The Change!

This is a brilliant manga that I don't believe has gained the credit it deserves. As the summary states, it's mostly about the cross dressing of a boy and a girl, and the various misadventures that they encounter while doing so... It sounds rather cliche, doesn't it? Not worth reading? It just so happens that it is bloody spectacular. The story is set in the past, in the Court of the Emperor in Ancient Japan. First off, I want to say I know absolutely NOTHING about Japanese history, but it seemed pretty accurate to me. It gave me a taste of the ongoing in court life,the gossiping, backstabbing and pampering. Everyone wearing the period clothes, all detailed with flowers and swirls was just brilliant eye-candy for me. (At least to me, it was periodic. I say again, I wouldn't know period clothes from a Jabberwocky) I thought the plot was good, though the ending could have done with a epilogue to tidy it up a bit. Usually in manga (Particularly in Shoujo manga) I get bored by events that just go on and on. People never seem to know when to finish a plot. I found this manga very fun though, and I wasn't bored for a moment. The situations, I think, were just brilliant. While they weren't extremely original or unpredictable, but they made me laugh every single time. Just to make it clear, the manga isn't remotely serious. The manga-ka loves to make hilarious faces, make people faint and swoon, and add eccentric or clueless characters. I think nearly everyone fainted or got sick at some point... Though it was of a great comedic factor. A lot of the manga today are lacking plot and have too many brainless people, or characters with the sole purpose of looking cool or giving off sex appeal. This is a rather old manga, and thus it seems to avoid some of the more modern mistakes. It doesn't escape having lots of bishounen men, but no one is complaining. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who wants to see a bit of Historical Japanese eye-candy and have a lot of laughs while doing so!