It does feel really odd to have two pieces go up on the Fourth of July, but I need cheap themes to keep me going. Now, I don’t even remember when I first heard about this manga. All I do know was that it was mentioned when I got bored and decided to watch a review of an anime called Princess Princess, which I read, well mostly, but I do not plan on reviewing it. Oh, and in case you are wondering, it is about an all boys academy where the three most girly looking men must dress up in gothic lolita garb and boost the school’s moral. Yeah, I know it sounds awesome, but here is a manga that came out beforehand, and involves some of the same characters, The Day of Revolution.
The Day of Revolution Review
The story centers around Kei Yoshikawa, a delinquent who learns that he is biologically female, decides to start living life as a girl in order to help out his family, and because he thought it was the only option. Restarting his life after an unshown six months that could have provided a lot of factual information on the subject that is very rare. We do get a flimsy statement that says the Inter-sexed individuals tend to be beautiful, which I did not research, but it sounds more like an excuse for the narrative than anything. Now returning to school with a different sounding voice, new name that looks very similar in Japanese, longer hair, and a girl’s uniform, Megumi must adapt to her new life and go on a journey to become a woman over the course of two manga volumes.
However, Megumi’s attempts to live a new life are foiled during the first day of her repeated year of tenth grade. Partially due to her dialog sounding like that of a man for whatever reason, Family Compo did this as well, it is one of those translation bits that references something that just isn’t applicable in English. And with her face being the the same, but somehow very attractive, she later meets up with her male friends, all of whom want to have her as a wife, just minutes after seeing their old friend for the first time in half a year. Now, I view this as just blatant ignorance, and a refusal to accept one’s feelings. Just because Megumi has been a girl for six months, that doesn’t mean that she will even be attracted to me, and sure as hell wouldn’t want to come to school with plans to get hitched. I really do think that this is played for laughs, seeing how the author is a woman, but a lot of these issues are not explored.
Instead, Megumi stays by her friend in becoming a female, Makoto, who is the kind of friend who tells you that you are going to get screwed, while you can’t easily talk to men now that they view you as something to capture. And to make things worse for Megumi, she also nearly ends up getting raped, there was still a long way to go, but this is a Shojo, so no skin was even shown. But even after Megumi told the attempted rapist her story, it made him even more determined to go after her, oddly enough. Even though she might not even have a vagina, since Kei had a small penis.
This event caused a lot of distrust in men, with her male friends, who continue to act like hounds for the entire series, telling her that she, a former boy, needs to learn the better points of men. However, she decides to cuddle Makoto whenever they try, even though Makoto is not so subtly trying to get a penis inside Megumi. And from here, she must go though a few more selected events that show her path to becoming a woman, and not to spoil anything, it ends on a rather happy not thanks to a smooch.
To me, the story is riddled with examples of sexism, and refusal to accept one’s personal beliefs. Megumi’s male friends are devoted to the idea of going out with her as much as they can, constantly hounding Megumi and claiming that she should dress more feminine while they chase her. And as I stated before, nobody even questions whether or not she will not get married, or will keep a male’s sexual mindset, but apply it to her adjusted, no they never really explain how, female body. Or in short, the possibility of her being Homosexual. Now, I have little knowledge of Homosexuality in Japan, but technically, thanks to a manga crossover between Train Train and Princess Princess, we know that Homosexuals and Bisexuals exist in this universe.
The entire run has this problem, despite being made over the course of 3.5 years, the two volumes only scratch the surface of the possibilities with this untapped subject that most people are not aware of. Call me greedy, but I just like entertainment that feels like it is done when the creators said everything they wanted to, I am certain that this subject was researched, so why not teach people about Inter-sexed Individuals? What is there is solid, and the parts that go on actually depict a relationship that does feel genuine, but I thought that Shenmue has a genuine feeling romantic relationship.
But a manga cannot just be a story and characters, there needs to be art, and, well, it is pretty good, I guess. Now, this was technically the author’s first work, so I am tempted to be nice towards this manga, but the best point that I can say is that I really like how wavey the hair looks, and the expressions are well done. Other than that, I can take it or leave it. I felt a similar way towards The World God Only Knows, not a great visual style, but it does what it needs to. Now, I am drawn to things that look odd, and that’s why I watched the absolutely absurd trip that is Dead Leaves. The wonderfully polished mix of Western and Japanese animation in Panty and Stocking. And a couple of Kyoto Animation’s works, even though Lucky Star and K-On were meh. And this does not pertain just to Anime, Berserk is one of the best looking pieces of sequential art to ever be crafted. Seriously, it makes rape look beautiful due to how disgustingly it is drawn.
But there is not a lot to say about Day of Revolution other than its very well done story that suffers from a lack of expansion. The art is decent, but insubstantial, and I feel like the length could have easily been doubled. I mean, we never see Megumi with her parents, only Kei. Just a chapter where Makoto teaches Megumi how to be feminine during the weekend, that would bring a lot to this story. But no, we get a very interesting tale about someone with a very uncommon condition, or whatever the proper term for inter-sexed individuals, even that term I’m shaky on, since I just made it up. I say look it up, it has been out for 6 years, so I don’t feel bad about reading it online, if you disagree, well then you can buy it and love it, me? I’m just going to keep buying things that aren’t less convenient in their physical form.
Score: 32/40 Great