Futaba-kun Change! is an eight-volume manga series by Hiroshi Aro about Futaba Shimeru, a seemingly normal junior high school student who suddenly discovers that he is anything but normal.To be more specific, Futaba is one day handed a girlie magazine by a fellow member of the wrestling club. Having snuck into the boys' room to read it, Futaba suddenly clicks on not just how girls are different from boys, but why it matters. And as he thinks of his good female buddy Misaki, his excitement increases — and suddenly Futaba finds himself possessed of female anatomy!Some scary moments (and the discovery that the effect isn't permanent) later, Futaba gets home, only to find out that everyone in his family changes gender, and the person he's always thought of as a father in fact was the one who gave birth to him!Hilarity Ensues, as Futaba tries to start a romantic relationship with Misaki, deals with female anatomy issues, starts a new career as an "idol" and learns more about his/her family's heritage.Sadly out of print in the United States as of September 2010.
Futaba-kun Change! provides examples of:
Accidental Pervert: Happens to Futaba a lot in the first couple of volumes.
The Ahnold: Mr. Lucky Strike, the P.E. teacher, looks quite a lot like Arnold; the guy acts a bit like Dutch from Predator.
Apocalypse How: The Shimeru homeworld (actually a giant ringworld made of Ivy) has undergone a Class 4 with only the Ivy and nanomachines still working.
The two girls herelook quite familiar, as does one in the background of panel two. There are a number of others if you look closely at random characters in crowds.
Foot Focus: The wrestling match in book 4. Female wrestler Anzu specializes in leg-work; she isn't wearing wrestling boots but only gaiters, leaving most of her feet bare, and she thrusts them all the time in her opponents' face (which is most often the reader's viewpoint).
Frothy Mugs of Water: Misaki drowns her sorrows when she finds out the truth with a beer stein of honey. Not as odd as that might initially sound; the mead of yore was made from fermented honey.
Gainax Ending: A rare manga version, due to the series being abruptly canceled. Turns out Futaba's family are aliens that moved away from the aformentioned Floating Island; Futaba, Misaki, and Kurin end up away from the planet for 8 years; Misaki gets gene treatment to fix her partial Gender Bender alien DNA (and thus makes herself a compatible mate to Futaba); Futaba Takes a Third Option and apparently decides to marry both Misaki and Kurin; and the entire world now knows about the aliens due to Negiri's PR efforts. There's a reason most readers just pretend the last volume never happened.
Genre Shift: Starts as a High School gender-bending comedy and ends with the revelation that the Shimerus are aliens, their homeland is a spaceship and their homeworld is a Ringworld made of ivy that has under gone a Category 4 extinction.
The Ghost: Mrs Shimeru, Futaba's father. Her face is never seen, and only about two strips show even a part of her body.
Sabuyama-sensei has a huge crush on the male Futaba that he keeps trying to act upon.
Also Futana when she starts her teacher training course, due to her Anything That Moves sexuality.
And the eldest Koujiro sister for male Kurin to the point of kidnapping him with a portable wormhole.
Hot Dad and/or Hot Mom: Futaba's father in his female form (s/he even works as a model and actress). And his male form can be quite attractive for some...
Important Haircut: Futaba cuts his hair as apology Misaki; female-Futaba is also similarly hairless and Futaba has to wear a wig for a little while after as it grows back.
Incompatible Orientation: Misaki and Futaba — Futaba turns into a woman whenever he gets aroused, meaning that any relationship they have is doomed, as Misaki is heterosexual. Misaki fixes the problem by Jumping the Gender Barrier via gene therapy.
Instant Fan Club: Thanks to Negiri, Futaba gains one of these with breathtaking speed.
Jumping the Gender Barrier: During their trip to the Shimeru clan homeworld, Misaki gets gene therapy to make her into a full Human Alien like Futaba and Kurin, making her suddenly an available love interest. Futaba decides not to decide.
Lethal Chef: Misaki, due to her habit of over-sweetening everything. The three Koujiro sisters are more likely to actually kill someone, though.
Lost Him in a Card Game: The wrestling team captain basically stakes the team in a series of mahjong games with Negiri and Futaba has to pay off the debt.
Man, I Feel Like a Woman : But of course. Best not to think about the implications for Futana's changes. Also, Misaki during her brief period of changing into a boy.
Mr. Seahorse: Explicitly stated in the case of Futaba's "father" and by implication the expected results of Futaba's marriage to either Misaki or Kurin.
Must Have Nicotine: A sales clerk who covers her entire stock in tobacco stains (and starts a fire that almost kills half the cast).
Noblewoman's Laugh: Takane Hiroin, especially as her alter-ego the Queen of Darkness.
Nonstandard Character Design: Principal Hiroin has a considerably more cartoonish look than all the characters, including a huge round head over a midget body.
Nose Bleed: Everyone, at some point. The wrestling team in particular, though — they have nose explosions!
Only Sane Man: Futaba gets landed in this role a lot.
Rip Van Winkle: It takes eight years for the Shimeru spaceship island to make the journey to it's homeworld and back, but for Futaba, Kurin and Misaki it only took a few minutes.
Selective Obliviousness: Somehow Futaba has managed to make it to junior high school without noticing his family's tendency to change genders on a regular basis. Especially remarkable given the Shapeshifter Mode Lock problem.
Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Futaba is stuck in girl form while menstruating. Presumably this also happens during pregnancy.
Skinship Grope: Futana, naturally, though she tends to take it a bit further than most characters.
Soft Glass: Futaba goes through glass windows several times, including once nearly-naked, without so much as a scratch. The Justicemaker, on the other hand, can get plenty of shards in his huge head along with comical spurts of blood.
Sweet Tooth: Misaki's got a huge one; so much so that it ties in with Lethal Chef — anything she cooks for herself is unbearably sweet.
It gets better — she's so overly sugared that the swim team can't really swim — because her swimming in the pool has turned the water into a sugary equivalent of the Dead Sea, which is rather hard to sink in.
Even better: at one point she makes chocolate so overly sweet, it spontanously combusts, turning it into the world's first Chocolate hand grenade!
Tempting Fate: Futaba says he has a good feeling about the school field trip; next panel the plane carrying them has ditched in the ocean.
Tenchi Solution: The canon solution to the love triangle, shown in the last few chapters. Futaba marries both Kurin and Misaki (who gets gene therapy on the ship to turn her into a permanent gender bendingHuman Alien like the other two).
Unknown Rival: Ms. Hiroin to female Futaba; see link in Breaking the Fourth Wall example.
Victorious Childhood Friend: Misaki, with the complication that she's going to have to share Futaba with Kurin. She earned it, though, what with going through Gene therapy to turn herself into a full Human Alien so she would be compatible.
Walking the Earth: Futana's fiancé(e) departs to do this after meeting her for the first time.
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