Episode 09 – Cool Girlfriend ~Green eye~ – かっこいい彼女～Green eye～ (Kakkoii Kanojo ~Green eye~)
With the end of Horou Musuko fast approaching, I suspected that the series would start picking up. This episode did a great job in focusing in on Nitori and his conflict with his gender identity, and not to mention, does a good job reflecting the reality and complexity to the whole gender identity issue in society. There were some seriously heart-thumping moments that really got you into the episode, and not to mention, Nitori got some great character development here.
The entire episode pretty much just explored Nitori’s hesitation with regards to going to school dressed up as a girl. I mean, he’s always had that that thought in the back of his mind, but this episode really brings that aspect of his as the main point of interest. That class bully from a while back (named Shinpei) that had become infatuated with Yuki (who is transgendered), really got the thoughts churning in Nitori’s mind.
Shinpei’s small little comments and curiosity with regards to Nitori and his cross dressing was the main catalyst for getting Nitori all worked up, though seeing Takatsuki go to school dressed as a guy certainly played a role here as well. I guess you could say that he got inspired by the two.
Either ways, you could clearly see how conflicted Nitori was about going to school cross-dressed as a girl, especially considering how he knows the general disdain society has for such things.
His eventual decision to go to school dressed as a girl both shows his resolve, as well as his understanding of the repercussions of what will happen. The sad thing here, though, is that Nitori just wants to be accepted for who he is, which is very obvious based on the dream he had where he was peacefully living a normal life dressed as a girl.
When Nitori ended up showing up at school dressed as a girl, I literally couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. I mean, I knew that this moment would come eventual, but man was it nerveracking. What makes it even more nerveracking is knowing how Nitori is genuinely a good person, but he will receive some serious lectures/punishment/bullying because of this. It’s rather a shame, especially if you consider how much courage and determination it must have taken him to get this far.
Either ways, I’m definitely hyped up to seeing how this series ends. From what I hear, the anime may go with an anime original ending as opposed to following the manga, which makes me curious to see exactly how this series ends.
Overall Enjoyment: 4.5/5
Screenshots are later in the post.
Next Episode Preview:
Distant Paradise 
If it is an anime original ending, I do not see it in the preview. There is an episode 12 that one can get with the dvd of the series, perhaps the original ending is in there. It would be cool to see some more anime originals in this series, even though the manga has a really good conclusion to this part of the story.
Well, I don’t really know how the manga concludes. I’ve just heard some speculation that the anime may have an original ending, but I don’t know how valid those speculations are.
It would be interesting if they could bring a unique, anime original, closure to this series that is satisfying, but there is a risk in anime original endings; sometimes they turn out to be crap.