I was exploring random manga up on the BRAND NEW ALS SEARCH BAR when I came across a manga that immediately caught my attention. It was a short shoujo which I could clearly tell from the Margaret Comics banner but the art felt very familiar. This was because this manga was written by Mizuki Kawashita a female mangaka Im familiar with for years for creating some of the best romcom harems Ive ever read. Ichigo 100 Ane Doki and Hatsukoi Limited are all ecchi filled Shounen Jump titles that are incredibly fun and enjoyable. To find out that this artist had worked on a shoujo magazine before made me incredibly curious as to what kind of manga she would write for a female audience and this is how I started reading AkaneChan Overdrive https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/manga/1/58513l.jpg AkaneChan Overdrives plot follows Takashi Amamiya who after tripping on a bottle finds himself outside of his body and being pushed into the body of the titular Akanechan he now finds himself living as this girl until the spirit of the girl comes back to her body. Hopefully soon because Amamiyas original body is dying slowly. Its a simple premise not too original Ive seen the whole people switch lives plot a lot. But most of them end up following the cliched message that everyones lives are hard and you shouldnt judge them and while Im not sure what the message is here it definitely isnt that. We mostly explore how Amamiya reacts to now being a beautiful girl and tries to live with it. Knowing that Kawashita had written this manga before her time in Shounen Jump I was actually expecting this to be a fairly bythebooks shoujo manga and despite me not being the most expert reader of Shoujo manga I do think this is the most shounesque shoujo Ive read so far and it would made sense to me that people would change Kawashita to the Shounen branch of Shueisha because of this manga. I dont say this just because this manga is mostly male characters even if one is in a girls body although it does only have two recurring female characters and one of them appears for like 2 chapters and the other basically serves for Amamiya to hit on sometimes. No its more that this is the first time I remember seeing an ecchi shoujo. We are given various panels of the girl naked or wearing questionable clothing and if you need pantyshots let me assure you they have it they have it on every single chapter. Plus on the first chapter we get this very uncomfortable joke: https://i.ur.com/VXxnDtW.png The pervy dad joke happens a couple more times throughout the manga but its done in a more tame manner than I can accept but this one sounds all the red alerts. Now I dont think this joke should be in any manga at least not as a joke. But I think that specially as a manga that is being read by young girls you shouldnt writeoff your dad trying to see you naked with clear sexual and creepy intent this is not what you want to teach kids. But you know what this is just one page and I think the rest of the chapter is alright. Its funny it has some good enjoyable moments and it does have a good artstyle to back it off that sure isnt as polished as Kawashitas later output but is still very good. Chapter two and three of ten just follow the story more exploring Amamiya and Akanes life and then chapter four is a completely unrelated one shot. Now oneshots at the end of a volume happens either related or not to the main story its not unusual to have the author write something new or put a previous work to fill up space. Thing is... this oneshot... is in the MIDDLE of the volume. Chapter 5 the last chapter of volume 1 have us back at AkaneChan. This shouldnt be a negative point because its just a weird structure but what? Why? Why in the middle? Just... why? Well whatever Im calm now so lets jump to volume 2. At this point we are having a romance triangle between what is basically three guys that are all clearly very heterosexual but for some reason whenever they are in Akanes body yes they switch they feel weaker to the opposite gender or to be specific to the beautiful guy whos desperately trying to get into Akanes pants. Having in mind that two of the three are completely aware that the girl is a dude this has some slight BL tones in it leading into the final chapters. Which to be fair is actually an interesting development. One that I would love to read. At the end of chapter 8 we have the three of them fall off some stairs and completely switch bodies with one another having the oblivious guy being in Akanes body this time. Making it all full circle and having us from now on three dudes fighting for a girl whos one of them. Chapter 9 is a short side story that reverses this situation and has a teen girl dying switching to a male body and trying to gain back her boyfriend. Its a fun story that I wouldnt mind if this wasnt the second to last chapter but whatever lets see how this manga ends. https://i.ur.com/owZkWlm.png LAST CHAPTER IS AN UNRELATED ONESHOT. Last chapter... What. WHAT ABOUT THE ACTUAL MANGA? EH EH KAWASHITA I trusted you. I have told people to read your stuff. And you give me this? This is how you repay loyalty? We ended on a fucking cliffhanger. They all switched bodies. The real Akane didnt even appear none returned to their original body. We just stop the manga at a random chapter. And then fill the volume with two TWO TWO unrelated stories. Because why would one person write a conclusion? Conclusions are pussies. You dont need conclusion. Read a manga and when youre 74 near the end burn it. BURN the manga you dont need conclusions. Just go read an unrelated oneshot. IF ITS GOOD ENOUGH FOR AKANECHAN OVERDRIVES EDITORS ITS GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME. Okay. Okay... So... final thoughts. I didnt hate this. It was fun if I hated it I wouldve not be mad about the lack of conclusion. There are funny and interesting parts in this manga perverted dad aside enough that I dont want to give this a negative score. But I cant recommend this one to anyone because the story lacks more than just an ending. It lacks a middle. Its the start of a potentially good manga that never was. I would tell you to check Kawashitas other works instead.