And so… having swapped bodies, we came to raise a bitter melon…

Shinichi and Ichigo have known each other since childhood and live in adjoining apartments. Now the two are at high school and even though they have big crushes (one-sided, sadly) on other students, they still hang out together. It’s summertime and with all those adolescent hormones stirring (especially with Ichigo who has the hots for Yuuto Satou, Shinichi’s friend), who would have thought that a bitter melon would cause such a problem? The cucumber-shaped green melon (especially popular in Okinawa) has a bitter taste when cooked and is a Marmite-like food: some people love it, some hate it. Back at home, an extraordinary incident out on the adjoining balconies involving one singularly unusual bitter melon leads to Shinichi and Ichigo swapping bodies. When they realize what’s happened, they also realize that the cause of their dilemma is the little melon – only why has it developed four legs and has begun to trot around like a little green animal?

The two gender-swapped friends are intrigued, excited and perplexed by their new bodies so the inevitable self-examination has to take place – but next day they both eventually have to brave the school toilets. Things don’t go so well for ‘Shinichi’ who finds herself next to her crush Yuuto in the boys’ toilets with disastrous results and as for ‘Ichigo’, he finds himself chatting girl-talk with his crush Tess Soukura and other girls while trying to apply lip gloss.

But then when a group of pushy second-year boys try to make a move on Tess, ‘Shinichi’ intervenes. The real Shinichi is not that great at martial arts but Ichigo is spoiling for a fight! But can she put her skills to use in Shinichi’s body and defend her friend (and his crush) Tess?

Futari Switch is the latest manga from Akira Hiramoto, probably best known for the infamous Prison School and Me and the Devil Blues (both award-winning manga). When the US rating is Mature with a Parental Advisory warning, and the mangaka is famous for some extremely raunchy scenes in Prison School, ecchi is the name of the game – and as our reviews are not ‘M’-rated, I’ll not be going into detail here. Nevertheless, there are some genuinely funny moments and plenty of crude ones too. When the instigator of all the problems is a knobbly green (and undeniably phallic-shaped) gourd that walks around on its little legs, everything you can imagine and more is going to take place. If you, like me, remember with affection gender-swap manga comedy of the noughties Your and My Secret by the late and much-lamented Ai Morinaga, you’ll find a very different approach to the subject here.

The art, as anticipated from this mangaka, is very good and the story unfolds in an entertaining (and sometimes truly eye-watering) way. I’ve glossed over most of the more ecchi moments but if I say that, for example, Chapter 4, ‘A Fiery Twist’, is about a game of ‘Twistuer’ (sic) that ‘Shinichi’ suggests they all play back at ‘his’ apartment while his parents are away, you can imagine, I’m sure, where that seems to be leading.

Translation for Yen Press is by Ko Ransom and there is a page of helpful translation notes on the inside back cover; the lettering is by DK. In-text explanations are added beneath the panels for things like the names of snacks etc. and, thanks to the trade paperback size of the volume, they’re easy to read. The volume contains a colour page but it’s the cover image, so a little disappointing not to see different art inside, especially as the splash pages probably looked good in colour in the original magazine.

The next volume is not due out until February and the series is currently at four volumes in Japan but as it’s currently on hiatus, we can but hope that by the time Yen Press have brought out the fourth volume, the mangaka will have resumed (and maybe finished) the series. Because it’s an intriguing premise (okay, it’s what the French call loufoque but our words ‘crazy’, ‘wacky’ etc. don’t quite capture the same atmosphere) it’ll be interesting to see where Akira Hiramoto takes it next. A mysterious arrival on the very last page followed by an OTT preview for Volume 2 are enough to make me want to see where it goes next. And you’ve got to (kind-of) love the splash page for Chapter 3 showing the little bitter melon sitting down in his new cardboard box home, eating his potato sticks (thoughtfully provided for the new ‘pet’ by Ichigo and Shinichi). So is Futari Switch mindless, exploitative ecchi trash or a diverting dive into the differences between the genders, an amusing fantasy ‘what-if’ featuring horny teenagers? We’re only just getting to know the cast by the end of this volume so it’s still too early to tell but it’s certainly an ‘interesting’ start!

Our review copy was supplied by Yen Press.