- Last OnlineOct 15, 2017 10:25 PM
- GenderFemale
- BirthdayFeb 12, 1981
- LocationColorado
- JoinedNov 22, 2009
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May 16, 2010
Futaba Shimeru and his entire family share an interesting physical characteristic: they change sex when they get emotionally excited. From this premise stems a touching, and intensely funny, love story.
Story: This is, at heart, a touching love story between two Japanese high school students. There just happens to be a great deal of comedy thrown into the mix. Like another manga that I have read, and liked, this one shares an unusual plot twist near the end explaining the entire sex-changing element. I will not be getting into that, however. If you want to know what the plot twist is, you'll just have to read
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one or other (or both, if you like) of the manga in question. Overall, I would say the story was a good one, but nothing truly amazing. 7/10
Art: This manga is almost 20 years old at its beginning, and I'm sure many of today's manga readers will say the art is outdated. To me, however, the art was very nice. It's nothing amazing, but very good all the same. This is the manga/anime art I grew up with, and I like it. 8/10... To me, at least.
Character: The characterization is where I found most of the love I have for this manga. Unlike another manga (and anime) character that changes sex who I can name (*cough*Ranma Saotome*cough), Futaba Shimeru actually learns to adjust to, and accept, his ability to change sex. It causes him, and a couple of people around him, trouble, but he can accept it. As this manga worked its way along I found myself rooting for the two main characters (Futaba and the girl he loves), and their relationship. This is something you can't get with bland, cookie-cutter characters that so many writers (both those in Japan and in Western cultures) use all too often. Several of the support characters will seem familiar as ones just like them have, indeed, appeared in various manga (the greedy young lady whose only thought is how she can make more money, for example), but the main characters were, I felt, well developed. 9/10
Enjoyment: I derived a great deal of enjoyment from this manga. This was part nostalgia for the art, part my liking for the main characters and enjoyment reading their trials and triumphs, and part of it was reading a manga with a sex-changing main character who doesn't complain about it at every given opportunity. I definitely enjoyed reading this, and I'm sure that I will read it again at some point. 9/10
Overall: 8/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 19, 2009
The easiest way to describe Boy Alice in Wonderland is as an episodic mind frag. Continuity between chapters is sparse at best, and I doubt giving it more time to gestate in my mind will help. Let's just dive right in, shall we?
Story: There is something of a unifying story, from time to time, within this manga. Whether its just that the mangaka intended chapters to be jumps forward or backwards in time from one to the next, I don't know. What I do know, though, is that reading this in chapter order makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Our main character starts out fairly clearly
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male, becomes more effeminate, gets turned completely into a woman and goes back to being effeminate at varying points, all while insisting that they are, and always have been, male. They are also regularly set upon by various male characters seeking to make them their bride. Frankly, I just don't think much of this whole thing. I don't mind time skipping storylines (Reservoir Dogs is a fine example of such a sotryline done properly), but this is taking things to an absurd level (if that is, in fact, what's really going on). I'd love to give this manga more time to hammer out the details, but I just don't feel that I can right now. 3/10
Art: Where this manga pulls itself completely out of the fire. The art is quite nice. Not superb, by any means, but still very nice. 8/10
Character: Characterization is tied incredibly deeply with the storyline of this whole thing, and thus doesn't quite match up to expectations. It, however, receives a higher score than storyline for the simple reason that the characters maintain far greater continuity than the storyline itself (even if they don't remember each other, their personalities and motivations don't do any great flips or flops, generally). 5/10
Enjoyment: There is great documentation of people deriving a perverse pleasure from watching train wrecks, car crashes and the resulting rescue operations. Frankly, I think those would be more enjoyable than continuing to read this. It isn't absolutely horrible, but I can't see myself continuing to read this for any reason than to see what other bizarre leaps the mangaka has in store for their characters, and only then when no train wrecks or car crashes are available to satiate my stranger moods. 4/10
Overall: 5/10 I'm fairly sure this manga will appeal to some, but it just doesn't to me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 10, 2009
"What would think if you were told you were the wrong sex?"
One heck of a question, isn't it? Well, that is the question facing the main character of this excellent manga. Yoshikawa Kei collapses on the roof of his high school one day, and learns at the hospital that he is, in fact, intersexed. The way in which the mangaka handles such a delicate and complex issue, that is faced by many people in our ordinary reality, is a large part of why I love The Day of Revolution. Another part is how the mangaka faces
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down another delicate and complex issue, and that is the decision Kei makes.
Kei, admittedly having been failed in the information department by his doctor, makes the decision to go out on a limb at the age of 15, and become the young woman his genetic profile says he is, changing his name to Megumi. This is a big decision, naturally, and it brings it into a realm that I know intimately (which is the other part I mentioned a bit ago), transsexuality. True, as an intersexed person, Kei had a choice (ask any transsexual person why they chose that path, and you'll generally get told it wasn't a choice, but let's not get too deep into this, hmmm?), but Megumi does and goes from having lived as a boy for 15 years to being a girl. Anyway...
Balancing two such issues so wonderfully while providing entertainment value isn't easy, but Mikiyo Tsuda manages it. Sadly, Megumi runs into her old group of friends on her very first day back at school, and she's forced to out herself to them (as well as a few others along the way). Her friends are, however, undeterred by who she used to be, one even directly proposes marriage then and there. This, naturally, freaks her out, and she refuses. The four won't be gainsaid, and they won't leave her alone, constantly trying to get her to date one of them and wrecking any attempts by her to have a relationship with anyone else.
Anyhow, I think I've said enough for now. The art is wonderful, and the characterization couldn't help but be amazing as it's tied so intimately to the storyline. Everything came together, in my honest opinion, to create a very enjoyable manga. So, others may (and almost certainly will) disagree with me, and my scoring of this. But my subjective opinion, fueled by my ability to at least partially relate to the challenges of Megumi's life, is that this is a truly wonderful piece of work. And I certainly hope that you will consider reading this. You may even learn something about some of your fellow human beings, and what they've seen and gone through.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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