Tensei Pandemic

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Tensei Pandemic is a fun and pretty good gender bender ecchi romcom series, but don't expect much more from it than that.

Our main character Hinata, a very feminine looking boy with a complex about his lack of masculinity, comes across a mysterious stranger offering, for free, to inject him in a back alley shop with a mysterious drug that the stranger claims will solve all his problems. Naturally, he agrees immediately without any questions. Shocking nobody, Hinata comes away from this encounter infected with a contagious virus... but not your garden variety STD. No, instead, he's infected with the never-before-seen TS virus, which transforms him ... into a girl. Now he/she must navigate high school life and love interests of all shades of gender as Patient 0 of the TS pandemic.

From there, most of what the series has to throw at you is a never-ending series of boys, girls, boys-turned-girls, and girls-turned boys, locked into different lewd situations with poor, confused Hinata. Throughout the story Hinata is trying desperately to juggle teenage hormones (hers and others...) with her tiny little problem of being the carrier of a secret plague of epic proportions. Not to mention her at least nominal desire to return to being a boy. Worse yet, some of the many characters vying for her affection actually even want to be infected!

If you were hoping for significantly more development than that before the last few chapters, or some actually serious drama along the way, you'll be disappointed. That being said the series is a lot of fun and I recommend it regardless. The cast is varied and unpredictable and instead of the usual unfunny ecchi clichés we instead get this group of confused, horny oddball teenagers attempting to restrain themselves from committing biological warfare and plunging the world into chaos. It's pretty refreshing, really entertaining and if you happen to actually get attached to what little plot there is inbetween the lewder panels, everything does get wrapped up with a proper, satisfying conclusion. All in all, I give it a 7/10... a score not helped by the mediocre quality of the English scanlation currently available.

There is very little to not like about this manga. The story of a girlish man turning into a woman by a mysterious drug and his attempt to hide it and continue as the gender he identifies as. The story really brings out aspects of dysphoria as the man doesn't identify with his new body and the struggle he has with his body, his romantic interest and his social life in general while searching for a way to cure his affliction. There is a good mix of comedy as well but the big focus is on the serious stuff in my opinion and it's very ... well done. There is a lot of depth to the characters and the story and it develops in a natural way to keep the reader gripped throughout the story. Be warned of some nudity as the manga does not shy away from showing the bodies of the characters (albeit with genitals and nipples censored).

CONTENT WARNING: This is an ecchi manga, meaning that there are many lewd situations and implications in this title. Don't read Tensei Pandemic if you're not comfortable with lewd material. Additionally, this manga portrays the LGBTQ community in a controversial light, so if you are put off by manga that touches on that subject in the way that this title does, I don't recommend reading this series. If you do read it, though, please keep in mind that this may not reflect the author's own political views. Thus, please put your political views aside as you read and possibly post about the series in order ... to make the community as enjoyable and non-toxic for as many people as possible.

Tensei Pandemic is an ecchi. And this manga tries its damndest to make sure you don't forget. The thing that separates it from the rest is the fact that the way this piece tries to prove itself to the reader time and time again is so ridiculous that it actually becomes hilarious.

Story - 7/10

The plot of Tensei Pandemic is essentially a more lewd rendition of Boku Girl, as it has just about the same general outline: A boy who wants to be manlier but is only seen as a woman has a crush, but she only sees him as a female friend. Then, through supernatural means, 'he' becomes a 'she' and tries to hide it from as many people as humanly possible, ultimately failing at even that. The story then tells the tale of the protagonist's reluctant journey to womanhood. There are only a couple of real differences between Tensei Pandemic and Boku Girl, the first being, as I said, that Pandemic is much, much more ecchi compared to Boku Girl's occasional suggestive scene. As for the second reason, Tensei Pandemic is, of course, about a pandemic, and thus there become more and more genderbent characters appearing as the series goes on. More about that when we get to 'Character'

Art - 7/10

Fuyuno Nabe's artwork is somewhat solid, with its only weakness being its frequent inconsistency. Fuyuno frequently forgets the breast sizes of his more *ahem* developed characters, though, with many varying anywhere from a C-cup to an F-cup. I have to admit, though, that the mangaka gets better at this as the series goes on; at the writing of this review the series is on chapter 58, and I noticed a good amount of consistency during the 'running around naked with the primary male love interest' chapter.

Character - 9/10

The thing that makes Tensei Pandemic's character-base great is the variety and sheer ridiculousness of its members. While the protagonist is essentially just Mizuki from Boku Girl with bigger breasts, the rest of the cast is incredibly diverse. Just to mention a few, a shy girl who grew a giant penis and constantly gets boners, an incesty guy who works at a maid cafe after turning into a girl and tries to look like his older sister (somehow becoming a tsundere in the process), the incredibly lewd class president, a french guy who made an incredibly realistic virtual-reality game just because he wanted to become a woman, and a closeted fashion designer who looks like a hentai protagonist. Through the interactions between these hilariously bizarre characters, anything goes, and often does.

Enjoyment - 9/10

Probably the strongest point of Tensei Pandemic, the series is incredibly enjoyable due to the fact that although it does not even begin to attempt to deny the fact that it's an ecchi (as its predecessor Boku Girl did) and instead embraces this notion wholeheartedly, the series does not hesitate to make countless stupid jokes, many that aren't even sex-related. Additionally, although Tensei Pandemic does have some (or many) dumb plots and weak points, it somehow manages to make those dumb points even funnier than the points that would likely be considered 'strong' in any other manga through the ingenuity of its characters. This is a manga that will make you laugh both out of genuine comedy as well as out of sheer stupidity, and sometimes you might even temporarily forget that this even is an ecchi, and then get instantly reminded two or three panels later when Hinata's clothes fly off.

Overall - 8/10

If you have any questions or concerns about this review, want to recommend a fringe manga to me, or even simply want to chat about this title, please DM me or contact me at thefringereviewer@gmail.com for any and all inquiries. My door is always open.