<em>This post was originally posted in February of 2011 <ahref="http://annabunches.stringofbits.net/post/3150300468/hourou-musuko-episode-4-watashi-no-namae-o-ageru-i">here</a>. It has been updated substantially.</em><br/><br/>You can watch the episode <ahref="http://www.crunchyroll.com/wandering-son/episode-4-i-give-you-my-name-568418">here</a>.<br/><br/><strong>Spoiler Warning</strong><br/><br/>This is the first episode that made me cry.<br/><br/>Sure, each of the other episodes made me get teary-eyed at least once, but this one actually gave me a need-a-tissue, tears-streaming-down-my-cheeks crying fit. It did this by being painfully sweet. But we’ll get to the scene that made me cry a bit later. First, I want to talk about swimming.<br/><br/>I fondly remember the days when throwing on a bathing suit and going swimming was straightforward, or even possible. As my gender dysphoria increased, and I started shaving the hair from areas that gave me the greatest bodily dissonance, swimming slowly became more and more awkward, until it was basically impossible for me to comfortably go swimming in public. Now that I have transitioned, swimming is still awkward. It is difficult for me to find a bathing suit that doesn't make me feel exposed, and even then my body's shape makes me feel very uncomfortable when it is that obvious. So when this episode opened with the cast swimming at school, I winced inwardly.<br/><br/>The scene is used to show more of Shūichi and Yoshino’s dysphoria. Shūichi is visibly envious of Yoshino's figure, and Yohsino is distinctly self-conscious when she is complimented as looking ‘womanly’. And this leads us to another aspect of trans experience that this show portrays very correctly - the unknowingly harmful comment.<br/><br/>Speaking for myself, as always, I know that as I began transitioning, offhand comments directed at me while I was dressed as a boy could often hurt, even when there is no ill intent (or special knowledge) on the part of the speaker. A good example occurred when I was at the bank. The teller attempted to compliment me by saying "Your hair is so cute! Girls must be jealous of it." While it is good to know my hair is cute, the way the comment put me solidly on the 'boy' side of the line stung. <em>(Edit: Luckily, this is no longer a problem for me. It remains, however, an experience common to many trans people.)</em><br/><br/>The episode gives us another example of this, too. When Shūichi gets out of the bath, his sister comments "A boy shouldn’t take such long baths." In this case, though, it is possible the comment may be more intentional. Even given only the evidence seen so far in the series, Maho would have to be pretty oblivious not to suspect that her brother is gender variant at this point. However, the show hasn't really given us any indication that she is aware of Shūichi's struggles, and actually implies an active lack of empathy towards him. When Maho's friend Anna* makes Shūichi cry, Maho's response is "It's fine, he does that all the time." This is both callous and suggests that Shūichi is suffering from depression, likely caused by dysphoria.<br/><br/>We also see a little more of the show's fourth trans character, Yuki, in this episode. Yuki is a grown trans woman who has befriended Yoshino. She has a boyfriend (Shi), whom she has known since childhood, and he was "the only one who never bullied [her]." Yuki comes across as a very warm and genuine person, as well as being pragmatic. She also represents a trans success story - she is a successful, confident, attractive woman who survived being teased and bullied. She's a representation of the It Gets Better narrative, which has been criticized (rightly) for being naive. But where the It Gets Better campaign feels like it is encouraging a complacent 'just wait, and everything will be alright' attitude, Yuki's character doesn't bear that connotation (she doesn't strongly oppose it, either - we simply don't know enough details about her story for that to be any part of the narrative here).<br/><br/>The
