“Your and My Secret” (Manga)

[pkristen]

Summary: Timid highschool boy Akira Uehara has a one-sided crush on the beautiful Nanako Momoi, the girl well known for having the most obnoxious and gross pesonality imaginable. Thanks to Nanako’s scientist/inventor grandfather, the two of them accidentally switched bodies with the machine immediately broken in the process. Things become even more complicated when Nanako in Akira’s body decides she likes the switch, especially after she developes an attraction with her female best friend. And then Akira’s friend Senbongi develops an attraction to the now feminine “Nanako”, an attraction that may be mutual – much to Akira’s dismay.

Review: Being a fan of Ai Morinaga’s work, this is one of those series that I followed ever since the first volume was released by the (now defunct?) Tokyopop company. Now that the entire series is available on http://www.JManga.com, I am very pleased that I followed it.

In Morinaga’s style of obnoxious absurd comedy, I think it’s an interesting series that fairly tackles the question of gender identity vs. sexual orientation. Though one can argue that it would seem to favor the traditional portrayal of male/ultra-masculine & female/ultra-feminine, the prospects of how their relationships are affected when there’s a chance they’ll switch back creates its own additional drama. And I do like the idea of Nanako realizing that she's in love with her best (female) friend and it took her being dumped into a male body to know it... and that she wasn't going to lose the relationship without a fight.

I really liked it but I don’t expect clean resolutions and obvious summaries from the mangaka in question.