Your & My Secret, Vol. 1

僕と彼女の××× [Boku to Kanojo no XXX] #1

by Ai Morinaga

Pretty, tomboyish Nanako Momoi's inventor grandfather causes her to trade bodies with Akira Uehara, a boy who is intelligent and good-looking but has a very weak personality, and they find themselves attracted to each other's best friends.

Genres: Manga, Shojo, Comics, Graphic Novels, Romance, Comedy, Young Adult

179 pages, Paperback

First published December 10, 2002

About the author

Ai Morinaga (森永あい Morinaga Ai) was a Japanese manga artist from Okayama Prefecture. Among her best-known series are Your and My Secret and My Heavenly Hockey Club. Morinaga's last work was Kirara no Hoshi, which was published in Betsufure magazine from 2010 to 2015.

Reviews

[katnick · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've read/watched gender-bending body swap comedies before and enjoyed them, but Your and My Secret is only mildly amusing at best and at its worst, it is troubling.

It defines “masculinity” as being a selfish, messy, violent, domineering bully and “femininity” as being a demure, quiet, clean, weepy doormat. This why everyone in the book decides that Nanako (who is labelled a tomboy in the story but is actually just a horrible person) is better at being a guy than Akira. Additionally, because Nanako wants to keep Akira's male body and Akira wants his body back, it portrays being female as something no one wants if they can help it.

There's also a disturbing amount of sexual harassment and sexual assault that is handled dismissively. Akira's best friend Senbongi seems to get off on forcing his attention on a struggling Nanako (Episode 6 - “When she runs from me, it turns me on that much more”) and Nanako's grandfather thinks its okay to ask his own granddaughter to wear a sexy maid outfit now that Akira has control of her body.

Some of this can possibly be chalked up to cultural differences, but not all of it. I don't recommend it – especially not to the thirteen-year-olds this book is marketed to.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but not great. I enjoyed the drawings as well as the humor. The story is about Nanako Momoi, she is gorgeousssssss but her personality is very masculine; anger issues, rude and obnoxious. And Akira Uehara is a guy who has a crush on Nanako and he's kinda plane, cool calm and collected but shy and quiet. He runs in on Nanako and her grandpa while he's trying to minaturize her lol then they decide to minaturize Uehara instead but it goes wrong and Uehara and Momoi end up switching bodies/personalities. It's all humor and playing with that theme after that lol. It's funny and ironic how both their best friends end up falling for them lol.

[Joli Mamon]

I'm giving this manga zero stars. I'm saying it now so no one would be confused.this utter waste of printing paper gave me an aneurysm and I hope it's used to rekindle the flames of hell for all I care.

this manga is the epitome of every trash trope the shoujo genre has been trying to shake off for the past 10 years.I can't describe it any other way.

So the story goes that nanako momoi, a "boyish" girl switches body with uehara akira, an "effeminate" boy due to an accident caused by her nutty grandfather.this is supposed to be the set-up for crazy comedy and shenanigans,but what's actually presented is an abomination of harmful stereotypes with a dash of sexism,mysogony,and sexual assault.
So what do I mean by that ?

The first problem actually starts from the way the manga describes its two protagonists.deciding that violent and character traits (beating someone up and taking thier lunch ,punching random people who bother you ,yelling ) are inheritaly 'masculine' ,while demure character traits ( quiet voice,avoiding conflict, kind and considerate towards others) are inheritaly 'feminine'.

But here's the thing.Nanako momoi is not boyish,she is a bully and a terrible person,her gender has nothing to do with the fact that she is a complete and utter bitch.

And poor akira,he's probably the biggest victim of this entire story, a kind and gentle boy being told that he isn't a man because of the way he acts.he's made fun of by both his friend and family (who doesn't even complain when their sweet boy suddenly starts to fucking kick his younger sister but are overjoyed that their son is a "proper man" now )

And don't even get me started on the way momoi treats him.,completely robbing his body autonomy, forbidding him from even looking at her body while she goes and (1-masturbate 2-have sex 3-date ) in his own body,when he poor kid objects to this saying that it's his first time,she replies by saying that it's diffrent for him because he's a" MAN" (╬ಠ益ಠ) while the fucking pure flower that she is gets to wait till marriage.

Also,his friend is a creep and sexually assaults him.and her grandad is a manipulative ,mysogonystic,incestuous criminal who lusts fro his own grand-daughter just because she's not in her body.

[Ayesha ( ˙▿˙ ) · Rating 1 out of 5]

what the f-

[Kristy Buzbee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not quite sure what I think of this series yet. XD It's a gender-bender on crack, more or less - Nanako is gorgeous but a total tomboy, while Akira is handsome but too dull and timid; he's got a crush on Nanako but she doesn't even notice him.

Enter the mandatory crazy scientific experiment, and they switch bodies. Suddenly "Akira" is tough and way cool, while "Nanako" has become demure and ladylike. Uh-oh? And things just get worse when Nanako's best friend develops a crush on her while in Akira's body...and Akira as Nanako attracts Akira's best friend since elementary school!

There is some...uh...anatomical humor, I guess - considering that Akira is now trapped in the body of the girl he has a crush on, and he can't help the fact that he's got to change clothes sometime! I don't know whether this will take off on a totally weird direction....and I kind of get the feeling that in the end, they're not going to switch back. o_o

Also, Nanako-as-Akira reaches a point where she doesn't want to switch back, and she develops a crush on her best-friend-as-Nanako, Shiina. So...does this make her a lesbian? Or since she's in a male body (and it is mentioned that the hormones of that body are affecting them) is she still straight? And when Akira's best friend Senbongi kisses him while he's in Nanako's body...well, you get the idea. It could stay light and amusing or it could go in some really weird and/or offensive directions (I already don't like the fact that it's implied that Nanako is "out having fun" with Akira's body, and that it's okay because he's a guy). There's only 4 volumes, so I'll keep following it on Manga Takeout and see (if there were 15 or something I'd probably pass).

[Gretel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uehara (boy) is in love with Momoi (girl) even though she's an asshole and he doesn't know her. She's the typical tomboy beating everyone around her to a pulp. Momoi's grandfather is a "scientist" and switches their bodies in a faulty experiment.
Momoi's grandfather sexualizes Momoi constantly, watches Uehara-as-Momoi changing and talks about her good looks and "perky" body constantly. It's gross.

Uehara's best friend then falls in lust with Uehara-as-Momoi and sexually harrasses her, kissing and groping her genitals without consent.
Momoi-as-Uehara on the other hand, gets her/himself a girlfriend and doesn't want to change back because lol it's so much cooler as a dude #trolololo.

The humor fails miserably and is based on slapstick and the fact that you enjoy other people suffering or being sexually harrassed and molested or sexualized by their own grandfather.
I wished every character was dead except Uehara. That poor dude needs a new family, new friends, new school, new fucking life.

JFC.

[GG · Rating 1 out of 5]

Review for the whole series*

Wtf did I just read, just ight but the ending was rushed and felt unresolved also felt a bit homophobic? Like the main characters chose to stay gender swapped because they fell in love with someone who is technically the same sex as them, they also chose to swap because the fl was too masculine as a woman and the ml was too shy/quite as a male and I find this a bit laughable like I think it would have been better if they switched back and accepted their og selfs, this did sort of happen cause the ml told the fl that he liked her despite her masculine/loud ways but then they chose to stay in each others body… the fl was also super sexist and like well you must protect my virgin body but as for yours I’ve already fucked 🤠🤠 like wtffffff ✋ the way it was said wasn’t so crass but just ick fr fr I was waiting for the plot to resolve at the end and it was just rushed, art was good

[Roman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I DONT KNOW... I wanted fun bodyswap where the femmeboy got to be a cute girl but like I hate seeing him get objectified and harassed by a bunch of the other characters including the girl's pervert grandpa. everytime I read these 2000s manga I forget what I'm signing up for.

There's interesting character development here but then the next page is straight up sexual harassment so I keep flip flopping on if I'll try to read more. stay tuned..

[TT · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series, and found it to be quite funny, as most of this mangakas works often are. The series got dropped (twice I think) and I wound up having to finish it in scanlations. If you are a fan of yaoi I think this also would appeal to you!

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't your average girl-disguised-as-guy/guy-disguised-as-girl gender bendering shoujo story in which the character can simply remove their disguise and say "Surprise! I'm a hot girl(or guy)! I'm in love with you and your feelings for me do not make you gay. Yaaaay."

This one is a little more complicated. Sensitive, timid guy Uehara is pretty taken with callous, uncouth girl Momoi. One day Uehara seizes an opportunity to bring the supposedly ill Momoi his class notes and assignments. He walks in on Momoi's grandfather attempting an experiment Momoi. Zap! Their souls switch bodies and gramps is off to Hawaii shrugging off his failed attempt to shrink people and solve world hunger. (Roll with it-it's a comedy).

These characters are trapped as the opposite sex and not simply cross-dressing by choice. Their bodies have different hormones and do different things than what they're used to. This seems to effect the way they feel and to some extent, think. Momoi quickly loses Uehara's virginity and decides she'd like to pursue a relationship with her female friend. She takes up karate and starts building muscles on Uehara's body and quite enjoys living with Uehara's family who are amazed with the improvement in his manliness.

Meanwhile, poor Uehara, trapped in Momoi's female body is afraid to enjoy it due to threats from Momoi that she'll go to school naked in his body. Uehara's male best friend takes a liking to him in Momoi's body, though he never liked her before and worse for Uehara is that he's quite pushy and a good kisser. Uehara is alarmed to get a "doki-doki" sensation while looking at Momoi in his own male body. Momoi does not feel the same looking at him in her body and is quite happy dating her best friend. Even when Momoi's grandfather returns, Uehara is the only one trying to get him to fix the machine that switched their bodies. Momoi is too busy relishing her acquisition.

I'm enjoying this series so far and look forward to reading more of Uehara and Momoi's hilarious antics.

[Jennifer Anastazja · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember liking this one but it may not have aged well. Its a comedy of errors about a crude messy girl and a soft spoken sweet boy who get their bodies swapped by a mad scientist. The slapstick comes from all the people around them liking the change better. The girl's awful behavior is excused now that she is a boy, and the boy's kindness is taken advantage of at every opportunity now that he's a girl. Everyone wins... execpt the boy... who's trying his darndest to get his body back and what was supposed to be a normal teen rom com back on track.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gracioso primo tercero de Ranma 1/2, un poco más acartonado en cuanto a los personajes pero un poquito más jugado en cuanto a la exploración sexual de los personajes transexuales.
Lástima que en castellano editaron sólo hasta el 3. Y que el corrector laburaba como el culo.

[Yesy (The Book Vagrant) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wacky, fun, and cute. My favorite type of manga!

[Francine · Rating 2 out of 5]

A basic body swap romcom.

I really really really hate Senbongi. His persistence/insistence is portrayed as a cute/positive trait, but he literally kissed a person without their consent(!) and keeps saying things like: "The more she runs, the more I want to chase her. That little minx."(!!) and: "The longer the wait, the sweeter it'll taste when she's finally mine." (!!)
He's not interested in her feelings at all, he just wants to satiate his own desires. That scene in which he kissed her on the bed, where she was struggling, and he kept kissing her until they were interrupted?? And the story just played it off like "ohhh she's gonna fall for him someday it'll be so cute!" I hated that SO MUCH. Non-con is NOT CUTE.

I also really dislike how there's a clear double standard when it comes to the violation of male/female bodies. For context: the plot revolves around two teenagers body-swapping: the timid boy Akira is now in the body of the loud girl Momoi, and vice versa. Momoi clearly has no qualms with going to the bathroom, showering, kissing/dating women etc while in Akira's body and she even brags about it, but at the same time, she polices Akira's actions in her female body. I understand that it's part of the joke that he cares so much and she doesn't care at all - like, look at this unmasculine man! and this unfeminine woman! - but at the same time, I feel like we are judging Akira more harshly for not being manly enough than we would judge Momoi for not being girly enough. I mean Akira is the butt of most of the jokes. Maybe it's just because he has the "straight man" role in this comedy, the uptight one who is always worrying about everything. But at the same time, it is reinforcing this idea that "feminity = unwelcome, masculinity = preferable", no matter a person's gender.

I don't know how this series ends, but I would assume that they are going to remain stuck in each others' bodies. At this point in time, the story is really pushing the idea that it would be better for both of them if the masculine personality (Momoi) would be in the male body and the feminine personality (Akira) would be in the female body. As a person who cares about LGBT+ issues, I don't love that. I realise this volume was printed in 2003, almost twenty years ago, and our language surrounding gender/trans topics has evolved. But in 2021, I don't love it.

[Sayre · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve only read volume 1 so far, but this manga is really cute!

It’s a bit old (2003), but I think it’s still worth a look.

I picked this up at the swap meet at Fanime.

It’s about a teenage boy and a teenage girl, Akira Uehara and Nanako Momoi, who switch bodies in one of Nanako’s grandfather’s experiments. They ask the grandfather to switch them back, but he leaves town and they’re stuck indefinitely.

Akira was always kind of a soft boy, meek and conscientious. He wants to return to his body so he can pursue his crush on Nanako, but everyone seems to think being a girl suits him better.

Nanako is an aggressive, rambunctious tomboy. She makes herself right at home as Akira, becoming a star basketball player, dating girls, and scaring Akira’s bratty little sister into submission.

The story is told from Akira’s perspective, so we see a lot of his doubts but Nanako appears totally confident. I think this is a really smart way to tell it because it highlights their contrasting personalities.

I don’t know if this is really a trans story… the characters aren’t explicitly trans but it does touch on a lot of gender issues, and I think the narrative is sympathetic to gender nonconformity. I think it’s classic body-switching fantasy and it’s a lot of fun, with both of the main characters discovering all the physical and social advantages and challenges of being the opposite sex.

The art is very cute and dynamic and the panels and dialogue flow smoothly. I would say it’s compulsively readable, my attention span’s been crap lately but this went fast.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok so I've read this series before and it's pretty nostalgic for me so it's got a special place in my heart. It's hilarious and I love it.

BUT.

I am in total agreement with many other reviews in that yes this series is pretty problematic. For one thing there's an unhealthy attitude towards what defines masculinity and femininity as we see Momoi-as-Uehara being a stereotype of aggressive, inconsiderate and threatening which is obviously not behaviour that should be encouraged as that just makes you a horrible person rather than a 'guy'. Then we see Uehara-as-Momoi being a pushover, shy and extremely sensitive and while this is less problematic it's still pushing the idea that only girls can act this way and that Uehara wasn't considered a 'man' when he acted like this in his own body (which is actually a line in this book not kidding).

So yes. Problematic. I don't know if that's because of the year this was published or if it's because it's manga - we all know that manga definitely has it's flaws in things like this.

I did still enjoy myself despite these things and while I think it's important to recognise these problems, I think this series is fun and I will continue with it regardless.

Recommended so long as you are mature enough to recognise it's problems and also happen to enjoy tropey shoujo manga.

[Henna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have only read the first book and it definitely was something. I picked his up at a used book store because I thought it looked interesting, and it was but not necessarily in a good way… I did kind of enjoy this book but it definitely was very very VERY problematic. If you decide to read it know what you’re getting your self into. I’m not sure if I will continue to read this series. I’m only sad for Akira he seems like a sweetheart and is the only good character. All the other main characters are horrible. I just hope that Akira has a happy ending and everyone else realizes how horrible they are but with the way this story seems I doubt the ending will be as such. Some parts were funny, but there was also a lot of parts that were really gross, like the grandfather being weirdly sexual to his granddaughter. I also think the whole “everyone likes Akira better because he’s more of a ‘man’ now” was supposed to be funny but it just made me sad. And as someone that likes a good girl boss character Nanako is not it. She’s very mean….

[Natilin Alpaca Saurio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hay que aclarar antes que nada que se nota que es un producto de su tiempo, pero eso no le quita que sea muy entretenido y hasta cierto punto divertido,(podría contarse como un casi yaoi y un casi yuri? Ahre) los personajes con divertidos, Senbongi es...un poquito mal amigo, no mames, si, el otro empezó a salir con otra chica pero...broh. y por otro lado Nanako, Es buena cuando quiere o cuando algo le sale de provecho, mejor dicho, solo con la gente que tiene cariño: Shina. De ahí en más es una verga con casi todos, si la hacen enojar. Pero no me terminó de caer mal, solo que es demasiado egoísta. Y llegamos a Akira, me da penita :,,,( pobrecito, le pasan las mil y una y prácticamente todos lo utilizan y se aprovechan de él:,(.
Quizás en los próximos tomos le ponga más nota si las pequeñas tramas transgresoras al género se exploran más, podría estar bien, además, nunca leí ningún otro manga en donde hablaran de la menstruación. Creo.

P.s. is this bi representation?

[Ziα Đαdiпα · Rating 5 out of 5]

Questo è IL manga! Disegni deliziosi, storia mai banale, colpi di scena, situazioni esilaranti all'inverosimile e un pò d'amore che non guasta mai.. Meraviglioso! Non trovo altre parole per descrivere questo manga!!
Momoi mi è stata antipatica fin dall'inzio e Akira da ragazzo non era credibile, invertendo le loro personalità si sono creati 2 esseri perfetti xDD ma quanta pazienza... il povero Akira deve subire di tutto, sia da uomo che da donna xD mentre Momoi fa quello che le pare senza problemi col corpo di lui... in più lei si mette con la sua migliore amica e il migliore amico di lui si innamora di Momoi, cioè di Akira.. povero Akira bhuahua xDD e che confusione .__. avete capito qualcosa di quello che ho scritto? NO?? E allora comprate il manga!!!!!!!

[Sofia Bejarano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este manga no es muy conocido, pero a mi enserio me gusto!, me pareció increíblemente divertido y picante. Cuando vi la portada pensaba que era el tradicional cuento de amor entre senpai y alumna y bla bla bla ..... Me encuentro con esta historia ridícula y genial al mismo tiempo. La escritora no tiene pelos en la lengua, no le da miedo hablar de cosas que otros autores ni mencionan. Por eso y mas me pareció que este libro es uno de los mejores manga shoujo que he leído. Me pude divertir y reírme con los personajes.

Ahora que lo pienso es un poco fuerte para ser shoujo, o bueno, me gusto, que importa !

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is pretty gross. The gender stereotypes are pretty toxic, and the main female lead who gets switched into the male lead's body is just awful. What's worse is everyone likes 'him' better once he's switched, and 'he' doesn't want to switch back. Oh, and 'he' uses the body 'he's' in to have sex and stuff, which is creepy at best.

Absolutely would not recommend.

[Mads · Rating 1 out of 5]

This manga made me look into the feasibility of brain bleach. I'm pretty sure that this series isn't trying to make me viscerally angry, but every time Momoi, Senbongi, or the grandpa were on the page I wished to god I could reach into the panels and smack them around.
I get it, times were different twenty years ago, but how did some of these skeevy scenes fly?

[Freda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun gender bending story with surprisingly serous real-world themes. Manga and anime always do this, hiding behind a cute cover is a mind blown story with thought bombs that keep you wondering and think your own character over.

[Meme · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

[Kachaoka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't bother

All of the characters are pretty selfish aside from Akira, Momoi (the girl MC) is pretty annoying and selfish. No character progression at all.

Don't bother with this trash.

[Kynthos-the-Archer (Kyn) · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's fun but I just couldn't stop feeling bad for Uehara kun. Momoi is an absolute bully!

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like it

[gigi · Rating 1 out of 5]

i can't even be mad because this is exactly what my ass deserves for picking up an early 00s manga about bodyswapping

[Josephine · Rating 1 out of 5]

IMMEDIATE DNF WTH WTH WTH WTH WTH WTH WTH I WANT TO THROW MYSELF OFF A CLIFF WTF WAS THIS??? I would rate it 0 stars, but that’s not an option 💀

[⋅˚⚘˖;ִ໋₊ ꩇׁׅ݊ayo ⊹;ꕤ˚⋅ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought the third and fourth volumes on a whim at a used bookstore, and caught up with the previous and following volumes online… not what I was expecting 😅😅😅