Ai no Shintairiku

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Ai no Shintairiku is a quirky little romance manga by Yamada Nari, following Nikotama Souhei Sara, a cutesy male-to-female transsexual who, much to her mother's frustration, has decided to attend her new school as a girl. On the crowded train heading to her new school, she finds herself standing next to Naruse Kaito, a popular boy at her school for whom she instantly falls for. However, while shuffling up to him in the crowd, she winds up nearly outing herself. After dodging that bullet and getting to school, Sara finds that she's in the same class as Naruse, but after trying to get to know him, is announced to be a boy by the horrifying, gorilla-like teacher.

What follows is a fluffy and light-hearted, if fairly generic, Shoujo series in which Sara works to get Kaito to love her for who she is, tries to bring confidence to girl who's worried about her masculine appearance, and fends off the jealous popular girls. Well, that, as well as ruining her poor, hideous teacher's life.

Ai no Shintairiku was published in 2004 and runs six chapters long. It is currently not licensed anywhere outside Japan.


Tropes used in Ai no Shintairiku include:
  • Beach Episode: Chapter 4.
  • Beautiful All Along: Youga.
  • Bifauxnen: Youga, much to her dismay.
  • Genki Girl: Sara. Oh god, Sara.
  • Gonk: Sara's teacher.
  • Larynx Dissonance: Sara. In one scene she yells at an annoying man, and it seems she goes back to her boy voice which then freaks him out.
  • Love Bubbles: And flowers. And stars. And hearts. Yamada Nari really abused the effects.
  • Transsexualism: Sara, as well as a woman in chapter 4.
  • Unsettling Gender Reveal: Naruse accidently feels up on Sara's bulge in a packed train. There's also Sara's classmates when their teacher reveals Sara's biological sex.
  • Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Sara doesn't want to get revenge on a female antagonist because she still has a guy-body and it "wouldn't be fair". She then says that she'll have to wait until she's a "real girl".