Becoming a Girl Day

Miyoshi with girl Mamiya

Konbanwa~
Again, I have to apologize for not posting last week, as an apology I've brought you all one of the oddest romances, well in general oddest manga I've ever read. Ever. This supernatural shoujo manga is called Kanojo ni Naru Hi by Ogura Akane. It is only one volume and has been completely scanlated. Lets begin:
In this alternate universe, there is something called "emergence". In ecosystem you need a balance between boys and girls, if there are too many boys, some of the males will become females in order to balance things out. In our reality, this only applies to a certain species of fish. In this universe, it can happen to human boys. If it does occur, it usually happens when they are young. Its rare for an emergence to occur once a boy reaches puberty, its even rarer that those survive the transformation.
Now, the main character of this story is high school boy Miyoshi and his childhood friend Mamiya. Since elementary school, Miyoshi has always been challenging and competing against him, and he's has always been losing since Mamiya is more or less perfect at everything. One day, Mamiya suddenly collapses and is hospitalized for several weeks. Miyoshi is worried, but is unable to visit him while he's in the hospital. As soon as Mamiya's discharged, he rushes over to his home to see how his best friend is doing. He's utterly shocked when a female Mamiya's opens the door and greets him. Mamiya emerged and managed to survive! And like usually she's calm and composed. She tells Miyoshi, who suffers from gynophobia (a fear of girls), that this is the perfect opportunity to treat him! The treatment is actually a success, though very awkward in my opinion. But, even though he's fear of girls is gone, he can't seem to handle Mamiya; he's heart races and he quickly becomes flustered whenever she's around. And as his gynophobia disappears, Miyoshi becomes popular among girls, irking Mamiya, though she's not sure or willing to admit why.
Now I feel like I've read a soft yaoi or something because I kept thinking of Mamiya as a boy. I know she's a girl,

Miyoshi with Mamiya when she was
a boy

and I actually thought she was a lot cooler as a girl than a boy (boy Mamiya looked really annoying), but at the end I kept thinking how she could still live as a boy. Sure now she has to wear a bra and worry about her period, but she could dress like a tomboy and date girls. She didn't have to make an effort to be girly, everyone would have understood if she wanted to continue living as much as a boy as she could. I don't really understand why she pushed herself to live like a girl, especially after the first chapter when she admits that she doesn't want to become one.
Also, I think I would've liked this better as bromance than a romance. In the first chapter, Miyoshi tells her how precious of a friend she is, even if she is a girl he comforts her that their friendship will always be the same. I think this could have been an adorable bromance: Miyoshi and Mamiya maintaining their friendship and not treating each other any differently.
I'm also curious to see if their relationship would've become romantic if Mamiya never emerged. Towards
the end Mamiya has a chance to become a boy again, but hesitates because she worries that Miyoshi's feelings will change if she returns to being a boy. I have to admit I thought it was pretty cute and touching for Miyoshi to declare that his feelings won't change and that he'll always love Mamiya. But then I ruined it for myself thinking of how he's feelings began in the first place: seeing Mamiya as a girl. If that had never happened, would he have never loved boy Mamiya romantically? So is there love based on Mamiya being a girl? Or would is to so real and so powerful

Miyoshi comforting Mamiya
as she admits that she doesn't want to be
a girl. Even this I thought of bromance,
even though I know boys don't hug each
other like that.

that they would've fallen in love either way? I highly doubt they would've fallen in love if Mamiya hadn't become a girl, so it made their love a little less romantic. You don't get to see much of their pre-emergence friendship, but there didn't seem to be any romantic tension whatsoever. And Miyoshi even commented about Mamiya having dated several girls before becoming a girl and he didn't become jealous or anything then.
I don't really recommend the manga, its amusing at times but in general it doesn't really make much sense. Not because its supernatural, just the character's logic in general. The art's alright, rather stiff and squarish. Its not a great manga, its not terrible either though. Its just okay. But not really an okay that makes you want to read or reread it, just an okay that makes you want to tell a friend about an odd little manga you read when you were bored. That's all for today. Bye-Bye

~Nadeshiko-chan