Ostess Kariko

Frontispiece featuring Kariko.

**Ostess Kariko** ( オステスカリ子 ) is a seinen gag one-shot by Fujio Akatsuka, serialized in Weekly Manga Sunday in 1965.

## Overview

Although cross-dressing gags had already existed in Osomatsu-kun by this time, this 9-page one-shot marks the apparent first time that Akatsuka would delve into the subject for its own story as part of his focus on "Homomono" (a slang meaning "gay things") type of gags for a more adult-geared manga.

The one-shot revolves around a bar hostess known as Kariko, with the very title coming from the pun of "man"/"osu" combined with "hostess" to  create "Ostess". As suggested by the very title, Kariko would seem to be a cross-dresser taking on the role of a woman for her bar job, though Kariko's own unease at being seen as a man and preference for being a woman even outside her job could at the same time lend to a valid interpretation of her being Akatsuka's first trans woman character.

At the time and further past this one-shot, such gags about effeminate gay men being "practically women" or "wanting to be women" were a known stereotype and can be seen in manga, with cross-dressing and being gay being conflated heavily while there would also exist characters that give off more of an impression of being transgender with truly identifying and wanting to be the opposite of their supposed appearance. In th 1960s itself, archaic terms like "Blue Boy", "Sister Boy", and "Male Prostitute" (see Trivia for more on the nuances of such identity) were what would be used in a non-fictional context for this "Ostess" Kariko, who must get by with dressing up and fashioning herself after the perfect woman. Nonetheless, the title and its illustration poke some fun at Kariko's secret, though such a gag isn't the case in the interior story.

Kariko herself is not the only character with such a theme, as her immediate support cast members also bear such gags as the twists go on. As far as any sort of effeminate gender presentation-playing characters would go in Akatsuka lore, Kariko would wind up being a footnote and early installment abnormality due to The Genius Bakabon eventually putting out its own recurring LGBT side character with certain infamous gags: Kaoru-chan.

The gags with Kariko and company are also comparatively tame for this point in Akatsuka's career, when weighed next to Kaoru and other later occurrences of cross-dressing, gender reveal, or shock gags involving characters' kinks.

Even with it being the technical first seinen-serialized story by Akatsuka, it would be excluded from mention and memory as he considered *Heibon*'s You Love Me-kun to be his first seinen manga. Weekly Manga Sunday's sister magazine of Separate Edition Manga Sunday had also run Radical 7th Years shortly after this one-shot; it has similarly never made it into tankobon reprints or digital representation.

## Characters

### Kariko (Karisuke)

(カリ子 , 刈助)

A hostess whose work life we don't see in the one-shot, who comes home to her apartment in shock one night to find out that her mother will be arriving the next day. In a panic, she pleads to her friend Mekeko to help her prepare and learns to her upset that she'll have to hide her hostess life and pull off being an average salaryman son.

It winds up strained and difficult for Karisuke to go about refraining from feminine activities, such as being flustered at being seen appreciating a nice slip in a store or nearly going into the womens' side of a bathhouse. After Karisuke is seemingly left alone, an attempt at undressing and returning to being Kariko is caught by the old woman, with her own shocking secret revealed.

It is worth it to note that the kanji in the "Karisuke" name means to prune/cut, itself a crude pun towards what this character's ultimate goal would be (especially taking in mind things like the Blue Boy case).

### Kariko's Mother

(カリ子のおかあさん, おとうさん)

A pushy and lewd old woman who is quite appreciate of the female figure and takes pleasure in getting to go to the bathhouse. She takes a deep interest in trying to flirt with Kariko's friend Nurie, only to discover that Nurie has chest hair and an anpan-stuffed bra.

In the end, after Kariko is caught in the act of dressing up, the old woman reveals that she herself is actually Kariko's father who decided to take on the role of being a "mother", causing great confusion to Kariko at the twist.

### Mekeko

(メケ子)

A friend of Kariko who is visibly hairy and masculine, being insulted by a cab driver for such. When off the job, Mekeko seems quite comfortable identifying as a man and lounging about in his boxers (to Kariko's discomfort) but keeps his makeup on. He is responsible for making Kariko wear one of his suits and get a haircut for her mother's visit, while taking Kariko's dress for a time.

At the end, Mekeko shows back up, but seems to have quit being a hostess to being a salaryman, walking off in the suit that Kariko had previously borrowed.

### Nurie-chan

(ヌリエちゃん)

A character seen waiting at Kariko's apartment, being a heavy smoker. She is baffled to see a "Karisuke" there and wonders why her friend is dressed that way, but is told about the mother's visit. Kariko's mother wonders if Nurie is Karisuke's prospective wife, along with proceeding to grope and try to objectify her.

The old woman's shock at Nurie having chest hair and no natural breasts is seemingly what makes her leave the apartment (after having scared off Nurie), but it is also what inspires her to check back and discover her child's secret lifestyle and to reveal her own.

## Serialization

* Weekly Manga Sunday: May 18, 1965 issue (#20)

There has been no reprint of the title to this day, leaving readers to have to find copies of its original appearance.

## Trivia

### Relation to the "The Blue Boy Case"

Around the time of the one-shot's release, the controversial "Blue Boy Case" had already been a topic in Japan; In 1964, an OB/GYN doctor had illegally performed sex reassignment surgeries on three such "Blue Boys" in order to complete their transitions.

These surgeries were considered to be in violation of the Eugenic Protection Act, due to their sterilization factor, and all patients lacked psychiatric consultation to ensure that there was imminent need for their procedures. As prostitution was criminalized and being cracked down upon, there were "Blue Boys" (aka: "Male Prostitutes", "Sister Boys") who would skirt the law by being able to perform sexually-charged services as women, but still being considered legally male even after their surgeries.

Since the above factor left police and other authorities unable to arrest those breaking the law as they were meant to, this was only more motivation for stiff penalties for those daring to perform such extensive surgery and enabling the violations. The "Blue Boy Case" itself was considered an ethical dilemma and a criminal act, as the doctor did not evaluate each patient's needs and history. A witness, Susumu Takahashi, had the opinion that the patients did appear to have a "reversed sex" state of mind in which they identified more as women, but it remains debated and unclear among sources if the three would have gender identity dysphoria by today's criteria.

In any case, the doctor had not even taken such a factor into mind for investigation, so the court ruled that he acted to "disable reproduction without justifiable reason" and he was sentenced to two years in prison on February 15, 1969, and ordered to a fine of $400,000 yen for three years.

Within the *Ostess Kariko* one-shot, the three "Ostess"-type characters of Kariko, Mekeko, and Nurie are all in a pre-surgical stage, with Mekeko receiving the most visual gags related to manliness and by the end of the one-shot easily going back to a salaryman identity. Due to the one-shot's obscurity and lack of reprints and commentary in most Akatsuka sources (other than Hiroshi Nawa's books), there are no widely-regarded interpretations of Kariko, though it is often easy for readers to describe the protagonist as simply a gay boy (which in Japan at the time, had been taken as a "third gender" type of presentation for an effeminate man) or drag queen. Still, the historical factor of the Blue Boy culture and it being among the early stages of trans movements of the 1960s helps to leave plenty interpretation on the table, along with Kariko's own way of identity.