So Cute It Hurts!! Volume 1

“Conceal me what I am, and be my aid for such disguise as haply shall become the form of my intent.” – William Shakespeare (Viola in “Twelfth Night”) 

Comedies which feature crossdressing characters date back centuries. This one mixes it with some slapstick, some geekiness and some historical interest.

So Cute It Hurts!! follows a pair of non-identical twins: brother Mitsuru Kobayashi and his sister Megumu. Both were named after historical figures. However, out of the two of them only Megumu has a love of history. She is something of a history otaku, and her best friends are also otaku (idol-loving Tomo and fujoshi Shizuku). While she goes to a pretty ordinary mixed gender school, Mitsuru goes to a much rougher all-boys school, where he is respected for his mastery of kendo. However, he does have a habit of flirting with girls who may already be in relationships with other boys in the school. 

One day Megumu nearly falls down some stairs but is saved by a stranger. While she ponders their identity, things become more complicated when Mitsuru makes a peculiar request: that they pretend to be each other and swap schools, because Mitsuru is being forced to take extra history lessons. She at first refuses but ends up being forced into the role.

Mitsuru at first struggles at Megumu’s school, but things change when he discovers that one of the school’s star pupils and the daughter of the school chairman, Azusa Tokugawa, is in fact a horrible bully. Mitsuru stops her from picking on a girl called Shino Takenaka, whom he later discovers is deaf. Mitsuru decides to start learning sign-language so that Shino can be friends with Tomo and Shizuku, although Azusa is plotting her revenge.

Megumu meanwhile finds herself being chased by one of the other boys in Mitsuru’s school, because Mitsuru has been seeing this boy’s girlfriend. While being chased, Megumu climbs onto the roof where she spots a boy in an eyepatch, and immediately realises that this boy, Aoi Sanada, is not only the one who stopped her from falling down the stairs, but is also the strongest boy in the school and therefore the most respected. 

Thus start two relationships. Mitsuru forms affections for Shino, while Megumu starts to fall for Aoi; and that is just the main relationships. Things become even more complicated for the other minor characters leading to extra comic misunderstanding.

Some readers might be simply confused at first by having to follow two separate plots, with Megumu pretending to be a boy, Mitsuru pretending to be a girl, and each storyline following them separately. However, it is a lot easier to follow than it first appears. The story is rather fun. You have plenty of humour in it, mostly comic slapstick. For example, there is a scene in which Megumu is forced to take part in a fight. She panics, and as her opponent throws a punch Megumu launches herself headfirst and headbutts her foe in the groin; or to put it another way, she nuts his nuts.

The way that all the characters develop in this first volume is interesting: not just the main ones but the minor characters as well. For example, Mitsuru decides to trick Azusa by getting back into boys’ clothes and pretending he is a different pupil altogether. This ends up with Azusa wondering if she has feelings for Mitsuru.

This has been a fun manga so far and one that is worth continuing.