Hodaka Akizuki, a seventeen-year-old high school student, has finally found a girlfriend. And Chihaya Shishizaki is truly the most beautiful girl at school, too. Just the thought of spending time with her practically has him pinching his cheeks. After all, she actually likes him back! The closer they get, the more his heart flutters. There's just one slight little problem: Chihaya has a secret—and it isn't just the secret to stealing his heart.

With just one kiss, Hodaka is no longer Chihaya's boyfriend, but her brand new… girlfriend?!

Boyfriend, Sometimes Girlfriend has story and art by Musawo. English translation by Massiel Gutierrez. Lettered by Vibrant Publishing Studio. Published by Tokyopop (September 30, 2025). Rated T.

Kevin Cormack
Rating:

Genderbending in manga has a long and storied history. Back in the 1990s, I followed Ranma ½ religiously, and even read the significantly more lowbrow (and horny) Futaba-kun Change. Boyfriend, Sometimes Girlfriend is a much more serious examination of similar themes, without the anything-goes martial arts or unhinged sex comedy of either of its notable predecessors. If anything, the vibe is a little bit more Your Name, but without the body swap aspect.

That Boyfriend, Sometimes Girlfriend springs from the pen of Love and Lies' author Musawo is perhaps not unexpected – it's a romantic drama with a far-fetched twist that allows it to explore concepts outside the standard genre constraints. Instead of government-mandated arranged marriages, here we have Chihaya, a teenage girl with a familial curse of obligate lesbianism – any male partner she kisses instantly becomes female. Although this change is temporary to start with, once they have intercourse, the change becomes permanent. That's certainly one way of adding stakes to a sexual relationship.

While Chihaya's new boyfriend Hodaka is initially understandably unsettled by the changes in his body, he loves Chihaya enough that he's willing to endure if it means he gets to stay with her. On Chihaya's part, she's horrified and ashamed by what her kiss does to him, although it's clear later that she's attracted to both male and female versions of her partner.

Boyfriend, Sometimes Girlfriend doesn't interrogate its fascinating premise in great detail in this first volume, but it shows promise. There's little in the way of prurient fanservice, and even a prolonged visit to the lingerie store to get female-Hodaka a properly-fitted bra is managed quite tastefully (though manhandling her boy/girlfriend's breasts and seeing how cute he/she is as a girl does make Chihaya more than a little hot under the collar.)

I really like the art style, and the characters are all very beautiful to look at. For fans of yuri-adjacent smooching, there's quite a lot of that too! I'd love to read more to learn if Hodaka really is willing to sacrifice his masculine body for the love of his life, and what the social consequences of that might be for him. I'm hoping later installments focus on a thoughtful exploration of the concepts introduced in this enjoyable first volume.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

Imagine, for a moment, a gender switch comedy that is not played for either service or laughs, and which stars the most sincere, darling little 2-dimensional characters that you really want to protect. This is very, very close to that. It is not without fan service, but it is the least “Haha, look, he's a girl! HAH!” gender switch manga I've encountered to date.

The entire story rests on the adorable sincerity of the two leads. Hodaka Akizuki is a young man who has no particular interest in the people around him. Until he falls in love with Shishizaki Chihaya, he's basically just following the tide through life. Chihaya is the school star, but she's very down-to-earth and friendly. When they meet after hours at school because of a blackout that causes them to be locked in, they chat about nothing in particular and just generally hit it off. Unlike many romantic comedies, in which the personality gap is the comedy, these two are both darling, and right away, you really want them to succeed.

When Akizuki is first changed into a girl, it's confusing and annoying, but he ultimately decides that it's worth it to kiss Chihaya. When he meets Chihaya's parents, who appear to be a happy lesbian couple, Akizuki becomes aware of what the future may hold for him. Chihaya's father provides an ultimatum in the form of a memory loss, but Akizuki's response is genuinely girly-high-pitched squee-worthy. At that point, I was already ready to set fire to the world to protect these two, but Akizuki continues to be boyfriend/girlfriend of the year, protecting Chihaya's reputation, and refusing to allow her to break up with him…even if it means being a girl.

At last, the story veers into fan service with an extended epilogue for bra shopping that, while not my thing at all, didn't make me too stabby.

Musawo's art is solid, but this story is 100% character-driven. Not sure I'd want to keep reading, but I do hope they come out all right in the end.

Caitlin Moore
Rating:

Would big boobs really feel that onerous if you suddenly grew big ones instead of gradually over time? Like, I know mine pulls my shoulders forward and makes it hard to maintain good posture, and sometimes my back hurts, but I can't say they've ever made it hard to sleep. I'm looking forward to the chapter where Hodaka tries to run or do sports and discovers that particular discomfort. In the immortal words of Rachel Bloom, “I've got those heavy boobs/I can't run real far.”

The thing is, I could absolutely see that happening in Boyfriend, Sometimes Girlfriend further down the line. There's an almost educational bent to the plot's proceedings, the characters taking great care to do everything in the right way. Roughly the first half of the volume involves Hodaka and Chihaya negotiating consent from the time he first tries to kiss her and is rebuffed until the moment she says she's ready. They have detailed discussions of gender identity and Chihaya family's worries about how her having two biological mothers would be perceived, a real concern for some families, even if that happened due to a curse and not a medical transition. They go bra shopping, and Chihaya gives Hodaka detailed instructions on how to make sure the band and cups fit his considerable breasts properly. It even gets bonus points for making Chihaya bisexual, just as attracted to Hodaka as a girl. In fact, maybe even more so.

The result is something that's nice, but feels a bit bland and sterile as Hodaka and Chihaya lack a lot of interesting personality traits. This kind of situation calls for some messiness, after all. Hodaka doesn't want to be a girl; he's just pretending so he can be with Chihaya, yet he's handling it all with such calm equanimity. Even when he catches his classmates talking crap about him behind his back, he calmly confronts them. The art contributes to the lukewarm feeling; the simple linework of the character art and usually blank backgrounds feel a bit too clean. The stiffness of the translation may also contribute to my perception; while it's mostly functional, some real clunker lines make me suspect there may be some nuance that's not coming through.

Boyfriend, Sometimes Girlfriend certainly has its heart in the right place. There have been hundreds of magical sex change series over the years that use the trope for comedy, drama, fetishism, and gender exploration; some have even been major inroads for international anime and manga fandom! I'll admit, it's not something I've sought out, so my experience with the genre (?) is relatively limited, and I can't say whether or not anything going on here is unique.