KAIJU GIRL CARAMELISE — Episode 1

Content Warning: Partial nudity, Bullying

What’s it about? Kuroe Akaishi wants to be a normal high school girl, but her rare condition that turns her into a Kaiju when she gets emotional makes that pretty impossible. On top of that, she’s got a crush on Arata Minami, the most popular boy in class, meaning that every case of butterflies in her stomach triggers a transformation. How’s a girl to survive when she can’t help but have a monstrous reaction to everything around her?!

“Love brings only terror” is the first thing main character Kuroe says, establishing one thing and one thing only: to fall in love is to irrevocably alter her ability to exist as a normal girl. Unfortunately, even as a high schooler dead set on having the most mundane existence possible, Kureo still finds a way to keep her inner peace, even as she yearns for someone to accept her.

So naturally, when Arata Minami, her crush and the object of her emotional frustrations, turns his gaze on her and starts being nice, Kuroe has a major freakout. It’s not an outcome she expected, and she immediately thinks he’s slumming it by just trying to be nice to her. Yet it quickly turns out that Arata might just actually… like, enjoy Kuroe’s company for who she is, enough that he even stands up for her in the face of bullies. Now what’s a girl to do?

KAIJU GIRL CARAMELISE is your classic slice of life rom-com where the protagonist is almost an expy of Sadako: our main character is perceived as gloomy, often seen with her bangs shadowing her eyes, a terrifying sight for any classmates of hers. Kuroe is no different except for one key element: she literally can turn into a giant, tokusatsu style Kaiju. Hilariously, she avoids this by listening to death metal and thinking about eating super cute foods—though one could argue that it’s less hilarious and more brutally relatable. 

This is, of course, because Kuroe doesn’t want to be a monster. It’s a genetic condition, and she has to hold tight to any emotions she feels, including not having any fun or making any social connections because it might risk her revealing all facets of her personality. Still, it’s clear that she yearns for connection because, at her core, Kuroe is human like the rest of us. It’s just that she has a condition that, honestly, functions like a disability: too much emotion of any kind increases Kuroe’s symptoms, to the point that she has to hold back on any and all emotions she might need to get out. Of course, this erupts into her transforming into her Kaiju form at the midpoint of the show, with Kuroe even remarking that it feels like she’s getting to vent.

Interestingly, this opens up Kuroe’s story to a queer reading, especially since monsters are often intimately tied to marginalization. While Kuroe’s story is a cishet romance, there’s something incredibly appealing to the fact that she is forced to hide her true self at risk of social scorn or societal expulsion. She’s queered by proxy of her association with the monstrous, and while it will never be queer in terms of relationship, it does play with Kuroe’s relationship to femininity when her body naturally diverges into that of a rather gender-ambivalent monster. Even in her human form, the spikes and monstrous traits she develops automatically mark her as different.

With both that queer and disabled perspective in mind, KAIJU GIRL CARAMELISE becomes all the more interesting. Is there a future where Kuroe gets to be both girl and monster? Is there a future where she gets to be publicly embraced as who she holistically is? Or will this show seek to provide a solution that lets society function, but leaves Kuroe to be the sole person with her specific chronic condition? I don’t have any answers, but I am very tempted and definitely want to stick around for the result.

I really, really liked KAIJU GIRL CARAMELISE. It’s a really solid premiere that, much like Honey Lemon Soda, explores bullying and the effects through the lens of a girl who, simply put, is just existing. Then again, I suppose that’s enough for someone to hate another person: hate sadly is rather mundanely straightforward in its horror. Still, this premiere ends on a high note that made it a sure bet in my mind, and definitely a show I want to stick around for.

I like Kuroe and I like Arata: I like the potential for Kuroe to find someone who embraces her while also figuring out who she is herself. I like the fact that she can have the potential of a friend, which she sorely needs. I think it’s interesting to telegraph her experience through a proximity to monstrosity, something that I’ve often felt myself. Combined, I think KAIJU GIRL CARAMELISE has the juice to be a really interesting, complex story. While the manga is ongoing in Japan, I think there’s likely enough meat on the proverbial bone to provide us a really engaging series that already feels like it’s going to be my recommendation this summer.