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Now, as a person who comes into contact with the field of sociology every now and then, and by extension discussions on gender and sexuality, the description of this show instantly drew my attention towards it. Sitting down to watch, and spurred on by other reviews, I was expecting to sit down to a deep and interesting series that put a spotlight on gender issues (helped by the title of the first episode "What Are Little Girls Made of?"). I...had a bit of a lukewarm reaction to the series.

Before I get to that though, I want to start off with what I think this series ... did right. The most important is that this series decided to try and look at the issue seriously. There is little to none anime antics in this series, which is great because the idea of crossdressing characters normally gets played for laughs and serves as an excuse to make a joke. It also didn’t go the other way in terms of temptations by making this a giant angst fest and overdramatic. Instead, it took itself seriously while still keeping an atmosphere of realism and normality (well, it is a slice-of-life series in part..) The character’s don’t feel like clichés, and you can get a sense of the awkwardness they are going through during the series, even with some of the issue in the storyline I think exist (which I’m going to get to in a minute). I had some trouble keeping track of who was who sometimes since, instead of going the route of giving people unrealistic hair colors to make more variety, they went with keeping it at more realistic browns and blacks. And sometimes it almost felt like characters came out of nowhere, with just a passing flashback occurring to satisfy the curiosity. Once things get going it’s better though and easier to tell who is who.

Probably the biggest positive I can give though is the animation; it is by far one of the best looking animes I have ever seen. The watercolor style of the series is wonderful. From some other reviews of the series I’ve seen it apparently gives a sense of adolescence and all that, but sadly I’m usually not that perceptive on the relationship between animation styles and storylines so I can’t offer an opinion. All I can say is that it looks good, and I hope to find more series with a similar art style. I think it works great for this kind of story.

Now onto the negatives, and I'll start with the simplest issue of Takatsuki's side of the story; it kind of got buried under Nitori's, and I'm disappointed that it really didn't get as much attention as it probably should have. However, I can be fair and state an alternate view on this; Takatsuki's story doesn't get as much attention as Nitori's simply because society is more accepting of "girl wanting to be a boy" than "boy wanting to be a girl" and so less potential for dramatic storytelling. This comes to a head in one of my favorite episodes of the series, and is briefly discussed in character, but still, for being the other main lead I feel Takatsuki's story didn't get the depth that Nitori's did and so it suffers from only getting a few scenes here and there that expand on her internal conflicts. Again though, it may just be because society accepts boyish girls more than girlish boys and so it’s an easier problem for her.

Of course, I also have an issue with Nitori's storyline, and that issue is that by the end I feel like we really didn't get anywhere with it. Let me explain. Throughout the series I was waiting for some kind of moment, some kind of discussion on why Nitori wants to be a girl with some level of passion on Nitori's part. Instead, all I got was everyone saying he looked cute, putting him in dresses, and Nitori just kind of accepting it (minus one scene later on, but he gets kind of passive again afterwards). I just really feel like Nitori's wanting to be a girl was TOLD to us more than SHOWN (outside of crossdressing, but cross-dresser=/=transgender), and with all the comments about how 'cute' he was seeming to be the only real reason given for crossdressing, it seemed more like he was wanting to be a girl just to conform to what everyone else wants and what society says is appropriate (guys are handsome and tough, girls are cute and dainty).

And so overall, by the end of the series, I almost felt like nothing was that accomplished in terms of the major storylines. I should note this opinion is only relevant to the anime; I have yet to take a look at the manga, and I am tempted to because what I do know of it seems like it may fix some of the issues I'm discussing here. Therefore, it may be safe to say my issues here deal more with the shortness of the series (11 episodes) than an inherent flaw of the premise itself.

So my final word on this series would be this: if you're interested in a series that has a deep, detailed discussion of gender and sexuality, this is about the best you're going to get. While it could have been handled better, it doesn't do a bad job, and I appreciate the serious look at the topic instead of falling to prey to the more 'comedic' or ‘angst’ potential of "gender bending".