Manga Review: Futaba-kun Change #3: Laying Down the Smack! by Hiroshi Aro
Recap: Futaba Shimeru is a teenage boy barely coping with male puberty and new feelings towards his friend who’s a girl Misaki. Then he discovers he’s also going through female puberty! Due to his family’s unusual genetic structure, they turn into the opposite sex when excited, and the person Futaba always thought of as his father was the one who gave birth to him. (How our hero failed to notice this about his family is a mystery.) Since Futaba is a gender-neutral name, female Futaba is enrolled at the same school as male Futaba’s cousin. Hijinks ensue!
Female Futaba, hereinafter referred to as Futaba-chan, is pretty and new, so the various school clubs want her to join. Since this is a screwball comedy, it’s been decided (without consulting Futaba) that this will be settled via a fighting tournament. Representing the wrestling club is male Futaba, or as we’ll call him, Futaba-kun. Once again, he was not consulted about this. As the volume opens, he’s up against the Gardening Club representative.
Not being much of a fighter himself, the gardener is using a giant bloodsucking plant as his weapon. The head judge allows this, as he was once attacked by a madman with a frozen banana. Futaba-kun nearly passes out due to blood loss, but the plant seems to be adversely affected by his body fluids and there’s a technical ring out.
After a couple of brief matches to get us to the semi-finals, it’s time for a break. Queen X, mistress of darkness and “secretly” Takako Hiroin, daughter of the principal, decides it’s time to ramp up the cheating and disables most of the remaining contestants with laxatives.
Futaba-kun misses this as he was in the doctor’s office getting his wounds treated, and Misaki (representing the swim team) hit the restroom (it’s her calm place) first and got out just as the others needed to get in. Thus the pair are matched in the first semi-final round.
Neither wants to fight their sweetie, but Futaba-kun both has to uphold the honor of the wrestling club and wants to remain free to make his own choices, while Misaki wants to protect her new best friend Futaba-chan from exploitation. Turns out that Futaba-kun can’t lay hands on Misaki without getting turned on and into a girl so he has to forfeit. Queen X fights the one person who’s immune to laxatives, but still manages to dirty trick her way to victory.
So it’s Queen X vs. Misaki for the final match, with the dark lady cheating with magnets. But look! By gawd, it’s Futaba-chan with a steel chair! She asserts her need to make her own choices only to get dragooned into the wrestling club anyway.
Misaki invites Futaba-chan to visit her house whilst Misaki’s parents are away. In addition to the usual awkwardness of boy in girl’s body being alone with his crush, it turns out Misaki has an insane sweet tooth so all of her cooking is way over-sugared.
The next story is…oof. Misaki is groped by a chikan (pervert) on the crowded train, who is heavily implied to be Futana, Futaba’s lecherous older sister. Misaki’s other friend, the money-hungry Negiri Shusendou, is surprisingly jealous–a plain-looking, “flat” girl, she thinks perverts will never care enough to molest her. Futaba is sent on a mission to pick up some outfits for Futana via train. On the way out, Futaba-kun winds up having multiple accidents that make him look like a perv. On the way back, Futaba-chan is groped, and has accidents that put her into an embarrassing bondage situation. (We also learn there are specialized tailors that create reversible clothing that can be swapped from male to female fashion almost instantly.)
Then it’s time for Misaki to return the favor and visit Futaba-chan’s house. Except that Futaba-chan’s room is Futaba-kun’s room, and doesn’t exactly look like a girl lives there…and as she’s leaving, Misaki looks up at the window and sees Futaba-kun in “Futaba-chan’s” room. Cliffhanger!
There is a lot of male-oriented fanservice in this volume. Underwear shots, female nudity (nipples!) and bizarre poses. Plus molestation is played for laughs. The early Nineties were a different time in manga. Oh, and body function humor.
The overall humor level is pretty juvenile and a bit crude. This isn’t great art by any means, but it does raise some chuckles and was one of the few gender-bender stories in the mainstream marketplace at the time.
The Studio Ironcat volumes are long out of print, so may be difficult to track down, but there are affordable Kindle versions. Recommended for the sort of manga fan who enjoys ecchi humor.
