With these two volumes, Cheeky Angel comes to a close. Although it’s a bit rushed, the conclusion is ultimately fitting.

Warning: spoilers ahead.

Earlier in the series, the gang thwarted plans to marry Miki off to a slimy family associate by pretending that she and Genzo are in love. The rejected suitor, eager to solidify ties with Miki’s rich family, holds a grudge and captures the main cast, subjecting them to all sorts of high-stakes scenarios in an attempt to get them to turn on each other, but it never works. In the end, Miki winds up imprisoned in a tower, watching videos of the hardships her friends are enduring while they attempt to rescue her.

As a plot, this is highly ridiculous and not much different from the same sort of stories we’ve seen all along in this series. I had hoped for something new for the finale, but alas, that was not to be. Still, I like that this setup provides every character with a chance to be their best. Everyone—even traditionally weaker characters like average guy Ichiro and pervy Yasuda—makes a contribution to the effort to rescue Miki, and there are some really nice character moments. Favorites include Genzo’s absolute confidence that Meg would find a way to extricate herself from a prison cell in which she was briefly confined and Miki’s steadfast refusal to succumb to the bad guys’ attempts to make her feel bad that her friends are doing all this on her behalf.

After Miki is safe and life begins to return to normal, Meg shares a sweet smooch with Genzo (Ichiro: “Did he steal your lips?” Meg: “You really think I’d allow it? I stole his.”) and the spell is finally broken. Only two scant chapters deal with the question of Meg’s actual gender. I wish more time had been spent on this topic, but the way it’s presented does provide food for thought, at least.

It turns out that Meg, instead of wishing to be the manliest of men, was always a girl and wished to become a man. Her desire for this seems to be twofold. First, she believes that if she is a guy, that she’ll be able to protect Miki for as long as she is needed. Secondly, she wants to be able to be herself without being influenced by what girls are supposed to do and not do. And so, the genie makes her believe she was always a guy, and though her physical strength and determination are not actually changed, she feels more confident and is able to be herself without worrying so much about expectations. At least, that’s what I got out of it.

Aside from the unoriginal plot here at the end, my one real regret about the finale is that there are no hints at all that Miki and Hitomoji, a former Meg devotee who recently realized that Miki is the perfect girl for him, will ever become a couple. I don’t ask for a full-blown confession scene; a single panel depicting a self-conscious exchange of glances would’ve been enough to make me happy.

Cheeky Angel is not the best manga ever, but if you’re looking for some lighthearted, fanservice-free shounen with a capable heroine and a love interest who respects her competence, then look no further.

The Ideal Woman competition proposed by Megumi’s self-appointed rival, Keiko, continues into volume fourteen. Megumi and Genzo, who have been partnered up for the contest, begin the volume by finishing off a random thug who’d threatened them, and successfully make it to the inn that serves as their goal for the day. After a random chapter in which Keiko and Megumi attempt to scare each other in their supposedly haunted rooms, the competition resumes the next day with a hike through the woods.

Unfortunately, the thugs return and most of the rest of the volume and some of the next is spent on our heroes running around the woods and showing up just in time to protect their friends and thwart the baddies’ plans. I am beyond tired of this kind of plotting and just about equally tired of complaining about it. There are a couple of redeeming things about this arc, however.

First, Hitomoji is paired with Megumi’s best friend, Miki, and seems increasingly intrigued by her. Miki is lady-like, something Hitomoji prizes, but also smart and brave. I think they’d make a great couple. More significantly, when Megumi is captured by the bad guys, Miki gets so upset that it makes her say some odd things about the curse and how Meg was before. It’s a neat twist that I hope proves essential in the conclusion of the series; for now, Miki has forgotten that she ever said anything strange, leaving Hitomoji to try to puzzle things out for himself.

Secondly, Meg and Genzo share what is one of the nicest moments between them yet. Earlier, Genzo barged through a steel door to save Meg from her captors—upon whom she had already inflicted much damage—and now they’re back at the inn, where she approaches him with a first aid kit and an offer to patch him up.

Genzo: If you were a man, you’d be cooler than me. You don’t back down and no one can touch you. I’m almost… jealous.

Meg: I knew you’d come. That’s why I wasn’t scared.

That’s a line that couldn’t be pulled off by just any heroine. Here, instead of coming across as dependent and awed by her masculine protector, it’s clear that Meg is referring to a respect between equals. Even better, Genzo gets it. He won’t try to protect her from situations that he has deemed dangerous, but he’ll have her back, just like he would for a male buddy. Nice.

After a disappointing fizzle to the Ideal Woman competition (the chief contestants both forfeit), Megumi turns sixteen, which prompts her parents, now that she can legally marry, to introduce her to a bunch of eligible guys. She ends up going on a date with one of them—causing Genzo and Ichijo to bemoan their lack of adulthood—but thankfully it doesn’t seem like something that’s going to continue for very long. It’s okay to spend a couple of chapters on how charmed by this guy Megumi is not, but any longer and I’d be bored to pieces.

In the end, these two volumes are an improvement from the few before them and, while I don’t anticipate much of anything new in the final five volumes (prediction: there will be thugs!), I’m still looking forward to seeing how it all ends.

In my review of volumes 1-10 of Cheeky Angel, I wrote, “Sometimes I’m not a fan of episodic storylines, but Cheeky Angel pulls it off because Nishimori-sensei never loses sight of the most important aspect of the story: Megumi’s struggle to choose between accepting her current femininity and finding a way to return to what she once was.”

Unfortunately, this no longer holds true for this trio of volumes. Since the end of volume ten, when Megumi learned that the curse would eventually wear off and she’d revert to boyhood, the series has spent very little time occupying her head. Instead, she is seen almost exclusively from the point of view of other characters, and comes off as extremely changeable, so much so that it’s impossible to know what she’s thinking or feeling about her predicament. Without this unifying focus, Cheeky Angel becomes a string of mostly dissatisfying episodic stories.

That isn’t to say there are no cohesive elements, however. In volume eleven, the idea of a manliness contest is proposed, with Meg and her pals judging each other on how they behave in various situations. Genzo becomes obsessed with the idea of being a man and shrugging off adversity, which comes in handy when he becomes the victim of the curse that had formerly plagued Meg. His stoic acceptance of his fate earns him Meg’s admiration, and his change in attitude also helps him mature. Unfortunately, this also means we’re in for many, many scenes wherein Genzo is challenged by random thugs and must refrain from fighting back.

Many, many scenes.

Focus on the manliness competition fades in the next volume, however, when Meg’s nemesis, Keiko, proposes a womanliness contest, which Meg also agrees to enter. Here’s where some annoying glimmers of sexism arise. Initially, Meg is convinced that the womanliness contest will involve cooking, and she and Genzo agree to participate in a bento-making competition to give her some experience. When Genzo wins, he is berated by the ladies present for not allowing Meg to win. What? Girls need to be coddled so you don’t hurt our pwecious feewings?

Keiko’s got something bigger than cooking in mind, however, and in volume thirteen the idea of a treasure hunt is proposed. Meg’s devoted maid, Yoriko, wants to have some input on the rules, including an evaluation by judges on how well the candidate encourages her male partner. In her effort to convince Keiko, she says, “Drawing out the best in any man is the essence of being a woman. And hasn’t that always been the ultimate measure of womanliness?”

I averted the terrible tragedy of having flames shoot from my eyes by telling myself that perhaps Yoriko doesn’t mean this. It is later revealed, after all, that she stacked the deck in the partner-choosing lottery to ensure Meg would be paired with someone from her group of slightly loserish male friends, whom she would no doubt be called upon to encourage in the course of their adventure.

The treasure hunt starts promisingly but devolves, as all things must do with Cheeky Angel, into a conflict with random thugs. Aside from a few really nice moments—Genzo saving a chick at a summer festival and Yasuda’s clever attempt to get to the bottom of the genie’s wish-granting methods, which may prove important later—these three volumes are extremely disappointing. The series can do better than this; I hope it turns itself around soon.

These first ten volumes of Cheeky Angel have been sitting around my house gathering dust for several years. There’s nothing like agreeing to a manga trade, however, to inspire one to finally read something before it’s gone. I’m glad I did because I ended up enjoying them a good bit.

When rambunctious nine-year-old Megumi Amatsuka and his female pal Miki defend a mysterious wizard from some other kids, Megumi receives a magic book as a reward. From the book emerges a genie and Megumi promptly wishes to be the manliest of men. Instead, the genie turns him into the womanliest of women and tries to extort ten years of Megumi’s life to undo the change. An irate Megumi hurls the book into the river and has been a girl ever since. All records and memories of Megumi ever having been a boy were altered; only Miki remembers the way things used to be.

The story picks up again six years later when Megumi and Miki, steered by the counsel of a psychic, enroll at the neighborhood high school that will theoretically lead them to the book so that the transformation can be undone. Megumi (played in my brain by Summer Glau) has grown outwardly very feminine, but still possesses some masculine attitudes, namely a certain degree of rash fearlessness. Throughout the first few volumes, her looks attract a motley crew of admirers: Genzo the former thug, Ichiro the average guy, Hitomoji the wannabe samurai, and Yasuda the geeky pervert. Although the guys really would prefer for Meg to remain a girl, they nonetheless lend their assistance to her efforts to become a guy again.

I haven’t read many series that were originally published in Shonen Sunday, but Cheeky Angel does share common attributes with two that I have read—Case Closed and Inuyasha. In all three series, there is a larger plot that is touched on from time to time, but most of the story is made up of the episodic adventures (with a dash of comedy) of a likable ensemble of characters. In these ten volumes, Megumi encounters the genie twice more (on the first occasion it places a curse on her and on the second it informs her that the magic will eventually wear off of its own accord), and it’s definitely interesting each time, but more time is spent on foiling the murderous plans of some yakuza, preventing Miki from going through with an arranged marriage, et cetera. Just as no one believes anything fruitful will come of Inuyasha’s encounters with Naraku until the very end, there’s no real chance Megumi will suddenly become a boy again in the middle of this 20-volume series.

Sometimes I’m not a fan of episodic storylines, but Cheeky Angel pulls it off because Nishimori-sensei never loses sight of the most important aspect of the story: Megumi’s struggle to choose between accepting her current femininity and finding a way to return to what she once was. Even during the whole yakuza encounter, this dilemma is at the forefront of Meg’s mind and keeps the series focused even while silliness occasionally ensues. Because of her beauty, guys are continually showing their worst sides around her—coming off as horndogs, chiefly—which makes her question whether she really wants to be one, but then at other times her friends will come through for her in a big way and earn her admiration, reinforcing her “it’s cool to be a guy” belief while simultaneously inspiring some confusing semi-romantic feelings.

While Megumi’s internal indecision is probably the most compelling aspect of the series, her relationships with the other characters are also rewarding. Miki is a very interesting character in her own right, the voice of reason who wants Megumi to stay a girl, but yet questions her own reasons for doing so. Although Miki claims she never thought of the male Megumi in a romantic light, there are hints from time to time that the two of them might’ve had something if Megumi had stayed a guy. Megumi’s effect on her male friends is also nice to see: Genzo makes obvious progress in thinking things through more clearly and restraining his impulses to glomp Meg, and Ichiro surprises himself by displaying courage in some dangerous situations. I also like how their perception of Meg changes from lust object to valued and respected friend, with the possible exception of terminally pervy Yasuda.

On the negative side, the biggest problem Cheeky Angel has is its repetitiveness. I cannot begin to tell you how many times Megumi encounters a couple of lecherous thugs while out in public and kicks them into submission: it happens many, many, many times. And while I completely get that her feelings for Genzo, the forerunner for her affections, would vacillate, depending on how accepting she’s feeling of her feminine side, the cycle of progress followed by backsliding (usually prompted by him doing something moronic) does get a little frustrating. In addition, some of the episodic plots are pretty lame and Meg’s family—a dad who wants to see his own daughter naked and a mother who encourages Meg to let him indulge his curiosity—is profoundly creepy. Thank goodness they appear so rarely.

Artistically, Nishimori is to be commended on a few points. Yes, at first, his characters do occasionally appear to be vaguely cross-eyed, but he also employs a variety of character designs (except for the thugs) that all look Asian. Also of note: there is no fanservice at all in this series! For a manga about a hot chick who might possibly have feelings for her pretty friend, one might reasonably expect there to be something, but there never is. Megumi and Miki generally wear their school uniforms, but on casual outings are dressed either conservatively or in baggy clothing. VIZ’s production doesn’t earn as much praise, however, as there are several terms that could’ve used liner notes and a smattering of occasions where dialogue appears in the incorrect bubble.

Ultimately, Cheeky Angel is a shounen ensemble comedy with a good deal to offer. I read these ten volumes pretty much back-to-back and I could’ve gone on reading more if I’d actually owned them.