Wandering Son: Volumes One & Two Paperback by Shimura Takako

Product Details

• Publisher: Fantagraphics (2026-09-15)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 432 pages
• ISBN-13: 9798875000737
• Item Weight: 895.86 grams
• Dimensions: 22.78 x 15.37 x 3.28 cm

A sensitive masterpiece from Japan's most prominent creator of LGBTQ+ manga — the acclaimed series in a newly designed paperback edition.

Middle School. The threshold to puberty, and the beginning of the end of childhood innocence. Shuichi Nitori and his new friend Yoshino Takatsuki have happy homes, loving families, and are well liked by their classmates. But they share a secret that further complicates a time of life that is awkward for anyone: Shuichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy.

Celebrated manga artist Shimura Takako (Even Though We’re Adults) portrays Shuishi and Yoshino’s journey with affection, sensitivity, and gentle humor as they figure out their gender identity and take tentative, age-appropriate steps toward transitioning.

This new paperback edition collects the first two volumes of Wandering Son. In Volume One, Shuichi and Yoshino covertly experiment with cross-dressing and new hairstyles, and get to express their identities when the class puts on a gender-bent play. In Volume Two, our protagonists make supportive new friends with the grown-up Yuki-san, a trans woman who they look up to as a mentor, and their classmate Saori, who becomes a queer ally to Shuichi.

A poignant coming-of-age story, Wandering Son is a sophisticated work of literary manga and was adapted into a popular anime series in 2011.

About the Author

Shimura Takako is a prolific mangaka, born in the Kanagawa Prefecture in 1973, best known for sensitive portrayals of LGBQT+ characters at different stages in their lives. Her works Sweet Blue Flowers, Wandering Son, and Scenes from Awajima have been adapted into anime.

Rachel Thorn is from in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. She is a cultural anthropologist, writer, and an associate professor in the manga department at Kyoto Seika University. Her translations include the New York Times Best-Seller Nijigahara Holograph by Inio Asano and Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.