This manga is astonishing. It takes the super cliched premise of the body swap, and tears out the ending.

There are no wacky hijinks. No embarrassing compromising moments. Just the sad depressing daily life of two kids that have had their lives and families ripped away from them and are stuck living out each other's identities. What should have been a funny short story has become the miserable daily life of two transgender children that can't live with their own families, be themselves at school, or even pursue a love life. Years continue to pass, but they cling to hope of returning to normal, and so they continue the masquerade, terrified of screwing up each other's lives if they dare to drop the act.

The daily struggles are surprisingly lifelike, and very relatable. In addition to coping with transgender life and losing their identities, they face the confusion and hurt and thrills of growing up. Only, they're growing up in the wrong body, and neither of them are living the childhood they were meant to have.

Yuuta cringes when he isn't acknowledged as a boy. But he takes it in stride.

Yui finds herself torn up inside over a love that seems hopeless when he doesn't have the body of the girl she really is.

Their tears and struggles to keep hold of who they are and keep themselves secret, living one another's lives, make Bitter Change one of the most compelling manga stories I've ever read.

Starts out with a typical gimmick: boy and girl switch bodies and are forced to live each other's lives as a result. The twist is that this happened in elementary school, and they still haven't been able to change back in high school.

So far, the characters have been developing pretty well. Instead of going the typical comedic and heavily cliched route (i.e. omg, let me check out my new genitals! -_-), this manga seems to be going in a more serious direction. The boy and girl come from very different backgrounds, and it's interesting how they discover and react to the differences in their family lives and in the process, grow to understand each other better.

Anyways, I'm giving it a 9 for now to encourage more interest in this manga.

... Last updated on January 18th, 2014, 9:15pm

I mean, this is the longest body swap I ever read. Since elementary school until high school. And their life keep going on. They started to fall in love, with someone in their opposite sex (which is their body's same sex). I wonder what would happen to them. Would they give up their soul, accept that their gender won't change back forever, and turn to a girl/boy for real? I think this story's plot is very brave, and something I can't guess at all. That's why it's an interesting manga, and I'll always waiting for the release. Recommended.

I never read body-swap manga because they're usually too ridiculous to take seriously. But as other people have mentioned, it has a much more serious tone. It doesn't draw from the most embarrassing situations to give you a laugh, but more to show humility and courage to be someone you are uncomfortable being.

I didn't think I'd read all of it (or up to the current release) so something definitely was working - yet at the same time I'm incredibly dissatisfied. The characters don't belong in the bodies they are now, especially Yui (the girl) but try so hard to bare with it. I'm getting increasingly worried they will never return to normal. At this point they've almost spent half their lives in someone else's body. Will they eventually get used to it? Maybe, but what's the point of so much unnecessary pain? They become aware of what it's like to be a different gender in society and perhaps more who they are internally - but not having a physical body to match said identity is devastating. All I can think of is the pain of wishing you could be somebody you no longer are. It's like being transgender but worse because you got a decades worth of being who you wanted to be and growing accustomed to your own skin - only to have it ripped away from you forever.

Overall, it's both easy and difficult to apply these situations to real life. Body swaps would never happen, but being uncomfortable in your own body can. I do appreciate that there isn't an easy fix to this predicament - in that sense it is realistic. But as I reiterate, I'm not sure what the point of all this heartbreaking pain is for because growth has a limit if you're always trapped in a cage. I just want the main characters to be who they want to be!

... Last updated on June 19th, 2015, 4:27pm

Like many of the other reviewers I am not big on the gender bender/body swap genre. I find most of the time that it brings about unneeded ecchi romcom. This is different. The character development of the two MCs both as themselves and coming to terms is very gradual. In actuality a lot of what happens seems realistic enough Good read very touching.

I've read several gender bender manga before, and this is definitely one of the best I've read. The characters are really well developed and likeable, their interactions believable, which isn't an easy feat considering we've a boy in a girl's body and a girl in a boy's body.

Up to Ch. 21 so far and it's been a very fun ride. Totally recommended!!

... Last updated on December 28th, 2014, 5:32am

I'm not usually a fan of these ridiculous cliche yet surreal situations in manga, but this particular work is uniquely written. It utilizes the body-swap setting to touch upon various topics of adolescence and overall coming of age. It is a very touching manga, and in my opinion the best cross-dressing/transgender/body swap manga out there. Worth a read even for the skeptics.

The premise has great potential to develop the characters and their growth since they swap bodies with the opposite sex. They're able to explore the other person's problems, insecurities and qualities with some dash of humor added in.

However, the story stagnates and became really boring without much development about how to return to their original bodies. It also stagnates on how they should accept their fates. Also, the humor wasn't really that funny to begin with and became dry quickly. Status quo every chapter.

The biggest problem with this series is the author's insistence that people will discover protagonists' body swap secret. There is no logical chance that anyone will believe that if not confessed to directly. For example, they worry that a new high school classmate will find out about their body swap secret just bylooking at their elementary school pictures... That's just preposterous. No one in their right mind will lead to that conclusion just by looking at their elementary school pictures. Yet, the author keeps reusing their insecurity about their secret being found out, in one form or another, to drag the story.

This replay of them both worrying about their secret being found out from elementary school to high school just got tiresome. I mean, even if you act tomboyish in a girl's body or girly in a guy's body, no one will say "Oh! You body swapped." However, both MC keeps thinking that...

... Last updated on August 12th, 2015, 11:34am

Even though I had read the positive reviews beforehand, I went in with low expectations because of the romance tag. I had thought romance was going to be emphasized a lot between the two main characters (like all other series), but surprisingly, as of chapter 25, their relationship is hardly romantic. The emphasis lies more on their relationships with all sorts of characters and how they're adapting to the change. The story is a lot more realistic and unpredictable than expected. I found spoilers on the ending of the webmanga and if the manga follows it, then the ending will definitely be one I didn't expect.

While reading, I couldn't help but feel Hourou Musuko and Bokura no Hentai vibes. Both series I enjoyed quite a bit.

First thought: personally, body swap of different gender doesn't click much with my usual taste.
Afterthought: I have no regrets. From just a "favorite", it has grow even bigger to my liking.

I actually like that the story never strays the two main characters (make it a trio with Kazuma, a best friend and protector), although they will experience different things with different classes, friends etc, in the end it all comes back the two of them. Maybe I could say this manga is the good example of "you don't always need skinship to show romantic affection towards one another".

There is no unnecessary drama or draggy love triangle/rival plot. I really love how the story focuses on their personality growth (including puberty and such), especially since they swapped bodies for 7+ years. The personalities of the characters are refreshing too--in fact, their course of action feels realistic (although body-swapped definitely ain't realistic, of course) and less whiny, like how people suppress their emotion as to not destroy the current happy bond, or how someone starts to wish irrationally because they don't want things to change, for example.

My only dissatisfaction would be that there is no enough extra after the ending, lol! I need more stories on them because romance doesn't really appear until.... chapter 30 and so? That's halfway to the end of the series X'D