He~nshin!!: Sonata Birdie Rush

Henshin is a sports ecchi manga written by the author of Sora no Otoshimono, Minazuki Suu, published from 2008 till 2010, completed in 28 kinky chapters (5 volumes long). It's a serious work about golf and the problems faced by women pro golfers, the plot is very direct and tells the reader upfront what the story is about. We follow Hayama Sonata in her quest to earn large amounts of money from golf in order to pay her debts and all that lame backstory no one cares about. Some random characters appear from time to time and the plot moves forward towards the conclusive ending. The reviewwas supposed to end here but this manga is not as boring as it may sound because it has the ecchi and comedy, without it who the hell would want to read something like this? Tiger Woods? Sonata Birdie is hot and full of sexy scenes, the future reader should go read it while in horny mode, forget about the golf, it was just put there because tennis is overrated and this manga needed a sport where the main girl has to fight alone, so football, softball or any other boring team sport no one watches were a big no no. Now to be fair, at least they follow the rules of golf, it's not that surreal. The most important aspect of an ecchi manga is the art style, the ecchi has to make the reader horny somehow, it has to make him/her lust for the characters and enjoy the scenes and from this point of view, the manga provides, so let's see its strengths and weaknesses: - The character designs are more cute than hot, imagine To Love Ru girls instead of Prison School girls - The body types are different, main girl has big boobs, some girl is flat and tall, some girl in blonde and has a normal chest, one guy is old, one guy has a beard, one dude is your regular 20 year old etc - Almost every chapter Sonata has a different costume and that is hot and revealing - Every chapter has ecchi situations and the usual panty shots and cleavage shots are a normal occurrence - The backgrounds are detailed and the golf scenery looks quite good Overall, the art style does its job, some characters' faces may look bland and some crotch shots may show the crotch look a bit weird, I kinda dislike how the mangaka draws the female nether region, it's not appealing to me but the other juicy parts are drawn exactly to my taste. As for the ecchi situations, I have some experience with To Love Ru Darkness manga and I finished Prison School, so I can say that Henshin managed to make me enjoy the spicy scenes and it's kinda in the same ballpark as these two ecchi masterpieces. One small downside is that Henshin doesn't have your regular [insert default main guy who falls on top of the girl and touches her boobs]. The ecchi presents our girl falling into weird sexy situations with guys and other girls too and even when a guy like Yuuki Rito is introduced, the ecchi continues to be like before. To summarize the ecchi, let's make a list to let the future reader know what to expect: - sexy cosplay, panty shots, boobs (no nipples unfortunately) - old men touching chicks - orgy type ecchi, you know that scene where a girl is felt by lots or random dudes, this manga has it - some scenes look like rape attempts but it's funny - lesbians because why not, it's hot I'd say that Sora no Otoshimono had a better plot and the comedy was funnier and Nagihara Sora (Minazuki's other works) was more perverted in regards to ecchi and the girls were more interesting, Henshin is somewhat there but something is missing, maybe it's because the romance aspect is lacking a bit. There is some sexual tension between Sonata and Keisuke and she even gets into a weird love triangle, there is also some heat between Sonata's eccentric boss and his secretary. I'm not saying the romance is bad but it wasn't that interesting for me, still, there are some cute and ecchi scenes with Sonata x Keisuke and I loved that. Why am I criticizing the romance? ecchi needs some romance background to work, there has to be some chemistry/connections between the characters, because without it it's just like we're looking at some random pictures of gravure idols posing in their bikinis. Overall, let's say it's normal from a romance point of view. The characters are not that interesting, Hayama Sonata (our main chick) is the perfect girl in looks and kindness, she's like a goddess but she gets into ecchi situations and she has the body of the perfect pornstar and athlete in the same time (think about Sorana Carstea or Maria Sharapova from the tennis world). The other characters are your usual rivals, perverted old men, lame main perverted guy, the evil twin and so on. Also, prepare for some dramatic backstories specifically made to enhance the comedy, it's something Minazuki likes to do in his stories. In the end, this manga is good if you wanna have some fun and look at hot girls, the story is easy to follow and there's an overall mystery to it, ecchi lovers will certainly like it, it has scenes for everyone's taste, the comedy is so so, it's funny but I don't expect the majority of readers to die of laughter. The ending is conclusive and it has some melodrama but it was used to look ridiculous and funny, we needed some big stakes in order for the characters to risk something (this isn't a slice of life iyashikei). If you're an ecchi fan, you can go and read it, it's sexy, crazy, perverted, funny and ridiculous, Sonata has a big rack, her ass is majestic and she's the perfect waifu, the manga's ecchi and comedy are enjoyable, surely there's something here that'll make an ecchi lover appreciate it.