I don’t wanna feel Blue anymore...
I’m very skeptical about Japanese dramas involving cross-dressing but Joshi teki Seikatsu is just 4 episodes long so I gave it a chance. And I’m glad I did. Jun Shison is charming as a transgender lesbian woman working in fashion industry. The drama is a glimpse into her life, work, and relationships. Miki is bright, motivated, and totally not giving a fuck.
The drama is by no means perfect but in just 4 episodes it manages to achieve a number of things many similar dramas fail to. While the premise is not new to Japanese dramas, Joshiteki Seikatsu manages to sidestep most of the cliches and break some stereotypes, such as showing that gender and sexuality are two separate things. The drama’s central relationships are unconventional and you have no idea where it’s all going at all. While there are some rather blunt conflicts thrown in, the outcomes are never quite predictable. All in all, it’s a drama about living your own life with no shame, even if it differs greatly from the rest. That theme is universally relevant but especially so in conformist Japan.
One more pleasant surprise was seeing a transgender woman named Satsuki Nishihara who appeared in Episode 2 as Miki’s former roommate. I knew her from NEWS na Futari episode on LGBT people. She also apparently mentored Jun Shison on set.