And here we are, at last. The final volume of Saitou Chiho-sensei’s magnificent edition of the Heian epic, Torikaebaya. Before you read this review, please make sure you read Jason L’s review of Rosette Willig’s translation of the source material, The Changelings, which we published yesterday on Okazu. I ask you to read it because a great deal of what Jason said about the Willig book is true for this manga version as well.

Quick note: The names of the characters in Willig’s translation are more properly their positions. Chuunagon is a counselor of the second rank in the Imperial Palace, a Middle counselor. (Sei Shonagon is so known because her father held the rank of Shonagon, lesser counselor). Naishi no Kami is the something like a head position among the women of the Imperial court.  In the manga, Sarasojuu was a Chuunagon, and Suiren was Toguu’s Naishi no Kami. Now, at the end of the book, Suiren is Chuunagon and Sara is Nasihi no Kami. Got it? Good, now forget it, because…..

Torikaebaya Manga, Volume 13 (とりかえ・ばや) begins with the malevolent spirit of the evil priest Ginkaku causing a fire to be set in the Imperial palace. Both Sarasoujuu and Suiren leap to assist, but in order to do so, Sara must once again put on men’s clothes. Tragedy is averted and, at last, the Emperor is confronted by both Suiren and Sarasojuu dressed identically as Chuunagon. Suiren and Sara finally get to tell the Emperor the whole story and he, because he is an ideal Emperor, accepts the story and the two siblings and that is that.  The Emperor, because he is an ideal Emperor, then uses the magical abilities the gods have bestowed upon him to bring rain from heaven and quench the flames. 

And here is where almost everything Jason said about gender and sex in Willig’s book is relevant for our tale – except for the focus on sexual violence. For this series, at least, sex is consensual. After Sara’s sexual encounters with Tsuwabuki, which were consensual but left her feeling dysphoric (not that that word was used), all the sex is entirely consensual and, at least in these final pages, welcome.

In the final pages, the conniving head of the women, Umetsubo, takes orders as a nun. The Emperor takes Sara, who now uses her given name, Suzushiko, as a wife. She bears him a male child and heir, thus solving the issue of succession. Suiren, who will forever live as Sarasojuu, marries Ichinomiya-hime (the former heir, Toguu-sama,) and they, too have a child. 

Undoubtedly, the straight, cisgender readers of Flower Comics understand this ending as a happy one. The ending is absolutely a happy one…unless you care about the lead characters’ gender identity. Everyone will be blissfully happy, except for readers of this blog. It is understandable, I think, that we find this ending less than perfect, because, like Jason, we do care that the characters get to be the gender they know they are.

It’s not like it could have ended another way, I knew that from the beginning. I mean, even in Heian Japan, Sara might have had a happy ending if he had been honest with Yon-no-hime and they kept his birth gender hidden, but there would have been no such luck for Suiren. As I finished the pages, I indulged in fantasizing a 21st -century update in which they could have remained the sex they were, and not the one they were assumed to be, and still had a happy ending. But it still wouldn’t have worked, because now they could live as the gender they were and it would have taken all the drama out of the story. 

Ratings:

Art – 10
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – 2

Overall – 10

As I’ve said repeatedly, Saitou-sensei’s art has been sublime from beginning to end here. Her storytellng has kept me on the edge of my seat. The ending was happy and beautiful and…still left me unsatisfied.  I guess there’s a lot of limitation to updating classics from a thousand years ago.

My sincere thanks to Jason for his review and to Saitou-sensei and her team at Flower Comics for one of the most beautiful manga I have ever read.