Nov 13, 2007

Commentary: Your and My Secret or My Barbaric Girlfriend

Only the first volume of this manga series was released in the US. I found volume 2, 3, and a bit of 4 while Lurking. This series is pretty good and I don't really understand why it didn't catch on in the US. The manga is the story of Akira and Momoi and their adventures while swapped in each other's bodies. Akira is a very quiet and neat boy and Momoi is a racous tomboy. When they switch, their personalities seem more line with the bodies they now possess. Momoi decides that she likes being a guy and does not want to switch. Akira's family rejoices that Akira has finally become a man causing the real Akira to feel pressure to remain a girl. Except there's a big problem ... Akira's best male friend, Senbongi, is activity pursuing him as Momoi. All this is well and good until sometime in volume 3 *spoiler alert* Senbongi finds out that Akira's personality is in Momoi's body and instead of being repulsed, Senbongi rejoices that the boy he has always had a crush on is now a girl so it's now okay for him to actively pursue Akira. I had a good laugh over this, especially when I think back to how lamely this situation was handled in "Kashimi: Girl Meets Girl." Anyhow, Ai Morinaga is very good with comedy and with understanding the inner workings of weird people and normal people thrown into very weird situations. So far this series is quite enjoyable.

It looks like Morinaga has three manga series currently going and hasn't written more of this series for about a year. Well, I hope that there's another volume within Morinaga that wraps this story up.