UPDATED as of 2/23/15 at 24 chapters. Originally posted 7/08/13 at 15 chapters.

When I read manga, I'm often doing it to relax. It's calming; It doesn't take the same concentration a book does, the plots are formulaic and predictable, and they often meander into silly side stories that don't challenge.

I was hoping that Ame Nochi Hare would be one of these stories and I was half right, but it is also much, much more.

The premise is nothing if not bizarre. Four boys, on their first day of school and a prestigious men's academy, are caught in a spring shower. After the rain stops, they discover that every time it rains, they turn into girls. Now the mechanism isn't very simple, like it is in other gender-bend series: they don't change immediately after the rain starts, they don't change at the same time, and they don't change after it stops either. They don't even have to touch the rain; they just change like the air changes when it rains. The ridiculous situation is managed quite practically: when it rains, the boys stay in the dorm manager's house on campus. They attend the girls school next door, pretending to be cultural exchange students who are taking supplementary lessons.

This story distinguishes itself from your average gender-bend story in two ways: 1) the fact that they turn into girls isn't played for laughs—it's more like an inconvenience or fresh perspective for the characters, and 2) it does a pretty good job avoiding the formulaic predictability of most shoujo.

There is romance, yes, but it is taking a bizarre path. One character, Hazuki, for example, is in love a female student, whilst her older brother is in love with his female alter ego, Tsukiko. There is a romantic tension between two of the female characters. It walks a line between traditional romance shoujo and shounen/shoujo ai like a balancing wire, which is exhilarating to watch. You want to see where it falls. Though I'm usually able to predict the plots of stories easily, I'm finding this one tough to parse out and I've only been able to foresee 3 plot points that weren't obvious. That makes it more fun for those of us who have read a lot of series and know the common cues. I am in eagerly anticipating the upcoming chapters.

And while all that tension exists, creating intrigue and anticipation—where will the love triangles end up? Will the curse be lifted? Will they find happiness?—the series is, at it's core, wrapped up in the tone of a slice of life story. It's meandering and gentle, like Mushishi or Kimi to Boku., with a pensive, poignant tone. I never feel anxious or angry reading it.

The art is, in a word, gorgeous. The watercolor covers are vibrant and remind me of Yumeka Sumomo (Watashitachi no Shiawase na Jikan, Nanairo Sekai) and the page to page art is stunning. One thing I particularly love is the subtlety with which the boys are turned into girls. Their features soften slightly, their height changes a little, their hair might lengthen a smidgen, and their frame is a little curvier. That's it though: no enormous boobs or crazy changes. It's never hard to tell whose who. Sometimes it's hard to know if they've changed! If you were to do a google search on the series (I can't use links here), you would be able to find the covers, which often feature the male characters and their female forms together. It is quite stunning, especially with the main character.

I'd suggest this series to anyone who likes shoujo, shounen ai, or a (I know it sounds slightly oxymoronic) a girly seinen. It's relaxed, fun, weird, beautiful, and charming.