Title: Your and My Secret Volume(s): 2+ Creator(s): Ai Morinaga Format: Unflipped; Right-to-Left Publisher: ADV Manga MSRP: $9.95 Genre(s): Adventure Rated: Teen (13+)

I have to admit that I had never heard of “Your and My Secret” before a reader sent me a recommendation to me to review it for this site. Always being up for a challenge, I went to my local Waldenbooks and found the last copy of the book that had been sitting right there on the shelf, ripe for the picking. I looked at it and almost put it back, as I found the cover to be truly awful, and I wasn't getting a very good feeling about the series because of the cover. I mean, what do you make of a book that features a man in the arms of a woman on the front cover and an old fat man with glasses wearing a maids apron on the back of the cover? Vincent Van Gogh this was not, but I bought the book anyway. After all, this was the first reader to have actually USED the recommendation button, and who was I to disappoint that person?! Turns out that I ended up liking “Your and My Secret” a lot more then I originally thought I would.

The story for this series is a simple one: It’s basically about a boy (Akira Uehara) and a girl (Nanako Monoi) who, due to circumstances beyond their control, end trading bodies with each other! This is a story line that has been beaten to death before, so there is really no point in giving this series points for being original. But you can give this series points for having fun with a worn out concept like this one. With a fairly basic (and worn) story the characters have to be the one’s to carry the series, and all the characters in the series do that just fine. The two main characters are obviously Akira and Nanako. Akira is the school wimp. He’s neat and tidy, doesn’t get into fights, gets excellent grades, and he has a huge crush on pretty girl Nanako. However Nanako doesn’t act as nice as she looks. Nanako is actually a rude and crass person, who gets into every fight she can, gets low grades, and is essentially the meanest person in this series.

Why Akira loves this girl no one really knows (it’s not even clear if Akira knows why himself). Anyway, due to a science project by Nanako’s grandfather going completely wrong, Akira and Nanako wake up to find themselves trapped in each others bodies. Both of them are furious about what has just happened, and they both demand that they be switched back, but grandpa says that he can’t because the machine he made is now broken, and fixing it will have to wait until he gets back from Hawaii (it should be noted that grandpa is the least likable character in this series). So the two make arrangements with each other to live each others life until things get fixed. But while they are living their new lives, Nanako decides that she LIKES being a boy more then a girl! Not only that, but because their hormones didn’t get switched, both Akira and Nanako now find themselves attracted to their best friends!?! I guess I’ll stop explaining the story right there, as from what I’ve read this is really all there is to say about the story.

At first it may seem like this series is about a guy and a girl learning more about the opposite sex then they ever wanted to (and there is some of that in here), but the series is actually about the two people learning more about life in general. Explaining a series like this is not easy to do, as you can’t reveal the stuff that makes the series entertaining without giving away major story spoilers. However I will say that the humor works most of the time, most of the characters are likable (although there are a couple of scum bags in here that you will learn to hate), and the art, while nothing truly ground breaking, definitely brings a certain charm and life that would otherwise be lost in this series. Personally I thought that this was a very entertaining series, however if you don’t find yourself getting attached to the lead characters in this book, then chances are you will hate this series.

And that fact will make this series either hit or miss with whoever reads it. Because while Akira is a very likable character in this series, I found Nanako to be too much of a bitch at times! The way Nanako treats Akira, how she abuses Akira’s body, and how she just seems to abuse everyone she meets made me sick to my stomach, and if it weren’t for the fact that she slowly but surely becomes a little nicer as the book goes on then she would be a complete distraction in this series. However your opinion of her may vary, as one of my friends thought that Nanako was a hilarious character, so whether this character gets on your nerves or not will probably depend on your level of patience and sanity (or maybe even your sense of humor). One thing I do want to touch on though is the cover for which ADV chose to use. I already stated that the pictures they chose to use for this book were less then spectacular, but I also found it kind of strange that ADV decided to name the genre of this series “Adventure” on the back, which in my mind makes no sense at all. I think this is a more of a "Comedy," and at times there is even some romance (enough to warrant this being a "Romance/Comedy"), but “Adventure?”

I’m sorry, but it just isn’t working for me, and whoever was in charge of designing this cover and picking the category for this series should be scolded for doing such a poor job. After all the cover look unappealing and the genre is completely wrong, and most people base their buying decisions based off the first impression of the cover they see. And I may be saying this as a long shot guess, but I'm willing to bet someone that ADV lost some sales because of the poor cover. But even with the terrible cover at the end of the day “Your and My Secret” is still easy to recommend. Oh sure it isn’t anything we haven’t seen before in terms of story, but it is a very fun series to read. Having the two main characters hating each other helps spice the story up, and most of the slapstick humor is spot on, so I’m definitely going to recommend it. Just keep in mind that whether you’ll want to buy the whole series will mostly depend on how much of Nanako you can stomach.

- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -