What do you think?
Rate this book
お金がないっ コミック版 [Okane ga Nai / Comic] #Spin-off
変身できない [Henshin Dekinai]
美麗オカマの染矢は、自動車整備士で元ヤンキーの本田に一目惚れされ“愛車の無料修理”を条件にデートの誘いを受ける。初めは男とは知らない本田をからかおうとした染矢。しかし男だと知っても態度を変えない本田の意外な包容力に魅せられた染矢は――!?
186 pages, Paperback
First published March 24, 2011
2 people are currently reading
81 people want to read
About the author
Tohru Kousaka
23 books28 followersKousaka-sensei's doujinshi circle is called "Sadistic Mode", which includes Hitoyo Shinozaki. They share a website.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 14, 2016
4.5 stars
This is spin off from お金がないっ 1 Okane ga Nai 1 . But it's nothing like it. It was actually a cute, sweet, low angst yaoi, and funny as hell. I had a good laugh on this one. Loved it!
This is spin off from お金がないっ 1 Okane ga Nai 1 . But it's nothing like it. It was actually a cute, sweet, low angst yaoi, and funny as hell. I had a good laugh on this one. Loved it!
Read
February 15, 2026Spinoffs are rather peculiar as far as fictional works go. They are almost by definition ancillary but by their very existence they allow for a kind of perspective shift that I find fascinating. The hierarchical structure in terms of a character's importance in any given narrative tends to be set in stone, one views the narrative as being the vehicle for the protagonist's experience, first and foremost. While the relative weight of this character may vary, and thus also the extent to which the narrative serves to tell their story, this is such a common template that one finds it across books, movies, manga, what have you.
Spinoffs recast this portioning out of relevance by allowing secondary characters to be in the limelight. This makes them kin to doujin and fanfiction, which may have played a role in this particular case as the mangaka is also a doujinka. And, interestingly enough, he has full creative control here.
A spinoff's very existence also raises very interesting meta-questions regarding canonicity. Some can create their own canon, that exists entirely apart from the main title, others have a more fluid relationship. And inevitably, questions of quality also arise- often in close connection, too- as a spinoff is read in relation to the parent work. It rarely surpasses it.
In some cases, though, it absolutely does surpass it. And that is what we have here, to my utter and complete shock.
As I have mentioned before, one of the reasons why Okane ga Nai has captured my attention is precisely how uncertain I am as to whether it is actually satire. I lean against it but then something like Henshin Dekinai makes me question it all over again. Because not only is HD superior in every single regard- more on that later- as it is so by writing in opposition to OgN.
It is no exaggeration to say that HD manages to accomplish actual character growth, romance, and an arc in a single volume, the basics of which OgN have yet to be covered in 9 (that I have read) volumes. Part of it is that it has to do so, being a single volume production but it absolutely does deliver.
So, who takes the center stage in this spinoff? Someya, already an established character in his own right, the sexy, sassy and in-control crossdresser and the rough around the edges, car enthusiast, former youth gang member, Honda, introduced in volume 8. So already we have contrasting personalities as Someya is polished and always extremely produced while Honda is the delinquent type. But unlike the main pairing, there is no power imbalance. Their being very different people is used for comic effect but also to allows us to see how they actually interact as a couple.
This even transpires in better visual storytelling. Someya has always been one of the best drawn characters. In HD we see him in masculine apparel for the first time and his design, while very much on the more feminine side, does not clash with Honda's in quite the same was Ayase and Kano's do. Let's just say that Someya and Honda actually appear like members of the same species.
More, the different presentation in Someya's case- already beautifully rendered in the cover, which outshines OgN- is linked to his state of mind. Ayase wears trippy Visual Kei looks that I suspect are just Kano's taste, we have no idea what he likes to wear- or very little- as he is denied any sense of actual self for most of the story. But Someya is entirely different. In Someya's case, the fashion is not just crucial but it is even connected to his conflict as a genderqueer person.
Here, HD really and truly shines. Instead of eliding the experience of queer people, which is something BL does tend to do, it embraces it but in its very peculiar and particular twist. In flashbacks that are actually meaningful, we find out that Someya always wanted to please his father, that he worked his hardest to go to law school in the hopes of becoming a lawyer like said father. This was his primary concern and one really feels for a child who is this deprived of love and attention. We also are introduced to Someya's reasons for loving butterflies, it is their transformative power, to become beautiful, that he admires. If he, too, could grasp this, he could become someone admirable. Crossdressing becomes this for him.
The manga does not name Someya's relation to gender as trans, and since he actually states that he is man, several times, and uses masculine pronouns when speaking as himself (as opposed to at the store, where he uses feminine one, even correcting himself at one point), I think referring to the character as "he" makes sense.
Be it as it may, gender expectations and going against them play a massive role in Someya's character and already pre-exist his association with Honda. It is this idea of a past as lived experience, explored through flashbacks and through remembrance that flesh out his character in ways that, again, OgN could never. There, the flashbacks are more a muddle than anything else and rarely truly shape anyone as much as they present the plot. In HD the flashbacks feel part and parcel of Someya, of how the came to be and of who he is.
If Honda remains much more of a cipher, that is to be expected. In relation to OgN, it is odd that he went from a raging homophobe to someone who embraces the fact that Someya is a man- which he did not know at first, either- but taking HD as more its own thing, he is a tremendously supporting, kind and still very whacky character.
Honda is, in many ways, the anti-Kano. His entire point is consent. In fact, the manga goes to the extent of having him ask for explicit, informed, enthusiastic consent during sex. This is so radically opposed to the parent manga that it has to be deliberate.
While Kano tears down every single act of agency on Ayase's part and often insults him, Honda expresses his admiration for Someya many times and treats him with immense respect. Even earlier on, when they are on their first weird date, Honda praises Someya's running his own store and being independent. Honda finds Someya's being his own person, in the teeth of opposition, against all discrimination, to be absolutely grand and actually verbalizes it.
Which is not to say that we do not get plenty of conflict between the two. Someya does not take him seriously, at first, he is then too upset over yet another dose of rejection on the part of his father to even consider him as a romantic prospect and it takes a lot of back and forth before they are on an even footing. But they get there. Honda is even perfectly capable of meeting Someya's father, donning perfectly acceptable salaryman clothing to do so, and employing respectful language. He is aware that acting out would not work here and it may very well what eventually wins Someya over.
We end up with an actual love story, with an entirely consensual and beautiful sex scene. When Honda proposes to marry Someya, complete with going through the traditional lines, it actually feels earned despite their not knowing each other that long. It is also, by far, the most moving scene the OgN universe has produced.
In fact, Someya and Honda's relationship strikes that sweet spot between energetic banter and romance. Someya can drop the mask of flawlessness that he wears, giving us, the reader, a more human version of who is but this vulnerability does not turn him into a passive partner. He remains snarky toward Honda and perfectly capable of holding his own. Honda is very protective, even though Someya can hold his own and would easily beat him up, but he does not expect Someya to just fold and follow his every whim.
It is probably not incidental that Honda visits Someya at the store, several times. There is no expectation of Someya stopping to run his store and that shows an acceptance of all aspects of Someya's life. If it may seem strange to highlight this- after all, it should be taken for granted- let us not forget that this is a spinoff of a manga in which a man in his late twenties kidnaps an older teenage, keeping him as a sex slave, forcing him to lose his apartment, borderline (or actually, I'm unsure) drop out of college, systematically threatening in all sorts of ways (including leaking sex videos so as to ruin his life even more thoroughly, destroying everything he owns- alongside the photographs of his dead parents (!)- selling him, etc) while routinely abusing him in virtually every single way possible.
To put things into perspective, Kano nearly had a fit at the mere thought of Ayase working in Someya's store, Honda is proud of Someya for running it.
I am almost certain that HD came about as a reaction to OgN. Someya is very popular and the mangaka decided to give him his own story. To retread the same dynamic would not only be redundant as Someya's character is too well established for that. Whatever the reasons may be, the result is as satisfying as it is suprising.
It is sad that HD is a spinoff. Only OgN fans are likely to even pick it up, which limits the readership considerably. Plenty of prospective readers, who are very likely to enjoy it, are also not likely to come near it because OgN is, well, what it is.
The good news is that the main manga has incorporated this new couple as well. Volume 9 already features them and they even get a few shorter chapters dedicated to them. The contrast is only starker, HD kept Kano and Ayase as background characters, having them actually feature prominently with all the toxic insanity and then Honda and Someya, reframes the toxic insanity as even more toxic and insane.
Perhaps it is not so weird that this spinoff should be superior as OgN is just a disaster. But it is still quite an experience, seeing this mangaka create something so moving, sweet and even funny. Henshin Dekinai even has a connection to genre. In 2D culture the term "henshin" (transformation) has been tied to Sailor Moon and notions of the empowering role of magic in the feminine. It is one of those words that fans of Magical Girl know. Given Someya is arguably tapping precisely into this, it is very likely a nod. He never posits it in these terms but even the butterfly theme, that is actual text, is also alluded to in SM. Whether intentional or not, it provides a lenses through which to read HD that would make it more relevant than might seem at first blush.
Would I kill for this spinoff becoming a multivolume series? Yes. Yes, I would.
Spinoffs recast this portioning out of relevance by allowing secondary characters to be in the limelight. This makes them kin to doujin and fanfiction, which may have played a role in this particular case as the mangaka is also a doujinka. And, interestingly enough, he has full creative control here.
A spinoff's very existence also raises very interesting meta-questions regarding canonicity. Some can create their own canon, that exists entirely apart from the main title, others have a more fluid relationship. And inevitably, questions of quality also arise- often in close connection, too- as a spinoff is read in relation to the parent work. It rarely surpasses it.
In some cases, though, it absolutely does surpass it. And that is what we have here, to my utter and complete shock.
As I have mentioned before, one of the reasons why Okane ga Nai has captured my attention is precisely how uncertain I am as to whether it is actually satire. I lean against it but then something like Henshin Dekinai makes me question it all over again. Because not only is HD superior in every single regard- more on that later- as it is so by writing in opposition to OgN.
It is no exaggeration to say that HD manages to accomplish actual character growth, romance, and an arc in a single volume, the basics of which OgN have yet to be covered in 9 (that I have read) volumes. Part of it is that it has to do so, being a single volume production but it absolutely does deliver.
So, who takes the center stage in this spinoff? Someya, already an established character in his own right, the sexy, sassy and in-control crossdresser and the rough around the edges, car enthusiast, former youth gang member, Honda, introduced in volume 8. So already we have contrasting personalities as Someya is polished and always extremely produced while Honda is the delinquent type. But unlike the main pairing, there is no power imbalance. Their being very different people is used for comic effect but also to allows us to see how they actually interact as a couple.
This even transpires in better visual storytelling. Someya has always been one of the best drawn characters. In HD we see him in masculine apparel for the first time and his design, while very much on the more feminine side, does not clash with Honda's in quite the same was Ayase and Kano's do. Let's just say that Someya and Honda actually appear like members of the same species.
More, the different presentation in Someya's case- already beautifully rendered in the cover, which outshines OgN- is linked to his state of mind. Ayase wears trippy Visual Kei looks that I suspect are just Kano's taste, we have no idea what he likes to wear- or very little- as he is denied any sense of actual self for most of the story. But Someya is entirely different. In Someya's case, the fashion is not just crucial but it is even connected to his conflict as a genderqueer person.
Here, HD really and truly shines. Instead of eliding the experience of queer people, which is something BL does tend to do, it embraces it but in its very peculiar and particular twist. In flashbacks that are actually meaningful, we find out that Someya always wanted to please his father, that he worked his hardest to go to law school in the hopes of becoming a lawyer like said father. This was his primary concern and one really feels for a child who is this deprived of love and attention. We also are introduced to Someya's reasons for loving butterflies, it is their transformative power, to become beautiful, that he admires. If he, too, could grasp this, he could become someone admirable. Crossdressing becomes this for him.
The manga does not name Someya's relation to gender as trans, and since he actually states that he is man, several times, and uses masculine pronouns when speaking as himself (as opposed to at the store, where he uses feminine one, even correcting himself at one point), I think referring to the character as "he" makes sense.
Be it as it may, gender expectations and going against them play a massive role in Someya's character and already pre-exist his association with Honda. It is this idea of a past as lived experience, explored through flashbacks and through remembrance that flesh out his character in ways that, again, OgN could never. There, the flashbacks are more a muddle than anything else and rarely truly shape anyone as much as they present the plot. In HD the flashbacks feel part and parcel of Someya, of how the came to be and of who he is.
If Honda remains much more of a cipher, that is to be expected. In relation to OgN, it is odd that he went from a raging homophobe to someone who embraces the fact that Someya is a man- which he did not know at first, either- but taking HD as more its own thing, he is a tremendously supporting, kind and still very whacky character.
Honda is, in many ways, the anti-Kano. His entire point is consent. In fact, the manga goes to the extent of having him ask for explicit, informed, enthusiastic consent during sex. This is so radically opposed to the parent manga that it has to be deliberate.
While Kano tears down every single act of agency on Ayase's part and often insults him, Honda expresses his admiration for Someya many times and treats him with immense respect. Even earlier on, when they are on their first weird date, Honda praises Someya's running his own store and being independent. Honda finds Someya's being his own person, in the teeth of opposition, against all discrimination, to be absolutely grand and actually verbalizes it.
Which is not to say that we do not get plenty of conflict between the two. Someya does not take him seriously, at first, he is then too upset over yet another dose of rejection on the part of his father to even consider him as a romantic prospect and it takes a lot of back and forth before they are on an even footing. But they get there. Honda is even perfectly capable of meeting Someya's father, donning perfectly acceptable salaryman clothing to do so, and employing respectful language. He is aware that acting out would not work here and it may very well what eventually wins Someya over.
We end up with an actual love story, with an entirely consensual and beautiful sex scene. When Honda proposes to marry Someya, complete with going through the traditional lines, it actually feels earned despite their not knowing each other that long. It is also, by far, the most moving scene the OgN universe has produced.
In fact, Someya and Honda's relationship strikes that sweet spot between energetic banter and romance. Someya can drop the mask of flawlessness that he wears, giving us, the reader, a more human version of who is but this vulnerability does not turn him into a passive partner. He remains snarky toward Honda and perfectly capable of holding his own. Honda is very protective, even though Someya can hold his own and would easily beat him up, but he does not expect Someya to just fold and follow his every whim.
It is probably not incidental that Honda visits Someya at the store, several times. There is no expectation of Someya stopping to run his store and that shows an acceptance of all aspects of Someya's life. If it may seem strange to highlight this- after all, it should be taken for granted- let us not forget that this is a spinoff of a manga in which a man in his late twenties kidnaps an older teenage, keeping him as a sex slave, forcing him to lose his apartment, borderline (or actually, I'm unsure) drop out of college, systematically threatening in all sorts of ways (including leaking sex videos so as to ruin his life even more thoroughly, destroying everything he owns- alongside the photographs of his dead parents (!)- selling him, etc) while routinely abusing him in virtually every single way possible.
To put things into perspective, Kano nearly had a fit at the mere thought of Ayase working in Someya's store, Honda is proud of Someya for running it.
I am almost certain that HD came about as a reaction to OgN. Someya is very popular and the mangaka decided to give him his own story. To retread the same dynamic would not only be redundant as Someya's character is too well established for that. Whatever the reasons may be, the result is as satisfying as it is suprising.
It is sad that HD is a spinoff. Only OgN fans are likely to even pick it up, which limits the readership considerably. Plenty of prospective readers, who are very likely to enjoy it, are also not likely to come near it because OgN is, well, what it is.
The good news is that the main manga has incorporated this new couple as well. Volume 9 already features them and they even get a few shorter chapters dedicated to them. The contrast is only starker, HD kept Kano and Ayase as background characters, having them actually feature prominently with all the toxic insanity and then Honda and Someya, reframes the toxic insanity as even more toxic and insane.
Perhaps it is not so weird that this spinoff should be superior as OgN is just a disaster. But it is still quite an experience, seeing this mangaka create something so moving, sweet and even funny. Henshin Dekinai even has a connection to genre. In 2D culture the term "henshin" (transformation) has been tied to Sailor Moon and notions of the empowering role of magic in the feminine. It is one of those words that fans of Magical Girl know. Given Someya is arguably tapping precisely into this, it is very likely a nod. He never posits it in these terms but even the butterfly theme, that is actual text, is also alluded to in SM. Whether intentional or not, it provides a lenses through which to read HD that would make it more relevant than might seem at first blush.
Would I kill for this spinoff becoming a multivolume series? Yes. Yes, I would.
August 13, 2014
This one blew me away! I can't even 4-star it.
I wasn't really expecting much when I started with it. Then I got surprised by the depth of it. This manga has substance even when it's funny as hell too. Heh, and I nearly cried during a very emotional part (⌒_⌒;)
Honda-kun is a true man. I admire his conviction and firm approach. I could easily fall for such a guy although I am not too keen on driving one of his tacky custom made modified car - he really needs to get his eyes checked. (*≧▽≦)ﾉｼ))
Seems like Honda-kun stands out more than the protagonist, Someya in this manga. I do like feisty Someya when he's in drag mode tho. The 'brand new' him was pretty cool too. Someya and Honda does make the perfect pair. They both compliments each other so well and balanced out the imperfection both has and bringing out the best in each other. It's pure blessing to find someone who loves you for who you are, not who you could be.
This manga has the right dose of comedy and drama and it goes well with Kousaka Tohru sensei's cutesy artwork. It's nice to see cameo appearances from Ayase and Kanou of Okane Ga Nai manga.
Title: Henshin Dekinai
Alternate Title: 変身できない/ I Can't Change / I Can't Transform
Related Series: A spin-off oneshot of Okane Ga Nai
Author: SHINOZAKI Hitoyo
Artist/Illustrator: KOUSAKA Tohru
Year: 2011
Type: Manga
Volume: 1 Volume (Complete)
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Gender Bender, Romance, Yaoi
Categories: Afraid of Being Hated / Cross-dressing / Glasses / Homophobia / Insecurity / Mechanic / Mistaken Identity / Okama / Unexpected Feelings / Yankee
Blurb: Car mechanic and ex-yankee Honda falls in love with Someya, a beautiful okama. Someya promises to go on a date with him in exchange for free car maintenance. Someya planned to tease him since the mechanic was unaware of his true gender, but when Someya reveals the truth, Honda's attitude doesn't change one bit! And now Honda's acceptance has stirred up feelings of affection in Someya!
April 8, 2013
I completely loved this. It was wonderful that Someya got his own story, and special someone. Though I was taken by surprise that Honda was the one, it felt very fitting somehow. It was sad how Someya struggled so much for his father's love, but very happy when Honda's feelings for him made Someya realize his self worth. It was also fun getting a cameo of Kanou and Ayase. This story makes me want so bad for this series to be licensed.
August 13, 2014
This one blew me away! I can't even 4-star it.
I wasn't really expecting much when I started with it. Then I got surprised by the depth of it. This manga has substance even when it's funny as hell too. Heh, and I nearly cried during a very emotional part (⌒_⌒;)
Honda-kun is a true man. I admire his conviction and firm approach. I could easily fall for such a guy although I am not too keen on driving one of his tacky custom made modified car - he really needs to get his eyes checked. (*≧▽≦)ﾉｼ))
Seems like Honda-kun stands out more than the protagonist, Someya in this manga. I do like feisty Someya when he's in drag mode tho. The 'brand new' him was pretty cool too. Someya and Honda does make the perfect pair. They both compliments each other so well and balanced out the imperfection both has and bringing out the best in each other. It's pure blessing to find someone who loves you for who you are, not who you could be.
This manga has the right dose of comedy and drama and it goes well with Kousaka Tohru sensei's cutesy artwork. It's nice to see cameo appearances from Ayase and Kanou of Okane Ga Nai manga.
Title: Henshin Dekinai
Alternate Title: 変身できない/ I Can't Change / I Can't Transform
Related Series: A spin-off oneshot of Okane Ga Nai
Author: SHINOZAKI Hitoyo
Artist/Illustrator: KOUSAKA Tohru
Year: 2011
Type: Manga
Volume: 1 Volume (Complete)
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Gender Bender, Romance, Yaoi
Categories: Afraid of Being Hated / Cross-dressing / Glasses / Homophobia / Insecurity / Mechanic / Mistaken Identity / Okama / Unexpected Feelings / Yankee
Blurb: Car mechanic and ex-yankee Honda falls in love with Someya, a beautiful okama. Someya promises to go on a date with him in exchange for free car maintenance. Someya planned to tease him since the mechanic was unaware of his true gender, but when Someya reveals the truth, Honda's attitude doesn't change one bit! And now Honda's acceptance has stirred up feelings of affection in Someya!
July 10, 2017
I hate the Okane ga Nai series with a passion BUT! This spin-off manga is damn great! The characters are a lot less silly and cliched than the "main couple" of the original series, and the story actually makes sense! The story has one hell of crazy, out-of-control setting, and the romance between the main characters---a tough-as-nail Gothic Lolita/owner of a cross dresser bar and a former leader of a biker gang, is so damn sweet and lovely and over the top! ^_______________^
PS: In the special extra volume, I LOL so hard when the couple's mutual friends commented with such certainty that "They're definitely sleeping together", I didn't notice this part before, but once I do notice...I'm like...LOL times 10.
PS: In the special extra volume, I LOL so hard when the couple's mutual friends commented with such certainty that "They're definitely sleeping together", I didn't notice this part before, but once I do notice...I'm like...LOL times 10.
January 6, 2016
Honestly at first when i started to read it i figured it would be more of a sexual manga and not a romantic one, but in the end i was wrong, it was actually pretty good, it has a story line to it that a lot of people can relate to along the lines of the acceptance and in times depression and anxiety, but it was also kinda cute in some ways and more serious in others. it was totally worth the time in reading and i look forward to reading more like it
November 23, 2014
One of my absolute favourite manga. One of a kind. Love it!
December 14, 2018
Seeing this manga was written by the same author as the one who wrote Okane ga Nai (No Money) I was reluctant to pick this one up at first. But, now I'm glad I did. The romance is breathtaking, emotions run deep and it's often even funny. I just love it. Honda is an amazing guy, and I'm glad Someya got to be with him. Respect and love, especially from Honda's side is just amazing. They're absolutely perfect for each other. Soulmates. I highly recommend!
March 26, 2024
Something about the earnest Yankee x bratty princess pairing is ELITE 😩🤌🏾
February 19, 2017
Same mangaka as Okane ga nai
April 11, 2015
Is a cute manga, and is full of feelings, but i will give 4 stars, bcs i didnt like the plot sometimes, and the graphic is not my favourite.
March 24, 2016
20160109
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews