Plot/Story

Change Guy begins with a scientist, her assistant and the new machine that they have built. This machine seems to switch things of similar mass across large distances. After testing it on a cat and a dog the two academics decide to trial it with humans.

While driving in their van they run into Kang Too-Jee, a fighter with a fearsome reputation, and Woo-Soo Choi, a top ranked student. The academics use the now unconscious teenagers as the subjects for their experiment. The experiment appears to be a success so the scientist dumps the still unconscious teens back on the road.

She returns to her lab and prepares to switch herself and her assistant, this time recording the experiment. Until she notices the cat that she had initially tested is acting rather dog-like.

The machine switches the physical mass, but the mind doesn’t move...

The scientists disappear never to be seen again (as at Vol24) and the rest of the story revolves around the main character Woo-Soo Choi in the body of Kang Too-Jee.

Characters

Woo-Soo Choi (in Kang Too-Jee); the manga's lead character. Woo-Soo Choi is a very intelligent and kind boy. He constantly runs into trouble with people looking to fight Kang Too-Jee but thanks to Too-Jee's incredibly well trained body Woo-Soo Choi is able to overcome most of these challenges.

Kang Too-Jee (in Woo-Soo Choi); You have too feel sorry for him... a delinquent fighter stuck in the pitiful body of a nerd. Unlike Woo-Soo Choi, he has the fighting experience necessary to win, but the body he is stuck with is too weak for Kang Too-Jee to successfully use his knowledge.

Chun Moo-Jin; Long haired pretty-boy kind of character. He befriended Kang Too-Jee when they learnt Hapkido together. Very quickly becomes obsolete as a fighter, but remains an amusing character.

Han Kang Ho; The first powerful opponent that Woo-Soo Choi had to face. Han Kang-Ho was someone who Kang Too-Jee had stolen the title of the strongest from a year ago.

Ji Kang-Hyuk; The man who stands above the Four Dragons. He's an incredibly gifted fighter who likes to chain aerial moves.

Shin Jin-Ho; The immortal. This is a guy who practiced the basic punch and the basic kick a thousand times a day from the time when he began to walk. His speed and skills are off the radar.

Han Sang-Jin; A natural born talent. Han Sang-Jin prefers "real-life" training and so just gets into fights every chance he gets. His initial goal is to defeat the man who defeated his Tae Kwon Do instructor.

There are of course heaps more characters than this, but these ones are the few who last more than a two fights. Most characters introduced are quickly beaten and forgotten. Female characters don’t have a very large part in this manga.

Drawing Style

The arts not bad. I don’t read much (note; any other) Korean manga so I can’t compare it with other Korean manga, but the characters are all well drawn and each can be quickly recognised.

The chapter pages are always a shot of a character or various characters either in normal form or chibi form. Some of these pages are awesome. The characters are drawn to look very strong, and they are.

Enjoyment

If you are after a fighting manga that is full of very strong characters using various different styles of martial arts then Change Guy is what you are looking for. The story is basic, the strongest appears, then someone stronger appears then someone even stronger appears and so on... but despite this there is a lot of variation in the fights and the way the characters interact.

Overall

Change Guy is fun; it’s something that you can read a few times. It doesn’t require a lot of thought (besides remembering all the various names - sooo many names [and my not being used to Korean names didn’t help]).

If you want a manga about hand to hand combat, then this is one that you should check out.