Manga Maniac Cafe For the Geek in all of us

Title:  Your & My Secret Vol 1

Author:  Ai Morinaga

Publisher: TOKYOPOP

ISBN:  9781427805225

May Contain Spoilers

I remember feeling a great deal of indifference when this title was first released by ADV.  Back then, there wasn’t the deluge of manga that floods the stores today, so I was usually game to give anything a try.  I flipped through ADV’s version of Your & My Secret, thought it looked ridiculous, and promptly put it back down.  Fast forward to now, with the crushing wave of titles that are released weekly.  I will admit, had I not read My Heavenly Hockey Club, I would have continued to ignore this series.  The cover, with its pink circles and yellow splotches alternating behind a long haired damsel uneasily cradling a young man in her arms – is that a sweat drop or a tear drop rolling down her face – just doesn’t appeal to me.

Once I started reading this tale of a girly guy and a manly girl who switch bodies, I have to admit that it’s still pretty ridiculous, but in a funny way.  Nanako is pretty, a lily of wind – until she opens her mouth.  Then she’s an obnoxious, aggressive tomboy.  Akira is handsome and smart, but he’s also so dull he fades into the woodwork.  He’s painfully passive, and even his little sister bullies him.  He’s secretly in love in Nanako, and ignores his best friend’s advice to forget about her.  Their personalities are total opposites, and the flamboyant Nanako doesn’t give Akira a second thought.

When Akira has to drop some homework off at Nanako’s house, he’s in seventh heaven.  He’ll get a see the beauty in her own home!  When he interrupts an experiment that her grandfather is conducting – on Nanako – he gets caught up in the proceedings against his will.  When it’s all over, Nanako and Akira have switched bodies, but only Akira seems upset by his change in real estate.

What I found so funny about Your & My Secret was Nanako and her glee at being in a boy’s body.  Suddenly, she’s not shoe-horned into a set of expected behavioral patterns – she’s pretty much free to do as she pleases, and nobody questions anything that she does.  She can be tough and assertive and excel in sports, and everyone thinks it’s great.  When she acted the same way in her body, people thought she was weird and tried to avoid her.

Akira, too, is finding himself a little more at home in someone else’s body.  He’s not happy about being in a girl, nobody is giving him grief about being so passive, and even Nanako’s grandfather prefers him to his real granddaughter.  Akira cooks better and treats him nicer than Nanako ever did.  This fact isn’t helping to motivate the old geezer to fix his machine and switch them back.  Looks like Akira is going to be stuck in Nanako’s body for a while.

Poor Akira can’t even bathe in peace.  Nanako is constantly barging in on the poor boy when he just wants to take a few moments and savour his new feminine form. Threatening to utterly humiliate him if he so much as glances at her body in a mirror, she takes a wicked delight in her new male form.  While it seemed hardly fair that Nanako got to play and Akira didn’t, but it was so representative of their personalities.  Nanako is bold and has such a zest for life, while Akira  seems content to just plod along, following the most comfortable path and trying to avoid conflict.  He probably doesn’t even know what the word “risk” means.

The story really started to shine when their friends became involved.  Now that Nanako is more delicate and girly, Senbongi, Akira’s friend, is finding her suddenly more attractive.  And not to be left in the cold, Nanako, in Akira’s body, realizes just how cute her friend, Shiina, really is.  It’s these budding relationships that kept me flipping the pages.  Akira doesn’t know how to react to Senbongi’s advances; at first he’s put off by his persistence, but as he becomes more comfortable in Nanako’s body, he starts to wonder why he’s turning to Senbongi for comfort from emotional turmoil. 

This was a light-hearted, fast-paced read that left me wanting more.  Like My Heavenly Hockey Club, the humor is a mix of clashing personalities and zany situations.  This is one of the best gender-bending comedies that I have read, and I am looking forward to seeing how the story progresses.  Will Akira find the path to his true happiness?

Grade:  B

Rated for Teen 13+

Review copy provided by TOKYOPOP