Title: Futari Switch Vol. 3
Author: Akira Hiramoto
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 180
Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy, Supernatural
Publication Date: July 28, 2026
The Story
We pick up with Ichigo and Shinichi swapping back in the middle of the fight with Da Second Sonz. As soon as Ichigo realized what happened, she got off the toilet and sprinted to where she just was in Shinichi’s body… minus her underwear. After handing Da Second Sonz a decisive defeat, they celebrate the fact that they got their bodies back… for now.
As they were walking, they heard a voice behind them telling them that the bitter melon got kidnapped. When they turn around, they see a dog with a parrot on its head. The dog, by way of the parrot, tells them about the bitter melon, where it came from, how he named it Shingo, and that it was kidnapped. He also stated the obvious… that the bitter melon was responsible for their body swapping, and unless they get them back, the clock is ticking, and they would most likely swap again.
Before they could even formulate a plan, the mysterious woman appears, attempting to kidnap the dog. Ichigo attempts to fight back, but they soon realize that she’s professionally trained in combat… so… they have to resort to some rather underhanded tactics. Those tactics only stall her, and she soon follows them to school! Can they get away from her and find a way to rescue Shingo?
Characters
Character-wise, we mainly get development on the bitter melon, now named Shingo, and the dog, who was body-swapped with a scientist named Dr. Akujirou. Dr. Akujirou was the one who discovered Shingo and had been conducting research on him when he overheard that his funding was about to be pulled, and his lab was handed over to a mad scientist. He didn’t like the sound of that, but right when things were about to happen, he got body-swapped with the dog. He escaped with Shingo, and that’s how he ended up in Ichigo and Shinichi’s apartment. It is a bit of a far-fetched backstory, but it all lines up and ties everything together so far. Dr. Akujirou is on the older side and starting to go senile, too, so when he was retelling his history, he literally started at the beginning when he was born. He rambled a lot before getting to the point, so this gave his character a nice comedic side to it. He’s capable, yet bumbling at the same time.
We still don’t know this mysterious woman’s name, but it’s pretty obvious that she’s trained for combat. She’s interested in Shingo… or more like… she’s interested in Dr. Akujirou. For what reason, we don’t know yet, but she is quite the mean fighter, and she does have a rather womanly weakness! While she is a serious character, she also is comedic because of the things that happen to her. Also, for someone who is a trained combatant, she sure does get shafted by a high school student far too often, which adds to her indirect comedic side!
Final Thoughts
This volume went by rather quickly as it was bookended by some pretty nice action scenes. It did a pretty good job diving into the mystery behind Shingo, the Bitter Melon, too, but it didn’t do much in the way of explaining everything, which is a good thing. What this did was set up a bit of drama by confirming that Shingo is the reason they swapped bodies, and set up an unknown countdown timer for them to swap back. How they swapped is known, but why they swapped was merely implied. In other words, it seems as if Shingo can only activate his body-swapping powers in moments of emotional distress. It happened when Dr. Akujirou told him that he may be dissected, and it happened again when Ichigo and Shinichi were about to hit the floor and die, but the latter didn’t constitute any direct emotional distress to Shingo, though.
So, it’s safe to assume that the emotional distress can be caused by things that can happen to him, or simply witnessing stressful things that cause an emotional reaction, because under any normal circumstance, Shingo could have just watched them fall to their deaths and done nothing. After all, he wasn’t in any danger, but that shows Shingo does have compassion for others. For a bitter melon-shaped alien, he’s actually becoming quite the character.
Also, I’m still enjoying the romance aspect of the series. I still like that our main characters have romantic interests with supporting characters and not one another. I’m still not convinced that things will end up that way, though. I feel as if Ichigo and Shinichi will end up together, but I think it’s going to take a lot of effort to get there. Then again, in Shinichi’s case, he may have the best shot out of the two of them to prove me wrong… especially after a little scene at school!
Overall, another solid volume, and I have to say… maybe this series got a new translator or decided to ditch A.I. because the dialogue actually felt coherent this time around. Let’s hope that quality change will continue moving forward.
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press
