Mar 23, 2023
What exactly is the first medium to depict gender-bending in any form? That's a question that doesn't really have an easy answer. I've tried looking it up myself, but the results I found had no concrete answers. When I say gender bending, I don't mean stuff like Mrs. Doubtfire or Some Like It Hot where a man crossdresses in women's clothing, and I'm definitely not talking about transgender people who medically transition from one gender to another. I'm talking about gender bending in the sense of someone magically shapeshifting into the opposite sex, whether consensually or through some other means, like what happens in Ranma
...
1/2. Lots of media across the world have tackled gender bending in some capacity, and manga is no exception, but there's quite a bit of debate as to what was the first manga to depict gender bending as we know it. But one of those manga was just unearthed after several decades in obscurity, called To Joker..., made in 1973 by Yumiko Ooshima. It's said to be one of the earliest depictions of gender bending, and having read it...it really shows. But I'm not gonna lie, this manga might have been better off forgotten.
The story centers on a boy named Simon, who was taken in by his ecologist uncle Gilles after his parents died. He has a crush on his flightly cousin Joca, but his rival, a boy named Jean-Claude Zola, also likes Joca and gets into fights with him over her. Worried about how physically weak he is compared to Jean-Claude, Joca gives Simon what she thinks is a medicine that her father made so he can get stronger. Unbeknownst to her and everyone except Gilles and his wife, the medicine turns out to be a sex-changing drug. Gradually, Simon's body and behavior start to change into that a woman. Worried for Simon's safety and reputation, Gilles sends him to live in England with a friend, but he has to take on the name Solange so people don't find out what happened to him, with Simon being legally declared dead. Seven years later, the death of his mother-in-law compel Simon—having lived as Solange and having fully become a woman in body and soul—to return to his home, reuniting with Joca and Jean-Claude. A melodramatic love triangle ensues.
No, I'm dead serious. 60% of this manga literally consists of just Joca, Jean-Claude, and Simon whining about their so-called romance troubles with each other topped with ridiculous amounts of overblown angst and melodrama. To Joker as a manga has literally no sense of subtlety whatsoever. Characters scream their feelings and cry passionately about pretty much everything under the sun, making the whole thing feel like a bad soap opera. Actually, To Joker is literally just a soap opera in manga form, only it doesn't go on forever. Seriously, if a character so much as makes a snide remark, everyone behaves like a pearl-clutching Christian who found out the pope got pregnant. There's very little in the way of light moments that show the characters just chilling out and living their lives, as To Joker doesn't think it needs any and just piles on the angst and love triangle bullshit non-stop! None of the characters are endearing in any way, as they all adhere to rote stereotypes, like the childish shoujo lead, the dashing rival, the buck-toothed nerd, so on and so forth, and since the manga is only three chapters long, they don't get any time to develop into more interesting, three-dimensional characters. Oh, and do I need to mention all of the outdated sexism and gender roles that everyone forces on Simon when he's Solange? Women must only wear dresses, look pretty, continually obsess over men, and find husbands no matter what because that's their sole purpose in life! I know this manga was made in 1973, but come on, there were other manga coming out long before this that had long since grown past trying to enforce gender roles and write women as passive, delicate blossoms whose only defining traits were wanting a guy. Bleeegh.
Honestly, I don't think the artwork holds up that well, either. Ooshima's designs for the characters look literally indistinguishable from other shoujo works of the era, and nothing really makes them stand out from their contemporaries. The paneling is really odd, too. All of the panels are nothing but squares and rectangles that don't really flow from one scene to the next, and what makes it even harder to follow is that sometimes when characters are talking, their speech bubbles are connected, with nothing to help indicate who is saying what. Seriously, Rose of Versailles came out a year after than this and looked way better. There's also the fact that for some reason, Solange's long hair is drawn in such a way that makes it look less like hair and more like the veil that a nun wears. It just looks really jarring. As far as its depiction of gender bending goes, I can't really say its a positive depiction, as Simon's change is presented as a tragedy, and the manga has nothing resembling a happy ending, making it very much a product of its time in regards to the problematic views Japan had about gender, gender roles, and gender non-conforming people back in the seventies.
The only thing I can really say that makes To Joker... stand out from other gender bending media is that unlike most gender bending stuff we know in the modern day, where the transformation is instantaneous, Simon's change from a man to a woman is shown as being more subtle and gradual. He doesn't change into a girl in a puff of smoke, but it happens slowly, and any changes he experiences early on gradually become more and more obvious every day he lives. Plus, Simon's change happens as a result of a rather bullshit science experiment as opposed to magic or getting zapped by a machine. But that doesn't really enhance To Joker's overall quality as a manga. To Joker... is one of the earliest manga to depict gender bending, but on its own, it's a pretty terrible manga rife with overblown, stupid melodrama that makes no effort to tell anything remotely resembling a story people can actually care about. The only redeeming quality it has is that it's really short. I don't know if I could have handled reading more of this. Bottom line, I recommend skipping To Joker... as a whole, as it's really not worth wasting your time on.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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