Review: FUTABA-KUN CHANGE

Considering we're still in the midst of a Ranma 1/2 reboot, now's a good time to talk about its pervy weirdo cousin of a manga.

FUTABA-KUN CHANGE (Futaba-kun Chenji), by Hiroshi Aro.  First published in 1991 and first published in North America in 1998.

PLOT:

Futaba Shimeru thought he was just another ordinary high school guy.  He went to classes, hung out with his wrestling team, and pined for the pretty Misaki from afar.  Then something strange happens when he thinks of Misaki during a private session with a porno magazine: he turns into a woman! It turns out everyone in Futuba's family can change sex whenever they are excited, and can only change back when their thoughts calm down.  That's a hard thing for Futuba to do when his teammates are searching for the cute girl with the sweet wrestling moves, his sister keeps getting horny over him, and he's forced to enroll in school as his female self.

STORY:

"What if Ranma 1/2 but it was constantly horny?" is the premise that Hiroshi Aro ran with for Futaba-Kun Change, a man who basically built his career on horny knockoffs of popular Rumiko Takahashi works.  It's not the worst attempt at copying Takahashi I've ever seen but its dedication to tasteless sex jokes and wacky slapstick will likely try the patience of most readers.  

Regardless of what sex Futaba may be at any given time in this manga, he's less of a character and more of a framework upon which to hang gags.  He's understandably confused and shocked by these transformations, but there's not much to him beyond his haplessness and his crush on Misaki.  In fairness, the rest of the cast isn't much better.  Misaki is pretty bland herself, and everyone else around them are gag characters based around a singular gag.  Sometimes it's visual (like the school principal with the giant, moon-shaped head who is obsessed with tokutatsu).  Sometimes it's behavior-based, like Misaki's friend Negiri Shushendo, where everything about her revolves around greed for money (right down to her name).  Sometimes it's just a dumb pervy cliche, like the wrestling team member who says nothing but gets a massive nosebleed anytime he comes across Futaba in her female form.  Sometimes it's kind of offensive, like Futaba's homeroom teacher who is a misogynistic gay man who is obsessed with Futaba's male form.  

This guy may have made a career out of ripping off Rumiko Takahashi, but sadly one of things he didn't take away from her work was the charm she was able to infuse into even the goofiest gimmick characters.

Once the premise is set, this volume just devolves into an endless torrent of fanservice and Scooby Doo-style chases.  Sometimes there are quieter interludes where Futaba and Misaki almost have a moment, but then the wackiness comes back with a vengeance.  It gets a bit exhausting after a while.  I can't imagine reading the whole series if it keeps up this sort of pace.

ART:

Curiously, Aro doesn't rip off Takahashi when it comes to his character designs.  They're much closer in looks to the works of Akemi Takada or Yuji Moriyama.  The faces themselves are small, but they are dominated by their big shojo-style eyes and floofy hair.  I can't lie, they are visually appealing and Aro gets a lot of good wild takes out of them.  He also fits in a lot of fanservice as you might have guessed by now.  This means not just a lot of lovingly drawn lingerie, but also a lot of looks at Futaba's lovingly nippled breasts.  This also means a lot of cheekier than average gags, like Futaba stumbling face-first as a girl into Misaki's crotch or all the instances where Futaba's sister hits on her (switching freely from her own female and male forms).  At the very least, Aro's panels and pages are very spacious, which helps to mitigate all the chaotic comedy.

PRESENTATION:

It has to be said that Studio Ironcat's original cover art is absolutely terrible.  It has a  goofy title treatment, a poor attempt to recolor some chapter splash page art, all set against a shitty CG texture beach.  Even by the standards of the time, this is amateur hour material.  The funny thing is that they retained the original Japanese cover for one of their floppy releases so it's not like it was unavailable to them, and the only image I could find of this cover was from a slightly later edition where the same image was (much more competently) redrawn and colored.

RATING:

I almost want to admire the audacity of Futaba-Kun Change, but its shallow, derivative cast and unceasingly wacky energy makes the whole thing kind of obnoxious to read.  This series definitely has an audience, but I am definitely not that person.

This manga is currently published digitally by Creek & River, and previously by Studio Ironcat.  This manga is complete in Japan with 8 volumes available.  All 8 were released; the physical volumes are out of print, but the entire series is available digitally via Kindle.