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Jitsu Wa Watashi Wa
The Secrets are out
Series in a Sentence
Kuromine Asashi, known by his friends as the worst high schooler alive at keeping a secret, discovers that his crush is actually a vampire and that the secret getting out will result in her having to leave the school.
What I liked
Perhaps the thing that I enjoyed the most about this show was the colorful cast and how different they were from each other. You had the timid main character, the clumsy vampire love interest, the reliable alien class rep, the scheming childhood friend, the perv werewolf, and the mishmash gallery of friends but, although each easily fits into a trope, each had moments that could be seen as breaking away from that. Asahi’s confrontation with Yoko’s father to show his resolve, Yoko’s willingness to leave despite her true feelings once her secret is exposed, and Nagisa’s struggles with being an alien all serve as examples and while some were more comedic than others they all fit into the main theme of subverting expectations. People might not be what they initially seem, and this show took that to the extreme in almost every character’s case. Sure, a lot of the jokes or situations have been done before but the charm of the show made me ignore the more cookie cutter aspects of it. Nagisa in particular got a few laughs out of me because of her at times militaristic behavior and how her alien character was in stark contrast with her class rep behavior. I have to say, too, that even though the animation was slightly changed from the manga I still laughed at Yoko’s various expressions.
What I Didn’t Like
This isn’t really a huge knock against the show but the whole thing just felt par for the course. In my spoiler free review I praised how easy the show was to watch and how I enjoyed its humor but perhaps part of that was because I went in with tempered expectations as a fan of the manga. What I’m trying to say here is, while there isn’t anything that I inherently disliked outside of some character design changes and an incomplete ending, there wasn’t anything I really overly liked either and that feeling of mediocrity is what I dislike. The manga, for all of its ups and downs, had an endearing quality to it that really had me hyped up for a possible adaptation and while I know that it is unfair to compare the two I just can’t help but feel that this show was almost wasted. Was it funny? Yes, but it could have been funnier. Did it look good? It was fine but it could have looked better. Essentially, what I didn’t like was a feeling of wasted potential.
Overall Feelings
For those that didn’t read my spoiler free review, I have read the Jitsu Wa Watashi Wa manga in its entirety and was actively reading it when I was watching this adaptation. That means that everything that can annoy a manga fan when watching an adaptation did. I have to stress, though, that I really wasn’t too bugged by all of the little changes. Do I wish that the series kept going and didn’t end on the “she can still go to school” note after her secret was discovered? Yeah, but honestly it was just whatever to me. This show was my decompression show of the season that I watched in between major episodes of Ushio and Tora, Working!!!, Gatchaman Crowds Insight, Gate, and Charlotte (to name a few) and that’s how I think this show can shine. If you want the full experience, the manga is the obvious way to go but if you just want to see if this fits into your taste treat it as a trial version. Man, I hate that I’m saying to use this show as a filler (because I really did like the manga) or to see if you want to get into the manga (because I just don’t like shows that end incomplete and seem to have been made just to sell the manga even though I get the market decisions) but those are really what this show boils down to. Every person might not be what they seem to be so give them a chance.