Boku Girl

Apr 15, 2019

DesolatePsyche

Recommended

Boku Girl 6/7/7/6/7

First things first. My "reviews" system is explained on a blog entry. Which can be found through my profile.
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✦Story
First things first. I define "gender benders" in two ways. One would be where a guy get's a females body, but soul/heart/mind/personality stays male. And other kind I would kind a full conversion. Where a man gets females body and as well instantly or slowly has/will have also a females mind/soul/heart and eventually personality and way of thinking and feeling.

This manga, though. Is essentially a gender tweak. A very feminine boy with girlish looks and girlish personality happens to get females body. Which doesn't change ... much aside giving a very weak moral barrier. So for me to categorize it as "gender bender" is incorrect. Whilst technically it is obviously. But as whole I wouldn't say so.

Nevertheless, if ignoring that little part. We essentially get a cute little romance story with some triangles, one sided feelings and rather self-aware progression and final pairing. For the most part I enjoyed it, found it cute with some added lewdness to it. So our MC got somewhat sexually harassed no matter what gender he/she would be. We also get few bits and bobs of drama, while getting rather good enough progression of romance. As well few quirks and turns, make the story as well fairly enjoyable.

So it's definitely not a bad premise and story/setting. But it didn't really impress me that much. I did like the very cute and girlish main character, setting sounds like tomboy, but it obviously isn't. Thus fair enough.

✦Art
Pretty solid art. Fairly nice character design and some other stuff. Didn't impress me enough to considering that good. We got mostly fanservice lewds about the lead character to an more intimate extent than some other characters that did as well offer some of fanservice. But main character service was rather lewd, especially with blatant revealed upper body parts. Got a bit awkward to read it at work now and then. Since some chapters are rather borderline.

✦Character
Good enough. A very girlish lead character. A beautiful second female main character. And plenty of other type of characters. So for the most type stereotype and character variation was large enough.

Probably most noticeable parts are the character progression, relationship discovery development and rather pleasant outcome.

✦Enjoyment & Overall
This time around I somewhat explained enjoyment and whole picture on every paragraph. If there's anything to add. Then it would be that it simply wasn't my cup of tea. Good enough read, but not tailored to my tastes.

I somehow wish she would gotten a bit less harassed and that she would used her brain a bit more rather than forcing herself a moral barrier and ending up doing some rather stupid things.

Want a cute romance Manga with some lewd aspects and give it an excuse of being a "gender bender" somehow. Then sure, it's definitely a good read.

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May 2, 2020

fghsgh

Recommended

Okay look, I can’t deny that I’ve got a bit of a gender blender fetish. I don’t like crossdressing or trap or anything, but real, genuine gender swapping. Please don’t judge me, but keep in mind this review is coming from someone like that. So, first I was just scrolling through the gender blender category on MAL and all of them were either trap, or had a very bad rating. At first I thought this would also be one of those trap manga (to which I blame the first paragraph of the synopsis), but when I had a second look I noticed the second paragraph ... I thought to myself, “Yep this is what I’ll be consuming today.” In the end I read it all within 24 hours.

So first of all, this manga is really stereotypical when it comes to gender characteristics, but I guess this is to be expected of Japan. There are a few exceptions to that, mainly the protagonist. This manga probably has some message to convey about the transgender community, but I’m no literature teacher to tell you about a message. There is also something to be said about LGBTQ+ in general about this, but you can look elsewhere for that if you want.

The overall story, and with that I mean character development of the main characters, progressed very slowly. I could condense the main storyline into one or two paragraphs (which is exactly what I’ve done, and I would include it if it wasn’t against the MAL guidelines). However there were many side stories, some enjoyable, others not so much, which is probably to be expected. However, after completing the manga, I see why the side stories were included now and I don’t even really remember being that annoyed by the less enjoyable ones anymore. I am very much aware that it is normal. It was to be expected with 107 chapters, and the side stories all contributed something to the main story, they were not just fillers. I just found it ever so slightly long-winded along the way.

After this, let’s talk about the characters. You’ve got the main four characters, Suzushiro Mizuki, the main protagonist who gets his gender messed with, Ichimonji Takeru, Mizuki’s dependable friend since his childhood and a very masculine boy, Fujiwara Yumeko, Mizuki’s crush and a very feminine girl, and Loki, the Nordic god of pranks who (apparently) has the appearance of a girl and comes down to earth to mess with Mizuki even more. Then you also have two perverts who keep following Mizuki even though they have both clearly been turned down (but one of them at least is pretty important for the development of Mizuki’s character). You’ve also got a few relatives of Mizuki and Takeru (who mainly appear later on in the story) and a few classmates. However, the four main characters fit well together.

Fanservice wise, the scenes are pretty sparse. There is much more attention given to the development of the feelings between the characters than to what they actually do with those feelings, although it does get pretty explicit at times, and there are plenty of times when you get to see Mizuki’s body. I’ll let you decide whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Finally, the ending: I can’t say too much because I don’t want to spoil it for you, but I found it okay. It was a clear ending to the story (unlike some other stories where even the last volume ends on a cliffhanger) (speaking of cliffhangers, I liked how every chapter continued exactly where the last one left off). A follow-up would be nice (showing how they continue their life), but definitely not necessary. The last chapter gives you a good idea of how the story should continue.

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Aug 25, 2020

Ribbreaker

Recommended

It was a fun read
I'd recommend it to other people but then they'd think I'm gay. MAL wants me to write longer reviews so I'm just gonna do the usual don't bother reading any further kk

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Oct 6, 2023

QueenDilettante

Mixed Feelings

Boku Girl is fine.

If you’ve seen any of my reviews before, you know that I am decidedly outside of the intended audience for a work like this; I am not crazy about male-gazey ecchi (especially involving non-adults) and a lot of the common shounen/seinen character archetypes present here tend to frustrate me. Nothing about this manga seems like the kind of thing I’d be compelled to read, much less finish.

Still, Boku Girl is simultaneously better than it should be and not as good as it had the potential to be.

It’s just, you know, fine.

(To avoid spoilers, I will be referring to the protagonist Mizuki ... with gender neutral pronouns throughout)

“Magical Sex Shift” exists both as a common anime/manga plot device – usually in the form of body swapping – and also as a rather niche stand-alone genre in its own right. Boku Girl commits fully to its premise on this front; this manga is about the sex shift and the antics that come from it, through and through. Mizuki and the turmoil they experience due to their sudden goddess-induced sex change is “the point” of the entire manga.

And it actually tells a decent story, though not without its fair share of drawbacks.

See, for everything Boku Girl does well, it also feels the inexplicable need to force a hamfisted, unfunny scene usually involving something tantamount to sexual assault against Mizuki as some kind of twisted balancing act. These scenes weren’t funny the first time they happened, they weren’t funny the 10th time they happened, and they certainly weren't funny when they were still happening toward the end of the 100+ chapter run. It’s as if the mangaka was terrified that the readers would be able to enjoy the story too much if they didn’t shoot the pacing and the characterization in the foot every few chapters or so. This nonsense was old the first time it happened and it only got worse.

Yet, somehow, the story and characters still manage to keep enough positive forward momentum to not be completely crippled by the mangaka desperately trying and failing to be funny. In spite of its faults, Boku Girl is surprisingly committed to exploring its themes of identity, sexuality, gender, and the need to insist upon your own truth. It was both refreshing and frankly surprising to see how tactfully an ecchi tackled a lot of these themes and all while mostly respecting its cast.

Mostly. It isn’t amazing, but it did a better job than I think anyone could have expected it to.

Where it fumbles the bag again is how it rarely goes all the way on these themes and the way that the final arc sort of undermines everything established so far. Boku Girl seems mostly oblivious to the notion that sex does not inherently equal gender or gender expression, all while trying to tackle the confusion arising from that very real topic. It’s baffling how a work can take feelings and emotions expressed by real people, make it fantastical, and then almost never connect the dots between them. It’s such a missed opportunity to really unpack the heart of the feelings that would even prompt someone to write this kind of story in the first place.

This is exacerbated dozens of times over with the terribly handled final arc of the manga. I won’t get into spoilers, but the way it ties Mizuki’s sexuality rigidly to their sex, ignoring ways it’s more complicated than that and also refusing to even entertain the possibility of Mizuki being bisexual is kind of mind boggling. I think they mostly managed to bring it back together at the very end with a passable explanation of things, but it should have handled the road to that point far better than it did.

The whole thing is just kind of fine. Boku Girl does a surprising number of things well and royally screws up a near equal amount. To be honest, this is one of those works that makes me wish MAL had a .5 element to their scores, as 5.5 just feels right. As it stands though, Boku Girl mostly just kind of nets even.

Which, to be honest, is an impressive feat for something so far outside of my usual spheres of interest and with so much baggage weighing it down; it just makes me wish even more that Boku Girl was better than it is. It had so much potential in spite of the things working against it, but it just couldn’t quite bring it home.

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Jun 22, 2019

ScrubLord2oh

Recommended

For me, Boku Girl was the right story at the right time. It was a perfect fit for me because, in the time leading up to me stumbling across this manga, I myself had begun questioning my sexuality among other topics that made me susceptible to themes in this manga. but as I have reread the manga and with a more critical eye, I see and recognize the flaws especially in the pacing and the development of the characters. like for example in the latter half of the manga, I felt very little in terms of character development, especially with the male love interest. Although ...

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Nov 18, 2019

GraySensei

Recommended

i really enjoyed reading this manga, and it left a hole when i had finished.
the main characters are easy to like, especially Mizuke who gets more developed as the story progresses.
there were some good comedy moments, where i laughed out loud and some feel good moments.
In reality this is an ecchi comedy romance, with quite a few lewd scenes. Although there wasnt so many lewd scenes that it becomes unreadable in public.
The depictions of Mizuke in outfits etc are really nice, and even make me like her character more.

My only real criticism of this manga would be the quick ending. It took over 100 chapters ...

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Oct 23, 2017

Tsuruki23

Recommended

A simple review.

It looks good, feels good and leaves you very satisfied. Worthy of a spot in your library.

The absolute best part about this manga is the characters and their interactions and developments. Many stories really fail to show any character growth (or mistake "Growth" for "Power"), this one is most definitely not among them.
(Also, the extra's are really fun).

The story isn't particularly good (a vanilla romance story-line with barely any twists) but it's executed well enough that you barely notice, it's all about the characters.

The art is nice, it rarely wow's you but its nice and stylized, i'm pretty sure that the artist ...

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Nov 8, 2021

Satose

Recommended

Felt like leaving a review after reading it, I went through all of it within a single day, I enjoyed it for sure as this is the first manga I've ever read so fast, went through most of with a smile on my face, happy with the ending, *(if you don't wanna learn more stop reading here and go read the manga)* the only single thing that I wanted to remain the same in the end *(spoiler warning)* was the hair, I think it was part of the character's charm and it should have been kept the same, I get where they went with the ...

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Oct 3, 2022

TeeKay_

Recommended

This is gonna be my first review. I only don't know how I am going to put this into words but this manga is not THAT amazing. It just simply came at the right time of my life and ultimately it awoken something in me.

Characters: 8
I love the main cast because they're so funny and when the moment is tense they know when to take it seriously and I especially love the main character, Mizuki. But I hate a lot of the side characters because they're often doing very vulgar things and it just makes me feel uncomfortable at times, at least they don't ...

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Dec 9, 2017

Chopmaster

Recommended

Boku Girl is just another genderbend manga, with a lot of common tropes and cliche situations put inside, somehow still keeping the story decently fresh.

Story 5/10
Boku Girl's plot is basic with a premise that has very little logic, with Loki in form a of a cute little girl conveniently finding Mizuki's situation amusing, the god transforms this very feminine boy into an actual girl, the curse's rules will then be bend constantly for the story to continue and also be able to get in some more ecchi scenes.

Art 8/10
One of Boku girl's strenghts is it's art, while not a masterpiece, it captures perfectly the expressions ...

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Oct 12, 2017

69thStreet

Mixed Feelings

Boku Girl

Story (6): It's about a feminine boy who turned into a girl by the hands of the God, for some reason who is a ecchi loli, Loki. It was a good premise to start out with and it caught my attention on the very first chapter, but it slowly deteriorated into mediocre and should've ended ten to twenty chapters earlier. The only reason it got a 6 was because the first half of the story was hilarious but after that it was just too much and I didn't even read the final chapter (probably because I wanted a Yuri at the end... possible spoiler.) ...

Art (8): The art style is unique, it stays consistent to the beginning to end.

Character (6): Every character in this story is very unique... It's nice to be unique but most of them weren't very likable. A few of them started out very nice and promising but as soon as the next chapter passes by, they start to feel way too much and uncomfortable. Again, I gave this a 6 because they are a three good characters out of bad bunch, like Loki, Mitsuki, and Fujiwara, but rest started out with so much potential but ended up asking yourself to the author, why? If this three characters I've mentioned weren't in the manga the, it would've gotten a (2).

Enjoyment (6): My enjoyment in the beginning started out as a (10), but as soon as the manga progress, it's boring, tries too much, feels like it's being prolonged, and ended abruptly to really ruin it. I never once feel like Mitsuki was truly a girl, probably because he acted the same exact same girlish way when he was a boy. I didn't even read the final chapter because the shipping at the end just feels way too force, creepy, gross, and just too much once again. I would give it this, in the beginning it made me laugh so hard so many times, but I feel like the author tried too hard towards the end.

Overall (6): I'm sorry to anybody that likes this manga, but to me it's crap covered with sprinkles. It was so so so good at the beginning, and had so much potential to be a great manga, but it just keeps shooting itself on the foot. I read this manga because it was recommended it to me once I've finished Good Luck Girl, which is way beyond better and I recommend it. I don't wanna say don't read it but I'm not stopping anybody from doing so either, maybe you'll have a better time reading this golden covered garbage more than I had. One more before I end this off, I didn't read the final chapter because this manga pissed me off with the forced and creepy shipping I've mentioned above, but I do wanna mention that shipping didn't alter any of my scores for this manga, if the shipping were to go another way, it still would've been a 6.

Have fun reading or skipping this golden covered turd.

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