Jitsu wa Watashi wa (Translated as Actually I Am, and titled in English as My Monster Secret: Actually, I Am…), is a Manga series written and illustrated by Eiji Masuda. It was published by Akita Shoten in Weekly Shōnen Champion and ran from January 2013 – February 2017. It has been collected into 22 volumes, with Seven Seas Entertainment translating and publishing it under the name My Monster Secret in North America starting in 2016. It has also been adapted into an anime, but I’m going to stick with the manga here.
I absolutely love this series, and I firmly believe there is no reason for it to be as good as it is. It hits some serious “No I’m not interested in that” before even starting:
Combine these things and you normally enter into the world of pure and utter trash, and to me is the stereotype for what people think of when they think of "everything wrong with manga and anime". It feels like there are at least a few dozen of them published in both manga and anime every year, and normally if you want to read "the good stuff" the industry has to offer you avoid this concoction like the absolute plague.
And then you get to the characters involved:
- The main protagonist: A high schooler who can’t keep a secret (his nickname is literally ‘leaky basket’)
- The main girl: A “beautiful and mysterious” vampire, who is dense as hell.
- A 6 inch tall alien girl, who pilots a robot that passes as a human.
- The main protagonist’s best childhood friend, a girl who bullies the main protagonist (and everyone else) to no end and is journalist looking to publish all the secrets and rumors she can find.
- There's also a demon girl, a werewolf girl, a couple time traveling girls, an angel who thinks she's a demon, and so on and so forth, and it gets ever more absurd and hilarious with each additional character.
All of these characters are trying to keep their ‘secret’ hidden from everyone else, and pass off as ‘normal people’. To varying degrees of comedic success. As I said, it absolutely should not work. And yet… somehow it all works so well. By no means is it some kind of super deep or complex story. It knows what it is, and doesn't try to be anything different. The shenanigans are hilarious, the romance is cute and grows organically, there are some deeply emotional moments near the end, and all the wild disparate elements somehow coalesce neatly into a wholesome and heartwarming conclusion.
The biggest downside of the manga to me is the art. It is very clearly dated and of a style that isn't very popular at all anymore. It did grow on me, and I think it added to the overall charm of the series. I know some people have looked at it and passed by, leaving it as something of a hidden treasure to those who do start reading.
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