Lots of hijinks... silliness. Young teens may find this more of a fun read than I did. I won't be pursuing more of the sequels. ( )

Your and My Secret is bout two people who outwardly look like ideals of their gender but personality-wise are the complete opposite. The girl, Nanako is crass, rude, and violent, while Akira is delicate and dull (though he has a crush on Nanako). Through randomly thought up negligible reason #146 (nutty mad scientist grandfather), the two switch bodies, and suddenly, society (that is, not just everyone at school but their families as well) find them a lot more likable. Hijinks ensue.

You'd think this sounds like a setup to shake fingers at society's need for people to conform to gender norms and extend a message to just be like yourself. However, the message here, at least so far, seems to be more something like “Look how much happier these two could be if they just decided to live in each other's bodies.” Problematic, but sometimes that just means it's time to tun off your brain and try to have fun, right?

On the other hand, even trying to read the manga for what it was didn't come up with much for me. Rather than a story of exploring gender issues and identity, it's simply about the hijinks that can ensue in a gender swap situation. It does seem more willing to address some of the issues some manga (Ranma, perhaps?) somewhat disappointingly decide to ignore, but in the end each time it all still boils down to them first being surprised, then either reacting with something only slightly more detailed than “Hey, cool!” or freaking out because it's unpleasant, then moving on to the next scene. (Also frustratingly, the Hey Cools seem to go almost exclusively to the girl-in-boy's-body, while the latter go all to the other.)

That's not really a crime either (besides the fact that some reviews I glanced at gave me the impression there might be a TAD more depth in this area), only there's not really anything remarkable about the manga besides the not-particularly-original-but-still-potentially-fun-if-done-well(but it isn't) premise. The art isn't bad (though the eyes on girls are HUGE) but not particularly striking, and the personalities of the characters are to me not so much ill suited to their genders as just bad in general. Such a level of wimpiness is no more attractive on a girl than a boy, and Nanako is not a “tomboy” as the back cover claims, but simply an incredibly selfish jerk (and, once she becomes a boy, also a sexist pig). The humor is the sort filled with not-particularly-clever over-the-top zaniness so common in manga which I still fail to understand the attraction to.

But the manga isn't ineptly done, and I do get the sense the author sat down and tried to think of the issues that might come up in such a gender swap situation rather than just fill their chapters with completely random hijinks as some might have. For that, I'll give it average. Still, while series like Ranma may sidestep issues this one doesn't, at least Ranma had sympathetic, memorable characters, occasionally fun action, and was in it's better moments even genuinely humorous. If a manga doesn't have human enough characters to make proper use of its gender swap premise, all it's got left is the quality of its writing, and this one just isn't anything special. ( )