620https://n1.taadd.com/manga/10009480/100049040/1182014201906211828.jpg I think some context is needed to understand my thoughts regarding Bra Girl. If youre an anime fan chances are that you may have encountered futanari as a concept. Briefly for those not in the know futanari literally dual form generally refers to illustrated hermaphroditism fictional characters with characteristics indicative of two sexes. While depiction varies for example they can be depicted as having or lacking scrotum and some lack vaginas futanari or futas are nighexclusively femalepresenting and to differentiate them from a somewhatsimilartypeofcharacterthatbeginswithaTthatIwillnotsaythenameofastonotoffendanypotentialreader theyre generally depicted as being buxom. Second to knowing what futas are for this review its important to know how theyre employed. Futanari are largely fetishistic in nature being almost completely relegated to the works of hentai. You can see this for yourself by using the browse manga function and searching with the futanari tag. If you check the Hentai box youll be met with a wealth of results. Searching nonhentai with the tag nets you two results: this and a manga known as Peephole which to my knowledge doesnt seem particularly focused on the topic. While we could have an entire discussion and a half about the fetishization of archtypeandorlifestylechoicethatrhymeswithcapthatIwillnotsaythenameof and how thats problematic at the very least these types of characters do appear in nonsexual works even if theyre unfortunately not given main character roles. Lukahttps://anilist.co/character/30919/LukaUrushibara from SteinsGate is one of those types of characters and hes among my favorite anime characters. All of this is to say that its very marvel for Bra Girl to be as chaste as it is considering its subject matter. In the world of Swing Girl as of late young women are increasingly developing penises which naturally causes many a teenager mental and social anguish. One of these teenagers is Ooi Haruka a shy young woman who feels great shame towards her newfound penis and loathes her crush somehow finding out about it. Her outlook begins to change when she is introduced to a group of students who call themselves the Swing Girls. Theyre all young women whove developed penises and together they might just help Haruka feel good in her own skin. Much like the previoushttps://anilist.co/review/6670 work I reviewed there really isnt much to Swing Girl. The difference here is that I really appreciated what little there was. Bra Girl isnt exactly what Id call wholesome. For one I loathe the overuse of the word and wont use it unless absolutely necessary. More importantly however it liberally employs random panty shots and it has instances of toplessness. Granted things dont ever get too hot and heavy but its possible to get tantilated while reading this. Some have described this as borderline ecchi but even as a degenerate I can tell this is squarely into ecchi territory. Its definitely not something Id recommend to someone who balks at sexuality. Which is a bit of a shame since this manga is so affirmative and feelgood. While not wholesome its I dont know tender? Its chaste enough that I thought glibly calling this part of the Pockey Reviews Ecchi Show felt innapropriate. Swing Girl typically follows Haruka as she gets to know a member of the club. The two play off of each other and assuage each others anxieties. Its really cute to see these people find out theyre not alone and grow as people. Along with this we are treated to Haruka pursuing a budding romance with a young man pushing aside her insecurities in order to be with the one shes enamoured with. If Im being perfectly honest the romance is quite barebones but its been established at this point that Im a sucker for romance and I was quite happy to see him accept her for who she was. While its ecchi it doesnt really detract from these sweet moments. It would be easy for the manga to ogle at the girls penises but that never really happens. The penises themselves are shown infrequently. Theyre never uncovered and the occasional bulges that are shown arent particularly detailed. Haruka and Ryouichi never even have sex. The choice to never refer to the women as futanari is a deceptively simple one. As established futanari is a very sexually charged term when one hears the word they dont think of a person they think of a fetish. In Bra Girl the women depicted arent futanari theyre simply women who just so happen to have penises. If I had to put a genre to this Id call it conscious ecchi. From a certain angle one can look at Swing Girl and draw parallels to reallife transgender individuals the socalled Swing Girls find themselves different from what society considers the correct gendersex pairing and feel great anxiety due to this. Their connection to similar individuals is what gives them the strength to move forward. But as a cis individual I feel like thats not my call to analyze. I could be totally off the mark and this might be extremely offensive to trans or genderqueer individuals I can think of examples how it can be so Ill defer this judgement to more qualified individuals. That said its at least worth thinking about as the mangaka themselves stated that they wanted to draw a romance manga based off the theme of dissonance between body and gender. You can also feasibly take the Bra Girls to be standins for feminine adolescence in general: looking for underwear that fits their new bodies not being ashamed of new biological developments trying on new swimsuits feeling youre not worthy of affection and yes even grappling with sex as sexuality is something that most of us deal with. Whatever you take Swing Girl to be a metaphor for its certainly meant to be uplifting. 520https://i.ur.com/wa9kIs3.png I also found the art quite cute. At eight chapters there isnt much to Bra Girl. It could stand to be longer. It not being a ten is because at such a short length there was little the manga could do to blow me away. As is however its short and sweet much like Vanilla Chocolate Cigarettehttps://anilist.co/review/5557. I was surprised at how consciously it handled its subject matter while still sprinkling in a bit of humor. If youre looking for a cute short manga about an oftunexplored subject then Swing Girl might just be for you. 8/10 B While both Myanimelist and Anilist list the English translation of the title as Bra Girl that would really only make sense if the Japanese title was as or Bra is the Japanese word for bra. The title is instead with or bura meaning swing. Im not really buying that its supposed to be a pun as Bulla/Bra is a Dragon Ball character whose name is a pun and its rendered as but I guess lingerie is a part of the story and I dont know enough about Japanese puns to make that call so Im showing the possible pun nature by interchangeably referring to the manga as both Bra Girl and Swing Girl.