin4242
Posts: 111 |
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I was going to suggest Hourou Musuko too. I don't think something has to have EDUCATIONAL stamped across it to be, well, educational.
- Pips |
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PingSoni
Posts: 195 Location: Lansing MI |
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musouka: Thanks for the tip! I found those titles on amazon.co.jp and will order a few volumes each of Hourou Musuko and I S.
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wandering-dreamer
Posts: 1733 |
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I was actually just thinking of that one, I haven't read any of it but it's going to be one of the new noitaminA anime in the winter (the English name seems to be Wandering Son) so it sounds like it should be an interesting watch. |
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GVman
 Posts: 730 |
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I always find it funny how some religious people think masterbation is a terrible, terrible thing, yet I consider myself to be quite religious and I don't think of it as a sin. Hell, I think of it as being purposeful.
Anyhow, this manga sounds like great fun. |
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williamflipper
 Posts: 32 Location: London UK, Trieste Italy |
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Thanks for this amazing review. I really want to check it out now!
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