A short and sweet romance manga that's mainly focused on uplifting and not fetishizing.

I think some context is needed to understand my thoughts regarding Bra Girl. If you’re an anime fan, chances are that you may have encountered futanari as a concept. Briefly, for those not in the know, “futanari” (literally “dual form”) generally refers to illustrated hermaphroditism -- fictional characters with characteristics indicative of two sexes. While depiction varies (for example, they can be depicted as having or lacking scrotum and some lack vaginas), futanari or “futas” are nigh-exclusively female-presenting and, to differentiate them from a somewhat-similar-type-of-character-that-begins-with-a-”T”-that-I-will-not-say-the-name-of-as-to-not-offend-any-potential-reader, they’re generally depicted as being buxom. Second to knowing what futas are, for this review, it’s important to know how they’re employed. Futanari are largely fetishistic in nature; being almost completely relegated to the works of hentai. You can see this for yourself by using the “browse manga” function and searching with the “futanari” tag. If you check the “Hentai” box, you’ll be met with a wealth of results. Searching non-hentai with the tag nets you two results: this and a manga known as Peephole, which, to my knowledge, doesn’t seem particularly focused on the topic. While we could have an entire discussion and a half about the fetishization of archtype-and-or-lifestyle-choice-that-rhymes-with-”cap”-that-I-will-not-say-the-name-of and how that’s problematic, at the very least, these types of characters do appear in non-sexual works, even if they’re unfortunately not given main character roles. Luka from Steins;Gate is one of those types of characters and he’s among my favorite anime characters.

All of this is to say that it’s very marvel for Bra Girl to be as chaste as it is considering its subject matter.

In the world of Swing Girl*, as of late, young women are increasingly developing penises, which naturally causes many a teenager mental and social anguish. One of these teenagers is Ooi Haruka, a shy young woman who feels great shame towards her newfound penis and loathes her crush somehow finding out about it. Her outlook begins to change when she is introduced to a group of students who call themselves the “Swing Girls.” They’re all young women who’ve developed penises and together, they might just help Haruka feel good in her own skin.

Much like the previous work I reviewed, there really isn’t much to Swing Girl. The difference here is that I really appreciated what little there was.

Bra Girl isn’t exactly what I’d call “wholesome.” For one I loathe the overuse of the word and won’t use it unless absolutely necessary. More importantly, however, it liberally employs random panty shots and it has instances of toplessness. Granted, things don’t ever get too hot and heavy, but it’s possible to get tantilated while reading this. Some have described this as “borderline ecchi,” but, even as a degenerate, I can tell this is squarely into ecchi territory. It’s definitely not something I’d recommend to someone who balks at sexuality.

Which is a bit of a shame since this manga is so affirmative and feel-good. While not “wholesome,” it’s, I don’t know, “tender?” It’s chaste enough that I thought glibly calling this part of the “Pockey Reviews Ecchi Show” felt innapropriate.

Swing Girl typically follows Haruka as she gets to know a member of the club. The two play off of each other and assuage each other’s anxieties. It’s really cute to see these people find out they’re not alone and grow as people. Along with this, we are treated to Haruka pursuing a budding romance with a young man, pushing aside her insecurities in order to be with the one she’s enamoured with. If I’m being perfectly honest, the romance is quite barebones, but it’s been established at this point that I’m a sucker for romance and I was quite happy to see him accept her for who she was.

While it’s ecchi, it doesn't really detract from these sweet moments. It would be easy for the manga to ogle at the girls’ penises, but that never really happens. The penises themselves are shown infrequently. They’re never uncovered and the occasional bulges that are shown aren’t particularly detailed. Haruka and Ryouichi never even have sex. The choice to never refer to the women as “futanari” is a deceptively simple one. As established, “futanari” is a very sexually charged term; when one hears the word, they don’t think of a person, they think of a fetish. In Bra Girl, the women depicted aren’t “futanari,” they’re simply women who just so happen to have penises. If I had to put a genre to this, I’d call it “conscious ecchi.”

From a certain angle, one can look at Swing Girl and draw parallels to real-life transgender individuals; the so-called “Swing Girls” find themselves different from what society considers the “correct” gender-sex pairing and feel great anxiety due to this. Their connection to similar individuals is what gives them the strength to move forward. But as a cis individual, I feel like that’s not my call to analyze. I could be totally off the mark and this might be extremely offensive to trans or genderqueer individuals (I can think of examples how it can be), so I’ll defer this judgement to more qualified individuals. That said, it’s at least worth thinking about, as the mangaka themselves stated that they “wanted to draw a romance manga based off the theme of dissonance between body and gender.”

You can also feasibly take the “Bra Girls” to be stand-ins for feminine adolescence in general: looking for underwear that fits their new bodies, not being ashamed of new biological developments, trying on new swimsuits, feeling you’re not worthy of affection, and yes, even grappling with sex, as sexuality is something that most of us deal with. Whatever you take Swing Girl to be a metaphor for, it's certainly meant to be uplifting.

I also found the art quite cute.

At eight chapters, there isn’t much to Bra Girl. It could stand to be longer. It not being a ten is because, at such a short length, there was little the manga could do to blow me away. As is, however, it’s short and sweet much like Vanilla Chocolate Cigarette. I was surprised at how consciously it handled its subject matter while still sprinkling in a bit of humor. If you’re looking for a cute, short manga about an oft-unexplored subject, then Swing Girl might just be for you.

8/10
B-

While both Myanimelist and Anilist list the English translation of the title as “Bra Girl,” that would really only make sense if the Japanese title was ブラガール, as “ブラ” or “Bra” is the Japanese word for “bra.” The title is instead ぶらガール with “ぶら” or “bura” meaning “swing.” I’m not really buying that it’s supposed to be a pun, (as Bulla/Bra is a Dragon Ball character whose name is a pun and its rendered as “ブラ”) but I guess_ lingerie is a part of the story, and I don’t know enough about Japanese puns to make that call, so I’m showing the possible pun nature by interchangeably referring to the manga as both “Bra Girl” and “Swing Girl.”