Jitsu wa Watashi wa | Review
Plot as provided by Wiki:
Asahi Kuromine, a normal high school student who supposedly cannot keep a secret, finds his demeanor quickly challenged when he spots his classmate, Yōko Shiragami, unfurling a large pair of wings from her back. He learns that Yōko is a vampire, and that she is only able to attend a normal school on one condition: no one must discover her true identity, lest her father drag her back home. This secret becomes difficult to maintain, as Yōko herself is an airhead and Asahi’s childhood friend Mikan keeps bullying the two of them. Later on, he discovers more girls in his school with secrets of their own: a tiny alien who rides a human-sized exoskeleton of herself, a werewolf capable of switching gender at any depiction of a moon, a thousand-year-old demon who secretly runs the school, and more who pose a challenge as Asahi tries to maintain Yōko’s secret.
Confessions are hard, like, really hard. But in anime the difficulty of a confession of love goes from something akin to Dark Souls to Twitch Plays Pokemon, with the main protagonist bashing his head against a wall when the goal he seeks is just two feet to the left. And we, the viewers, tear out hair out and scream in vain at their stupidity and cowardliness. We get lame excuses for their behavior like high levels of density or cluelessness, but after ten years and hundreds of anime I’m through with “romantic comedies.” I like progression in my anime, with a set goal that is achievable after a season or two. If the series wants to keep going after having achieved the goal is fine, but in season three you had better not reset the romance levels just because you think watching the ‘couple’ being together is boring. Guess what producers and developers of anime and manga, dating is a who new ball game in and of itself, there is plenty to cover! Sadly my review today, Jitsu wa Watashi wa, was of the former variety of romantic comedy.
The anime starts out like any other rom-com, boy is in love with girl but just can’t work up the courage to confess to her. This boy in our case is Asahi Kuromine, a high school student who has been nicknamed “leaky basket” because he just can’t keep a secret. Either by blurting it out or giving it away with his facial expressions, Asahi is one person that no one trusts to have a heart to heart with. He still has friends though, three guys who know all about Asahi’s love and work with him the best they can to get him to confess. Funny that the guy who can’t keep any secrets, suddenly can keep the biggest one from the very girl he wants to share it with. So much for a leaky basket.
As the first episode comes to a close, Asahi is finally about to do it, he waits till after school and then clutching his love letter he opens the classroom door to find Yōko Shiragami, his love interest, sprouting a very large pair of wings and two sharp canines. That’s right, she’s a vampire! What a twist! Though aside from an awesome tan if she’s exposed to sunlight and a hankering for blood, she’s pretty much a normal girl. Asahi’s confession is of course interrupted by this scene, with the guy instead promising Yōko he’ll keep her secret no matter what. And he does, throughout the entire series he himself never lets slips her vampiric identity. Once again his leaky basket nickname just doesn’t match up, it’s like the author Eiji Masuda, had the idea set but never quite put it into play.
What follows is a meet and greet of new characters in variously themed episodes, all of them having a very small role to play in the overall plot line of Asahi confessing to Yōko. Which never happens, so don’t get you hopes up. What does happen is Asahi learning the secrets to more of his classmates, which just keeps beating his poorly labeled nickname into the ground. Starting off this list of secrets is Nagisa Aizawa, fellow classmate and actually a robot that is piloted by a tinier version of Nagisa. Then came Shiho Shishido, Yōko’s childhood friend who can gender swap anytime they see the moon. After her was Akane Kōmoto, the principle of the school and a demon who enjoys messing with her students. And finally Mikan Akemi, leader of the newspaper club who wears a pair of fake glasses that houses a goddess of fortune. Kind of a mixed bag, but all revolving the supernatural side of things. Aside from Nagisa, who would be more science fiction.
What’s sad is that during one episode we get what might be progress, a pool scene where Asahi and Yōko go to the school pool at night. Just the two of them, no cockblocking friends who might interrupt their fun, no other potential love interests to fight for Asahi’s attention, just the night sky and all the time in the world to confess. There of course is no confession, I’ve spoiled that already, but we see what could be called progress in the relationship between these two. They both agreed to call each other by their first name, and at one point there was even a full bodied hugfrom Yōko! I mean come on! In anime this is practically third base! There did seem to be some change though, as Yōko begins to realize that she doesn’t like seeing Asahi with the other girls. She becomes flustered being near the man, but fails to realize that these feelings are of love. What can you do? It’s a Rom-Com.
As the anime wraps up we learn that the story of Asahi and Yōko mirrors that of Yōko’s parents, who attended the same school and where her human mother and vampire father fell in love. However her father is very protective and suspects that Yōko’s secret has been discovered, attempting to forcefully separate Asahi and Yōko before Yōko’s mother shows up and reminds him who wears the pants in the family. But even after all of this Asahi and Yōko are no closer than they were after the midnight pool scene. So while there was some progression, it just wasn’t enough to save this series from being tossed in the recycling bin of romantic comedies.
Genres: Comedy, Romance, Harem.
Animation: TMS Entertainment, the studio responsible for animating Yowamushi Pedal, D.Gray-man, and Detective Conan. Visually the anime isn’t anything impressive, pretty average all around with some minor discrepancies here and there. I got the feeling there was some unique stylization that made its way from the manga, but aside from this it was a B- to B grade level of animation.
Voice Acting: A category that is almost always average to sub-par for me, continues with the trend of average VA work. You know I think that Yoshiyuki Tomino was on to something when he said all the young voice actors these days sound the same, because they all watch anime and have been exposed to what is suppose to sound like a character in anime. They lose their originality, and just try to conform to fit a mold. We need more Norio Wakamoto’s and Kana Hanazawa’s in this world, people who have unique voices that it keeps them apart from the crowd.
Favorite character: Shiho Shishido. She might be that strange not-sure-if-want Ranma type, where you don’t know how to feel when you get a boner for them, but god dammit is her female half the best girl and character in this entire series. She fully supports Asahi and Yōko’s relationship, says exactly what is on her mind and is a gigantic pervert. She does tease Asahi here and there, but she has taken up a firm role as a supporter and not a player in Yōko’s relationship. Her male half is a different story, but we hardly see him so he doesn’t matter.
Potential gender change or not, I’d still hit that.
Jitsu wa Watashi wa gets a 6.8 out of 10
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