Tensei Pandemic

Tensei Pandemic isn't your typical highschool romance manga. It's a cursed love pentagram drawn in premium grade trash. And I can't put it down... Allow me to explain!

From the title 転性 (gender) パンデみっく (pandemic), we're introduced to an unknown gender changing disease. The gimmick casually lays waste to the uneventful daily lives of our main cast. While the reader wonders how our protagonist's love life will be affected by this, you'll notice the author has different priorities: boobs.

Yes, boobs, and it doesn't stop there... Oh, no... This author has the guts to sexualize not only the appearance of underage highschoolers, but their behavior as well. The apparently inexhaustible source of puberty hormones, that these kids suffer from, "excuses" an unbelievably naive plot. Specifically, I expect its portrayal of the LGBTQ+ to piss off many readers. That being said...

The ambiguity of characters' sexual orientation and their secrecy about the disease make for a unique love story, and the notion of an imminent pandemic adds a whole new dimension to the plot. So, I decided to give it a shot, and as threw away my sense of pride and justice, I found a story with extreme ups and downs. Characters are either likable or stereotypically stupid, arcs are either exciting or forced and cliché, and the plot is either surprising or really predictable. This manga has a lot going for it. The overarching plot keeps you hooked, the romance is wholesome, and the art style fits the story to a tee. However...

What makes this manga truly special, is that the bad moments are so trash, that they transcended and became good! The forced fanservice at inappropriate moments, the characters' tolerance of sexual harassment, the wildly varying size of people's boobs per chapter (or even per page!), and the list goes on... Tensei Pandemic's world has its own rules, its own norms, all founded on trash. After some chapters I got to understand them, and now I don't know if I became more cultured or if my soul got corrupted, but I had some real good fun regardless.

Are you looking for something weird? Something unique? A guilty pleasure? Give it a shot! And if aren't, give it a chance anyway! I can imagine people's opinions on this manga being very divided, so have a look for yourself before you dismiss it. Who knows, you might, just like me, recognize beauty in its cringe and ask yourself: "What the hell am I reading?" while giggling uncontrollably like a teenage girl, or you might just have some good old dumb fun. It isn't the best manga out there, but it quickly became one of my personal favorites, and as such I can't help but give it a high score.

Thanks for reading! This is the 1st review I've ever written.

A very fun gender bending rom com. While some of the characters aren't the greatest, seeing these group of characters go through this is quite enjoyable. Yes, this manga is ecchi and it is one that changes its character's sexes. There is a whole separate conversation about LGBTQ and how it is sorta fetishized here, and in Japanese media in general that can be had. But ignoring that watching the characters come to terms and discover things about themselves is fun. This is very much a turn off your brain and enjoy type of story, all the characters look nice and although the fanservice is very boob heavy. I haven't read the final volume, due to not being able to find a English translation of it (Physical or Scanned), but I have read and watched enough similar shows to know the ending won't sway my overall opinion to much. All in all, the premise and twists make this more worth a read than an average rom com, but it doesn't stray to far, story structure wise, from other HS rom coms. It is very much worth a read, its keeps your attention well and the constant switch ups of the relationship dynamics keep things interesting.

CONTENT WARNING: This is an ecchi manga, meaning that there are many lewd situations and implications in this title. Don't read Tensei Pandemic if you're not comfortable with lewd material. Additionally, this manga portrays the LGBTQ community in a controversial light, so if you are put off by manga that touches on that subject in the way that this title does, I don't recommend reading this series. If you do read it, though, please keep in mind that this may not reflect the author's own political views. Thus, please put your political views aside as you read and possibly post about the series in order to make the community as enjoyable and non-toxic for as many people as possible.

Tensei Pandemic is an ecchi. And this manga tries its damndest to make sure you don't forget. The thing that separates it from the rest is the fact that the way this piece tries to prove itself to the reader time and time again is so ridiculous that it actually becomes hilarious.

Story - 7/10

The plot of Tensei Pandemic is essentially a more lewd rendition of Boku Girl, as it has just about the same general outline: A boy who wants to be manlier but is only seen as a woman has a crush, but she only sees him as a female friend. Then, through supernatural means, 'he' becomes a 'she' and tries to hide it from as many people as humanly possible, ultimately failing at even that. The story then tells the tale of the protagonist's reluctant journey to womanhood. There are only a couple of real differences between Tensei Pandemic and Boku Girl, the first being, as I said, that Pandemic is much, much more ecchi compared to Boku Girl's occasional suggestive scene. As for the second reason, Tensei Pandemic is, of course, about a pandemic, and thus there become more and more genderbent characters appearing as the series goes on. More about that when we get to 'Character'

Art - 7/10

Fuyuno Nabe's artwork is somewhat solid, with its only weakness being its frequent inconsistency. Fuyuno frequently forgets the breast sizes of his more *ahem* developed characters, though, with many varying anywhere from a C-cup to an F-cup. I have to admit, though, that the mangaka gets better at this as the series goes on; at the writing of this review the series is on chapter 58, and I noticed a good amount of consistency during the 'running around naked with the primary male love interest' chapter.

Character - 9/10

The thing that makes Tensei Pandemic's character-base great is the variety and sheer ridiculousness of its members. While the protagonist is essentially just Mizuki from Boku Girl with bigger breasts, the rest of the cast is incredibly diverse. Just to mention a few, a shy girl who grew a giant penis and constantly gets boners, an incesty guy who works at a maid cafe after turning into a girl and tries to look like his older sister (somehow becoming a tsundere in the process), the incredibly lewd class president, a french guy who made an incredibly realistic virtual-reality game just because he wanted to become a woman, and a closeted fashion designer who looks like a hentai protagonist. Through the interactions between these hilariously bizarre characters, anything goes, and often does.

Enjoyment - 9/10

Probably the strongest point of Tensei Pandemic, the series is incredibly enjoyable due to the fact that although it does not even begin to attempt to deny the fact that it's an ecchi (as its predecessor Boku Girl did) and instead embraces this notion wholeheartedly, the series does not hesitate to make countless stupid jokes, many that aren't even sex-related. Additionally, although Tensei Pandemic does have some (or many) dumb plots and weak points, it somehow manages to make those dumb points even funnier than the points that would likely be considered 'strong' in any other manga through the ingenuity of its characters. This is a manga that will make you laugh both out of genuine comedy as well as out of sheer stupidity, and sometimes you might even temporarily forget that this even is an ecchi, and then get instantly reminded two or three panels later when Hinata's clothes fly off.

Overall - 8/10

If you have any questions or concerns about this review, want to recommend a fringe manga to me, or even simply want to chat about this title, please DM me or contact me at [email protected] for any and all inquiries. My door is always open.