Cheeky Angel

Cheeky Angel (天使な小生意気, Tenshi na Konamaiki) is a 1999-2003 manga series by Hiroyuki Nishimori.

9-year-old Megumi is a rough-and-tumble boy with poor manners who always gets into fights. One day, as he and his friend Miki are playing by the river, Megumi rescues a mysterious old man from some thugs. In return, the old man gives him a magic book with a wish-granting spirit who grants Megumi a single wish. Megumi wishes to be a big, strong, manly man. The catch: the spirit is a trickster spirit who always reverses the wishes he grants... so Megumi is transformed into a girl. In frustration, Megumi throws the book into the river. He and Miki run home, to find that everyone else's memories have been altered: only Miki and Megumi remember that Megumi was ever a boy.

Fast forward six years. Miki and Megumi are just entering High School, and Megumi has grown to be a tall, gorgeous girl with waist-length hair that Miki forbids her to cut. Megumi still vows to find the book... if she can dodge the attentions of the school bully and of the Megumi Instant Fanclub....

The "cheeky angel" is Megumi, not the trickster spirit responsible for the curse.


 * Airplane of Love
 * Alpha Bitch: Keiko.
 * Arranged Marriage
 * Beam of Enlightenment
 * Be Careful What You Wish For
 * Bifauxnen
 * Big Fancy House: At least four of them.
 * Bird Run
 * Boke and Tsukkomi Routine
 * Butt Monkey: Fujiki.
 * Cannot Spit It Out
 * The Chikan
 * Class Trip
 * Cooking Duel
 * Cool Big Sis: Genzo happens to have one.
 * Crossdresser: In episode 7.
 * The Danza: Megumi Hayashibara as Megumi Amatsuka,
 * Delinquents: Whole squads of them, found lurking around every street corner and at the beck and call of any of the main characters' rivals.
 * Different for Girls: Several variations; most prone to Kick the Dog moments.
 * Discretion Shot
 * Dude, She's Like, in a Coma
 * Dude, Where's My Reward?: Megumi wishes to become a "man among men". The Genie makes her a girl instead.
 * Face Fault
 * Failure Is the Only Option
 * Festival Episode
 * Foe Yay: Megumi/Keiko; Keiko describes Megumi as "So beautiful that she can capture your soul." Megumi also had a moment with Keiko that her friends assumed was Megumi flirting with Keiko.
 * Functional Magic
 * Gender Bender
 * Goldfish Scooping Game
 * Groin Attack: Megumi's favorite Finishing Move; It's how she "introduced" herself to Genzo.
 * Harem Genre: "Reverse Harem" variant.
 * Hexagonal Speech Balloon: Variant: round, rather than hexagonal.
 * Hidden Eyes
 * Hostage for McGuffin
 * Hot Shounen Mom: Tsubasa.
 * Idiot Crows
 * Inaction Sequence
 * Instant Fanclub
 * Instant Seiza: Subversion: Keiko takes advantage of being pinned under Fujiki to scream and accuse him of being a pervert, in order to knock Megumi down a peg.
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy
 * Jackass Genie: Or so it seems...
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Genzo.
 * Karma Houdini:
 * Kid Samurai: Kobayashi.
 * Kimodameshi
 * Let's Get Dangerous:
 * Les Yay: Megumi and Miki. Fortunately for Kenzo and Kobayashi,.
 * Life Energy
 * Love Letter Lunacy
 * Megaton Punch
 * Megumi Hayashibara: Sadly, this 2002-03 series has been her last anime leading role, other than the title character of Paprika and reboots of past franchises.
 * The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Several characters lampshade how well Megumi seems to function as a girl between her Different for Girls moments.
 * Missing Mom: Megumi's mother spends most of the story in Europe.
 * Noblewoman's Laugh: Keiko.
 * Non-Action Guy: Yasuda.
 * Not a Date
 * One Head Taller:
 * Ordinary High School Student: Fujiki.
 * Paper Fan of Doom
 * Pervert Dad: Megumi's dad is occasionally fantasizing about his daughter, and building secret passages to access her room.
 * Pet the Dog: Keiko gets one of these moments near the end.
 * Quirky Household
 * Recap Episode
 * Reset Button Ending
 * The Rival: Played for laughs.
 * Second Law of Gender Bending: Implied.
 * Scary Shiny Glasses
 * Schoolgirl Lesbians
 * The Short Guy with Glasses: Yasuda.
 * Slap Slap Kiss
 * Snap Back: What Kobayashi hears during the Yamato Nadeshiko Cup.
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
 * The Thing That Goes Doink
 * Third Law of Gender Bending: Megumi has an awfully girly wardrobe for someone who claims to be a boy.
 * Trickster
 * True Companions: Grown out of the Instant Fanclub.
 * Tsundere
 * A Twinkle in the Sky: A frequent fate of Genzo and some other male characters when they step out of line.
 * Two-Teacher School: The "zero teachers" variant.
 * Unwanted Harem: Very unwanted at first.
 * Written Sound Effect
 * Yamato Nadeshiko: There's even a "YamatoNadeshiko Cup" at one point.