Ryo has a secret and it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep it under wraps. Ryo is a boy, and yet, here he is forced to wear the girl’s school uniform and suffer from both the indignities of being perceived as a girl and having a female body. Ryo’s escape is to buy boy’s clothes and be the person he is.

When Ryo is discovered by Jin, a classmate who has a reputation as a tough, he assumes the jig is up. Instead, Jin turns out to be someone with a dream of his own, as vaguely formed as it it. Together Jin and Ryo will “create a brand” of clothing together! Ryo struggles with the idea, but eventually adopts it as his own. As Volume 1 of Keito Gaku’s Boys Run the Riot progresses, it becomes apparent that this story will be the story of Jin and Ryo gathering people who are struggling to be who they are, to be part of their brand.

I had a lot of feelings as I read this volume. I’m not unfamiliar with gender dysphoria – about clothes, particularly, and Ryo’s struggle with the girl’s uniform brought back a lot of unhappy memories for me. As a result, I found him sympathetic, but also found him very annoying and immature which…well, yes. For a long while here, Ryo is not likeable, lashing out at everyone and everything. His fear is wholly understandable, and when at last he lets Jin in, the change is remarkable.

But here, in one panel, is what 100% sold me on this series. During a photoshoot for their brand, Jin is hamming it up for  the camera. Ryo asks, “Don’t you have any shame?” and Jin responds, “Why would I?”

BOOM. That is your lesson, right there.

We’re not stupid, of course – shame can absolutely be something other people create for us. In these first pages, however, shame is what we make for ourselves, by fearing to be ourselves. And that, my friends is the lesson I have spent a lifetime teaching people. Why should you be ashamed? If someone tries to shame you, they are the problem.

Again, we’re not children, we can understand that at least part of Jin’s answer here is cis privilege. But before we get angry at Jin, assuming he’s never been shamed, let’s think about him a little more clearly. He’s a big guy, not good in school, a tough – the kind of kid that school systems are designed to spit out into a life of petty crime and little hope. He’s probably never had a single teacher that even wondered if there was a spark of creativity and intelligence there. He’s probably been shamed. He simply doesn’t care. Why should he? Why should we?

And then Boys Run the Riot finds it’s own legs, as Ryo and Jin shamelessly embrace their creativity and newfound partnership. How Ryo will deal with the rest of his life is, as of yet, a mystery to me. As long as “no shame” is the mantra embraced here, I’m willing to see it through.

The art is both extremely good and extremely ugly in places, which seems like a specific stylistic choice. Ryo’s breakdowns are painful to watch, but as he starts to feel like there is a goal, he grows in strength and clarity. Jin’s long-limbed easy-going enthusiasm is infectious and goofy, but there’s an intensity to him that I expect we’ll explore in later chapters.

An interview at the end of this volume confirms what I assumed – that Gaku-sensei created this story because he wasn’t finding work about, by or for trans men. The notes at the end also say that the entire localization team on this series is trans, which pleased me no end on several points. One, how awesome for us and the team that there are enough trans folks in the industry to have a whole team; how wonderful for the creator and the readership that this book will be treated with the care and sensitivity it deserves – and how awesome that Kodansha put all of that into practice.

Ratings:

Art: 7 Hard for me to like, but it soars in places
Characters: 7 Same, but that, I think, is the story
Story – 7 as a place to begin. If it develops as I hope it might, it has room to grow
Service – Sort of? I’m going to reserve this score until next volume
LGBTQ – 10 but also not. We all know that coming out is a long process

Overall – 8

Thank you very much to Kodansha Manga for the review copy.  You can read the first chapter of Boys Run the Riot for free on Kodansha. Do give it a try. It’s long past time we have a fresh, hopeful look at life as a trans man.

Boys Run the Riot, Volume 1 by Keito Gaku will be available at the end of May on Amazon, RightStuf, and bookstores near you. There does not seem to be an ebook edition of this available at the moment. Volume 2 is slated for a late July release (you can pre-order on Amazon, RightStuf).

Two openly queer media in 3 days here on Okazu. It’s a good week. ^_^ Read this and let me know what you think in the comments!