For the first time ever, I read a volume of Saitou Chiho’s amazing version of the Japanese classic Torikebaya and thought…maybe, just maybe, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. If you recall, Suiren and Sarasoujuu have switched back, as it were, to take up the roles assigned to the gender they were […]

In Volume 6, Sarasojuu lost the child, and Suiren left court to look for her…and found her. In Volume 7 of Torikaebaya (とりかえ・ばや ) by Saitou Chiho, together they visit Yoshino no Miya-sama, a man wise beyond his years, who already knows about their secret. While they are at Yoshino no Miya-sama’s place, the Mikado […]

When we last left Chiho Saito-sensei’s beautiful and tragic retelling of the Heian classic tale, Torikaebaya (とりかえ・ばや ), I was having a crisis. It’s so damn beautiful, I want to keep reading, but it’s so damn heart-wrenching, it’s hard to keep reading. Volume 5 ended with Sarasojuu running from the capital, pregnant with Tsuwabuki’s child, devastated […]

 Waaaaauuuuuughhhh!!!!! Arrrgh!!! UGH UGh Ugh. Okay… I think I can talk about Torikaebaya (とりかえ・ばや ) now. Deep breath. Volume 5 of Chiho Saito’s stunningly gorgeous, emotionally crushing version of this Heian classic begins with the worst thing possible, Sarasoju, this fine, upstanding young courtier…is pregnant. Sarasoju is, not at all surprisingly, devastated at the thought. […]

Volume 3 of Saito Chiho’s manga adaptation of the Heian classic, Torikaebaya (とりかえ・ばや ) ended with Tsuwabuki discovering – we think – Sarasojuu’s secret.  Volume 4 begins with the meddling and slimy homosexual Shikibukyou no Miya, slimily inviting them both to an evening of poetry reading and song singing. Sarasojuu collapses and, mindful of the secret he […]