Fukigen Cinderella

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Fukigen Cinderella is an interesting case to me because while the characters' motivations and logic can at times seem absurd or contradictory, the pacing is excellent enough to keep me reading.

The main character is pretty despicable considerign his utter lack of regard for any other person in his life, and while the backstory and his actions later in the manga begin to atone for his past sins, I can't bring myself to like him as person. This is ok though becausee my enjoyment of the manga does not have to rely on how much I agree ... with the characters. Even If I don't agree with him, I still enjoy Kanna as a character, and find great interest in how his past dictates his present actions as well as his shift towards a better person.

One character that dragged down the manga if only a little bit, was Reina. I understand that she is vital to the story as a way to force Kanna/Aki into interesting and formative situations, but her finnicky personality is just too unrealistic for me to see her as a character rather than a plot device.

My biggest problem with the manga was it's ending. I feel the manga simply ended too quickly. I think one of the biggest strengths of manga like this one, where a main character is desperately hiding something from the other characters, is the reveal to the other characters and seeing how they respond. The tension of these stories relies on this, and I see so much potential for interesting character interactions because of the relationships that have been formed during the story. For this reason, the manga seems rushed. While I understand this is better than dragging out the manga to depreciating results, the pacing was good enough to counterract such a risk, and leaving these characters when they are growing to their most interesting is such a waste to me.

Despite this, I found the combination of VERY interesting characters, an unlikable MC, and the sex switching concept at the core of the manga both unique and highly enjoyable.

ONCE UPON A TIME… there was this stereotypical shounen protagonist that found himself in a great situation that happens after meeting three witches. What is this “great” situation, you may ask? Well, he has to become this one thing that he absolutely loves.. Every midnight, he’s back to himself from it. But every noon, he becomes the very being he absolutely adores: a WOMAN.

I bet you probably were expecting this manga to be something like this.

Sorry, I told a lie. Here’s the truth:
1) This manga is NOT a romantic comedy. It will always be a psychological.
2) The sypnosis here on myanimelist has a TEENY-tiny mistake in ... word usage. Don’t expect an “ordinary” male character that comes from a harem shounen manga to appear in this one.

AND..

3) The main character absolutely, utterly despises the whole opposite sex. Why?

It’s for a reason which you can read in the manga in order to find out if you’re interested.

But I could say that you should NOT bring your hopes up too high for this one.


Now, here’s where we get to our cast members! I’ll just do this from the top of my head!

-Grumpy Cinderella

-The three witches.. who we only ever see for one page

-Homeless man who just so happened to be a rapist

-First girl that seems significant appears.. who we hardly ever see again after the first chapter

-The former childhood female friend who lowkey wants Grumpy Cinderella to die

-The current male best friend who hardly has any chemistry with the main
character.. How on earth did they become friends?

-Psychopath in a frilly dress who wants Grumpy Cinderella’s D

-Queer girl that should’ve had more screen time than she ever got

-Babysitter/Maid to kill

OK, so notice how none of these characters have names. That’s because I forgot ALL of their names. I will forget every single one of these characters even existed after one month at most. Let me explain.
One of the weaknesses of this manga is that we hardly learn much about each of these characters except our Cinderella in here. I wanted to know more about the psychopath in the frilly dress. How did she come to be one? I wanted to know what all the other characters been through. Unfortunately, I never received that.
Also, I wanted to know more about the witches. They were the ones that started the whole story. But no, they don’t go beyond the first page. We never even learn their names or why they did all this to the main character. We only ever see them ONCE.
There were just a lot of pieces of the puzzle that were just missing, especially in the area of character development for the supporting characters. And some of the scenes in the manga didn’t even make any sense at all. That’s why my score is a 6/10.

Though, I gave such a score, I would be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy it at all and that it was unoriginal.
One of the good things that you can expect from this manga is a main character that is actually quite well done. You’ll see why he acts in some ways as you read along, and he is not the usual main character goody-two-shoes. He is an MC that I would never expect to find in a gender bender.

Speaking of gender bender, I never expected a psychological to accompany it. With gender bender, I typically associate it with something more light-hearted and fun (like “Ranma 1/2” or “Ouran Highschool Host Club”). “Fukigen Cinderella” gave a bunch of surprises throughout!

So, I wouldn’t guarantee that you will like this manga at all, but go ahead and give it a shot if you want a very different story from other gender benders!

It is difficult to talk about Fukigen Cinderella.

First, I would like to say that I liked the plot and characters. It is a good psychological drama.
However...
The ending is just not well done. I image that the series got cancelled, so the author needed to finish it right away.
The only thing that we receive an answer at the end actually open 10 more questions.

I would love to see more of Fukigen Cinderella. If there were more chapters, I would definitely give a higher score. However, the way that is... I can't recommend it. I loved it and I want more, but I can't recommend it ... to a friend. Damn it.