Gender Bender Shoujo Manga - Your Gimmick

Basara

November 24, 2023

Name: Basara
Mangaka: Tamura Yumi

Volumes: 27 (Complete)
Licensed: Viz (27 Volumes: Digital (App) / Paperback OOP)
Type: Manga
Genre: Adventure/Action/Fantasy/Drama
Age Group: Teen

Summary:
Basara is a post-apocalyptic fantasy adventure series and one of the most popular shôjo manga of the 90s in Japan. It is the story of how a young girl becomes “the child of destiny” and finds the strength to free her people and seek revenge for the death of her brother.

–Manga Updates

Graphics Rating: 3/5
Plot Rating: 4/5

Opinion: Another shoujo classic, but this one I definitely thought I would never get a chance to read! But thanks to the Viz Manga App it cost me 2$ to read the entire series, and honestly it’s such a great app.

So the art is not my favourite. I thought it would improve over time and it did a little. It’s not an age thing, but the style was VERY detailed and I honestly found it distracting. Some pages, especially with the action, it was so hard to figure out what was going on. I am obviously going gentle because of the series age but it could have been better.

The story! Ok so if you’re like me where romance is your number one priority at all times then this series isn’t for you. It has a really great long-distance romance with enemies to lovers, but there are not a TON of romantic moments.

Where this series definitely shines instead is in the action-adventure. I really loved all the friends our Heroine made along the way and the arc of the main villain. Some of the twists and turns were fun as well. I genuinely loved the ability to simplify and tackle really complex geo-political issues that are still relevant to this day and age. Who is good, who is bad, what amount of force is acceptable to achieve peace? I loved the messaging from beginning to end.

Otherwise some arcs were kind of boring near the end. The end wasn’t as satisfying as I hoped. The best part of the series was the first 3/4. I think it may have been better if it had ended earlier.

If you have the Viz Manga app I 100% recommend this series as a classic.

Final Rating: 4/5

Extra: N/A

Purchase:
Kindle
Google Play
iBook

Vampire Dormitory

March 2, 2023August 14, 2021

Name: Vampire Dormitory
Mangaka: Toyama, Ema

Volumes: 7 (Ongoing)
Licensed: Kodansha (6 Volumes: Digital)
Type: Manga
Genre: Drama/Supernatural
Age Group: Teen

Summary:
For Mito, being the thrall of a vampire is the least of her worries. Mito’s lived life on the streets since she graduated from middle school, dressing as a boy to stay safe. She’s managed to eke out a grungy, friendless existence, but when a handsome vampire, Ruka, rescues her from sure-death, he makes her an offer that sounds too good to be true: become his subservient thrall from which he can feed whenever he wants, and she can live with him—in the boys’ dorm.
–Manga Updates

Graphics Rating: 3/5
Plot Rating: 2/5

Requiem of the Rose King

March 2, 2023July 30, 2021

Name: Requiem of the Rose King (Bara Ou no Souretsu)
Mangaka: Aya Kanno

Volumes: 17 (Complete)
Licensed: Viz (16 Volumes: Digital/Paperback) – (Complete)
Type: Manga
Genre: Historical/Tragedy/Action
Age Group: Older Teen/Mature

Summary:
Richard, the ambitious third son of the House of York, believes he is cursed, damned from birth to eternal darkness. But is it truly fate that sets him on the path to personal destruction? Or his own tormented longings? Based on an early draft of Shakespeare’s Richard III, Aya Kanno’s dark fantasy finds the man who could be king standing between worlds, between classes, between good and evil.

–Manga Updates

Graphics Rating: 5/5
Plot Rating: 5/5

Prince in His Dark Days

March 2, 2023July 18, 2021

Name: Prince in His Dark Days
Mangaka: Yamanaka Hiko

Volumes: 4 (Complete)
Licensed: Kodansha (4 Volumes: Digital/Print)
Type: Manga
Genre: Drama/Slice of Life
Age Group: Teen

Summary:
Atsuko is a young high-school girl who leads a troublesome life. Working a scandalous job for the sake of survival, her reputation is in tatters and she is scorned by her peers. But one day she is noticed by one of three rich boys, Itaru, which she resembles in an uncanny way. Immediately she finds herself whisked away from her everyday life and into a new world where she is forced to take on the role as Itaru’s double and replace him as the “Prince”.
–Manga Updates

Graphics Rating: 4/5
Plot Rating: 5/5

Kobayashi ga Kawai Sugite Tsurai!!

March 3, 2023April 22, 2016

Name: So Cute it Hurts!! (Kobayashi ga Kawai Sugite Tsurai!!)
Mangaka: Ikeyamada, Go

Volumes: 15 (Complete)
Licensed: Viz (Complete) (Print and Digital)
Type: Manga
Genre: Drama/Gender Bender
Age Group: Teen

Summary: The comedy starts when the cross-dressing begins! The Kobayashi twins, Mego and Mitsuru, were named after historical figures, but only Mego has grown up with a taste for history. So when Mitsuru is in danger of losing his weekends to extra history classes, he convinces his sister to swap clothes with him and ace his tests! After all, how hard can it be for them to play each other?

But Mego can’t rely on just her book smarts in Mitsuru’s all-boys, delinquents’ paradise of a high school. And Mitsuru finds life as a high school girl to be much more complicated than he expected!

–Manga Updates

Graphics Rating: 4/5
Plot Rating: 4/5