Hazumu Osaragi(大佛 はずむOsaragi Hazumu) is a student, born perceived as a male, but who was accidently killed, then brought back to life as an anatomically correct teenage female. She attends Kashima High School in the fictional setting of Kashima Ward in Tokyo, Japan, near Mt. Kashima, and is the main character in the series.
Childhood
When Kahoru was pregnant with her first and only child, she told herself, and later others, that she so desperately wanted a daughter. She gave birth to a child who looked like a son, but half of her wish was correct. Her child, born perceived as a male, as it turned out, had a Gender Identity of female right from 'the get-go'.
Hazumu (left, pink bow in hair) was dressed by mom to look like a little girl. Dad takes a quick picture, as child friend Tomari (right, yellow sweater) is quite taken aback.
Possibly because of Kahoru's continued strong desire to have had a daughter, she would occasionally dress Hazumu to look like a little girl. Hazumu, of course, was delighted. Others who would see Hazumu wearing girl's attire would remark that, yes indeed, Hazumu looks just like an adorable little girl. This greatly pleased Mom. Nevertheless, Hazumu had parents that loved their only offspring dearly. As a child, Hazumu grew up with 'his' close childhood friend, and girl companion, Tomari Kurusu. Tomari would often protect Hazumu from bullies that would tease 'him' and make 'him' cry.
Tomari, stick in hand, protects Hazumu
This because as a child, Hazumu always had very feminine looks and had came 'equiped' with a girl's personality. Tomari, being somewhat of a Gender Non-conforming tomboy, liked very much to take on the role of 'knight in shining armor' to defend the 'fair maiden' Hazumu. As such, throughout their childhood years, they became inseparably close friends and intimate companions, complimenting each other surprisingly well. They would do everything together. However, with the onslaught of puberty, their relationship and friendship began to slowly evolve as both of them began to mature. This until Hazumu met with a rejection of a Love Confession towards another girl, and as a consequence, developed a social isolation, that ended with Hazumu's untimely death.
Appearance
Perceived as a male, before their untimely death---
Hazumu as a perceived 'male'.
Hazumu was born with a body size and shape that seemed would fit both a male or a female, maybe a bit small and thin for a typical male of their age and weight. Hazumu, although born perceived as a male, has always, because of their body size and shape, as such presented the physical appearance of possibily being a female, even when dressed in typical boy's clothes. Many times people would mistake 'him' for a young girl, even when wearing masculine clothing. Hazumu had a round face, partially covered with light brown hair, worn in a mop cut with front bangs that covered his eyes. He was most often seen wearing his male school uniform, but for casual wear and working in the garden, he would wear a v-neck shirt, work pants, a hoodie, and a brimless sunhat.
As an anatomically correct teenage female---
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Hazumu as a teenage female, moments after she was beamed down from the Alien Spacecraft, and met by Yasuna and Tomari.
Hazumu's resurrected body size and shape did not change much, due to the coincidence of the female body model that was used by the Alien Being as having a remarkable resemblance to that of the deceased Hazumu's 'male' body. It was as if the two bodies were twins. Female Hazumu has an average body size and shape of that of a typical teenage girl, abet somewhat slender and thin. She is a bit underweight, but looks good due to her slightly hourglass figure. She does, however, have a noticeable bust, shown in Chapter 3 of the manga to be '32 C' (USA sizing). Hazumu has a round face, with a blunted chin, and big, sexy 'anime girl' eyes that are brownish maroon, and long eyelashes. She has reddish brown hair, with mild brown highlights, worn in a pixie/mop cut that covers her ears and forehead. She has an even beige skin tone, and an all-over creamy skin texture.
Due to her previous feminine personality, Hazumu's fashion style, thanks in large part to her Mother's influence in buying her a complete teenage girl's wardrobe, is ultra-feminine, kawaii (super cute), and mildly sexy and alluring. Kahoru loves to buy feminine clothes for Hazumu to wear, and buys these clothes without consulting Hazumu, though regardless, Hazumu finds herself wearing them anyway. Directly after Hazumu turned into a girl, her mother even goes ahead and buys her several female school uniforms. In Chapter 2 of the manga, and Episode 2 of the anime, her mother arranges with the high school for Hazumu to wear the female school uniform to school. It consists of a blouse with a fluffy bow tie, a jacket, and a red, very short-hemline jumper dress with black knee high socks. For casual wear, Hazumu still wears very feminine attire, such as a shirt and mini-skirt, or a pretty dress. However, she still wears her male sleepwear of a t-shirt and pajama pants. In chapter 3 of the manga, Hazumu's teenage friends bring to her attention that she needs to begin wearing a bra with all of her various fashions. Hazumu has even worn Gothic/Lolita street fashion, specifically Sweet Lolita, when her excitable mother bought her the outfit, and one day had her model it at home.
Personality
After Hazumu's resurrection, she retained just about all of her personality traits, since they were mostly feminine to begin with. However, she had many masculine habits and ways of doing things that seemingly needed to be readjusted, and/or replaced with feminine social habits and customs. She continued her loyalty to her friends, male and female alike. And she had always got along well with her parents, anyway. But some social friction and necessary adjustments were in order, as always comes upon a girl when she goes through the teenage years. Hazumu evenhandedly relearns many attributes, with the help of her friends, notably Tomari, and is able to adapt to her new social situation rather well. Not so much so for her friend's and schoolmate's attempts to adapt. Hazumu shows that she is humble and teachable with regard to the efforts of others to help her, even if her parents are off on a tangent and going 'bananas' about the whole gender transformation.
Hazumu has always had a kind, caring, and loving personality. However, Hazumu has always felt shy and reserved, not wishing to interact with many people, lest it go sour due to their perceiving 'male' personality actually sporting feminine traits and actions. Hence, except for Tomari and possibly Asuta, Hazumu would spend much time with the real friends---plants, trees and flowers. This made for a seemingly lonely existence, but that apparently was to their liking. To be sure, that made establishing friends difficult. So when Hazumu began friendship with and began shipping with Yasuna, her accepting 'his' efforts at friendship, but declining 'his' Love Confession, was especially heartbreaking. This was Hazumu's first taste of romantic love, but it turned out to be bittersweet.
Hazumu presented only an average effort in academics, because the real interest is in the after school activities, namely the Garden Club. They were faithful in their duties to tend to all the growing plants and flowers, as well as the potted ones all around the campus. Hazumu is also very trustworthy, taking care of all of the assignments. Hazumu appreciates beauty, and can be very artistic, especially with plants and flowers.
There is one personality trait that Hazumu had that was to her detriment---she was very indecisive about many things. Most noticeable is that she can not decide how to handle the attention and friendship of two of her closest friends, Tomari and Yasuna. As a result, a love triangle forms that continuously evolves, governed according to Hazumu's inability to know just what to do in various intimate situations, and the various social circumstances that she finds herself in. And sometimes, Hazumu's generous personality is such that she gets taken advantage of by others, without her even knowing or suspecting that anything is wrong.
Hazumu's Story
As Hazumu grew up, 'he' came to love floriculture and other disciplines of horticulture. In high school, Hazumu joins the Gardening Club, but despite 'his' vast knowledge, Hazumu is not the club leader. One day early in the second year of High School, Hazumu is pressured by friends Tomari and Asuta to make a formal Love Confession to Yasuna, which is soon done. However, Yasuna offers a rejection, which greatly hurts Hazumu emotionally. Subsequently, Hazumu goes to and assends Mt. Kashima, to be around the plants and flowers that 'he' loves so much. While up there a disabled alien spacecraft crash-lands upon him, instantly killing him. In order to rectify this mishap, and in accordance with Interplanetary Life Preservation Law (the term used in the Anime), the Alien Being resurrects Hazumu, using female "Life Grains", but in the process unavoidably changes their physical sex to be completely 100% female, right down to the DNA code !
Shortly after Hazumu's transformation, she becomes unsure of how to live life as a girl and is initially very clueless about typical female matters, such as which gendered restroom to use. Hazumu is also confused about why several people treat her differently after the change. Nevertheless, Hazumu resigns herself to live life as a girl, as she can not undo the circumstances that she was placed under, and probably would not want to anyway, given her female personality. Despite Hazumu's physical change, there is not much change in her former personality, as she still scares very easily, and has always been rather feminine, expressive, and quite sensitive, which makes her fit in well as a typical modern teenage girl after the change. She has always been quite indecisive, which causes problems in the course of her changing relationships with both Yasuna and Tomari. Hazumu ends up becoming even more ultra-feminine as time goes on, which is shown through her actions, mannerisms and personality. One exception to this, however, is that she never gets over referring to herself using the term Boku (僕 masculine), meaning "I" in English, which is only used by males in Japan. Hazumu is very selfless, thinking of others before herself and worries about her friends all the time. Yasuna has observed that Hazumu only smiles greatest when she is surrounded by her many friends and loved ones.
Differences between the anime story and the manga story---
After Hazumu's transformation from a boy to a girl, she is shown in the anime as completely clueless about what many perceive as basic matters related to being a girl, such as feminine modesty, how she walks, talks, and handles herself throughout the day. In the manga, this is shown to a much lesser extent, and Hazumu is able to adjust to living as many feel how a teenage girl should, done much quicker and with less troublesome interference from others than in the anime. In the anime, Tomari paradoxically, tries to teach Hazumu everything there is to know about being a feminine girl. But in the manga she is very reluctant due to the fact that Hazumu's physical sex has changed, and Tomari decides to help her as little as possible in becoming more feminine. This because Tomari, herself, favors being a tomboy, and who is noteably very unfeminine. Hazumu's personality in the manga is more direct and pronounced than her anime portrayal, such as when expressing outward annoyance towards her parents, as well as Sora's awkwardly straightforward interferences in her attempts to give and accept romantic (Yuri) love. Also, during the day at the beach, in the manga version, Hazumu seeks out Asuta when she is being hit upon by two guys, and asserts that Asuta is her boyfriend, but in the anime, it is Asuta takes the role of Hazumu's protector, and asserts that she is his girlfriend.
Trivia
- In the Japanese language, the first name "Hazumu" can be either feminine or masculine, and means rippling water in the harbor of the port city, with the city only being a place somewhere in a dream.
- Hazumu has big 'anime girl' eyes that are brownish maroon in color.
- Hazumu knows all of the scientific names of all of the plants, flowers, and trees that are found in and around Mt. Kashima by heart, and can look at them and immediately recite those correct scientific names, all from memory.
- Hazumu receives her all important First Kiss from another girl---Yasuna Kamiizumi ! However, Jan Puu, as the A.I. powering the crippled spaceship, insists that she, herself also has 'kissed (?)' Hazumu, that being when she accidentally crashed into Hazumu, thereby killing him !
- When Hazumu, Yasuna, and Tomari attend the outdoors art drawing class on Mt. Kashima, the three girls decide to draw sitting together. In the anime, Hazumu uses a 4B drawing pencil.
- Although Yasuna has a malady preventing her from seeing male's faces clearly, nevertheless, she could see 'male' Hazumu's face well enough to be recognized. Yasuna probably could because Hazumu was born with a female Gender Identity.
| Characters | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main Characters |
Hazumu Osaragi • Yasuna Kamiizumi • Tomari Kurusu | |||||
| Students | Ayuki Mari • Asuta Soro | |||||
| Aliens | Hitoshi Sora • Jan Pu | |||||
| Osaragi Family |
Kahoru Osaragi • Toru Osaragi | |||||
| Teachers | Namiko Tsuki | |||||