Most shonen romances these days are looking and behaving more and more like their shojo counterparts, but at least one guy is dedicated to making his shonen romances as old-fashioned and pervy as possible.
AYAKASHI TRIANGLE (Ayakashi Torainguru), by Kentaro Yabuki. First published in 2020 and first published in North America in 2022.
PLOT:
Kazamaki Matsuri is the heir to his family's legacy as wind magic-wielding, ayakashi-banishing ninjas. In particular, he uses his powers to protect his childhood friend Kanade Suzu, who not only can see the ayakashi but exudes a delicious life force that they crave. This becomes a problem when she becomes fond of a fat, sassy cat that turns out to be Shirogane, king of the ayakashi. Matsuri manages to seal Shirogane's power, but not before Shirogane turns him into a girl! Now Suzu has to figure out a way to turn him back while Matsuri deals with her handsy friends, a rival ninja, and her own confusing feelings for her own friend.
STORY:
Sometimes genderswap manga are a way for a creator to explore the nebulous concept of gender itself (whether it's just for the sake of the story, or because they themselves are working through their own feelings through their art). Others just see it as pure fetish fuel, even if they aren't working in ero-manga.
You can probably guess the direction that Yabiki, the artist who previously gave us the fanservice-fest that was To Love Ru, decided to take.
It's not for lack of trying on his part. He's actually quite efficient in how he establishes the premise, the internal conflicts keeping the leads from getting together, and introducing some supporting cast members. It's not the most artful effort (there are some laughably blunt bits of exposition in the dialogue of the first couple of chapters), but he's clearly trying to get his audience on-board as fast as possible. That being said, it's not hard to see where he got his ideas. There's a bit of Ranma 1/2 in this premise, maybe even a bit of Cheeky Angel. There's definitely a bit of Natsume's Book of Friends, as Shirogane is clearly meant to be his riff on Nyanko-sensei.
If only this series had as much care for its characters as any of those manga did.
Even moreso than its horniness (more on that later), Ayakashi Triangle is undermined by its extremely shallow cast. Matsuri and Suzu are pleasant enough, but not terribly distinct as characters. As you might guess, the rest of the cast doesn't fare much better, being defined at most by a gimmick or two. The worst definitely has to be Suzu's friend Yayo, whose gimmick is 'gropes any cute girl within reach.' There's nothing to really latch on with the cast. The closest they get to depth is Suzu fretting over Matsuri being a girl, be it how easily he's adjusting to being a girl or her own uncertainty over her burgeoning crush on him. The hilarious thing is that this conflict could be solved with just seven words: "and then Suzu discovered she was bisexual." A little more effort on the cast would have gone such a long way towards making this manga much more tolerable.
ART:
Yabuki's not a bad artist. The character designs aren't bad, as most of the outrageous looks are left to the ninja kids. I particularly like the way he incorporates the pinwheel into the design of Matsuri's hair as both a boy and girl - it's a subtle touch. The page layouts are lively (if a little messy). The action is a little lacking in style, mostly due to the fact that the fights are rather short.
Sadly, it's clear where most of Yabuki's effort went: to the fanservice. He rarely misses an opportunity to shove tits, panty/fundashi-clad crotch, thigh and ass into the frame, logic be damned. It doesn't matter if Matsuri or Suzu have to twist into some awkwardly spine-cracking positions to make it happen or if Matsuri spends half of his time fondling himself or that Yabuki seemingly has trouble drawing bare butts, he's going to put it all out there! It doesn't take long to realize that it's Yabuki's biggest priority as an artist, moreso than things like "comedy" or "character." Having read this now, I can understand how this series ended up having two chapters pulled from its digital US release and pulled from the WSJ magazine in Japan, all for being too raunchy. There's a reason that Viz didn't put this one out themselves.
RATING:
This series is published by Seven Seas. This series is ongoing in Japan with 11 volumes available. 1 volume has been released and is currently in print. It is currently being serialized digitally via Manga Plus and the Shonen Jump app.
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