Wandering Sun (さすらいの太陽, Sasurai no Taiyō) is a Japanese shoujo manga written by Keisuke Fujikawa and illustrated by Mayumi Suzuki. It ran in Shogakukan's Shojo Comic magazine from August 1970 to August 1971, and was compiled into four volumes. It also received an anime adaptation in 1971, that ran from April 8 to September 30 of that year, with a total of 26 episodes.
The story begins when one day in the early 1950s, two babies are born in the same hospital. One is the daughter of a rich family who own a business conglomerate, while the other is the daughter of a poor family who own a food stall. A nurse named Michiko Nohara, who has a grudge against the rich family for something they did in the past, swaps the two babies. Thus, the "poor" daughter is actually raised by the rich family and the "rich" daughter is actually raised by the poor family.
Years later, we see how the two girls' lives have turned out. Our protagonist, Nozomi Mine, is a hard-working and kind girl. She was brought up in the slums by her mother and father and hasn't had it easy, but she remains confident that she can overcome the obstacles of life and is plucky to the core. In contrast, Miki Koda, her birthday twin, lives in luxury, has never had any problems because of her comfortable life and is an utter Spoiled Brat.
The girls' paths cross when they both make the decision to become singers and attend the same musical academy. Miki has managed to get a head start because of her parents' wealth, while Nozomi has harnessed her talent due to working at bars and shops playing for money and looks like she has a promising career ahead of her. Miki endlessly bullies Nozomi and the two become rivals.
The aforementioned nurse has been following the two girls and planned for them to go to the same school, and both of them have no idea how Ax-Crazy she is...
In Japan, Wandering Sun is known for being the first manga to ever focus on the music industry and it laid the foundation of what is known as the idol anime genre as a whole. In other words, it is Idol Singer's definitive Trope Maker.
It is not to be confused with the seinen manga Wandering Son. The official English title of the manga is Nozomi in the Sun, possibly to avoid confusion between the two.
Wandering Sun has examples of:
- The '60s: In the manga, World War Two is stated to have happened two decades ago. This is also reflected in the contrast towards classical Eastern music (that was traditional in Japan) and the fashionable modern Western-influenced music (that was starting to get popular there).
- Adaptation Deviation: In the manga, Nozomi and Miki were born on August 2, 1953. In the anime this was changed to April 12, 1954.
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: It has Italian
and French alternate openings. - Awful Truth: Nozomi is actually the Kodas' daughter and Miki is actually the Mines' daughter. When Michiko reveals the truth on national television, both are shattered. Miki breaks down and fears that her parents will throw her out because they love Nozomi more, while Nozomi has a Heroic BSoD before ultimately deciding that the Mines are her family no matter what and she'll stand by them.
- Birthday Episode:
- The second episode celebrates both Nozomi and Miki's eighteenth birthdays, but it's only Miki who throws a party to celebrate since she can afford it.
- The anime ends with Mr. Koda's 58th birthday party, with the Mines invited as special guests and Nozomi recognized as his daughter.
- Cerebus Syndrome: After the death of Shinsuke Mine, it becomes close to the Despair Event Horizon for everybody. Nozomi is broken because one of the reasons she became a singer was to pay for his medical treatment, while Miki is hysterical because she's just found out that he was her biological father all along, and is driven to run away from home.
- Coming of Age Story: It's Nozomi Mine's story of becoming a musician and finding her birth parents, starting from when she was a baby and ending when she's 18. Heavy Break the Cutie ensues as we see Nozomi go through friendships, heartbreak, bullying, the loss of her father and prejudices for her background. Equally, it is also Miki Koda's story of learning to abandon her uppity ways and empathize with those less fortunate than her while improving as a person.
- Compressed Adaptation: The manga goes on far longer than the anime and lasted two years. In contrast the anime ran for five months.
- Crapsack World: It's the 1960s. Japan's economy has taken a decline since, err, prior events and destitution marks the nation. The wage gap and class struggle is most apparent here as the Mine family scramble to keep their family together in the stead of Shinsuke's coma, while the Koda throw money left and right at Miki's whims to build her music career.
- Creator Provincialism: Keisuke Fujikawa is from Tokyo, like Nozomi Mine.
- Dramatic Irony: Nozomi's many money problems. She's actually the long-lost daughter of the richest characters in the entire show, the Kodas, but none of them know it.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Michiko put the Kodas and Mines through more than their fair share of suffering by switching their babies at birth, but in the end, the two girls bond over their shared heritage and the families become fast friends.
- Gonk: A good chunk of the cast are illustrated in this way. Expect pretty female characters to have gonky-looking fathers and ugly male characters to litter the backgrounds.
- Gray-and-Gray Morality:
- Of the "everyone has inner good in them" kind. When the Awful Truth comes out, Miki is so shattered that she breaks into tears, especially after her biological father passes away shortly afterwards. Sumiyo is also wrought with shame over the fact that the young woman she antagonized is actually her biological daughter. After Miki runs away from home, Nozomi chases after her and tells her to Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!. Afterwards, mother and daughter reconcile, and Sumiyo acknowledges both girls as her daughters.
- Even Michiko has a Heel Realization about her cruelty in the story. After revealing the truth to everyone alongside her reason for it, she realizes that no matter what she's done to Nozomi, she's always emerged from the situation with grace and humility. She suddenly breaks into Tears of Remorse and starts hysterically pleading for Nozomi's forgiveness.
- Lighter and Softer: The anime changed many things because the manga was considered too dark, such as Miki's bullying being significantly toned down and Michiko's many attempted murders being cut out.
- Love Triangle: Both Tsutsumi and Fanny like Nozomi. However, Tsutsumi believes he's Entitled to Have You and tries to force a kiss on a sleeping Nozomi.
- Melodrama: An extremely bittersweet tale of two girls who's fates are marked by a long-standing revenge plan that started before they were born, said revenge-seeker trying to get one to completely smite the other. However, she doesn't account for the fact that the protagonist is a Plucky Girl through and through and has a will to be reckoned with.
- Official Couple: Nozomi and Fanny, who go through many ups, downs and mishaps due to Michiko convincing them that they're not right for each other. They are officially an item at the end of the anime, having confirmed their love for each other. Averted in the manga where he's killed off.
- Police Are Useless: In the manga, the police don't do anything when Michiko causes a car crash, but intervene and arrest her when she tries to stab Nozomi to death. In the anime, she's arrested much quicker.
- Sailor Fuku: The school uniforms at the academy are dark blue with white stripes and pink ties.
- Setting Update: The manga begins in 1953 but the anime whereas the anime begins in 1954, and even changes Nozomi and Miki's birthdates to reflect this.
- Shōjo: The first Idol Singer anime in history. It's a Coming of Age Story marked by melodramatic family situations, inter-class school rivalries and being a Plucky Girl in the face of uncertainty.
- Shout-Out: There are many references to Tomorrow's Joe and one character is even seen reading the manga of it. Nozomi also dresses as Joe at one point.
- Surprise Incest: Nozomi is attracted to Fanny and vice versa, but he is horrified when Michiko reveals that they are biological siblings as he was the first child of the Mines and Nozomi is their daughter (they actually aren't because Nozomi was, y'know). He decides to run away to America to save Nozomi from the trauma of finding the truth. Miki eventually tells Nozomi, who surprisingly takes it better than expected and understands the break-up. In the end, they get together after Michiko admits she lied about everything.
- Switched at Birth: Michiko takes advantage of her position as a nurse to swap Nozomi and Miki. Deconstructed as she later gets into legal trouble after admitting to it and in the end, spends the rest of her life in prison.
- Technician vs. Performer: The main reason why Nozomi's music resonates with people is because she sings from the heart and is in tune with her audience, compared to Miki who analyzes the trending topics at the time and sings based on that, coming off as superficial.