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REVIEW: My Monster Secret GN 3




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BodaciousSpacePirate
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Joined: 17 Apr 2015
Posts: 3016
PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 10:52 am Reply with quote
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Manga in the genre often hang on a central “will they or won't they” question, but their chapters proceed as a series of moments where characters walk up to the brink of relationship changes and then promptly slip on a banana peel. This can get frustrating over time, as the investment you feel in some characters' potential feelings is diluted by many chapters of inaction.


I still maintain that My Monster Secret/Actually, I Am/whatever you want to call it really takes this common criticism to heart and eventually addresses its problems with stagnation... but that the mangaka took far too long to get to that point (this is why I wish the TV series had sped up the manga's story, but oh well). If that doesn't bother you, though, then this series is a real wild ride, and volume 3 is no exception.
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myskaros



Joined: 13 Jun 2011
Posts: 598
Location: J-Novel Club
PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 11:26 am Reply with quote
BodaciousSpacePirate wrote:
I still maintain that My Monster Secret/Actually, I Am/whatever you want to call it really takes this common criticism to heart and eventually addresses its problems with stagnation... but that the mangaka took far too long to get to that point (this is why I wish the TV series had sped up the manga's story, but oh well). If that doesn't bother you, though, then this series is a real wild ride, and volume 3 is no exception.

I don't necessarily disagree, but I do want to point out that other series sometimes never get to that point, so at least Jitsu Wa (I prefer the Japanese name Razz) does actually get there Smile

That said, I'm super happy that the series is getting visible reviews here, since the anime did not do the manga justice. Getting into this manga years ago, I would not have expected to be consistently laughing out loud with every new chapter, or that the dramatic beats would be among the strongest elements in the series. I look forward to Seven Seas getting into the later volumes!
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SkerllyF



Joined: 02 Sep 2016
Posts: 244
PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 12:45 pm Reply with quote
myskaros wrote:
BodaciousSpacePirate wrote:
I still maintain that My Monster Secret/Actually, I Am/whatever you want to call it really takes this common criticism to heart and eventually addresses its problems with stagnation... but that the mangaka took far too long to get to that point (this is why I wish the TV series had sped up the manga's story, but oh well). If that doesn't bother you, though, then this series is a real wild ride, and volume 3 is no exception.

I don't necessarily disagree, but I do want to point out that other series sometimes never get to that point, so at least Jitsu Wa (I prefer the Japanese name Razz) does actually get there Smile

That said, I'm super happy that the series is getting visible reviews here, since the anime did not do the manga justice. Getting into this manga years ago, I would not have expected to be consistently laughing out loud with every new chapter, or that the dramatic beats would be among the strongest elements in the series. I look forward to Seven Seas getting into the later volumes!


Didn´t do it justice? What did you wanted?:
1- A faithful adaptation(with rearranging chapters but it doesn´t feel messy) that features a lack of plot and character progression (especially in the 2nd season) and is only composed of episodic adventures?(Nisekoi)
2- An adaptation that abandons the episodic chapters that don´t have plot and character progression, includes the ones that have them, and in the end it feels like it has a story as opposed to its genre counterparts?(this)

If one day the anime gets a second season, the ending won´t be that big of a deal to retcon. Heck, it doesn´t need to be retcon. It´s not like in the manga, the ending of that spoiler[camping arc] ends on a climatic way. For a harem story and the reputation they get, this adaptation as its own series should be a breath of fresh air for those who have harem genre fatigue.

And about the manga, I think that from Vol. 4 onwards there´s gonna be more plot and character progression, if I remember correctly.[/spoiler]
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Parsifal24





PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 2:33 pm Reply with quote
this actually one of my favorite series the comedy is what really makes it work while after this volume things get increasingly more silly for the better and a good portion of the secondary cast actually gets development. But yeah this is very much a series that is about the ride and not the destination.
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myskaros



Joined: 13 Jun 2011
Posts: 598
Location: J-Novel Club
PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 2:36 pm Reply with quote
Well, since you know exactly what I wanted given how you're putting words in my mouth as though I said them, I see no need to explain myself. Please, carry on making gross generalizations that falsely illustrate how there are obviously only two ways to adapt this manga: a right way and a wrong way, and anyone who doesn't agree with you is clearly touched in the head.
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AmuroNT1



Joined: 07 Apr 2005
Posts: 106
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 10:19 pm Reply with quote
I'm with myskaros on this. I love the Jitsu Wa manga, but the anime adaptation just wasn't very good. It wasn't bad per se; in fact, it did some things I liked, such as the decision to merge multiple chapters with similar story hooks (like two where Aizawa's "mecha" runs out of power at school and she's put in jeopardy) or fixing minor little gripes with the manga.

However, as Nick said in his review the real secret of this series is its charm, and the anime missed out on that by focusing just a little too much on the episodic goofiness and never really got into the meat of character development. (Don't get me wrong though, I wasn't expecting too much out of a 12-episode anime.) The main thing that got me was how they adapted a couple of arcs that featured important bits of plot development in the manga (like the school festival, which is where spoiler[Youko starts to realize that Asahi has feelings for her]), but then cut out that development.

For reasons like that, when I try to get people into Jitsu Wa, I actually recommend that they skip over the anime entirely, since it's missing the things that make the manga really stand out from all the cookie-cutter harem comedies out there. It's not like this is a really shocking attitude, really; I'm sure we can all think of at least one anime/manga/light novel that got an adaptation that didn't do the source material justice.
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