Megan Leyman

I want to talk about Cheeky Angel, a gender bending series that I came across in a huge manga binge a few months ago.

You might put off reading/watching because of it’s unique/ugly art style but the story and how it ends is well worth a discussion.

Yes I will be going into a series that finished 20 years ago, I will spoil the ending but I want to because on how you think it’s a gender bending story but..

The story is about Megumi, whom when they were a child saved a stranger from a group of children who were bullying him, in return gives the child a magical book containing a genie.

To help protect their friend, Megumi wishes to become a strong man but the genie turns out to be a trickster and turns Megumi into a girl.

Of course Megumi is furious and throws the book into the nearby river. Believing it to be the only way to turn Megumi back into a boy, is to find the book.

This takes years, in the mean time the main character becomes the most popular girl in school but no luck fnding the book so far.

The series continues the search for the mysterious magical book with a great group of friends such as Miki (the reason why Megumi wanted to become stronger, to protect her) and Genzo (a punk who falls in love with Megumi) among others making a great cast of characters who get their own time to shine in the series.

I would go more into the series but there is a lot to cover but I want to say to read the manga over the anime as has got more voilence than its anime counterpart.

Plus the manga gives the story it’s true ending (as the anime has slightly different) and why I want to make this post.

SPOILER INCOMING!!!

Towards the end, you discover more about the trickster who put a curse on Megumi and you wonder why only Megumi and her friend Miki are the only ones to truly believe that Megumi used to be a boy and no one else.

It’s all because the tricker isn’t as powerful as you would think eg changing a boy into a girl, he can’t actually do that.

What the tricker does is……. trick Megumi into thinking she was a boy to begin with by making her and miki forget certain memories of their past.

Yes, it turns it Megumi has been a girl the whole time, she was just a tomboy girl who Miki thought was a boy.

Of course I have to mention that Megumi and Genzo ends up kissing at the end. Genzo is someone who you will love more and more throughout the story but I won’t say why as its not relevent to the post but I recommend this series on this character alone

I just loved when I find out this out, as you would think “oh great the main character can turn back into a boy” but nooooo it turns what you would thought would happen on it’s head.

I haven’t discovered a series with such a huge twist like this since and this series is truly underrated for that fact hence why I am bringing this up now.

Yes the art style is something you will have to get used to if you want to experience a very good story!

Megan