Aoki, Volume 3 Cover Art, Kaiju Girl Caramelise, Yen Press.
Kaiju Girl Caramelise – Information
Author of Story: Spica Aoki
Chapter Count: 8 volumes, around 46 chapters
Status: Ongoing
Check out the Kaiju Girl Caramelise official Yen Press page!
Content Warnings
These content warnings do not reflect the contents of the review below; only the literary work itself.
- Light nudity
- Fan-service
- Mention of ED, food
Spoiler Disclaimer
This recommendation post may contain small plot spoilers for review purposes. Any major spoilers are hidden by default and are able to be revealed via click or tap.
Kaiju Girl Caramelise – Plot Summary
Kaiju Girl Caramelise, also known as Otome Kaiju Caramelise, is a super fun seinen manga that has a ton of shoujo elements blended in.
It is a hilarious rom-com manga about a high school girl named Kuroe Akaishi who turns into a kaiju (Japanese word that refers to giant or strange monsters, such as the well-known kaiju Godzilla) when she gets emotional. It’s one of the weirdest (in a good way) and silliest romance mangas I have read, and is honestly just tons of fun!
Kuroe doesn’t always transform completely into a full kaiju; she often only grows horns, claws, or a tail as smaller emotional reactions. She tries to hide this side of herself from others not only because she’s extremely embarrassed by it, but also so that she can live a normal life!
But when a boy in her class starts talking to her more and more, things get more interesting and more difficult for Kuroe. This is especially because Kuroe is more of a shy outcast, whereas the male lead is a very handsome and popular classmate! Therefore, she struggles quite a lot to hide her secret form…
Why I Enjoyed Kaiju Girl Caramelise
Kaiju Girl Caramelise is one of those sort of unserious mangas that brings another silly surprise with each volume. It had me laughing quite a lot, and continuously surprised me with the plot.
I find it absolutely hilarious that the author was able to mix super cutesy, fluffy shoujo art and plot elements with big, giant, scary monsters. When Kuroe transforms, she even has hearts in her eyes as a monster. It’s so funny; I could not stop reading!
And, you don’t need to know anything about kaiju monsters to enjoy this fun manga (it’s possible that I’ve missed some references, though).
Although the story is published as a seinen, the art style and plot tropes often scream shoujo. The heroine is so adorable and has those oh-so-recognizable shoujo-esque eyes. The male lead is your typical handsome guy who is very kind and unconditionally likes Kuroe.
The romance elements are very shoujo-like too, and so the story sort of uses these elements for a unique sense of humor (kind of like a parody).
I actually really, really like how these elements are used in this series. The manga just wouldn’t be the same without this fun characteristic. It makes the comedic parts even funnier, yet also helps drive the romantic plot along. Not to mention, it’s extremely cute.
Just look at the cover art for each volume! They’re literally adorable, even while Kuroe is a little half-monster.
Aoki, Volume 1 Cover Art, Kaiju Girl Caramelise, Yen Press.
Although the story often looks very cute, the humor elements are also very prominent in Kaiju Girl Caramelise. The characters are drawn pretty silly in some panels; especially Kuroe, who has very enthusiastic reactions to everything.
After all, Kuroe is a young girl who is still learning how to deal with her emotions (especially new ones like love). That makes her the perfect candidate to be a raging, emotional monster… literally! Her mother is also hilariously unbothered by the fact that her daughter is a kaiju.
The story sort of offers a nice metaphor for young girls learning to love themselves and their appearances regardless of what society expects for them. At such a young age and especially during school years, everyone cares so much about appearances; so it makes a pretty relatable plot (and it tells it in such a fun way)!
It’s also cute to see Kuroe slowly learn how to love herself and open up more. She starts out as a loner who seems to hate everyone; but it becomes very clear later that she’s actually a cutie who’s just really shy. She’s a normal girl with very little confidence… but she wants to make friends, eat sweets, and date just like others!
This silly story portrays the awkwardness and embarrassment you experience at that age pretty well. I love that when Kuroe is feeling especially emotional, she transforms and then just screams (or roars, I guess) into the sky. This happens more often in response to her relationship with the male lead.
Their relationship isn’t perfect, but it’s accurate in terms of awkward, ignorant teenage feelings and shoujo tropes! Kuroe has a lot of emotions; most often panic, anxiety, excitement, and love!
Speaking of relationships, Kuroe also makes a few friends in this manga. These friends are just as eccentric as she is, and definitely add to the comedic aspects of the story. They have very unique personalities and character traits.
All of Kuroe’s friends have their own weird and silly character features, but they are also often drawn to be incredibly cute shoujo-style characters. Honestly all of the characters in this series seem to have some special feature or trait that shapes their personality!
Overall, my favorite aspects of this manga are the fantastic art and unexpected humor throughout the story. The plot isn’t super complicated, although it feels as readers will learn more about the origins of Kuroe’s kaiju form later on.
I also hope we’ll get to learn more about the ML (right now he seems to just be in for a wild ride). Regardless, there’s already a decent amount of plot in the first handful of volumes, so you can go ahead and enjoy all the fun and absurdity of this story.
I may call this story silly, weird, or sort of absurd, but I mean all this in a good way. It’s a fun delivery of romance and especially comedy; it honestly shows how talented the artist is. They can draw adorable, cute, fluffy characters and a giant reptilian-looking monster in the same story while making it seamless.
We get both a cute, pure romance and tons of laughs along the way!
Any Cons?
Personally, I think this series features too much (partial) nudity for the main character. When the heroine transforms back into her human form from her kaiju form, she typically lacks clothes, but is at the very least kept covered by her long hair and by other artistic choices.
But even outside of these transformation moments, the heroine is drawn in her underwear excessively for no good reason. It’s unnecessary to the story and is rather uncomfortable considering the heroine is so young (and that this could have been completely excluded from the story in the first place).
Aoki, Volume 5 Cover Art, Kaiju Girl Caramelise, Yen Press.
In addition to this, there’s another character (one of Kuroe’s friends) who is weirdly sexualized in a few different ways. I just personally think the story and characters would still be fun and enjoyable without these aspects.
Lastly, if you aren’t a fan of commonly used shoujo tropes or slightly absurd plot points, this story might not be a great choice for your reading taste—obviously…
Final Thoughts
Kaiju Girl Caramelise is a really unique manga that feels like a shoujo parody with fun action elements blended into it. It was definitely more of a lighthearted read with the whole monster-heroine trope, but it was a hilarious and fun read regardless.
Therefore, I feel like shoujo fans who want to read something different, unique, and sort of weird would enjoy this series. It is ongoing, so I’m excited to see how the main relationship progresses and how some backstories are explained!
Disclaimer: Any images used for this blog are for illustrative purposes only, are not owned by me, and are under ownership of the artist or publisher.
Images Credit: Spica Aoki, Kaiju Girl Caramelise, Yen Press, 2019.
