Your & My Secret: Volume 6

by Ai Morinaga, 162 pages

Akira is a very quiet, well-behaved, thoughtful young man with an unrequited crush on his loud, rule-breaking, selfish classmate Momoi, but neither of them has much luck in love, since everyone just ignores unmanly Akira and runs away from unladylike Momoi. Until, that is, Momoi's irresponsible inventor grandfather "accidentally" causes them to switch bodies. Suddenly, "Momoi" is a perfect lady and "Akira" is a man's man! Momoi, ecstatic at no longer having her brash behavior censured, breaks her grandfather's machine and pretty much takes over Akira's life. When she starts dating her own best friend Shiina, Akira turns to his best friend Senbongi for help and confesses the embarrassing truth to him. But with "Momoi" no longer the unapproachable hellion, Senbongi's not exactly adverse to the new status quo, either. What's a confused boy trapped in a girl's body to do?

This is one of those series where I didn't quite realize what I'd gotten myself into until I was too sucked into Akira's plight and the edgy slapstick to turn back. At first, I was all "put them back! let them be themselves!" but now I'm not so sure. I just want everyone to be happy! Mean Momoi's putting someone else's feelings before her own for the first time in her life and both she and Akira are finally finding acceptance for being themselves (only not). It's sad that the only way that can happen is for them to physically cave to gender stereotypes, so I'm conflicted. But the story's not over yet and who knows what will happen next. Besides, this is a bawdy comedy and probably isn't meant to be critiqued too deeply. Hmmmm.... Might be a good fit for older teens and others who like to laugh while pushing boundaries.