So Very Shoujo

It's a pretty enjoyable old school one, with the characters' development as voice actors front and centre, but not quite enough romance in the ending after such a long build-up.

Just a not-vapid short shoujo romcom.

Another old-style long romance drama.

I still have mixed feelings about the ending, although in a good way. This is one of those vibrant and compelling shoujo series you just HAVE to have read.

It surprised me, when I tried this after viewing the original anime, just how complex and touching this manga is.

This feels quite different from most shoujo. The "gender bender" is an actual unexpected gender change and the story handles what develops afterwards in a way that feels refreshing and interesting for manga. Manages to mostly avoid committing too rigidly to the stereotypes of "biological sex" = gender = sexual orientation, despite that being somewhat the premise.

If I wrote a summary, it would sound like every other cliched high school shoujo romance, but this is written with just enough SOMETHING to make it not vapid and bland, but instead quite endearing. Wanes in the second half as things get a unnecessarily angsty.