Asuka Hybrid (アスカはいぶりっど) is an Ecchi Gender Bender comedy manga by Ken+, which ran in Comic YA! from 2009 to 2011.
Asuka is a young boy moving into a dormitory at the heart of a city, but there's a problem: due to someone having mistaken his gender, he ends up assigned to a women's dorm. Shortly afterwards, he ends up suddenly meeting an oddly-dressed woman on the run who offers to grant him one wish, and upon listening to his plight hastily offers him a solution: turning him into a girl.
With the woman running off before he could realize what happened, Asuka now seeks to relocate her so he can be turned back into a man. All the while, he must now adjust to the life of an everyday girl, along with the help of his new roommate Yayoi and the new friends he meets along the way. Gender-blending wackiness and lots of Fanservice ensue.
This manga provides examples of:
- All Men Are Perverts: Asuka's flipflopping between embracing and angsting about his new appearance makes this a bit unclear, though it's directly mentioned (and subverted) when Hitomi learns that Asuka used to be a boy. She immediately jumps on him for turning into a girl, thinking he did so willingly to do perverted things to himself, though she just-as-immediately calms down when he points out he didn't ask for the gender-bending and wants to be turned back.
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: Yayoi's gender identity is rather unclear; while biologically male, they don't come across as offended when Asuka sees their naked body, but they also otherwise passes off as a girl and is recognized as such at school, with nobody else aware of their secret. Yayoi hasn't felt the need to correct Asuka or others of their gender (only their romantic disinterest in girls), but they broadly want to be seen as female nonetheless, hoping that Asuka will still see them as such if he turns back into a man. This in turn also leads to some Pronoun Trouble — Asuka mentally thinks of Yayoi as "he/him", but while others know Yayoi as a girl, "she/her" seems to evade conversations.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: As part of the series' Ecchi style, there's plenty of nudity, but bare breasts and crotches detail nothing.
- Chick Magnet: Akira tends to get a lot of attention from girls, not that he's interested in reciprocating in any of their interest. Even when he was a woman, his athletic, tomboyish looks still attracted a lot of unwanted female admirers.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Yayoi immediately takes a liking to Asuka and effectively tries to call dibs on him once they figure out how to turn him back into a boy. Yayoi's rather bothered when they see Asuka getting friendly with other girls, though whether they choose to intervene or let them be depends on their own mood at any given time.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Hitomi is easily the quirkiest of an already eccentric cast; on top of being an actual Magical Girl, her mood swings wildly from being warm and motherly, to loud and overly-emotional, to near-diabolical and confrontational, and apparently has to regularly take "medicine" to keep her more in line. It's telling that even Akira seems to be mildly afraid of her.
- Clingy MacGuffin: After Asuka is turned into a woman, the mage leaves him with a black choker as a mark of a fulfilled wish, and he quickly finds it can't be taken off. Asuka does consider cutting it off, but decides not to try because he has no idea what will happen. Akira is later shown wearing a similar black bracelet, indicating that he too was subject to one of her spells.
- Cross Counter: Mentioned and lampshaded during Akira's flashback to when he first met the nameless mage, where in trying to sneak up behind him, he very quickly socks her in the face. She identifies it specifically as a "cross counter" as a form of flattery, but Akira points out no, it's just a basic counter.
- Different for Girls: Naturally, as Asuka's been suddenly thrust into the life of a schoolgirl, he's forced to learn a lot on how to handle his new self. Ironically enough, he's generally so well-behaved and modest that Shinobu assumes he originally came from some kind of prim and proper young women's academy, and Akira assumes his personality was also changed from the gender-bending (in reality, Asuka was always just like that).
- Distracted by My Own Sexy: After turning into a girl, Asuka has a bad habit of getting captivated by the cuteness of his own body in the mirror, and finds himself having to snap himself out of it and remind himself that he still wants to be a guy again.
- Dragged into Drag: Yayoi is a little too insistent on putting Asuka in a frilly gothic lolita dress, ostensibly as a means to help him stay at the girl's dorm, but very transparently for their own perverted desires. By the time Asuka does suddenly turn into a girl, he ends up wearing a schoolgirl uniform out of necessity, though whether that counts as crossdressing is a little iffy.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady:
- Asuka himself started off as a very androgynous and pretty boy, with Yayoi insisting that he could already pass as a girl if he cooperated with crossdressing. The only major differences from his male and female appearances aside from his intimate anatomy are being a head-length shorter and a marginally slimmer face.
- Yayoi is biologically male, but passes off as a girl so flawlessly that nobody seems to think of them as anything but one, even Asuka himself at first. Even when Asuka catches Yayoi asleep in just their underwear, he's still in disbelief that they aren't female, which causes some confusion for Asuka as he struggles to determine whether he's attracted to him because Yayoi looks like a woman, or because Asuka himself is becoming more of a woman.
- Dumb Muscle: Akira has the presence of a stoic, very athletic young man, but as Asuka and Yayoi gets to know him more, it's revealed he's also quite ditzy or just generally odd from time to time. When Asuka meets him to discuss his choker (for a meeting Akira himself arranged for), he's busy working out, having completely forgotten why he was there other than to punch a tire swing.
- Elaborate University High: The high school Yayoi — and later Asuka — attends is inexplicably huge and astonishingly ornamented. Its library is said to be as big as a national congressional library, and not only is the cafeteria Asuka gets lunch at in chapter 10 a buffet, it's only one of sixteen different cafeterias on campus.
- Fanservice with a Smile: The cafe Kasumi (and Asuka, briefly) works at provide very short and revealing maid outfits as the waitressing uniforms. Asuka himself ruminates on how they make someone as developed as Kasumi look like a bombshell, while for someone as small as him, it makes him look "almost criminally ecchi".
- Gamer Chick: Asuka is one by technicality. In chapter 10, he brings up how much he loves war shooters to his new classmates, though he ends up getting some confused looks due to how passionately he ends up gushing about them (at best, it seems his classmates are only casual gamers).
- Gender Bender:
- The whole plot is started when Asuka gets the Unwanted Assistance from a witch to fit into the girl's dorm he was accidentally assigned to, which she gives by turning him into a girl. The rest of the series is built around finding a way to turn back.
- In chapter 12, it's revealed that Akira also used to be a woman, transformed by the same witch after his own encounter with her. Unlike Asuka, he has no qualms with staying a guy — his hangup is that he was made into a Bishounen, far less muscular and badass as he'd hoped.
- Gender Bender Angst: Asuka flips around with this; he does revel in several cute and superficially girly things he's allowed to be, but he also really didn't ask to be gender-bent in the first place and would like to go back to being a guy. He also expresses concern that in his enjoyment of being a girl, he might end up completely losing the desire to return to normal over time.
- Gender-Bender Friendship: Asuka strikes up one of these with Shinobu, a classmate from a previous school that he was aware of, but didn't talk to much. Shinobu almost recognizes him, but a haphazard groping of Asuka's breast convinces her that she was mistaken, allowing them to get acquainted as dorm mates.
- Gender-Blender Name: Lampshaded by Asuka in the first chapter, as his gender-neutral name (and looks) are possibly the reason why he was accidentally placed in a girl's dorm.
- Grilling the Newbie: When Asuka gets roped into enrolling at a girl's school as a New Transfer Student, everyone in the class is immediately curious about him until Yayoi gets them to knock it off. To avoid trouble, Asuka and Yayoi end up synthesizing a cover story for him, both to prevent trouble down the line, but privately so that people don't intrude on Yayoi's clinginess.
- History Repeats: Played as a gag for how Akira became acquainted with Hitomi: two years ago on Valentine's Day, Akira holed up behind Hitomi's counter to escape the hordes of girls trying to offer themselves to him. The very next Valentine's Day, the exact same thing happened, only this time Akira had changed from a girl to a boy.
- In Touch with His Feminine Side: While he tries to convince himself otherwise, it's clear that Asuka's appreciation with girly clothes is something that was developed way before he became a girl who could inconspicuously wear them.
- Intimate Marks: The nameless mage possesses strange symbols just above her crotch, which Asuka is subjected to an uncomfortable view of as she grants him the wish that turns him into a woman. Asuka ends up remembering this, and it ends up becoming the first lead in trying to track her down.
- Literal Genie:
- When the nameless mage offers Asuka a wish, he explains to her that he was mistakenly assigned to a girl's dorm despite being a boy. She provides an immediate solution by turning him into a girl.
- The same mage also granted a wish to Akira, and she also misinterpreted him: as an athletic, but still relatively slim girl, he wanted to be strong enough to defeat a martial-arts rival, so she turned him into a hunky man.
- Hitomi also received a wish from the same mage to turn her into a Magical Girl. The end result: she gets the transforming ability and frilly outfit of one, but she lacks any superhuman powers and has asterisks accompanying the ones she does have. She also got snubbed by receiving a blue outfit (as opposed to the pink one of a real protagonist) and also having no villains to fight.
- Living Crashpad: Asuka's encounter with the mage woman involves him casually resting at a park bench only for her to crash onto him out of nowhere. Her "granting" Asuka's wish is done as a quick apology for the harm done.
- Magical Girl: Hitomi was granted the ability to become one of these thanks to a wish with the sorceress years ago, and she still has them even in her thirties. It seems like more trouble than it's worth, though: she can't fly, teleport, shoot projectiles, or really do anything with that stick of hers, and while she has Nigh-Invulnerability, it still hurts and leaves her sore after turning back (her mention of having "100 trillion times the love, courage, and guts" is also listed as a Placebo Effect). The transformation is instant, but she also has to manually change out of the outfit, and not only does its ecchi skimpiness of the outfit not age particularly well with her becoming an adult, it makes for an obscenely awkward moment for when customers happen to walk through the door while in costume.
- Man, I Feel Like a Woman: Asuka doesn't immediately go for it as he gets transformed in a public park, but once he returns to his dorm and has a moment to settle in, he starts getting personally acquainted with his new body, at least until a new sensation makes him realize he doesn't know how to handle it when it comes to the need to go.
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Discussed; Asuka is frequently concerned by his own enjoyment of becoming a girl and the habits he's picked up on, with a fear that even if he manages to become male again, deep down, it might be too late. However, it seems that much of his appreciation of girly things comes from a preexisting taste for them before he even became a girl, and when he finally tries to confront his potential attraction towards Yayoi, he's rather relieved when he feels Yayoi's crotch and reacts with disappointment, affirming that he's still not attracted to men.
- Necessarily Evil: Parodied with Hitomi — she believes the worst thing about her becoming a Magical Girl is that she has no enemies to fight, thinking it to be the most important trait for one to have, even more than The Power of Love or The Power of Friendship.Hitomi: Even if I can transform into a magical girl, as long as there are no enemies to fight, I'm just a cosplayer! There's no point if there isn't some villain messing up the town or wherever!
- Overcomplicated Menu Order: When Asuka is first roped into waitressing, he isn't given a full rundown on the complicated cafe orders ("Sandrip, triple note, make it full moon short"?), and while at first Yayoi is able to provide cue cards in the back, they quickly become too big to fit on a page, let alone process. Asuka instead asks the customers to keep it simple as it's his first day, and that fortunately clears things up.
- Potty Emergency: Asuka's first tribulation upon becoming a girl is realizing he doesn't know how to hold it in, not helped by Yayoi occupying the only bathroom for a shower. After a half-minute, Asuka busts into the room, but in his panic, he forgets that he can't pee standing up anymore and makes a mess of himself.
- Raging Stiffie: Discussed when Asuka reluctantly shares a bath with Kasumi. He rests assured his arousal won't be visible now that he's a girl, but then looks down and sees his clitoris also gets erect—less obviously than a penis, but still easily visible when he's completely naked. Kasumi never brings it up because taking a bath was just a pretext to molest Asuka.A girl's place... gets like this?
- School Swimsuit: For whatever reason, when Kasumi gets Asuka to work as a waitress in chapter 5, she first hands him one of these to change into instead of the uniform. Asuka, his logic briefly overriden by the prospect of finally getting to wear one, puts it on before asking for the proper uniform.
- Second Law of Gender-Bending:
- Asuka dances around this — he does enjoy a lot of the momentary benefits of being a cute girl (especially since he was already quite feminine to begin with), but just as often, this freaks him out as he ultimately really wants to be turned back into a guy, and he doesn't want to be tempted away from this goal.
- Played straight with Akira. Even though getting turned into a man was an accident, he's completely comfortable with staying as a man, with his father immediately accepting his new son and getting him legally recognized as one. The reason he wants to find the sorceress isn't to change back, but rather to be even more muscular and strong than before.
- Skirts and Ladders: During Asuka and Yayoi's expedition to the library in chapter 4, Yayoi takes the ladder, and the view quietly freaks Asuka out for a bit.
- Slippery Soap: The Volume 1 omake is based around Asuka's misfortunes with the soap while trying to take a shower. The series being what it is, soap doesn't merely slip — it ricochets around to hit the most improbable and lewd areas of his new body.
- Splash of Color: The manga is largely black and white, with a few very brief splashes of color for emphasis. Probably the most relevant is when Hitomi complains that her Magical Girl costume is blue of a sub-heroine rather than the pink of an actual main character, with the following illustration depicting the two.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Akira was subject to this, wishing to be the Heir to the Dojo, but getting rejected as it couldn't be passed down to a woman, no matter how strong she was. Once Akira ended up turning into a man, he immediately earned his father's unconditional love and was taught their family's ancestral assassination technique.
- Stock Shōnen Hero: Akira is sort of a parody of this, being good-looking, Hot-Blooded, and the youngest of an ancestral clan who wields a deadly karate technique known as "Gokusatsuken". The twist comes from how he used to be a woman who wasn't originally in the running to be the dojo's heir, having trained since childhood to become mighty powerful enough on her own. Him getting accidentally transformed into a dude drastically sped up the process.
- Stripperiffic:
- For whatever reason, the mysterious mage is always seen wearing nothing but a robe, a dangerously short-skirted top with a boob window, no pants. As she grants Asuka his wish after crushing him, he's treated to a rather awkward flashing of her crotch.
- Hitomi's Magical Girl costume — while frilly — is also very skimpy, even when it did technically fit her as an adolescent. Now that she's in her thirties, she's worried about looking like a flasher — Asuka and Yayoi's reassurance that magical girls these days generally have a little skimpiness to them anyway only makes her feel angry as it reminds her of her age.
- The Tease: Kasumi works at the cafe in a very revealing maid uniform and has no qualms about it looking revealing, and once she finds herself charmed by Asuka's unusual aura, she becomes unhesitatingly flirty and on-hands as she makes him a fellow waitress. She also seems very pleased once she fully confirms that Asuka is into girls.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
- Asuka trying to explain to his new roommate Yayoi that he was suddenly turned into girl goes remarkably smoothly, with Yayoi immediately accepting Asuka's story and situation.
- Hitomi was only mildly fazed by discovering that Akira had turned into a boy, mostly because she quickly realized that him asking for a hiding spot from the legion of girls on Valentine's Day happened two years in a row, once as a woman, the next time as a man.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Downplayed; when Asuka discovers in the first and second chapter that Yayoi — who otherwise appeared as a normal girl who admitted a crush on him — is actually a boy, he's more confused by the fact that it's not the result of the mage changing their gender, and that they're otherwise just a male passing off as a girl for rather unclear personal reasons. Especially as Asuka himself is turned into a woman, he's thrown through a loop on his own conflicting attraction towards Yayoi.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: For some reason, Asuka finds himself waking up in bed with Yayoi in very compromising positions, including with his hand down their underwear, naturally freaking him out.
- Work Off the Debt: Asuka gets roped into waitressing at a cafe in chapter 5 after he eats there but forget to bring his wallet. It's partly motivated by Kasumi admitting they're a bit understaffed, and partly because Kasumi herself is rather... intrigued by Asuka.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Played for Laughs; before Asuka can even begin to explain to Yayoi that he was suddenly turned into a girl by a wizard, Yayoi instantly recognizes and accepts it as fact.Asuka: Wait, you believe me?!
Yayoi: Of course! I believe anything! There's nothing that is beyond the imagination of an adolescent like me!
