Ayakashi Triangle is probably one of the most popular gender bender manga of the last 10 years, alongside other works such as Boku Girl. (Ranma 1/2 has definitely been a pioneer in this genre, but the manga is also extremely dated now). In this post I want to analyze the manga in more detail and give you a reason to read it 🙂
Manga Details
Ayakashi Triangle
あやかしトライアングル
- Status: Ongoing
- Airing: Since 2020
- Author: Yabuki Kentaro
- Artist: Yabuki Kentaro
- 100 Chapters / 9 Volumes
Plot Summary
Basically, there are 3 main characters in Ayakashi Triangle, whose deeds are at the center of the plot.
The most important of them all is Matsuri Kamazaki, a descendant of a ninja exorcist family (yes, sounds a bit weird, just accept it as part of the plot) who as a ninja has the task of exorcising evil ayakashi (Japanese mythical creatures like the nine-tailed fox spirit) as soon as they cause harm. Normal people cannot see these mythical creatures, but they can be possessed by them.
Suzu Kanade is Matsuri’s childhood friend and, because she is a so-called “Ayakashi Medium“, can see Ayakashi. Thus, she shares a unique gift with Matsuri, which sets both of them apart from other children at an early age. A special friendship develops between the two.
Shirogane, the king of the Ayakshi, one day tries to devour the power of the Ayakashi medium Suzu Kanade and therefore attacks her after watching the two of them for a while. Matsuri protects Suzu and succeeds in sealing Shirogane’s power into a scroll. But before he succeeds, Shirogane can cast one last spell. The Ayakashi puts a gender swap curse on Matsuri, with the intention of destroying the relationship of the two childhood friends. Shirogane’s power is henceforth sealed, which is why he turns into an ordinary cat.
There are a lot of other side characters that are important to the individual story arcs, but in essence it is always the aforementioned 3 that are in focus at all times.
The character constellation explained above represents only the first few chapters. Quickly, new characters and problems are introduced, which again put the friendship between Matsuri and Suzu on the line.
Panels & Art Style
The pictures and drawings in this manga are averagely good. From chapter to chapter, there is always a well-done color page at the beginning of a new volume. Basically, there is nothing to complain about here, so the design should not affect your opinion of this manga.
Genre
Please do not underestimate the Ecchi tag on this manga.
Anyone who has ever read a Gender Bender manga before should be aware that you basically can’t get around the topic of “What’s in my pants? Is my little Joestar still there?!” since it’s almost the fundamental charm of the Gender Bender genre. After all, as a mangaka, you have to ask yourself the question, “Why do a Gender Bender if the characters don’t care anyway?”. See! It simply makes no sense to leave this topic out of the comic!
Other genres besides Gender Bender and romance are definitely comedy and of course supernatural (read the story summary above!!!).
The comedy consists mostly of situational jokes, which are mostly based on the lack of intellect or the behavior of certain main characters. For example, there is an English teacher at Matsuri’s high school who likes to run around topless, so he can flex his muscle at everyone. (It later turns out that he is an Ayakashi as well)
Suzu, on the other hand, loves everything that is sweet and sugary, which is also reflected in her character. Matsuri, on the other hand, has basically no idea about women, which doesn’t really help him when his gender suddenly changes. (Everyone should know the classic gender bender “oops this is the wrong bathroom” joke at this point)
When you ignore all the comedy aspects of this manga, there actually is another important thing that makes this a quite interesting read. In the course of the around 100 chapters, Suzu slowly realizes that she has a crush on Matsuri, but is conflicted with the fact that he is now female. Towards the end, she decides to just simply ignore this fact and just goes for it anyway. As a result, this actually turns into something similar to a Yuri manga, which at least I didn’t expect in the slightest.
Conclusion
How you find this manga in the end depends a lot on how receptive you are to a combination of ecchi and gender bender and romance. If that’s not your thing, sorry, maybe you’re more interested in another review from us.
I personally would recommend it to anyone who wants a fun manga and maybe wants to try out some new genres.
Yay! Just took 9000 years to get here but at least theres finally a new blog post after like 7 months or something