The Gender-Bending genre. A genre that has mostly inclined for comedy, for understandable reasons. Men and women are quite different between each other, both physically and psychologically. Placing a man's psyche in a woman's body provokes humor because of the contrasts between the unfamiliarity of the situation and the previous familiarity of being in one's body. Ranging from works like Boku Girl to Baka and Test, men who possess feminine appearances are treated as a comedic exercise. Few works truly delve into the question: "What if you were a girl instead of a guy?" and vice versa in a serious manner. The closest example is Wandering Son, a manga that starred a Trans girl and guy. Keep in mind however, that gender-benders usually didn't ask to have their genders changed. Trans people in real life generally want to change their genders due to a variety of reasons.

Shishunki Bitter Change is a refreshing change of pace that deconstructs the gender bender genre, though not in the sense that Evangelion did. Evangelion's dissection of mecha tropes were used to generate horror and other macabre emotions, while musing on the philosophy of the human mind. Shishunki Bitter Change lacks the horror of Evangelion and replaces it with a careful exploration of different changes, all bitter. There are two elementary school children. They are Yuuta and Yui. While bickering among themselves, they find that their bodies have swapped. From this point on, they have to deal with the typical burdens of life whilst dealing with the uncomfortable experience being in someone else's body. Things like romance and familial relationships are made worse by this uncomfortable contrast from desire and reality. However, because of this experience, Yuuta and Yui have bonded inadvertently, becoming good friends as they try to cope with this experience. Their interactions with the various side characters, from the stoic but understanding Kazuma to the enthusiastic Hikaru allow the main characters to shine, moving the plot forward.

It has a fairly slow pace, but that is not a problem. After all, their lives have changed drastically. What's the point in seeing how they react to this if we the readers do not see their lives play out? This is something commendable on the author's part. The art is nothing spectacular. It's simple and clean, but otherwise unremarkable. The character designs are cute, but not cute enough to provoke feelings of moe. For example, you never see Yui in a maid outfit. There's no otaku pandering in this story that I can recall, which is a relief considering how "cute girls doing cute things" is the norm nowadays.

In conclusion, it was a surprising manga that averted and deconstructed much of the cliches of the gender-bender genre without being too blatant about it. Some deconstructions don't have to be completely horrifying, such as Evangelion. After all, life isn't completely full of deceit and horror. Life is also full of bittersweet moments, nostalgia, longing, desire, and the like. Not every change in the manga was for the worse. But overall, it was a bitter change.