Agravity Boys is a space comedy manga written and drawn by Atsushi Nakamura. It began serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump in December 2019, and ended after 50 chapters in January 2021. It is licensed by Viz Media under their Shonen Jump imprint and can be read in English officially on Viz Media's website
and MangaPlus.
Four young male astronaunts (Baba, Chris, Geralt, Saga) have arrived at a new inhabitable planet, but they are the last of humanity as Earth was destroyed only days after they launched into space.
On the new planet α-Jumbro, a powerful and self-admittedly sadistic inter-dimensional being appears before them. This "Higher Being" promptly begins shenanigans by testing the friendship of the boys by offering them granted wishes.
Agravity Boys provides examples of:
- Baseball Episode: In chapter 35 the boys find an island rich in dagmatite to mine, only to find that an alien "bass ball" team has set up their training camp there. They end up challenging each other to a game of bass ball in order to determine who gets to use the island.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In chapter 31, all main characters are aware the continuation of the manga itself is in danger as they've become so dedicated and hard-working that they've forgotten to get into zany adventures.
- Call-Back: Items, characters or events used as gags frequently end up popping up again much later, turning out to actually be important. For example: The Gender Bender formula that the Higher Being tempted them with in the first chapter ends up being used over 40 chapters later to turn Saga, Baba and Geralt into women so they can infiltrate a ladies-only planet to save Chris.
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Cast full of good looking male characters.
- Easy Impersonation: Chapter 22 has the Higher Being being replaced by a similar-looking being. It wasn't even intentional — he was just passing by when the boys mistook him for Higher Being. Meanwhile the real Higher Being complains about how they can't tell the difference even though they have different shapes, different preferences and different speech bubbles.
- Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: Chapter 40 is dedicated to "Agravity Radio", part of which is answering fan letters.
- Gag Censor: When Chris takes off his shirt and enters the hot spring his chest is censored using requests for fan letters. The volume version replaces it with a message from the author thanking the readers for their fan mail. It comes up again in chapter 40 when referring back to that scene, this time blocked by the text "*Chapter 4".
- Gender Bender:
- The Higher Being offers the boys a way to change one of them into a woman, causing them to argue about who should get changed into a woman. They decide not to use the gender changing elixir as it only causes rifts in their friendship. And one woman wouldn't be enough to repopulate humanity.
- The elixir returns when the crew needs to infiltrate a women only planet. However, it was released in a vapor form, meaning the dosage is significantly weaker. The effect only lasts 12 hours, but it also comes with personality changing side effects, making the affected think of themselves as the gender matching their current body.
- Human Aliens: The alien woman the Higher Being offers to the boys looks almost exactly like a regular human woman. She and her family even wear human style clothing.
- Love Bubbles: Love bubbles appeared when the Chris is courted and whenever Chris is especially cute. Also accompanied by Bishie Sparkles.
- Love Chart: Chapter 24 includes a handy relationship chart, which also includes people who are unrelated to the story. Becomes a Brick Joke when in chapter 33 we find out they're related to the TV show Masaru that the characters watch.
- Man, I Feel Like a Woman: Discussed. The fact that a gender-swapped Baba, Geralt, and Saga don’t feel an urge to grope themselves is used as proof that the Gender Bender elixir also mentally alters the people that consume it.Higher Being: Also, I wanted to make sure you couldn't squeeze even an ounce of enjoyment from this.
- Medium Awareness: From Chapter 41:Here's a heads-up Chris
If you show off your nipples
This manga's over.—Saga - Mundane Made Awesome: Geralt is framed epicly after a relatively mundane event in Chapter 3. He proudly proclaims he managed to take a dump in a beautifully drawn two-page spread.
- Our Wormholes Are Different: A black hole that inexplicably materialized suddenly in space transported the boys to the new planet.
- Scifi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale: Planet Relacks, the holiday planet, is described as being 40,000 km from Alesta, which is so close that one would have to be orbiting the other (for comparison, satellites in geostationary orbit around the Earth are at about 36,000 km). What makes this worse is that Alesta is comparable in size to the Sun.
- Shirtless Scene: Many of the boys are shown without their shirts off.
- Show Within a Show: Masaru, a TV show that appears in Chapter 33.
- Third Law of Gender-Bending: Higher Being states his Gender Bender elixir is designed to alter your mind and memories so you'll see your altered body as normal and how you always were. A lesser dose leaves “Babae, Gerami, and Sageko” with their memories unchanged, but they still see themselves as women and immediately start worrying about their clothes, make-up, and attracting boys.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Chapters 27 to 30 are an extended flashback to the boys' academy days and how they met, induced by a mushroom hot pot.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Chapters 27 to 30, the flashback episodes to the boys' academy days, and follows Chris, Saga, and Baba go through 12 areas to fight against each of the area's enemy, the plot is based on the Sanctuary Arc of Saint Seiya, helped by the occasional reference to the Zodiac in that arc.
