Akane-chan Overdrive

this manga was at times very awkward and weird, but yet amusing. if your into boys switching into girls bodies, or body switching in general, then you might just like this one. even though its really, hmm well to be honest it was confusing, or maybe it was just me :D! but very funny and enjoyable. read it(: !

I was exploring some random manga when I came across a manga that immediately caught my attention. It was a short shoujo, which I could clearly tell from the "Margaret Comics" banner, but the art felt very familiar. This was because this manga was written by Mizuki Kawashita, a female mangaka I'm familiar with for years for creating some of the best romcom harems I've ever read. Ichigo 100%, Ane Doki and Hatsukoi Limited are all ecchi filled Shounen Jump titles that are incredibly fun and enjoyable. To find out that this artist had worked on a shoujo magazine before made me incredibly curious asto what kind of manga she would write for a female audience, and this is how I started reading Akane-Chan Overdrive. Akane-Chan Overdrive's plot follows Takashi Amamiya, who, after tripping on a bottle, finds himself outside of his body and being pushed into the body of the titular Akane-chan, he now finds himself living as this girl until the spirit of the girl comes back to her body. Hopefully soon, because Amamiya's original body is dying slowly. It's a simple premise, not too original, I've seen the whole "people switch lives" plot a lot. But most of them end up following the cliched message that "everyone's lives are hard and you shouldn't judge them" and, while I'm not sure what the message is here, it definitely isn't that. We mostly explore how Amamiya reacts to now being a beautiful girl and tries to live with it. Knowing that Kawashita had written this manga before her time in Shounen Jump, I was actually expecting this to be a fairly "by-the-books" shoujo manga, and despite me not being the most expert reader of Shoujo manga, I do think this is the most shounesque shoujo I've read so far and it would made sense to me that people would change Kawashita to the Shounen branch of Shueisha because of this manga. I don't say this just because this manga is mostly male characters (even if one is in a girl's body), although it does only have two recurring female characters, and one of them appears for like 2 chapters and the other basically serves for Amamiya to hit on sometimes. No, it's more that this is the first time I remember seeing an ecchi shoujo. We are given various panels of the girl naked or wearing questionable clothing, and if you need panty-shots, let me assure you they have it, they have it on every single chapter. Plus, on the first chapter we get this very uncomfortable joke about her dad trying to have a bath with his grown up daughter. The pervy dad joke happens a couple more times throughout the manga, but it's done in a more tame manner than I can accept, but this one sounds all the red alerts. Now, I don't think this joke should be in any manga, at least not as a joke. But I think that specially as a manga that is being read by young girls, you shouldn't write-off your dad trying to see you naked with clear sexual and creepy intent, this is not what you want to teach kids. But you know what, this is just one page, and I think the rest of the chapter is alright. It's funny, it has some good enjoyable moments and it does have a good artstyle to back it off, that, sure isn't as polished as Kawashita's later output, but is still very good. Chapter two and three, of ten, just follow the story more, exploring Amamiya and Akane's life, and then chapter four is a completely unrelated one shot. Now, one-shots at the end of a volume happens, either related or not to the main story, it's not unusual to have the author write something new or put a previous work to fill up space. Thing is... this one-shot... is in the MIDDLE of the volume. Chapter 5, the last chapter of volume 1, have us back at Akane-Chan. This shouldn't be a negative point, because it's just a weird structure, but what? Why? Why in the middle?! Just... why? Well, whatever, I'm calm now, so lets jump to volume 2. At this point we are having a romance triangle between what is basically three guys, that are all clearly very heterosexual, but for some reason whenever they are in Akane's body (yes, they switch) they feel weaker to the opposite gender, or to be specific, to the beautiful guy who's desperately trying to get into Akane's pants. Having in mind that two of the three are completely aware that the girl is a dude, this has some slight BL tones in it, leading into the final chapters. Which, to be fair, is actually an interesting development. One that I would love to read. At the end of chapter 8, we have the three of them fall off some stairs and completely switch bodies with one another, having the oblivious guy being in Akane's body this time. Making it all full circle and having us from now on, three dudes fighting for a girl, who's one of them. Chapter 9 is a short side story that reverses this situation and has a teen girl dying, switching to a male body and trying to gain back her boyfriend. It's a fun story, that I wouldn't mind, if this wasn't the second to last chapter, but whatever, lets see how this manga ends. LAST CHAPTER IS AN UNRELATED ONE-SHOT. Last chapter... What. WHAT ABOUT THE ACTUAL MANGA?! EH! EH! KAWASHITA! I trusted you. I have told people to read your stuff. And you give me this? This is how you repay loyalty? We ended on a fucking cliffhanger. They all switched bodies. The real Akane didn't even appeared, none returned to their original body. We just stop the manga at a random chapter. And then fill the volume with two TWO TWO unrelated stories. Because why would one person write a conclusion? Conclusions are pussies. You don't need conclusion. Read a manga, and when you're 74% near the end, burn it. BURN the manga, you don't need conclusions. Just go read an unrelated one-shot. IF IT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR AKANE-CHAN OVERDRIVE'S EDITORS IT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME. Okay. Okay... So... final thoughts. I didn't hate this. It was fun, if I hated it, I would've not be mad about the (lack of) conclusion. There are funny, and interesting parts in this manga, perverted dad aside, enough that I don't want to give this a negative score. But I can't recommend this one to anyone because the story lacks more than just an ending. It lacks a middle. It's the start of a potentially good manga that never was. I would tell you to check Kawashita's older works instead.

This manga could have been good, But it wasn't This manga could have been all right, But it wasn't This manga could have been mindless fun, But no where near that I usually don't get emotional with media like this ( Except Maou no Hajimekata that piece of shit) But this is one of those exceptions where for this one made me mad for some reason i don't know. One of the reasons why is cause i hate wasted potential. This could have been a fun or good manga but i when i got around chapter Two i started getting my doubts and around chapter Sixis where it all falls apart. ~~ SPOILERS~~ I'll be focusing on the parts that annoyed me the most. So it's all basic at first but then all these dumb and unneeded things happening. Random scenes that serve no purpose to the plot, Cliche characters and very awkward scenes with rape almost happening that makes David Cage blush. There is also a dad that wants to bang his daughter. But none of that is compares to later. We have an MC who wants to get back into his body. All right that's fine and is what one would expect from a story like this. But then all through out he is doing this idiotic crap such as going against the Spirit Monk helping him advise and doing things one wouldn't do as a girl, Being a general douche bag and even going back into the females body when he has a chance to go back into his. It wasn't to save anyone or anything he just decided to go back into the Females body and still say how he wants to get back into his body. Chapter Six we have the worst weird bit of them all. So he ended up telling his friend the truth of what happen after him finding her almost get raped by the MC's male body that had a spirit put into it. Later when the MC and his best friend go and visits the comatosed body in the hospital. They are able to switch the MC's spirit back into his original (This is something else stupid but wont get into it ) The friend then is going to tell the nurse he woke up but he ends up slipping and hitting his head and then his spirit is put into the Female body the MC has been in for most of the manga. This is not needed at all and for them to solve the only conflict in the entire story happening isn't a good idea. But this is also stupid because we are told that this is very rare and has never happen before... So the one person to have this happen to is also best friends with the person that is gonna be the second person to happen too ? Let alone the fact that it is the same body the MC has been in for the entire manga ? That alone is stupid but this entire development is even worse because the MC should have stayed being a girl for a couple of reasons but mostly the fact that this is the only time he is likable as a character. He is nothing but a douche bag for the rest of the story. After the giant mess that is that scene we are then rushed through a bunch of crap happening so fast that it was hard to keep up. We are told that the MC ( Now in his original body) Is in a relationship with his best friend ( Now in the female body that the MC was in) This comes out of left field and his friend just agrees with it. Then a little later they are getting married. That's all i'm gonna say about that part otherwise i'm gonna be here all day and frankly i doubt many people will have even searched up this manga let alone see this review and read all of it. But the ending that ends at chapter 8 out of a 10 ( Was canceled) chapter story is completely dumb, Enough said. Now you might be thinking well if it ends at chapter 8 how can their be two more chapters. Well i'll tell you. It's a completely different story with the same plot and that fucking monk spirit. It is the same thing but instead it's a girl being put into a male body. The Monk doesn't even offer to help her he just said's either die or live in this body now. With the character of the first story he spent a shit tone of time helping him for no real reason. Now he isn't even giving her any help. There is also the fact that this happen to another person when we are told this has never happen before. I don't really know what else happen sense i just skimmed through the rest but the chick in the guys body goes and starts being feminine and trying to still date this guy she had a crush on. Mind you she is in the body of a 24 or 26 year old and she is now harassing this school boy. ~~Spoilers Over~~ This could have been good. Have the entire story be based on a man who died and is now in a female body and him having to deal with seeing everyone around him deal with his death or coma. Have him reflect on his past deeds and what he regrets. Get rid of the Spirit Monk and have the originals owner spirit be attached to the body still. So he is the only one who can see her but she can verbally interact with the guy in control of her body. Letting us see her reactions to her body doing things not normally done by her. Maybe have the FMC and MMC switch control of the bodies at random. Have this entire manga be about someone dealing with their death and how that has effect their family members and also themselves and have it be about a person not being able to fully interact with their family even though they are still alive. Have these two story work with each other showing how the chick learns that she could die any minute while being able to say goodbye to anyone. Have the MMC want to be able to comfort his family and be comforted by them but he can't. Have it be able a bitter-sweet drama showing how the deaths of people can affect others around them and making sure your at where you wanna be when you die. Have some comedy be in there too. By the end of it have the FMC be in control of the body and have the MMC in the FMC last position. Or something for a bitter sweet ending. Have the guys come to terms with his situation and have no regrets and let him pass on.