Ranked #768

Switch (Manga)

People tend to forget a lot of important stuff in this manga but still, it works. It works out great actually. I read it in two looong sessions and nearly overslept today because of that (nearly!).

Story: 8
The story focuses on two different main themes - drugs on the one hand and amnesia on the other. It starts off showing us two rookies at the Matori department. Seemingly unrelated cases force them to dig deeper and deeper through the rubbish of the underworld and thus they find themselves mixed up in events related to both their pasts.
Soon you get the feeling that you're reading on to something huge - a mystery one of the two wants to solve at all costs and the other one wants to remain unsolved, no matter what. This conflict and the questions arising from it make for a very good teaser that carries you through the story. You're just damn curious to discover what the links in Hal's and Kai's pasts are and what exactly happened to them. You know that it was bad, you know that everybody wants to know and you want to be the one finding out.
And maybe that's the problem. In my opinion the manga was too long. Not that I didn't like it but there were cases I just wanted to be over because they weren't focusing on the main plot. I read them drumming my fingers and thinking "Who cares? There are much mure interesting questions to answer."
Also when things were coming to an end I asked myself ... "Not that many chapters left. Where is the great big bang? Shouldn't they get started on it already?" But in the end they did it just well. It was well-placed and it was fitting - which was not necessarily to expect, 'cause from my experience stories containing one big mystery often tend to come up with an unreasonable or even illogical solution at the end. This one wasn't. It was nice and I really liked the last few pages - especially the third-last one ;)

Art: 6
Art is kind of a weak point. The characters themselves are well-drawn, but sometimes it's just too hard to tell them apart. Especially concerning supporting characters who only appear for a few chapters. I don't want to have a hard time guessing who's who - especially not when I have to focus on who did what and who could be suspicious, too. So that spoiled the fun a little.

Characters: 10
That's the big plus! The characters were really really well thought out. Both main characters are interesting, none of them was unnerving. They are the exact opposites from each other but still likeable ... each one in their own kind of way.
Plus you get a bunch of other interesting supporting characters - first of all police officer Narita and Hiki, the chief of Matori's section one. All of them make independent personalities with their own problems in past and present - and of course a connection to Switch, the mystery all of this is about.

Enjoyment: 8
Yep, I enjoyed it - evertytime I could securely tell who is who and that this whole thing was leading somewhere.

Overall: I'd give it an 8.
It has typical cop manga elements mixed with interesting characters, solid background stories and a handful of plot lines that add up to an a bit too long-awaited, but nonetheless compelling end. read more

First time writing a review as well. :)

I picked up switch at my small town bookstore since I was going away from home for a few weeks on my own and I though it would a good idea to stock up on new books. I picked switch as my reading material because it had no mention of female characters on it and I have learned to hate series that center around female characters. The art looked pretty interesting but the story had me meh. But wait.

After reading about 4 volumes or so I was (excuse the bad pun) addicted to this series. Switch is stunning. The background art, the character's personalities, the original storyline... all just magnificent.

I'll have to say, from the start switch wasn't looking so good. Naked ape's art wasn't the best and switch is a manga more on the realistic side so none of the characters had wacky multicolored sticky-up-against-gravity hair that you can identify them by. This, as well as sloppy panel planning makes it very hard to interpret for some people. I say some, since my friend had no trouble following it. But the art improves more then you'd believe as the story progresses so at about the 3rd volume point, you should have no problem identifying who's who.

As far as the storyline goes, it's a lot deeper then the back of the book gives it credit for. Our two protagonists, Kai and Hal are rookie investigators at the NCD. They're drug cops; narcs. Though what at first seems like they're just busting small fries, there's really more to it all then it seems. A powerful drug-smuggling fictional Chinese mafia known as the the Ryugen want Kai and Hal for something huge... Something to do with their pasts.
The main character Kai is also very different. He has a "switch"-like personality that turns him into a killing machine whenever he, or is friends are in danger. This also folds out to be a bigger problem then it seems.

I'm 11 volumes in and I'm enjoying this series a ton. Sometimes it has you begging for more, screaming at the book itself over a character, or even moved to tears. All of the characters are memorable and the two female characters are highly tolerable, and even funny. Though totally serious at times switch can make wonderful comedy parts. Also, it does have some Boy's Love elements at times so anyone into such will probably enjoy it very much.
I'd recommend this series to anyone. :) read more