Mr. Mallow Blue

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"As long as 'I' remain the same and 'that person' doesn't change, I won't be able to escape this world."

Biological sex. Gender. Sexual Orientation. Three factors that affects a person's self-conceptualization and how they interact with their society. Yet when faced with the need to change oneself, rarely would one think of changing these factors. They are often thought to be set in stone, unchanging, and if even it were possible it is not thought of as desirable or even worthwhile. Indeed, many modern issues regarding these three factors utilizes the language of "truth" rather than "change"; 'discovery', 'reveal', 'coming out', 'correcting', 'real', etc. But ... given how important these three factors are to who you are, what if you were to change them?

This manga is not about those three factors. Rather, it is a manga about despair. Despair at one's interactions with society. Despair, enough to want to fundamentally change oneself. Shizuki Aoi was bullied and after dropping out of high school and living a long period of seclusion, now stares at a pair of scissors in his hands aimed squarely at his own body. Tsumugi Sakura, currently in high school and also being bullied, jumps a flight of stairs with the sole wish of switching places with someone else. And so the two protagonists switch places... with each other. What happens when you change places with someone and yet somehow your issues remains? Join the ride and find out.

The art style of the manga fits the dark themes of the story and conveys both the dark tones and atmosphere as well as the gloomy emotions of the characters. It can be characterized as the typical shoujo manga art style yet it draws enough from some manhwas and BL works to become quite distinct.

So far the overall manga has managed to be interesting without any glaring flaws. Interesting enough that I was driven to write a review once I saw that none was present in MAL. I therefore recommend any curious readers to give at least the first few chapters a try and be your own judge as to the potential this story holds.