KAIJU GIRL CARAMELISE (Otome Kaiju Kyaramerize), by Spica Aoki. First published in 2018 and first published in North America in 2019.
PLOT:
Kuroe Akaishi doesn't want anyone to get too close to her. For as long as she can remember, whenever her feelings grow too strong her body undergoes monstrous changes. That's why she goes out of her way to avoid Arata, the cutest boy in class. When he reaches out to her anyway, she finds herself falling for him. The closer he gets, though, the greater the risk that Kuroe's overwhelming feelings will turn her into a towering, city-stomping monster of love.
STORY:
Kaiju Girl Caramelise is arguably the weirdest shojo story I've read in a good long while and I love it with every part of my being.
I love that it lets Kuroe be weird. There are lots of sad, lonely shojo heroines out there, but Kuroe is allowed to be angry, awkward, and weird. She might literally turn into a monster sometimes, but she feels far more real and relatable than most characters of her type.
I love that Arata is legitimately endearing. Too often characters like Arata are kind and vague to the point of blandness, while others go too far in the other direction for the sake of a redemption arc. Arata is refreshingly normal in comparison: good-humored, compassionate, and even a little nervous and awkward about his own growing feelings for Kuroe.
I love how Aoki uses the transformations as a big damn metaphor for both puberty and all the hormonal and emotional nonsense that comes with it. It's incredibly on-the-nose as far as metaphors go, but it works so well to communicate to the reader the enormity and violence of the feelings Kuroe feels. It's a spice that not only livens up so many standard shojo scenarios and character types but enhances the great character writing that Aoki brings to it.
ART:
As she recounts in her author's notes, Aoki initially tried to make this appropriate for a seinen magazine, but her editors said "draw it as a shojo manga!" I'm so glad they let her go full shojo because her style is so charming but also so full of character. The character designs are super-cute and lively, good at both sincere doki-dokis and big goony overreactions.
Nowhere is this more evident that with Kuroe. Most of the time she's like a shadow, a slip of a girl hiding under dark baggy clothes and waves of long, messy hair. Yet she can't completely hide her true self, whether that's her permanent hair-horns or the hearts in her eyes whenever Arata reaches out to her. Even her kaiju form reflects this! While it's an obvious riff on Godzilla, Aoki still manages to shojo-ify it with hearts in its eyes, its wings, and the great color scheme of purple, pink and red.
RATING:
Kaiju Girl Caramelise is one of the most delightful surprises of the year. It's sincere, fresh, a little strange, and cute as a button to boot. Even if it's not technically shojo, it's easily the best shojo series I've read in years and I'm eager to read more.
This series is published by Yen Press. This series is ongoing in Japan with 3 volumes available. 2 volumes have been released and are currently in print.
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