OTOKONOKO

This story is set in Japan in the 1920's and follows the life of a nineyear-

old Japanese boy named Takeru Kitagawa, who was forced to

endure a childhood of psychological abuse, and who later, following

the attempted rape of his mother by a yakusa gang member, he was

cruelly mutilated for trying to defend her. As a consequence, he

sustained a cruel and malicious life-changing injury, which in turn

led to his mother's subsequent decision to abandon him. Takeru now

finds himself completely alone, in discomfort and pain, and now

abandoned, he is left to survive on his own, and fearful in his desolate

home. Whilst he struggled to cope with his debilitating injury as a

eunuch, he tries his hardest to survive in the cruelest of situations.

Ultimately, he ends up being sent to a Yokohama orphanage by the

authorities, which was located some distance away from his old home

in Spring Village. The only glimmer of hope that he was left with

was to seek out his grandfather, who he had never met and who he

was told, lived somewhere down south in Wakayama prefecture. We

are able to follow his life's twists and turns and with him, explore his

emotional journey, as he transitions from being male to being seen

as female.