(The cover to the US Edition)
Shimeru Futaba is not having an easy life. As if High School wasn't difficult enough, he now has an unfortunate habit of turning into a girl every time he gets stressed or excited.
Since his school includes a (male) teacher who's developed a special interest, a crazy masked girl who keeps showing up to cause chaos and a gym teacher who uses machine-guns to get people's attention, Futaba gets stressed a lot.
At this point you're probably thinking "Ranma clone" and you would be (mostly) right. Hiroshi Aro's 8 volume series does have a certain amount to offer though: "Futaba-kun Change" mostly eschews complicated love-tangles and martial arts wackiness in favour of slapstick and our hero's attempts to cope with his new life. It is very,very silly but Futaba (in either form) and romantic interest Misaki are rather more likeable than the cocky Ranma and his stable of psychotic Tsunderes.
As we shall see, the artwork isn't bad either.
In Volume 4 the Konishiki sisters show up to avenge their brother's defeat in an earlier chapter. Neither Futaba nor Misaki actually had anything to do with that but since they are both on the wrestling team they somehow end up challenged to a tag-team match.
Karin and Anzu. Very strong and very skilled. Luckily, they are also very stupid.
Misaki arrives for the match in her swimsuit and then wonders why there are so many spectators.
Anzu unleashes her devastating kick attack.
This causes Misaki to have a wardrobe malfunction so she hurriedly tags Futaba in. Did I mention that Futaba transforms when he gets excited? Having the girl of his dreams fall out of her suit would probably count as "Exciting" While he's struggling not to change, he's not paying attention to his opponents and the inevitable happens.
Things are not looking good for our babyfaces at the moment. Misaki is still trying to fix her suit and Futaba has just been launched out of the ring and through a classroom window.
But all is not lost as a new challenger appears.
Girl-version Futaba is here to save the day.
And enquiring minds want to know how she got changed so fast.
Taking advantage of the Konishiki girls' confusion, Futaba-chan quickly takes control.
Futaba-chan punishes Anzu
Then puts a hurting on Karin. Well you wouldn't want her to feel left out.
Remember that Futaba is really a boy in a girl's body.
In a minute he's going to realise that his face is level with Karin's boobs
and get a wee bit distracted.
Which leads to:
Luckily the Konishiki girls have an Achilles heel which leads to their downfall.
If you want to read the whole thing online, you can find it here;
I'd recommend checking out the rest of the series as well. It's endearingly daft and does have more to offer than fanservice and silliness.
I'll finish with one last pic of Futaba in girl-form.
And one of these days I'll finally get round to posting some more Lucha-Doll Mai. That's it for now folks. See you in a day or so.
