Wandering Son is a work by Takako Shimura and features many similar aspects to the rest of her manga a protagonist that is unsure of themselves messy romance dynamics and a adolescent cast. Wandering Son features one caveat that differs from Shimuras other works with the inclusion of the main protagonist being a transwoman. In this story we are introduced to male Nitori Shuuichi a fifth grader who has feminine features and dreams of being a girl. Wandering Son chronicles Shuuichis life and transition throughout their time from fifth grade to becoming a adult and graduating high school. Wandering Son goes through Shuuichis youth in a slow pace detailing the many actions and events that lead to Shuuichi being able to be comfortable with the fact they like dressing and being a girl. In the beginning of the story Shuuichi is uncomfortable being wanting to be girly and be more feminine unlike Yoshino who is a girl wanting to transition to a boy and presents herself masculine. In this manga Shuuichi takes steps all throughout their youth to present themselves to the world the way they want like secretly cross dressing with Yoshino and doing plays dressed as a girl. Many obstacles Shuuichi faces though is harassment from other students and being comfortable expressing himself without worry that other people may hate them. At some points this does feel a little repetitive as it seems like each crossdressing play they do at Shuuichis school repeats the same dilemma making it feel stale at points. On the other hand the first impact and harassment towards Shuuichi for wanting to be a girl hits hard and deep and moments like Doi exposing his thoughts feel terrible to read. The conflict of ridicule in school towards Shuuichi is mostly contained in the first half of the book and seems more tame than real life. Shuuichis friends are their for them and support Shuuichi thoroughly while the is conflict the manga doesnt take it to the extreme that it could have. I appreciated the approach many other authors would choose to have the majority of a book on a life of a trans character being very negative and even if some points are very rosetinted I didnt mind most of the times it took this approach. One time I did mind it is when it comes to Shuuichis parents and the fact they are sort of absent throughout the manga letting Shuuichi do whatever with whoever. In addition when Shuuichi comes out to them there is barely any drama or conflict and they barely even talk to them about it before accepting it a little too unrealistic in my eyes. This manga instead of choosing to mainly focus on the negative aspects of being transgender spends the majority of its time on Shuuichi developing as a person dating and having romantic feelings facing the problem of puberty catching up to their feminine appearance and figuring out who they want to be in life. In the manga there is romantic feelings from character to character and at points it makes me lose my head a little generally I did like complicated feelings in this manga. Shuuichis feelings towards Yoshino are indicative of young love and falling for the people you are closest to and Shuuichis eventual romance to Anna is sweet and shows a really nice positive relationship with a transgender and cis person. Chiba feelings towards Shuuichi are pure and unselfish and their rejection towards her shapes her to become the fantastic character she is. Chiba is throughout my favorite character in the manga unable to fit in with boys and girls she chooses to hang with those that have trouble identifying with either. She may seem gloomy and arrogant at point the actions she takes like her unrelenting supporting for Shuuichi to be themselves and cross dress makes her a wonderful character. Shuuichi while I do like them as a character do not find them as appealing of a character as Chiba and that is one point I am hung up on when trying to give this manga higher praise. Shuuichi and Yoshino are who we mainly follow in the manga and while they are not weak characters sometimes I can find them a bit boring. At one point in the manga Doi makes this point towards Shuuichi that their only real hobby is cross dressing. Eventually Shuuichi becomes a more fleshed out character in the end but the middle part of the manga lags and can feel sluggish at times because their character at that point is a little dull. The main positive aspects that shine in this book are the challenges that Shuuichi faces and how that shape them and creates a more interesting character. The ending of this manga is beautiful in my eyes and procures it from being just a simple good story. We finally see Shuuichi in a good state where their life is no longer tormented by the daily problems of being transgender they have a girlfriend who accepts them a normal school life passion for writing and a reality that seemed so far away at one point in their life. It really is a bittersweet moment as you remember all the obstacles and challenges they had to go through to get there and it leaves you with a fuzzy feeling. Yoshinos part in realizing that she didnt want to become transgender also adds to the satisfactory ending. Yoshino finds out who she really is and while she has a hard time admitting it Shuuichi accepts whatever choices she makes and it really shows the bond these two have as friends. I feel like adding this makes it a point that its fine to question and wonder and that figuring out who you are can be confusing and its okay to make missteps in that. Im rating this an low 8.