Manga: Kaiju Girl Caramelise

Kaiju Girl Caramelise Vol 1
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

Suffering from a rare, incurable illness that causes frightening 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--secret: Romance turns her into Love-zilla...literally! 

I've been super intrigued by this ever since I spotted it...and after reading this first volume I think it might end up being one of my favourite new manga of the year! The colour pages are all pink, purple, girly kind of colours and I loved it, and then when she monsters out for the first time we get another colour page but the colour palette is less pinky pastel and more vibrant, bold colours. I really enjoyed the art, the character designs are cute which contrasts with the more realistic/kinda scary monster parts of her...and you know when she goes full monster. I also really loved how her eyes are drawn, as well as the monster version of her! 

I was drawn in from the first page of this volume with the kids reaction to her, and then we had the reveal right on the next page and I was like 'woah okay this is gonna be awesome'. Our main character Kuroe is so cute, even if she can be quite grumpy and serious with Arata at least, and she shows an adorable side of herself when it comes to sweets like pancakes and stuff. She was amusing, but you could also feel sorry for her and empathise with her and her situation. 

Arata surprised me because I was expecting him to be a bit of an arrogant a** that she has a crush on kind of thing? I wasn't expecting him to attach himself to her, and be so sweet. I could even relate to him a little bit as well! I just wasn't expecting him to be so earnest and genuine when it comes to hanging out with her, wanting to spend time with her and pursuing her, so I actually quite liked him! 

I am so intrigued to see how this romance is going to play out because things were all cute, and it was such a sweet start to a romance...and then it turned in to an actual scene out of Godzilla and she's determined not to repeat that for obvious reasons! So things aren't going to be easy and of course her monster identity is going to be a secret...I'm actually quite excited for it all! 

I also really enjoyed Manatsu, one of the other characters, she's hilarious with the butterfly costume and her love for Harugon, but I appreciated her being a much needed friend for Kuroe. Although I do feel like she's quite genuine, I am worried she's only using Kuroe but I guess we'll see. 

Honestly, I loved this. It's different, it's a lot of fun, and it's definitely going to prove to be interesting. This initial volume is fast moving, introducing us to Kuroe and her little problem, as well as Arata and sparking off the romance a little bit too! It does an excellent job at piquing your interest and leaving you wanting more, and I personally can't wait to see what's going to happen next and how Kuroe is going to handle this!