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Cheeky Angel
Manga Review
Although it sounds like the name to a porno film, what it really is, is the best gender-bender comedy since Ranma 1/2. Megumi Amatsuka, a rough and tumble nine-year-old boy (and martial arts enthusiast), always dreamed of becoming the "manliest man on earth." Upon receiving a book of magic from a sorcerer whom he saved from a group of local thugs, Megumi summons a genie in order to make a wish. But due to a sick twist of fate, the genie turns out to be one with a hearing disorder, and Megumi winds up being the "womanliest woman on earth"!
 Six years later...Megumi has hit puberty and been transformed into the epitome of feminine pulchritude...meaning he/she's totally hot. Megumi is the most desirable girl in school, but deep within her hot-mama facade is the same trash-talkin', punk-stompin' boy.
Not only do all the boys in school admire her charisma (and bone-crushing strength), some have gone so far as to become her self-appointed bodyguards. How will they react when Megumi tells them her secret? And worse still, Genzo, the baddest dude in town, is totally in love with him/her!
One of the most popular titles in Japan today, Hiroyuki Nishimori's A Cheeky Angel brings gender rending comedy and inappropriate slapstick silliness to a new level. Hiroyuki Nishimori previously wrote and drew the 38-volume Kyo Kara Ore Wa!!, which sold 33 million copies in Japan. Winner of the 46th annual Shogakukan cartoon prize, Nishimori's other works include the two-volume Maku Kiken Na Nampa Deka and the co-creation of the four-volume series Spinout.
Below: Artwork from the Cheeky Angel manga (translated into English).
Reviewed by Brian Cirulnick, April 2006
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