ダブルハウス

DOUBLE HOUSE

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
1
RELEASE
June 30, 1997
CHAPTERS
4

DESCRIPTION

From the creator of Pieta comes the story of a connection between two women, Maho and Fujiko, who live in the same apartment building. Maho, a trans woman, saves Fujiko, a girl from a rich family who's left home and is living on her own, one night, and the two become fast friends. As they grow closer, Fujiko confesses to Maho that she has feelings for her...

Note: Includes the one-shot "Tinker Bell no Hanzai".

CAST

Maho Ryotaro

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

faktory
95/100
within and beyond the frame of womanhood
“one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” – simone de beauvoir, the second sex.

one of the first things i picked up on when reading double house is that it is very, very different from the mainstream narrative of transness set forth by the majority of trans-centered manga. the way that double house approaches being trans is not through the lens of “gender identity disorder”, or any other such narrative that makes trans people appear to be anomalies who deviate from the cisgender norm. instead, its approach to transness is to interrogate the notion of gender in itself, through nuanced character drama that examines the complex relationship between gender identity, gender roles, and personal freedom.

this contrasts starkly with the more mainstream narrative focuses on the idea that trans people are simply “trapped in the wrong body”. for example, one of the most common ways of framing transness in japanese is to say that 「体は男性、心は女性」“the body is male, the soul is female” (or vice versa). unfortunately, this framework often reinforces the idea that trans people are merely exceptions to the rule of gender assignment at birth. this obscures a more fundamental truth of the matter: the process by which a trans woman and a cis woman become women, or a trans man and a cis man become men, is in essence the same. and the awareness of this fact is exactly what makes double house so unique in its approach to transness and gender in general.

the two main characters are fujiko, a young woman on the run from the stifling expectations of her wealthy family, and maho, a bar hostess a who has long since been disillusioned with the society that rejected her for being herself. both women struggle to live free of the cages the world has tried to trap them in, and in doing so, they encounter each other and lovely friendship—bordering on romantic at times—blossoms between them.

maho, in particular, is one of the most deeply compelling trans characters i’ve seen depicted in manga. her introduction succinctly showcases her general perspective on life: bitter yet resigned, creating a protective distance from the world around her by looking down on it, a defense mechanism born of being treated as object on display rather than a human being.

fujiko’s own experiences, as someone who has also lived her life feeling trapped by society’s gendered expectations, give her the ability to penetrate the armor of maho’s misanthropy and understand her perspective, even though her struggles with womanhood are different from maho’s. persistently friendly, she offers maho the chance to open up about her hurt and frustration with the world around her.

fujiko’s perspective is more optimistic than maho is used to, but it comes from a place of careful consideration and empathy rather than dismissal of maho’s own struggles. as the relationship between the two deepens, their discussions offer various insights into the concept of gendered “frames”: a set of roles and expectations that dictate how we ought to live, both defining the boundaries of identity stifling any attempts to move beyond them. and yet, they also interrogate the ways in which gendered life can bring us a sense of belonging, and with it, a kind of freedom from uncertainty that comes with knowing who we are.

both women seek their freedom in very different ways: both, in some ways, want what the other one has. fujiko’s more cavalier, dismissive approach to her gender contrasts with maho’s longing to be seen as a “woman among women”. in spite of their kinship, this makes them imperfect at understanding one another; fujiko finds it easy to insist to maho that “gender doesn’t matter”, while maho thinks that fujiko ought to be more grateful for the gift of her more “conventional” experience of womanhood. in spite of these misunderstandings, they find ways to meet in the middle. maho and fujiko’s perspectives play off one another, but they are always given equal weight; this may not seem so remarkable, until you start to pick up on how many other narratives of trans womanhood paint cis women as “authorities” on what it means to be a woman.

this, i think, is the crux of the manga’s uniqueness; its approach to gender is not that maho’s transness makes her categorically different from fujiko, but rather that both maho and fujiko are women who struggle to define themselves both within and beyond the “frame” of womanhood which neither can live up to. and this is precisely the recognition missing from so many mainstream discussions of transness; that all people must navigate the same confining frames of gender, through whatever options available to them about how to live in the world.

additionally, i would be amiss to discuss this manga without also touching on the 3rd and final chapter, which shifts its focus from maho and fujiko, to one of maho’s coworkers, another trans woman named koko. the narrative offers us a glimpse into her another perspective, as another exploration of the “frame” of womanhood, and the many shapes it can take. in particular, koko's chapter explores motherhood as a particular dimension of how womanhood is constructed in society.

koko seeks out acceptance and validation through the roles she plays; as a man’s girlfriend, a baby’s mother, she throws herself in entirety into her role in relation to other people in the hopes that it will offer her existential clarity. she struggles to find ways to define herself in a society which has robbed her of the ability to occupy these gendered relations that she desires. and while she makes some ill-advised choices in this struggle, her desire to belong, both in the world and to someone, is universally sympathetic.

tragically, this manga is only a single volume, so while it does a marvelous job at exploring its characters and themes given its length, it is limited in scope due to how short it is. the 3rd chapter shifting its focus somewhat away from maho and fujiko also meant that their story ended without a truly satisfying resolution, leaving their relationship languishing in limbo somewhere between friendship and romance. while i deeply appreciate the manga for what it is, i do wish it had the chance to expand further on their relationship and their growth as characters, as what we saw in the single volume was already so promising.

at its crux, this manga is an examination of this internal conflict that we all face: the desire to belong somewhere, without having to contort ourselves into something we’re not in order to do so. “frames” offer us comfort and security, but they are also cages which resist attempts to define ourselves outside of them. there is no simple solution to this, and the manga doesn’t attempt to platitudinously offer us one, either. it simply offers us the stories of these women as they are: living their lives, trying to define and understand themselves in spite of a society whose frames are not designed for them.
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