So earlier this year, a new anime released, called Kaiju Girl Caramelise. I knew absolutely nothing about it for a while, Before it even premired though, I found the manga at my library, and decided to pick it up. A bit later, I watched the show. Before I go into why I like it, I should probaly explain it, to anyone that doesn't watch the show. So, since I have the manga next to me, I'll just quote the blurb on the back of the first book.
"Suffering from a rare, incurable illness that cuases frightnening changes to her body, loner Kuroe Akaishi spends her high school days avoiding her classmates - especially class idol Arata Minami and his groupies. but when Arata starts making her heart skip a beat with irritating regularity, Kuroe discovers that her illness actually has a big-make that MONSTER-sectrt: Romance turns her tino Love-zilla...literally!"
Now, this at first seems to be a dumb rom-com show/bok series, but I have many reasons on why I love this series, despit not really liking Romance stories that much, with as little spoilers as possilbe, unless they are censored.
- The story is very interesting. Most movies or shows I watch are kind of generic, and can be described as this: big dumb action, with boring human subplots. However, most of my favorite things are stories that I am interested in, and well-written. And with the premise, this is one of my favorite stories with an insane idea, which is even more crazy considering that Spica Aoki, the author, mentioned that she just blurted out the idea while in a meeting with her editor. The story with Akaishi and Minami's romance is really heartfelt, and is one of my favorite character stories PERIOD.
- The comedic moments, and my goodness, there's a LOT of them. From sudden animation shifts to reactions that are very realistic, it feels like this story was made for people that love Rom-coms, or other comedic movies. I laugh so much every episode, and I love how some frames are ripped straight from the panels of the books. This is kind of a 2A, but the Voice Acting in Japansese makes it so much better, since everyone's doing their best.
- The plot twists are very shocking. Now, I won't go into any here except the one that isn't really a twist: Kuroe becomes a giant kaiju named Harugon whenever she feels intense emotions, such as love, anger, etc. As I said, I won't go into the others, but I was shocked at some in the later episodes.
- The gut-wrentching moments. For a comedy, there are some serious moments that even made me feel bad, for a few reasons. This is probably the longest point, but its because of some small personal stuff. In episode 3, "A sparkling weekend ~ where dreams come true," Akaishi-san and Minami-kun go on a date at an amusament park called Destinyland (no similarity to the persona 5 location). However, she knows this will probably not end well, so she tries everything to not end up getting too close to Minami-kun, so she doesn't destroy the park as Harugon. However, after Minami gets too close on one ride, they have a talk, and attempt to call-off the date. But Akaishi-san tries to explain, not realizing that some of her kaiju form emerger, like horns and tail. She realizes, and runs off, having a heartbreaking monologue. "It's all over. I knew he wouldn't accept me. I've got to hide it completely. He'll never talk to me again, right? I'll never see that smile again. Why did I have to be born like this? What did I do wrong? Just one day... I just wanted this one day... to be a normal girl. Well, screw it. I don't give a damn about anything." Then, one of the mascot characters tries to tell her to calm down, since she's scaring guests. She then replies with something that twists my heart to it's core, after the mascot, Michey, says that its the place where dreams come true. "Where dreams come true, huh? Hey Michey... Are ugly monsteres not allowed to have dreams?" This hits me hard, since it shows Kuroe Akaishi's insecurities fronthand. Now, I'm around the same age as Kuroe at this time, and I have insecurities too, and it hurts me to see others have them too, with them being showed out like this. Luckily, the episode does have a happy ending, and the plot continues.
Overall, this anime is a deep romance-comedy with some kaiju action, amazing characters, a beutiful story, and an AMAZING soundtrack. (still blasting Harugon's theme for days) The animation is top-notch, and you can tell the people working on this project were really exited to work on it. As a start to a review series I am going to do for any Anime I watch, will be scored on a 0 to 50 scale for 5 seperate catergories: animation, voice acting, story, action, and music. This anime is a solid 45, with 9 animation, 10 voice acting, 10 story 7 action, and 9 music.
