Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Cat’s Eye, City Hunter, f-compo, LGBTQ, manga, trans, Tsukasa Hojo, unwoke

People Think Manga Is "Un-Woke" But Have They Read This Trans Sitcom?

F.Compo by City Hunter and Cat's Eye creator Tsukasa Hojo is the funniest, most subversive trans sitcom manga series you've never read.

One of the most stupid and pointless arguments in the Culture Wars is the claim that manga and anime are "un-woke" if only because these are produced in Japan and away from Western "wokeness". Those who hate "woke", whatever they think it is, seem to think manga is a safe zone away from it. However, the world of manga is a vast ocean that accommodates every conceivable genre, age group, and subject matter as long as there's an audience for it. And they definitely don't know about a manga called F.Compo, aka Family Composition, which is a minor classic created by one of Japan's top creators, Tsukasa Hojo. It is, in short, a sitcom about a young cis man adjusting to living with a trans family. It is one of the most progressive comic series ever created, and at a time before we had finally delivered the language to rationally define and discuss LGBTQ issues and representation. The art is gorgeous, the story is meticulously paced and written, and it is sentimental but also goofy and frequently very funny. And if you think nobody would read it, F.Compo was serialised from 1996 to 200o, and its 11 collected tankubon volumes are still in print in Japan. It has been translated and sold in many countries, including France, yet it has never been published in English.

F. Compo is the story of Masahiko Yanagiba, whose parents have both died and, as requested in his mother's will, is invited to live with his maternal uncle's family, the Wakanaes. His uncle is a successful manga artist with his own studio of assistants in the office area of their house. Although the Wakanaes are kind and loving, he soon finds out why his other relatives stay away from them – his "uncle" is a woman, while his "aunt" is just the opposite. They're a fully trans legally married couple, and Masahiko has no idea whether his cute cousin, Shion Wakanae, is either a boy or a girl, which makes things very complicated for him and his cis hetero panic. Hilarity ensues.

The Ultimate Trans LGBTQ Sitcom Manga That's Still Ahead of Its Time

And continues to ensue. Hojo is a master of plotting, pacing, farce and comedy, as evidenced in his classic and highly popular (and still in print) action adventure series City Hunter and Cat's Eye, both of which are still global hits with the former earning a Netflix live action movie and the latter getting a French live action TV series in 2024 and an upcoming anime series on Disney+. Masahiko and the Wakanaes keep getting into situations beyond their control. His insistence that his uncle and aunt attend his high school graduation ceremony dressed as their biological sexes nearly becomes a major disaster until Shion makes him see the light and his aunt and uncle return dressed in their true identities and become admired by everyone there who is none the wiser to their trans identities. In a hazing ritual at his college, Masahiko is press-ganged into taking part in their annual cross-dressing beauty contest, only to be taken for a hot girl, which will haunt him for the rest of the manga's run when he gets forced to disguise himself as a girl to save various people in various situations. His cousin Shion is the poster person for the series, with Hojo often drawing them presenting as a hot girl on the covers of the series as a Trojan Horse. Shion is kind of a Manic Pixie Gender Fluid Superhero: self-assured, confident, unflappable, emotionally stable without any of the emotional vulnerabilities that afflict young LGBTQ people, and always up for some mischief and trouble-making.

Hojo manages to find, possibly with the help of his then-editor, almost every possible story idea about gender confusion and squeeze farce out of them. Masahiko has a subplot where he's trying to carry on his romance with college classmate Yuki, which is often complicated by the crazy cross-dressing situations he finds himself in. Shion drags Masahiko into hunting down a mysterious young man who's been seducing and breaking the hearts of local women, only to discover it's not exactly a boy but the butch and androgynous biological daughter of a local Yakuza boss who takes out their own gender confusion and daddy issues on women. The Wakanaes take in Kaoru Masoho to provide them with a stable family life, only for their scary, macho Yakuza dad to come calling, demanding why they've kidnapped his daughter, only to develop a crush on Aunt Yukari without knowing she's trans. Masahiko joins the cinema club at college and is coerced into playing the female lead in the film they're making. He is horrified to gain a legion of male fans who don't know it's him. And so on and so forth.

Tsukasa Hojo's Gleeful if Imperfect Subversion of Gender Politics

F.Compo even now continues to be the most subversive trans sitcom series in any medium, and proves that only comics, specifically manga, dare pull off what he does in this series. Tsukasa Hojo uses his brand talent for drawing very pretty women and good-looking men to manipulate and toy with the readers' own gender biases and expectations. He and his publishers know exactly what they're doing when they feature the gender-fluid Shion in pinup-style artwork on the covers of the tankubon collections without ever revealing whether Shion is male or female because that's not the point. Shion is not only the poster child of F.Compo but a litmus test for the readers. The entire drive of the series and its comedy are Masahiko's – and the readers' – internalised homophobia as the series guides him and us towards a place of acceptance for people regardless of their identity. Hojo knew the main attraction of his art was the Male Gaze, and that has never been subverted more gleefully before or since in a manga or any other medium. No US or Western TV network or publisher has ever thought to plunge headlong into the deep waters of gender confusion as farce. Perhaps only Hojo's earnestness and naiveté enabled him to create F.Compo. And it's been a minor classic series in Japan ever since, given that it's still in print.

That's not to say F.Compo is a perfect manga. It was created during a time when we still didn't have the language to address trans issues or nonbinary or gender fluidity, so some of the characters – and by extension Hojo and the general public's – attitudes to trans and gay people in the series might be considered a bit problematic, but the series consistently presents Shion and the Wakanaes as the best people in the story, endlessly funny, kind, patient and tolerant while nearly everyone else shows bias, hysteria and prejudice until they come to their senses. That trumps every flaw in the series, celebrating inclusion and found families.

F.Compo is still unavailable in an official English translation in the West, which is a shame because it might be the exact comic series that LGBTQ readers need right now. 11 volumes of tankubon mean nearly 2,000 pages of sustained comedy with lovable and hilarious characters. If you ever get a chance to read it, you might be pleasantly surprised because if you want to read it, it is precisely the comic series you need in your life.

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