Claudine...!



Claudine...! (クローディーヌ...! Kurōdīnu...!) is a classic Shojo manga set in the turn of early 20th century France. It was written by Riyoko Ikeda, published in Shueisha's Margaret in four chapters, and its only tankōbon was released on May 20, 1978. It's one of the first Japanese media that features a transgender protagonist.

The protagonist is Claudine de Montesse, a softspoken and sensitive female-to-male trans person. Born to a French noble family, he starts to identify as a male at age eight; when he's ten years old, his well-intentioned but inexpert mother then takes him to a doctor. Claudine opens up to him, they become good friends, and then we start to see how Claudine's life begins to develop from the beginning to the end of the story...

For the sake of accuracy, Claudine shall be referred to with male pronouns within this and other pages.


 * The Ace: At university, Claudine becomes this. Obviously, he's more of a Broken Ace.
 * Anguished Declaration of Love:
 * Arranged Marriage: Claudine's parents.
 * Birds of a Feather: Claudine and Cecilia bonded over their love of books and poetry.
 * Break the Cutie: Claudine, ,
 * Broken Bird: Claudine is a female-bodied-but-male-identifying example.
 * Chekhov's Gunman: 15-year-old Claudine sees a pretty girl through the window of a ballet academy. Two years later, the girl returns to his life:.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Rosemarie.
 * Coming of Age Story:
 * Country Mouse: Maura
 * Downer Ending
 * Gender and Sexuality Tropes: More exactly, transsexuality. It was groundbreaking in its day.
 * Good Scars, Evil Scars:
 * Hair of Gold: Claudine is a blond
 * Hot Librarian: Cecilia Lacques, Claudine's second love, worked as the librarian of the local highschool.
 * Intergenerational Friendship: The doctor (in his 40's at least) and Claudine (starts the story as a pre-teen boy, by the end is in his late teens).
 * Jerkass: Louis.
 * Kick the Dog: When Claudine notices what happened despite everyone else believing, but he doesn't say anything.
 * Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Louis Lacques, and Claudine in a sense.
 * Love Dodecahedron: Claudine falls in love with Cecilia Lacques, but she doesn't return his affections because she sees him as a girl. Cecilia's younger brother, Louis, is sleeping with Claudine's father Auguste, . Rosemarie is in love with Claudine since they were kids, is jealous of Claudine and Cecilia and serves as an Unwitting (or perhaps intentional) Instigator of Doom   And that's without bringing Maura or Sirene into the mix.
 * Love Hurts: Holy crap, Claudine's love affairs all end up badly. Maura? Cecilia?  Sirene?
 * Mega Twintails: Young Rosemarie's pigtails were bigger than her head!
 * No Name Given: The Doctor, Claudine's mom
 * Not Good with Rejection: This what drives
 * Parents as People: Claudine's mother, who is a good person but is completely unprepared to handle Claudine's situation. Claudine's father Auguste seems to be more of an Open-Minded Parent,
 * Parental Favoritism: Auguste favored Claudine among his children because he was the one more similar to himself. Claudine is said to be pretty much the "second coming" of Auguste.
 * Princely Young Man: Claudine and his brothers.
 * Proper Lady: Madame Montesse, and also Cecilia
 * Shojo
 * Sleep Cute: A very fatigated and cold Maura falls asleep on Claudine's shoulder right after arriving to the Montesse home in a rainy day.
 * "Shut Up" Kiss:
 * Snow Means Death:
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Sirene
 * Tall, Dark and Handsome: Claudine's brothers Andre, Edouard, and Thomas.
 * Trans Equals Gay: Averted, as mentioned in Yuri Genre below.
 * Transsexualism: Claudine
 * Unrequited Love: Claudine, towards Cecilia. Rosemarie, for Claudine.
 * Unsettling Gender Reveal: When Claudine meets.
 * Unlucky Childhood Friend: Claudine's neighbor Rosemarie, who confessed her love to him but was rejected. She does seem to be the girl who understands him better, out of all of these involved in his life: she calls him "a true man given a female body".
 * Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
 * Uptown Boy: Claudine finds himself as such, when he falls for the maid Maura.
 * Yandere:
 * Yuri Genre: Subverted, since Claudine searches for female love interests, yet identifies as male despite his female body. Therefore, it'd be technically incorrect to classify this particular manga as yuri. Remember, kids: homosexuality and transsexuality are both LGBQT issues, but are very different.
 * Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
 * Uptown Boy: Claudine finds himself as such, when he falls for the maid Maura.
 * Yandere:
 * Yuri Genre: Subverted, since Claudine searches for female love interests, yet identifies as male despite his female body. Therefore, it'd be technically incorrect to classify this particular manga as yuri. Remember, kids: homosexuality and transsexuality are both LGBQT issues, but are very different.
 * Yuri Genre: Subverted, since Claudine searches for female love interests, yet identifies as male despite his female body. Therefore, it'd be technically incorrect to classify this particular manga as yuri. Remember, kids: homosexuality and transsexuality are both LGBQT issues, but are very different.