Pretty Face, Vol. 1

He wanted to be her boyfriend...

He'll settle for being her twin sister!

When his school bus crashes, teenage karate star Rando is sent into a coma. A year later he wakes up to find that his disfigured face has been reconstructed in the image of his secret crush, Rina! Not knowing what Rando originally looked like, the mad plastic surgeon Dr. Manabe used a photo in Rando's pocket as the model for his reconstructive surgery. Abandoned by his friends and parents, the all-new Rando is mistaken for his would-be girlfriend's long-lost twin sister and adopted into her family. Can he put aside his feelings and be a good "big sister" to Rina...when he's still a teenage boy from the waist down?

Here's a tightly written, cute little shojo manga with promising dramatic undertones. Rando, the high school bully, awakens from an accident-induced coma with the face of Rina, the girl he loves—the plastic surgeon assumed the photo in Rando's pocket was of Rando. Rina's family assumes Rando is Rina's long-lost twin, Yuma. Still besotted, Rando takes up life with his new family as his beloved's best friend and sister. Rando bumbles through the required school physical and uses flirting to attempt to control the karate club, while sweet, shy Rina slowly teaches the former bully to be a good person. Dr. Manabe, Rando's licentious plastic surgeon (say the word, and I'll give you a sex change!), is a total hoot. The art is standard manga, a little cluttered, but it creates strong characters. The story plays for coy laughs and social complexity—Rando must learn to sit with his legs crossed in his school uniform—rather than sex and angst. The result is a story that treads the line between funny and outré: when Dr. Manabe superglues fake breasts on Rando, the effect is hilarious and winsome without ever being cheap. A scene where a slimy teacher attempts to force Yuma/Rando into a sex act definitely makes this for older teens. (Aug.)
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