If you are a long time reader of Okazu, you know that I have almost never enjoyed a body-swap comedy manga, because the comedy has almost always been about the wrong things. But here we are again…and this time, there may be hope?
Reiji Yoshida is a Yuri fan.
Reiji is also a super-uptight, mildly self-loathing teen boy. His obsession is *blackmail-level top secret,* never to be shared with anyone. His classmate, a well-adjusted and outgoing fujoshi, Mitsuru Hoshina, inspires his worst fears. How is she not…y’know..terrified all the time? Of course, Reiji’s not asking that, it would be self-aware and he’s not in the business of understanding his fear. So, when Reiji and Mitsuru swap bodies, she’s all over his collection and learning to love Yuri and being a boy, while Reiji cowers in fear of…mostly everything.
I Love Yuri and I Got Bodswapped with a Fujoshi, Volume 1 is meant to be a comedy. I know it is, because use of the phrase “hijinks ensue” in the write-up indicates that it is. But I have some “but…”s ready. For brevity’s sake, I’ll stick with the most obvious point: It is supposed to be absolutely hilarious that Reiji is so terrified of his interest being uncovered. Why? How? In what society on this planet is a male adolescent shamed for being into girl-girl anything? So let’s just set Reiji aside completely for this volume. He adds very little to the story except silly noises and facefaults. ^_^
If we stop paying attention to Reji (who is absolutely unlike any actual human, much less any Yuri fan I have ever met in half a century of life) we’re left with Mitsuru. Mitsuru is an absolutely delight. She’s ridiculous, unfettered, unembarrassed and, when she wakes up in Reiji’s body is totally all-in on watching his anime and reading his manga and finding something to love. In fact, I think they missed the real plot here – if Mitsuru was a Yuri-loving girl and Reiji a closeted BL fan the whole thing would have so much more sense. Instead, we get a kind of dysmorphic Reiji, who apparently loathes men’s bodies, and it also really uptight about his own body and his Yuri fandom, which feels like yet another different – and better – story, we might have read. Oh well. ^_^ To Reiji’s credit, he does start watching and reading Mitsuru’s BL and finding things to like about it. This is, by far, the most endearing bit of the manga. And it gave me a little hope.
Ajiichi is a creator whose work is mostly Yuri, and so I was a little surprised to see Reiji’s discomfort with his own fandom. And his discomfort made me uncomfortable about him as a protagonist. I don’t expect teens to be more than half-cooked, but. Dude,it’s comic books and cartoons, no one gives a shit – and if they do, it’s them. Trust me on this.
Ratings:
Art – Too many /ack!!/ faces, but otherwise solid
Story – I’m honestly not sure here, because of my own biases. Is this funny? I can’t tell
Characters – Mitsuru is the reason I would (and probably will) read volume 2. “Reiji is a total zero” is a whole mood here
Service – Not as much as you might think, since Reiji’s a prude
Yuri – Tangentially
Overall – 7, with potential for better or for worse
As this volume comes to a close Mitusuru’s childhood friend, who has an obvious crush on her, waltzes in as a new plot complication. I know how I’d handle it, but I would suck at writing body-swap comedy (because it is never funny,) so I almost kind of want to see what happens? Love isn’t going to save the day, but I’d be super happy if Mitsuru redeems Reiji’s tormented soul.
Thanks very much to J-Novel Club for providing me a review copy!