switch, Vol. 1

Switch #1

by Otoh Saki, Naked Ape

Kai Eto may look like a squeaky clean kid, but the Greater Kanto Narcotics Control Division's new investigator hides a violent alter ego and a dangerous past. With his stoic partner Hal Kurabayashi, Kai is assigned to track down and stop the distribution of Dragon Speed, a dangerous new drug. But Ryugen, the syndicate trafficking the drug, is almost impossible to infiltrate. Add street violence and a jurisdiction war with the Meguro Police, and poor Kai is in for some very long days at the office.

Genres: Manga, Yaoi, Crime, Mystery, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Comics Manga

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Associated Names:
AIKAWA Lira
LIRA Kotone
SAKI Roka

Part of the mangaka group Naked Ape.

Along with her Naked Ape partner NAKAMURA Tomomi, the two frequently release doujinshis as part of the Acute Girls doujinshi circle.

Additionally, often works with the mangaka YAMAMOTO Kana, as part of the doujinshi circle Negahyst.

Reviews

[K.S. Trenten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kai Eto is a sweet, sometimes scatterbrained young man with a kind heart and impulsive nature. He may seem like the last person whom should be a narcotics special investigator. He’s certainly the last person his partner, the grumpy, yet professional Hal Kurabayashi would want to be paired up with. The two agents couldn’t more different, yet they find themselves working together, drawn into the seamy underworld of drugs, the various quirky individuals who exist in and fight that world, and the mystery which surrounds both of them.

For there is a mystery involving who Kai really is. A ‘switch’ which turns him into someone much darker and a lot more dangerous. Hal is the only one who can pull Kai back, bring him to his senses when he changes.

What exactly is the ‘switch’ though? A personality change? An elusive mystery involving a drug of the past which Hal is determined to track down and solve? Or something more?

This question hovers tantalizingly over the heads of Hal and Kai as the two of them face a series of cases, adventures, and misadventures, often dark, at times humorous in this dark, yet glamourous underbelly of the city in which the two agents work.

The full cheeked sweetness and dark intimacy of Naked Ape’s artwork drew me in instantly, engaging me with the characters and the plot. It heightened the mystery, leaving me wondering what was going on and unable to look away.

Hal and Kai share a rough, raw intimacy, loaded with sweetness, potrayed in their striking contrast to each other. Kai expresses boyish, almost goofy innocence, except for the moments when he turns scary. Hal is insolent, has a brazen flirtatious rudeness with anyone he’s thrown together with, and a ruthless disregard for others in his professional determination to catch crooks. Nor does he hesitate to call Kai worthless when Kai is too soft hearted and screws up. A special kindness flickers out of Hal for Kai alone for all his abusiveness. This relationship also kept me engaged, unable to look away.

There were other striking studies in contrasts as well. There’s the hot-tempered Keigo Kajiyama, Kai and Hal’s Investigations Chief, who’s more than willing to chew his subordinates out when they don’t show proper teamwork, yet worries about them like a mother hen. There’s the playful, soft spoken Division Chief, Mastaka Hiki, whom is quite sharp, yet seems to regard his underlings as toys for his personal amusement (particularly Kajiyama). Not that he’s without affection for his toys. There’s the scruffy, yet equally mischievous police officer, Akumune Narita, who enjoys his friendly rivalry with the young Narcotics Control Division, often teasing them. There’s Mari Kuzui, the dazed forensics analysist, who can’t keep herself from patting Kai’s head. Plus, there’s a sinister representative of the mysterious Ryugan drug ring, whom manipulates his victims with eerie games of emotional control, getting a little too close to Hal…with a knife.

For a intriguing series of interconnected stories which included Hal having Kai cross dress to get the better of Narita in a bust, Kai going undercover as assistant to a TV star he idolizes, threaded with the over all mystery involving Kai, Hal, and the switch, this gets four stars.

[shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I realized I hadn’t written a review that praised this series to heaven yet, so Imma do that now because I spent 9th grade reading this entire series AND I LOVED IT SO MUCH.
Things I loved:
1. The gays.
2. Gays being cops
3. One of my favorite gay characters in all of shounen-ai who has multiple personalities
4. Nice art.
5. Nice stories.
6. Anime ova’s that don’t do the story any goddamn justice
7. The gays.
8. Violence.
9. Sadness.
It’s so good, just go read it.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny and suspenseful first volume for a manga. Artwork is great and there are many funny panels to break up the seriousness of some situations like drug addiction and bereavement. Although some panels seem random and confusing (to me) or they don't make sense or just look slightly odd. Otherwise a brilliant manga

[kuristina- tabreez · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a grungy mystery manga, I had fun but it felt sort of disorganized. I read it all but I never felt in the loop for any bit of the story. That being said, the mystery behind Kai Eto intrigues me, and the little stories themselves also manage to pull at my heartstrings a little bit.
The art itself is both attractive and very classic of its time, which is… a bit messy and hard to track. I’m not always too sure of what’s going on, but this was pretty common for a manga from 2002ish.

Overall entertaining but nothing special. I can’t follow the storyline well at all with how it’s been introduced and built, but I can tell it’s a good one lurking under the oddities of switch.
I also like that this story revolves around a team busting drug abuse. Personally, I’ve grown quite tired of drug abuse from people in my town, so it’s interesting to see something defending their opposing side.

[Jeridel Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

"This is the first volume of our first serialization, so there are probably a kinds of mistakes," wrote the Naked Ape, the duo manga creators of Switch, Tomomi Nakamura and Roka Saki. I get it. Manga and sequential art is hard to do. Switch, however, is an obvious work in progress. It's difficult to follow the story because of the layout and pace of the writing. What struck me in the first ten pages is that Switch doesn't have many tones, so it's hard to distinguish between characters. The characters alone are interesting, but how they interact in the story, especially using cliche speech--"We both arrest the bad guys, so it works out in the end, right?--really makes them drag when they're together. Switch isn't worth the read if you want something more substantial with more professionalism behind it.

[Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two handsome males working as drug police. One has split personality while the other seems to take life a bit too seriously. There seems to be an odd fetish for guns and pointing them at people’s heads. The topic seems out there for a manga. Drug investigators? Hm. I can see people grabbing this simply for the character designs. The story feels like it’s missing some traction. I grabbed the volume on a whim and read it as such.

There’s not much else to say. Quite a few positive reviews hint at some promise for the series overall. Not sure I’d bet on those horses. Who knows, maybe it does kick it into overdrive. As for me it was a decent distraction :)

On to the next!

[Forthright . · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kai is the energetic good kid type, open and unaffected and overflowing with enthusiasm. He's a rookie in the NDC, which handles drug-related crimes, and his new boss partners him with the strict and serious Hal, who's less than thrilled to be stuck with the newbie. But it's a good thing Hal's around, since he's able to pull Kai back when his switch is flipped.

Giving this series a whirl. Criminal investigation. Plenty of grit, violence, and tragedy, some of which is graphic. Episodic, though there's an interesting character arc building with regards to Kai's past and his strange dual personality. Not sure if I'll keep with it.

[Stephanie Jachymek · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story could be a bit confusing, and overall it didn't focus on Switch as much as I'd expected.
The characters also had a habit of looking very similar to one another so it could get confusing at times.
But overall I still really enjoyed this series. The story and art were both good.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half was slow and boring but in the second half it really picked up. I’m interested to see where this drug police, split personality(?) story goes.

[TT · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another shonen-ai series where the art captured me but the story did not. Little to no romance if I recall (which I was more interested in at the time) so I didn't get involved in this series.

[ash :) · Rating 2 out of 5]

too confusing to enjoy

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

Switch ended up being an odd duck - and one that is very hard to like. The story, as presented, is extremely choppy and hard to follow. Characters have reactions and pointed looks - but the reader has no idea what's going for most of them. As such, the characters end up being obtuse and uninteresting, the plot static rather than edgy. Flashbacks seem random and the idea that these young guys are detectives is a complete farce.

Story: Two young police officers are forced to work together to solve crimes. Currently, they are tasked with getting behind a new drug on the streets: dragon seed. One will go undercover, working with an informant who is an idol (and who has problems of his own). The other does surveillance from behind the scenes. Both will run into serious trouble by the end of this first volume.

Honestly, I have to admit that I had no idea what was going on through most of this. Scenes moved on, ended, or just stopped with no rhyme or reason. I'd like to think this was a stylistic thing or that I was missing something culturally. But I used the Viz translation so I can't blame poor fan translations as the cause. Rereading didn't help.

The illustration work is lovely, if confusing. None of the guys are hard to look at but none have much in the way of nuance or personality, either. Action is nearly impossible to figure out - it worked in one instance of a stabbing but in others, not so much. sadly, it was easier to just skip pages and hope the story would make sense by the end. I get that this is supposed to be hard and edgy - but it just ended up feeling overwrought to me.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall Rating: C-
Summary: This police mystery manga by Naked Ape follows two new recruits to the Narcotics Control Department in Japan, Hal and Kai. Kai looks like your average, cute manga boy, but apparently has a violent, dark side that shows itself in the first volume. It looks like who he is and what triggers his "switch" to dark Kai is going to be a big part of this manga.

Adding to the plot is a new drug called "Dragon Speed" (basically really bad ass speed), which is being distributed by a Chinese drug ring. It's even rumored that a major star, Kyoya Shirai is addicted to the drug. Kai goes undercover to find out if he's an addict, and who his supplier is before Kyoya dies.

The premise of Switch sounded interesting, so I picked it up. The premise held for the first volume, but the characters were pretty bland. I didn’t really get into any of them, so even though the art was cool, and the story was pretty decent, I just wasn’t that interested in the book. I may check out volume 2 to see if it’s any better.

For more manga and anime reviews, please check out Hobotaku.

[Red Nuht · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my top ten mangas to date, the Naked Ape duo to an amazing job at grabbing reads with their art and storyline.

I personally found the characters adorable and charming, coming to love most of them almost instantly.

If you read the first one and only think its so-so i'd suggest stay around in the bookstore and read through the second one as well before you make up your mind about the series.

For those of you who are interested there is also a two part OVA of the manga series, though i would suggest you to have read at least volume one so you know the basics of the series.

[Leila Anani · Rating 2 out of 5]

I came to this series completely cold, knowing nothing about the series or the manga, as such the review may be a little unfair as I hear that the series gets miles better.

As a first volume I found it's disjointed narrative a tad confusing and full of nonsequiters. I like the world in which its set however and the characters are interesting enough to make me want to seek out further volumes. I think this is one that's definitely going to need a reread once further along in the story.

[Shinyfox · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up because the whole idea of this series. The art is sure lovely and, indeed, the premise is quite interesting.
The characters, however, just don't draw my attention. Oh sure they're pretty in art, but their personalities are just too bland for me, there is not enough dimension to them. Also I find myself confused with a few of the plot devices (the characters are doing it that way? Didn't they have ANY training at all?!) Not to mention how disjointed this volume seemed.

[yengyeng · Rating 3 out of 5]

Came across Naked Ape's work through their doujinshi and really liked it, esp the art. Decided to read this manga about the Matori (Japanese Narcs) staking out and busting drug syndicates. Not excessively preachy about the evils of taking drugs. The story was a little meh in the beginning and I only started liking the manga from Vol 3 onwards.

[Kristin Fletcher-spear · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it, but I would have liked to see a little more training of the rookies. I wish they would have mentioned the reasoning for the alter ego of Kai in this volume rather than just hint about it, but I guess that's why there's more than one volume!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting premise, convoluted plot.

[Soubi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy @*#^ The guy with glasses is HOTT!!!!!

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

1st. read: 2/4/09

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

God, I love the art in this manga. The story is pretty good too. On to the second volume!

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Different from what I usually read but it is not bad. I enjoyed the mystery of the characters and their pasts.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this quite entertaining. It was absolutely fabulous. So far this is one of my favorites.

[The Third Place A Teen Library]

F NAK
switch
V. 1

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little hectic, we'll see what happens int he next volumes...

[Ale-Hoku · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un manga demasiado introductorio peor aun asi, solo llegamos a conocer los nombres de los protagonistas, su trabajo y los riesgos de este.

Defenitivamente parece que sera una burla historia apesar de lo plano que parecio este tomo.

Las personalidades de los personajes me parecen algo cliche pero me gustan, son adorables.

El dibujo, no me gusta tanto como pense que me gustaria. Pero no esta mal.

Calificación: 3/5