Okay, how about a case where someone's so scared of girls, he breaks into hives? That's Yukinari Sasaki for you, a high school who's unassertive behaviour makes him a target for bullying and jeering, including girls. Even the girl next door, Kirie, has the habit of punching him, not as hard as Naru did to Keitaro in Love Hina, but whenever he stumbles into her or other girls in compromising situations. A secret crush, maybe? Other times, she scolds him into trying to be more like a man. One day, he falls into the bathtub after he accidentally catches Kirie in the shower and ends up in a different world. It's the world of Siren, and he meets a cute girl named Miharu who has three red dots on her forehead, same pattern as the holes in a bowling ball.

Surprisingly, he discovers that he's not allergic to her, and it figures, as she's probably the first girl who's nice to him. However, Siren's population is 90% female, a statistic that causes the women to fight tooth and nail over any available man, and Yukinari finds himself being chased by aggressive Sirenians, especially Maharu, Miharu's oldest sister.

Before long, Miharu returns to Earth with Yukinari and ends up living with him. Like Ren of DearS, she has a big appetite, and in a funny scene, ends up cleaning out all the apples a vendor had in his stall. Her purpose for going to school has to do with eating the bread served at the school, which Yukinari described as delicious.

His main male nemesis is the elitish Kazuharu Fukuyama, who for some reason is wearing a white school uniform rather than the usual black. He is very popular with the girls and naturally he too falls for Miharu, thinking that she's too good for a loser like Yukinari. However, he has a weakness very similar to that of Yukinari, but kind of different. Guess what it is? He comes into play when per the custom of Valentine's Day, Miharu tries to give Yukinari her home-made chocolate, and he tries to get it, thinking him unworthy of it.

But there are some weirdos on Earth as well. When a ditzy blonde's horoscope hints her future husband as having a bandaged face, a kitty keychain, and a checkered handkerchief, guess who happens to have all three that day? Needless to say, Yukinari's stalked by this girl, whose identity complicates things moer.

There's some similarity between this and DearS, of alien girlfriends adapting to Earth's customs, going to high school, amazing the loser's classmates, "attracting the guys like flies," which makes it kind of derivative. It's Miharu's gentle personality and alien-ness that carries the series.

"It doesn't look like my female-phobia will be cured anytime soon" is a catchphrase Yukinari utters time and again. But at least Miharu's presence will make his life more bearable. Not a bad start for the series, which was later spun off into an anime series with Ayako Kawasumi (Ai Yori Aoshi, Mahoromatic) doing Miharu's voice.

Little boy gets initiated into studhood by a whole bevvy of sluts, bimbos, floozies, whatever you name it. That's what manga is all about those days, huh? And we finally managed to get the art of comics and mangas into mainstream lately. Too bad (and no wonder) it's still considered pubescent fodder. Oh, well.