Yuri Hayama is an overloaded office worker, working long hours, taking on more than she can handle, not to mention going into debt, and now her boyfriend has just broken up with her! When she’s hit rock bottom, she happens to find an unconscious little boy on the street, with no parents nearby and her phone out of battery. So she takes the boy home and rest him on her bed, and somehow the little boy turns into a handsome young man! Introducing himself as Ren, he asks if he can stay at her place, with the promise to help cook and clean for her, as he has nowhere else to go. She agrees – but who is this young man? Why does he have the ability to change into a child? And can the pair learn to get along in the meantime?

Double the Trouble, Twice as Nice is a romance series from Ryo Ichino, who so far has no other credits in manga. It should be noted that (at the time of writing) Yen Press has the tags for this series as a ‘LGBTQ’ and ‘Boys Love’ series but that isn’t the case; this is a heterosexual relationship, so please be aware of that. As you might have seen from the synopsis, this series has a semi ‘supernatural’ twist to the formula, like Ranma 1/2 or Fruits Basket, where a main character has the ability to change into something else due to (usually) mystical circumstances. Ranma 1/2 has the main male character, Ranma, turning into a female when coming into contact with cold water. In Fruits Basket, the Sohma family have the ability to turn into animals from the Chinese zodiac when either hugged by the opposite gender, or in emotional distress. For this series it’s a little different; Ren can transform from his 18-year-old self, to a small boy, depending on whether he’s wearing his collar or not. There are hints very early on that the change has been caused by ‘experiments’ of the pharmaceutical kind, with the first page setting the scene of drug tests, with a shot of Ren on the second page, and we learn that Yuri also works for the same company, but a different department. Since the change is affected by Ren’s ability to wear a collar or not, we don’t have the tension of external circumstances affecting the change and Ren having to work around that, but there’s still a lingering mystery of why the change is happening and also why Ren specifically, so there’s enough to be invested in if you like these sorts of stories.

The romance is an age-gap relationship between the 18-year-old Ren, and 28-year-old Yuri. I know that age gaps can be a point of contention for some, but here I think there’s an interesting angle to work with. Yuri is an older woman but currently at a low point in her life, being overworked and having just lost her boyfriend. She has the ability to take care of herself, going shopping and having the tools to cook, but due to work she rarely has time, and therefore hasn’t been looking after herself. Enter Ren, who is also (in a way) at a low point in his life, with a strange ability that he can’t explain and also has nowhere to go, but seems to be loaded in cash. So him being at home to cook for Yuri, providing for her and be an emotional rock for her too, is a reverse of stereotypical gender roles (the men who go to work, women stay at home) and it’s a  compelling dynamic. I can see why people would be drawn to this couple; who doesn’t want to have a companion who has all the cash in the world (so you never have to worry about debts), have someone you can talk to and also makes you dinner? It’s like an alternative universe of Christian Grey from Fifty Shades of Grey, where instead of being a working rich CEO and wanting specific sexual favours, he turns into a little boy and cooks food for you instead.

Where this dynamic sours for me however is Ren’s actions outside his cooking and cleaning; the comparison to Christian Grey wasn’t a one-off as unfortunately Ren has a lot of red flags in terms of his behaviour. When Ren first shows his adult self to Yuri, their first conversation tip toes the line of ‘negging’ where he completely reads Yuri, how she’s overworked, with bags under her eyes, and clearly in need of help. It’s meant to come off as him being able to read Yuri very well and emotionally sensitive, but that completely goes out the window when Ren mentions off-hand, at different times in the manga, that he’s checked her phone, hacked into her laptop and also read through her private documents in her house. Things get worse when he kisses her without her consent, and then has multiple times when he tells her he doesn’t want to answer anymore questions, or says ‘you’ll find out later’ when she asks the basics like who he is and why the change has happened to him. The big reveal at the end of Volume 1, where his identity is revealed, does solve some questions but not all, and doesn’t change the off-dynamic between them throughout the book.

Things may improve later on, but it should be noted that the whole volume is centred on their meet-cute and relationship, there’s little outside of it, except for a brief introduction of a male colleague to serve as a false romantic rival, and the aforementioned ex-boyfriend of Yuri’s coming back in the second half for a dramatic turn of events, but again it’s mostly used to reflect on Yuri and Ren’s growing dynamic. So if you’re not sold on their relationship, you may struggle with this book.

The art for the book is really good; the character designs are nice, well rounded and distinct. Yuri has a cute haircut and is a likeable female lead, and despite my grievances about his character, Ren also looks incredibly cute when transformed into a little boy, and very handsome as a man. My only complaint is the first half, where multiple characters mention that Yuri looks tired and haggard, and is also not taking care of herself. Yuri even says it herself internally but it’s not sold in the artwork, she looks pretty and put-together throughout the book. It’s very much all tell and no show.

Sarah Burch does the translation for Yen Press and its a good, easy read, but I was surprised that there are no translation notes. When in child form, Ren calls Yuri ‘onee-san’ (older sister) when others are around as a cover for why he’s staying at her place. I know what ‘onee-san’ means as I’ve read manga for a long time, but if someone chose to pick up this book as one of their first manga (quite possibly, it’s a first volume of a new series) they’ll probably be confused as to what it means.

This new series has interesting elements of other rom-com shows but with its own twist, the transformation from child to adult has the potential for good character exploration and comedy in the future. However, the age gap and inappropriate actions from the male lead may turn off some readers. Proceed with caution.

Our review copy was supplied by Yen Press.