History Manga / KaijuGirlCaramelise

''Kaiju Girl Caramelise'' (乙女怪獣キャラメリゼ, ''Otome Kaijū Kyaramerize'') is a manga series by Spica Aoki that started being serialized in February 2018 in Monthly Comic Alive, with collected volumes printed by Kadokawa Shoten starting in June 2018 and an English translation published by Creator/YenPress starting in June 2019. Although Monthly Comic Alive is a {{seinen}} publication, the author has called ''Caramelise'' a {{shoujo}} series.

* SenpaiKohai: Koutarou Hibino worked under Rinko Akaishi when they were traveling biologists, and he calls her "sempai" in the present. Koutarou is also an HonoraryUncle to Rinko's daughter Kuroe, and is actually one of the few people [[ShrinkingViolet Kuroe]] is on friendly terms with (the fact that he's one of the few people who knows about Kuroe's InvoluntaryShapeshifting also helps).

* LoveYouAndEverybody: Nagiko ''claims'' that any affection Arata shows Kuroe is an example of this. Later, though, Arata defies this trope, noting that while he ''does'' try to treat everyone kindly, he was unintentionally hurting Kuroe by not showing that he saw her as special. Also, Nagiko and her lackeys had not only seen Arata and Kuroe HoldingHands the previous day, a few hours earlier they had heard Arata confess that there was someone he liked while aiming a LongingLook at Kuroe; the girls were clearly in denial and invoking this as an excuse to mistreat Kuroe.

** Volume 6 [[spoiler:focuses mostly on a real monster-versus-monster between Kuroe and the newly-hatched Akae]].

* BehemothBattle: Volume 6 focuses mostly on one between [[spoiler:Kuroe and the newly-hatched Akae]].

* SempaiKouhai: Koutarou Hibino worked under Rinko Akaishi when they were traveling biologists, and he calls her "sempai" in the present. Koutarou is also an HonoraryUncle to Rinko's daughter Kuroe, and is actually one of the few people [[ShrinkingViolet Kuroe]] is on friendly terms with (the fact that he's one of the few people who knows about Kuroe's InvoluntaryShapeshifting also helps).

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Those very thick pancakes that Kuroe has in Chapter 1 are real, and [[https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/fluffy-japanese-pancakes-3686850 you can make them yourself]].

* LastNameBasis: Arata Minami respectfully refers to Kuroe Akaishi as "Akaishi-san" even when they start dating. It isn't until Manatsu browbeats him into it during their talk in his apartment lobby that he starts calling her "Kuroe."

** There are bits and pieces sprinkled through the story, such as the egg and picture of her parents in archeologists' clothing which Jumbo King keeps knocking down, which provide hints to there being a lot more behind Kuroe's InvoluntaryTransformation trait than just having a bizarre genetic disease.

** Near the end of Chapter 1, Rinko looks at an egg that's been taped back together while saying "mommy's worried about you" after Kuroe comes home surly, hinting at there being a lot more to Kuroe's InvoluntaryTransformation deal than the story directly says.

-->'''Kuroe:''' Wh-what was that...!? W-was it maybe...could it have been...? Nuh-uh! No way! It's too soon!! I can't!! That's just--

* CaptainErsatz: The Disneyland-esque "Destinyland" is full of them. The mascot is "Mitchy," basically WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse as a rabbit. Two female patrons are shown dressed up as characters from "Frosted," a parody of ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013''[[note]]"Anata and the Snow Queen" in the original Japanese, based on Frozen's Japanese name "Anna and the Snow Queen".[[/note]]. And one of the rides Kuroe and Arata go on features flying elephants that look like WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}} with royal crowns.

* ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself: When Kuroe partially transforms at Destinyland, Arata assumes that she's cosplaying as "Johnny", a dinosaur-like character from ''[[Franchise/ToyStory Boy Stories]]''. Kuroe decides to [[SureLetsGoWithThat roll with it]] to cover up the fact that it's not actually a costume.

* INeverToldYouMyName: When Kuroe Akaishi first runs into Manatsu Tomosato in a sleeping bag on a street outside her apartment, she's surprised that Manatsu knows her full name already. The two of them had never interacted before then, and everyone else at school calls Kuroe "Psycho-tan" instead. Turns out Manatsu found out her name from Arata Minami, Kuroe's crush and the only other person at school to use her real name. Kuroe had seen Manatsu and Arata talking earlier that day and assumed that they were dating, but Manatsu was actually trying to find out more about her ''real'' crush: Harugon, the {{Kaiju}} who first appeared suspiciously close to where Kuroe and Arata were walking after their "date". Manatsu learned Kuroe's name believing that the latter might know more about Harugon, [[SecretIdentity which is certainly truer than she realizes]].

** "Cafe Serizawa", the restaurant where Kuroe starts getting to know Arata and subsequently turns into Harugon the first time, is named after Daisuke Serizawa, the scientist whose Oxygen Destroyer disintegrated Godzilla in the 1954 film. So the ''Godzilla'' Serizawa helped destroy the monster, while the ''Caramelise'' Serizawa helped ''create'' the monster!

* LastNameBasis: Arata Minami respectfully refers to Kuroe Akaishi as "Akaishi-san" even when they start dating. It isn't until Manatsu browbeats him into it during their talk in his apartment lobby that he starts calling her "Kuroe".

* NewYearSameClass: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]; Arata and Kuroe end up in different classes, Kuroe ends up in the same class as Manatsu, who was in a different class the previous year.

* {{Portmanteau}}: "Harugon" is a mix between "Harumi [River]", where the monster was first seen, and "dragon".

* WhamEpisode: Chapter 23: [[spoiler:It's finally revealed that Kuroe is indeed a Kaiju, one of the last remaining members of her species born with a mutation that somehow allowed her to take on human form and live as Rinko's daughter. Furthermore, we say "one of" because it's revealed there is another egg similar to the one Kuroe hatched from, which Rinko claims houses Kuroe's "little sister". A small scuffle results in the egg cracking and the "little sister" fully hatching, leaving the island she had been dormant on in the following chapter to seek out Kuroe.]]
* WhamShot:

* ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself: When Kuroe partially transforms at Destinyland, Arata assumes that she's cosplaying as "Johnny", a dinosaur-like character from ''[[WesternAnimation/ToyStory Boy Stories]]''. Kuroe decides to [[SureLetsGoWithThat roll with it]] to cover up the fact that it's not actually a costume.

* EntertaininglyWrong: In chapter 21, Kuroe and Minami are alone in her apartment, he approaches her and asks if cuddling is allowed. Kuroe assumes this means he is making a sexual advance on him and although she is terrified of the fact that going all the way would probably release her Kaiju like nothing before, she can't resist and emphatically agrees, only to realize that Minami is talking about cuddling her dog, since he likes cute pets.

* HandHidingSleeves: Kuroe wears outfits with these in order to hide whenever one of her hands transforms.

* ObliviousAdoption: It's heavily implied, based on the egg and picture of Rinko wearing an archeologists hat that Jumbo King keeps knocking over, that Rinko is not Kuroe's biological mother, with her instead being born from said egg after she was found by Rinko. It doesn't even cross Kuroe's mind that this might be the case, while Rinko is at the bare minimum implied to be hiding some things from the girl.

%%Administrivia/SpeculativeTroping entries are not allowed on wiki pages. I feel like until Minami explicitly indicates that he knows what's going on, we can't know for sure if he's obfuscating stupidity.
%%* SecretSecretKeeper: [[spoiler:As the story goes on, there is an increasing number of hints and implications that Arata figured out about Kuroe's InvoluntaryShapeshifting and that she's Harugon, but he's decided to keep her from knowing he did by ObfuscatingStupidity in regards to when he sees her partially transformed or sees Harugon pop up in the same place Kuroe was earlier, likely waiting for her to be ready to come out about it on her own.]]

''Kaiju Girl Caramelise'' (乙女怪獣キャラメリゼ, ''Otome Kaijū Kyaramerize'') is a manga series by Spica Aoki that started being serialized in February 2018 in Monthy Comic Alive, with collected volumes printed by Kadokawa Shoten starting in June 2018 and an English translation published by Creator/YenPress starting in June 2019. Although Monthly Comic Alive is a {{seinen}} publication, the author has called ''Caramelise'' a {{shoujo}} series.