It’s been a good while since I read Otome Kaijuu Caraméliser. And while I remember liking it, it does seem to be more impactful in this form. It’s a good adaptation so far, and that certainly has something to do with it. But I don’t remember being this struck by how heartbreaking and relatable this series can be. The unspoken secret is that good fantasy is really about people and about real problems most of the time. It’s a great vehicle to enlighten the human experience, which is very much what we’re seeing play out here.
What did he know and when did he know it? With apologies to Howard Baker, I honestly can’t remember the answer where Arata is concerned. Which is good in the sense that I can’t inadvertently spoil anything. There are definite hints here that he suspects the truth. He lingers for a long time over the notion (correct, of course) that Harugon was staring at him. And when he says “It’s beautiful”, I didn’t buy the cherry blossom deflection for a minute. But theoretically at least, Kuroe manages to escape detection once more. Once she turns back into a girl she slips into a garbage bag to cover herself and returns to school, there to try and convince Arata that she’d already escaped when Harugon showed up.
Arata later says he admires that Kuroe is always “all-in”, but he’s a pretty all-in guy himself. Whether he suspects the truth or not he’s quite direct and forward where romance is concerned. He invites Kuroe for a date – to “Destiny Land”, no less. This sends her scrambling to Manatsu for an outfit (cute girl date clothes are not in her repertoire). And to her pencils for a self-authored guidebook on every escape hatch in the park, the better to avail herself of when her hormones flood the cowling and disaster seems imminent.
The Catch-22 here is really painful, truly. What Kuroe would like to do is very obvious, but she can’t. But by agreeing to the date and then trying to manage it as she does, she comes off as disinterested and aloof. Rinko has tagged along to keep an eye of things, undercover as “Michey“. Disney parody is hardly a rare thing in anime but this is a good one, from Michey to “Frigid” to afro-Walt to Jonny from “Poi Story” (he’ll prove critical later). Destiny Land is a minefield for Kuroe’s libido, at least with a hottie like Arata hovering close by.
I can’t stress this enough – I really feel for Kuroe. Here, and every week. I may never have been a teenage girl but even I know how on-point this allegory is. Like when Arata tries to put Michey ears on her and she says “you have to be a cute girl to wear those”. You can feel at the gut level just how badly she wants to let go and embrace the moment. Live her fantasy, be a regular girl. “Why did I have to be born like this? Just this once… I wanted to be a normal girl.” Seriously – does it get any more plaintive than that? Most teenagers feel those kinds of emotions at one time or another, even if their situation isn’t quite as literally monstrous as Kuroe’s.
When it becomes clear that’s not going to happen – and tails and claws and horns popping out all over make it pretty clear – Kuroe goes over to the dark side. If this is the hand life dealt her, why not play it – be the monster the world things she is. Fortunately Arata arrives in the nick of time to stop the worst from happening (it would have been interesting to see if she could fully transform intentionally like that). And here, once more, it’s not clear just where he’s coming from. That Arata is a truly nice and understanding boy is not in dispute. But what does that say about him here? Is he giving her the space to protect her secrets, or does he genuinely believe the cosplay story?
We know a little bit more about Kuroe than we did before. And we (pretty much) know she hatched from an egg. We know her mother has a kouhai (played by Konishi Katsuyuki) who seems to be part of whatever secrets Rinko is hiding. But the most important thing we know is Kuroe herself, because we very likely know or knew someone just her – or were someone like her – in all the ways that really count. That’s the secret to Otome Kaijuu Caraméliser’s impact as a story.
