Kaiju Girl Caramelise (Japanese: 乙女怪獣キャラメリゼ, Hepburn: Otome Kaijū Kyaramerize; lit. Maiden Kaiju Carameliser) is a Japanese seinen manga series written and illustrated by Spica Aoki. It appeared as a serial in the monthly manga magazine Monthly Comic Alive starting in February 2018, with Media Factory publishing the chapters in June of that same year. The series was later licensed by Yen Press for an English-language translation in North America. An anime television series adaptation produced by Liden Films premiered in July 2026.
The plot centers around a student named Kuroe Akaishi who suffers from a mysterious illness, and how it may impact her newfound love interest.
Contents
Plot
Kuroe Akaishi is described as "Psycho-tan" by her classmates and is an outcast at school. She suffers from a rare, incurable illness that causes deformations in her body when she feels very strong emotions, particularly romantic feelings. She is surprised one day to find that Arata Minami, a popular guy in her class, starts to pay attention to her and questions the weird new feelings she has around him. It isn't long before her mother confesses to Kuroe that she is in fact a kaiju, which confirmed a realistic "dream" the prior night that involved her monster form rampaging through Tokyo. Kuroe struggles and is dismissive of the information, and worries that Arata will not accept her for what she is (both human and monster form).
Characters
Kuroe Akaishi (赤石 黒絵) / Harugon (ハルゴン)
Voiced by: Hikari Senga (Japanese); Nia Celeste (English)
The protagonist of the story, Kuroe has been suffering from a mysterious illness for at least sixteen years that causes abnormal body growth and disfigurement. This has led Kuroe to become an outcast feeling that nobody could accept someone like her. While Kuroe does not remember her past she tries her best to live a normal life in the present. She is surprised when Arata decides to date her and tries to hide her transformations from him whenever she can. Kuroe also has a pet dog named "Jumbo King".
Arata Minami (南 新汰)
Voiced by: Daishi Kajita (Japanese); Jacob Hopkins (English)
Arata is a popular guy in Kuroe's school who starts getting model offerings. He takes interest in Kuroe, revealing that he too wants to be out of the spotlight, and lost a lot of weight to become the person he is known as. This quickly irritates the other jealous school girls crushing on him who cannot understand what he sees in Kuroe. Arata does not know that she is secretly a Kaiju which causes misunderstandings to happen. They both get into several misunderstandings, including Arata mistakenly thinking Kuroe is cheating on him with Daichi; this causes them to break up, which leaves Kuroe heartbroken and traumatized. Eventually, Arata learns the truth and sees the error of his eyes, prompting him to seek out Kuroe again and apologize.
Rinko Akaishi (赤石 凜子)
Voiced by: Kotono Mitsuishi (Japanese); Luci Christian (English)
Kuroe's devoted mother, Rinko is shown to be there for her daughter against judgmental people knowing full well that she is a Kaiju. Rinko is also a former biologist who discovered the remains of a Kaiju and brought one of its eggs home with her. She then proceeded to raise the shape shifting baby Kaiju whom she named Kuroe as a human. Rinko is a big fan of the singer Mayumi Hamasaki, who is based on Ayumi Hamasaki.
Media
Manga
Written by Spica Aoki, Kaiju Girl Caramelise was first serialized in the monthly seinen magazine Monthly Comic Alive on February 27, 2018. The author had previous works serialized in magazines aimed towards girls (shōjo), so she was worried when a male-targeted (seinen) magazine picked up her series. Aoki thought she would have to make the series aimed more towards guys, until her editors advised her that "this story really works best as shōjo" even though it was in a seinen magazine.
The first volume was published by Media Factory on June 23, 2018, with ten volumes released as of July 22, 2026. The series was also released in ebook format on Kadokawa's Comic Walker website. On November 18, 2018, North American publisher Yen Press announced at Anime NYC that they had licensed the series, with the first English language volume released on June 25, 2019.
Anime
An anime television series adaptation was announced on December 22, 2025. It is produced by Liden Films and directed by Teruyuki Omine, with Yuniko Ayana handling series composition, and Mitomi Nakayama designing the characters. The series premiered on July 3, 2026, on TBS and other networks. The opening theme song is "Otome Kaijū" (乙女怪獣; Kaiju Girl), performed by Metanick, while the ending theme song is "Otome no Honki" (オトメノホンキ; A Girl's Earnestness), performed by HoneyWorks feat. HaKoniwalily. Crunchyroll is streaming the series in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, CIS, and India. Muse Communication licensed the series in Southeast Asia.
Reception
The English-language adaptation of Kaiju Girl Caramelise has received positive ratings: Rebecca Silverman from Anime News Network gave the first volume an overall "B+" rating, saying that the story works on "both metaphoric and literal levels". While Silverman also praised the "fun" art, she was critical of a few confusing pages and two of the characters. She called the volume overall an "enjoyable blend of adolescent metaphor". Sean Gaffney from "A Case Suitable for Treatment" called the first volume a "lot of fun", saying that the main character is intelligent and likeable. Gaffney goes on to say that he hoped the series would not go towards a "yuri" direction based on one of the character's actions, and that the series as a whole was fairly lighthearted, and "sweet in its own way". Brigid Alverson included the manga in a "Best of June 2019" grouping saying that the story is about a teen romance that "runs far, far off the rails". The first and second volume of Kaiju Girl Caramelise were also listed in the American Library Association's 2020 and 2021 lists of "Great Graphic Novels for Teens".