Rai: The very first thing you see when you open Volume 2 of Kaiju Girl Caramelise is a King Ghidorah reference, and it’s wonderful.
Though, what wasn’t so wonderful was the big gap in plot. The last chapter of Volume 1 ended with Kuroe turning into a giant kaiju, and Volume 2 begins with… Kuroe going on a date with Minami?
The jump was very disconcerting at first and left me confused. However, once the story picked up, I forgot about this little hiccup and really enjoyed reading this manga. The second volume of Kaiju Girl Caramelise starts out with Kuroe and Minami going to Destiny Land (a.k.a. Disney Land) together. Kuroe is extremely excited – overly so. Every little interaction she has with Minami makes her heart skip a beat. She has to constantly fight with her body, so she doesn’t go full kaiju during their date.
Although the back and forth between Kuroe and Minami (he touches her hand, she runs away) is something readers have seen many times before, Spica Aoki changed things up enough to keep the story interesting. The art had a big part in this. The transitions between the flowery shoujo moments and the exaggerated kaiju art felt more natural. And they were hilarious. Kuroe’s reactions are still the best. There’s character development as well. We see a darker side of Kuroe, and Minami gets some more depth – maybe he isn’t just a personality-less pretty boy after all.
The theme park arc lasts for a while, and Minami *almost* finds out about Kuroe’s kaiju condition. I don’t want to give it away, but her kaiju-ness gets covered up in a really unbelievable way. I was like…really? Is Minami that oblivious? It irked me a little, but I guess the coverup makes sense. Aoki probably didn’t want the big reveal to happen so early in the series.
After Destiny Land, the story takes a turn. Instead of focusing on her relationship with Minami, the next few chapters reveal a tiny bit more about Kuroe’s mother and her family life. An old family friend, named Koutarou, comes to visit. He’s basically like an uncle to Kuroe, and she is able to open up around him. It was nice to see Kuroe be herself; up until this point, we always saw her nervous, gloomy, or closed off.
And the best part of this arc was that it took place at a metal concert! I love heavy music, so I’m biased. Plus, Kuroe looked so cute with her Thrasher shirt, an apparent reference to Slayer. But something happens at the concert that makes Kuroe transform into Harugon (her kaiju form), and this time, she loses control. It’s the most monster destruction we’ve witnessed in the manga so far. If you like classic Godzilla chaos with some humor thrown in, you’ll appreciate this part.
That reminds me — Manatsu, the crazy girl who was disturbingly obsessed with Harugon. She doesn’t show up as much in this volume, which is a good thing in my opinion. She is supposed to be for comic relief, but I think she’s really just a distraction most of the time. Though, I admit, she didn’t annoy me this time around. I’m not sure if that’s because there was less of her or because I’m getting used to her.
Finally, the last chapter of this volume ended on kind of a cliffhanger, one that was expected but still exciting enough that I’m looking forward to Volume 3. Overall, I’m starting to really enjoy this series. This volume expanded on the manga’s unique premise while also straying away from some of the clichés we saw in the first volume. There’s also romance, finding yourself, metal music, and, of course, kaiju. What’s not to love?
Rai’s rating: 4 out of 5
Krystallina: In just about every romance manga, there’s the quintessential “operation: date” episode. You know, planning what to wear, what to do at (usually) the amusement park or the shopping district, hiding embarrassment and excitement, etc.
For our heroine Kuroe, it’s her time to go through all this. But while that’s usually more than enough for a teenager to deal with, we all know she has another concern when she’s invited by Arata to the amusement park.
Despite some bad fashion advice from kaiju-loving Manatsu, Kuroe comes prepared to avoid any flare-ups. Unfortunately, even by tsundere standards, her prevention techniques come across to Arata as “not interested”. But even when they clear up this misunderstanding, his suspicious are reaffirmed when an old family friend who knows about Kuroe’s condition returns and she can interact with him normally.
This Koutarou is an interesting character: a biologist who looks more like a hoodlum or a rocker. He worked together with Rinko, Kuroe’s mom, but she’s less than thrilled by his return. Rinko obviously has her guard up, and Koutarou has his own hidden motives and inside information. But he’s also played in Kuroe’s life, and she considers him like an uncle (although she calls him gramps one time — translation mistake?). He appears to be against Arata both in the sense of Kuroe being stolen away and because of her condition, and I’m curious as to what exactly he knows, his true relationship with Rinko, and what he’s trying to prevent.
Speaking of Rinko, she’s also keeping her cards close to the vest. She seems almost giddy that Kuroe’s date was going badly because it would be easier to deal with. But while this seems cold (and it is), Rinko still thinks of Kuroe as her child. While this series seems to be focused on the romance, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the mother-daughter bond that will end up being the turning point. Rinko’s not sure what to do about Kuroe and Arata, but I want to see her doing more for her daughter’s happiness or explain why she’s not.
But of course Kaiju Girl Caramelise wouldn’t be complete without some kaiju goodness. I can’t blame Kuroe for transforming because Arata is sweet. He shows up to their date and cheerfully admits he spent hours at a salon just to dress to impress. In my book, that’s a keeper. Meanwhile, Manatsu is still nuts, and the bonus 4-koma starring her are so in-character that they should have been a part of the main story.
But hey, the plot is both revealing part of the mysteries while introducing new ones, features a cute romance with a good guy, and still manages to combine pounding hearts and 60-foot monsters. It stumbles at points, but I’m still having a great time with this series.
On a side note though, am I the only one freaked out by a Not!Elsa from Frozen Frosted looking like she’s eating Flintstones-style dinosaur meat on a bone? What the heck do they serve at Destinyland?!
Krystallina’s rating: 4 out of 5