Manga / My Monster Secret

aka: Actually I Am

Left to right: Mikan, Youko, Akari, Akane, Asahi, Shiho, Nagisa.

"The romantic comedy with non-human heroines that are just a little dumb!"

Asahi Kuromine is your average high-schooler... besides having a really bad poker face. He currently has a crush on a fellow classmate named Youko Shiragami, the resident stoic Ice Queen. When he tries to confess to her, he ends up discovering that she is a vampire... and that she will have to leave school if she's ever found out. He subsequently swears to keep this secret to allow her to continue with her school life. And asks her to become... "friends" with him.

However, being the "Man Who Cannot Lie", he may have bitten off more than he can chew, as Shiragami herself turns out to be quite the cheerful ditz. He also has to contend with his malicious childhood friend-reporter Mikan Akemi who never lets any secret stay hidden, and Shiragami herself may not be the only supernatural being roaming around on the school grounds.

Jitsu wa Watashi wa (literally "Actually, I...", but subtitled "I am...") is a romantic comedy and Eiji Masuda's third series, featuring a cast of lovable weirdos, supernatural or otherwise. It has a fun take on an overused premise, notably by mocking or exaggerating a few romcom and school-life clichés and playing with character archetypes, and has good use of hilarious facial expressions. It is also fond of parodying some horror, sci-fi and action shonen tropes. While the first 10 volumes mostly focus on the four main characters (Asahi, Youko, Mikan and the alien Nagisa) and their love square, later volumes explore the rest of the cast and the other aspects of the story more deeply, with the fantasy and sci-fi elements becoming increasingly more prominent. The manga was serialized in Weekly Shonen Champion from January 13, 2013 to February 16, 2017, with 196 chapters compiled into 22 volumes.

An 13 episode animated adaptation by TMS Entertainment aired on TV Tokyo during the summer of 2015, and can be watched on Crunchyroll under the title Actually, I am. While it more or less follows the early chapters of the story, it also takes some notable liberties, notably in the order of events, and uses a far more conventional artstyle.

The manga has also been licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment under the title "My Monster Secret". The first volume came out in the United States in January 2016.

Note: if we talk about "Part 1" and "Part 2", it refers to when the main characters are in 2nd year (up to chapter 91) and in 3rd year (from chapter 92 on).

For a different series with a "boy keeps a vampire girl's secret" premise, you can see Karin (which Masuda may have taken some inspiration from).

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Tropes:

• Accidental Pervert: Invoked in chapter 59. The Gods of Fortune want to give happiness to Mikan...by making her face land on Shiho's crotch by way of Suggestive Collision. They then did the same thing again, except with Asahi. On the receiving end. As in, Mikan's face lands on Asahi's crotch. Understandably, Mikan is completely pissed at them.
• Adaptation Distillation:
  • The anime adaptation is handled interestingly, taking advantage of the manga's mostly episodic nature to shuffle and combine chapters together so the story flows more smoothly, while also fixing some problems with the original plot. There's also a lot of original material to keep manga fans on their toes.
  • Episode 3 combines Chapters 2^note in which Mikan tries to blackmail Asahi and 4^note in which Asahi visits a sick Youko to serve as Mikan's introduction, throwing in some elements from Chapter 9 to help soften her character. It also introduces the idea that Mikan's glasses are possessed by a minor god of fortune, which doesn't happen in the manga until Chapter 25. Swapping the order of Aizawa and Mikan's intros turns the hot sauce-filled chou that exposed Youko in the previous episode into Foreshadowing for this one, whereas in the manga the chou was simply something Youko used to play "Russian Roulette" with Asahi.
  • Episode 4 is probably the best example, since it combines Chapter 13^note In which Aizawa's Mobile-Suit Human runs out of power and Asahi helps her get it to the infirmary to recharge with the much later Chapters 66 and 67^note in which Mikan finds the mini-Aizawa in the hallway, and Aizawa grows to human size thanks to Akane. The two stories already had a similar hook (Asahi trying to protect Aizawa's secret), but Ch.13 involved Shiho, a character who hasn't been introduced in the anime yet, so the peril from Ch.66-67 takes up her role in the plot instead. It also changes Akane's manipulation in the latter chapters from blatant trolling to subtle manipulation while Foreshadowing both her appearance and her meddling in the Love Triangle.
  • Episode 5 is mostly a straight combination of Chapter 8^note In which Aizawa helps Youko overcome her tanning problem and Chapter 10^note Asahi and Youko's first trip to the amusement park, complete with the commercial break dividing the two stories into separate vignettes. One important addition is that in the first story, Asahi reads up on vampire Kryptonite Factors, which gives the anime the occasion to explain Youko's comically lowered weaknesses to garlic and crosses.
    • Episode 5 also uses parts from Chapter 69.
  • Episode 6 is almost a direct translation of Chapters 11 and 12 (Shiho's introduction), with a couple of minor tweaks. Firstly, Asahi pissing Shirou off by throwing a stick is changed to Youko throwing the stick because Shirou was threatening Asahi. Secondly, Aizawa pops into the second half (the Chapter 12 portion) for some added humor.
  • Episode 7 draws mostly from Chapters 15 and 16 (Akane's introduction), but then jumps ahead to Chapter 57 by having Youko and Akane's "who's more adult" competition from 16 merge with the "sexiness battle" from 57. The competition is changed too: there are several "events" (including swimsuit and cosplay), Akari doesn't participate (mirroring her role in ch.16), and Rin is absent since she hasn't been introduced yet; Aizawa plays her role to a much smaller extent, getting offended at Shiho's lewd antics at the start of the episode.
  • Episode 8 combines the cooking-related Chapters 14^note Asahi, Youko, Aizawa and Shiho's disastrous attempt to make curry and 51^note Akane threatens to destroy Earth unless she gets some of Aizawa's chocolates, and Akari pays her back by dragging Youko and Shiho into the mix; this actually skips the chapter where Akane learns that Aizawa is a Supreme Chef (Ch.44, for the sake of reference), but fixes the plot hole in an interesting way. In the manga, the curry-making goes awry because Aizawa's recipe gets blown out the window; in the anime, Aizawa has the wrong recipe and ends up making a chocolate cake instead, which she throws out the window in frustration, falling into Akane's hands. Mikan's role in the chocolate-baking is justified by a new scene (see below) which also teases at the God of Fortune in her glasses. And just like in the previous episode, Rin's involvement in the plot is completely nixed.
  • Episode 9 is almost completely a straight adaptation of Chapters 18 and 19, with only minor tweaks such as making it so Youko's story about her parents doesn't break the Show, Don't Tell rule. As a result, we get a brief flashback scene that marks the first animated appearance of her mother Touko, who didn't show up in the manga until about a dozen chapters later.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Happens by necessity in Episode 4 due to the combination of differing chapters as mentioned above: Asahi hides with mini-Aizawa in the gym equipment shed, at which point she grows to full size. When Youko, Mikan, and Shimada come looking for him, Asahi has Aizawa punch him out, claiming that she found him pervving out with the figure and dealt out "justice", then destroyed the figure.
  • Likewise, Episode 8 adds a scene where Mikan sees Akane roaming about the campus and tries to bribe her with food to get a story about the Seven School Legends, only for Akane to pull a dine-and-dash when Akari comes up and distracts Mikan. This ties into the second part of the episode, where Mikan gladly joins in making chocolates for Akane to take revenge; in the relevant manga chapter, Mikan's reason for joining was that Akane had been Trolling her for months.
• Aliens Speaking English: Not only do the members of Aizawa's race speak a perfect Japanese, they even have Japanese names for some reason (at least there is no indication they have a "real" alien-ish name).
• All Love Is Unrequited: Outside of the main couple which effectively hooks up in chapter 86, the series is chock full of one-sided crushes. There's all the characters on the losing side of the main couple's romance, of course (Shirou who likes Youko, and Mikan and Aizawa who like Asahi as does Shiho, as it later turns out), but also Oka being a Hopeless Suitor for Mikan, Sakurada's crush on Akari and Shima's, err, "crush" on Ryou. Mei is also implied to like Oka in chapter 105.
• Alliterative Title: Jitsu wa Watashi wa. Appropriately enough, "wawawa" is an onomatopoeia indicating a panicked reaction in Japanese. Needless to say, these reactions happen a lot in the series.
• Always in Class One:
  • Apart from Mikan, most of the student characters were in 2-1. This is then parodied when Asahi enters 3-1 - he finds every main character there, even Rin (who is in the year below), Akane, and Karen (actually in the class).
  • Lampshaded and justified in the latter case, where one chapter has Akari observe that all the "unusual" students are in her homeroom and Akane admits that it was her doing and says that she has a larger plan for it.
• Analogy Backfire: A positive version. Shiho tells Asahi that when she was little, she decided not to seriously pursue love after reading The Little Mermaid and concluding from its Downer Ending that just like the mermaid, a "weird" being like herself couldn't find happiness. Asahi responds by saying that a mermaid used to attend their high school and that she's Happily Married today, encouraging Shiho not to give up.
• Animal Motif: Aizawa and her brethren have a cat motif for some reason. Their emergency alarm is a cat mewing and their spaceships are cat-shaped.
• Arc Words: The title of the series ("The truth is, I am..."). It's not only about the characters revealing that they are not human, but also about them coming to terms with their feelings.
• Art Evolution: The characters' faces get more rounded and their eyes bigger as the series progresses. This makes them look somewhat more childish. This is particularly evident when the manga has flashback panels lifted from early chapters. The use of shadows has also become much more elaborate. This is made especially obvious in the final chapter, which has some flashbacks to the very beginning of the story, letting the reader see just how much Masuda's drawings of Asahi and Youko have changed over the years.
• Bad Future:
  • Parodied. In Rin's future, the Charismatic Pervert II has taken over the world, ushering in a Free-Love Future of sluts and perverts. A small resistance remains, comprised of the 10% of men who are not masochists, and 30% of women. And there are spaceships and magical dragons, for some reason.
  • However, late in the series it's played utterly straight: Also in Rin's future, Youko's vampiric nature went out of control, exposing her in front of her classmates and effectively destroying her life. She ran away and was never heard from again while a heartbroken Asahi never married, living on his own until one day Akane gave him a part-vampire baby whom he raised as his own daughter (and it's strongly implied she was his and Youko's daughter born from blood-drinking rather than sex). That girl was Rin's mother, and Rin's ultimate goal in time-traveling is preventing this future so her family can be whole and happy. This ends up becoming the driving force behind the second half of the series.
    • And as to why the spaceships are there...Nagisa's home planet invaded Earth after being unable to peacefully coexist with humanity; Nagisa blames herself for being unable to mediate between the two worlds. Though in chapter 163 it was revealed [[she made the whole story up, and in her actual future her planet was able to make peaceful contact with Earth.]]
  • Double Subverted in chapter 123 and 124. At first it's hinted that Asahi is Yuka's grandfather and that he has married Shiho in the future; Shiho is distraught at the idea that she would ever do something so horrible as stealing her best friend's boyfriend. Thankfully, Yuka quickly clarifies that Asahi is merely an Honorary Grandfather to herself and many other resistance members. Cue a big sigh of relief from Shiho... until Yuka reveals that her "Grandma Shiho"'s future husband is Shimada.
• Bad Liar: Asahi is known for being the worst liar ever. Some people are so gullible that even he has odds of fooling them, however. Also, after interacting with Youko a little, he realizes she’s almost as bad at lying as he is.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Akane gives Aizawa her wish and turns her to the size of a normal human to be closer with Asahi in exchange for some of Aizawa's wonderful treats. When things panned out and Aizawa is paying up Akari convinced her to allow Rin, Shiho, and Youko as she has helped them too. At the sight of Youko's cooking, Akane tries jumping out the window.
• Best Her to Bed Her: This is (sort of) the case with Sakurada and Akari, as the former won't confess his feelings to the latter unless he can defeat her in a school-wide game of dodgeball. The first time it fails, as she wipes the floor with everyone. The next time it rolls around, things go a little better.
• Bizarre Alien Reproduction: It's mentioned at one point that ancient vampires could conceive children through blood-sucking, hence why Akane jokingly equates vampire blood-sucking to sex. This is later confirmed by Youko and Asahi themselves, as they find out that Youko has become pregnant that way at the end of the series.
• Black Comedy Rape: The basis of one of the series's running gags:
  • In chapter 88 "Mr. SMD In Love" (Shimada) goes to "prove his love" to Ryou, following the unfortunate advice of a clueless Karen during a radio show. In the last page, everyone makes a horrified face while Shimada is put under arrest and Ryou is crouching traumatized on the ground. It takes Jitsu wa's brand of humor to get away with that.
  • Chapter 102. While Ryokuenzaka Yumi, AKA Shiragami Genjirou, initially takes the job just to watch his daughter, he decides to be in the job fully and also listens to the student's problems. Problem is, the first student to consult him is Shimada. What happens next can be guessed if you already read chapter 88.
  • Chapter 103. After her defeat at the hands of her mother, the Charismatic Pervert, Shiho decides to train to remove her shyness in perversion with Asahi and with the help of Karen's feather of lust. The thing is, whenever Youko cannot bear to watch, she shows a picture of the moon, so Shiho turns into Shirou. Who is still under the feather's effect. Needless to say, blushing Shirou asks Asahi how his breasts feel. Then Shiho decides to stop, but (obliviously) encouraged by Youko, decides to continue training and puts the feather back on her head. With Youko still holding the picture of the moon. Then Asahi gets chased by Shirou and then, uh....
  • Chapter 164 tops all the others by a country mile: Ryou realizes he can't mooch off his sister anymore since she returned to their home planet, so he goes to Shimada. At the same time, Shiho attempts to seduce Shimada to win back her pride, resulting in a twisted Love Triangle. Things reach their peak when Shiho (having used the Feather of Lust on herself to gain purity power) "taps out" by pulling out a picture of the moon, while Akane's powers short-circuit (or so she says), causing Ryou to manifest human-sized in place of his female mecha. Meaning Shima now has the very male Shirou and Ryou going after him. The chapter caps off with the infamous "Shima gets arrested" running gag, except this time it's Shirou and Ryou who are getting arrested while a traumatized Shimada crouches in the foreground wearing nothing but boxer shorts.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • The porn magazine Shimada reads in the anime's opening and Episode 4 has a totally-not-Red Bull ad on the back cover.
  • Chapter 112 features never-seen-before games such as Demon Hunter and Straight Fighter.
• Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: Whatever is in Mikan's "Russian Choux", it's not something to put in all hands. If Youko's reaction is accurate, then it at least contains tabasco sauce, habanero, and sun-dried red peppers.
• Bloodstained Glass Windows: The duel between One-Winged Angel Akari and Sakurada in chapter 142 takes place in a church built by Akane for the occasion. And floating in the sky.
• Book Ends: The first and last chapter both end with Asahi walking into a classroom and seeing a vampire spreading her wings. Youko is there both times too: the first time she's the vampire in question, while the second time she's a witness just like Asahi.
• Brain Bleach: In Chapter 95, Genjirou asks Asahi what he would do if, hypothetically, he came home one day and saw his father dressed as a woman. We get an Imagine Spot of Mr. Kuromine in a sundress and pigtails calmly reading the newspaper while his children look on in abject horror; back in reality, Asahi screams "WHAT ARE YOU MAKING ME IMAGINE?!"
• Brick Joke:
  • In chapter 4, Youko says that coffins are considered "high-class" and would be too expensive a sleeping arrangement for her. In the final chapter's omake, Genjirou buys her one as a graduation gift.
  • Chapter 110 starts with Asahi worrying about his future career and briefly mentioning that he wanted to be a superhero when he was a kid. It ends with Akane proposing him… to become a superhero.
• Butt-Monkey: Shima and Ryou are the two supreme buttmonkeys in the story. When they clash head to head even Ryou is creeped out by Shima and is unable to continue extorting him for free food.
• Call-Back: Gags from earlier chapters will often be re-visited later on. For example, in Chapter 89 Shiho helps train Aizawa to develop a "pretty butt"^note Aizawa was afraid she'd be given her peoples' worst punishment, a public spanking, and at least wanted to look good while it was happening; in Chapter 120, Aizawa busts out her bum (see Distracted by the Sexy below). Also qualifies as a Chekhov's Skill if one considers "having a nice-looking butt" a skill.
• The Cameo:
  • Chapter 25 features one of Mebuki and Sumiyoshi (first page, second panel, on the right), and chapter 26 one of Nomiya, Kousuke, Shima and Oka (eleventh page, bottom left panel), the main cast of Sakura Discord. They also appear in chapter 100 during Asahi and Youko's first date and again in chapter 192 for New Year's Eve. It might indicate that the two series take place in the same universe, but there's no way to be sure.
  • Similarly, chapter 69 features lookalikes of Shinji and Kana, two protagonists of How to Make an Invisible Man (second panel, on the left). It was around the time the chapters of HMIM were being compiled and released in a volume, 4 years after the series was published.
• Cast Herd: Not always obvious, but there are somewhat identifiable groups, although they change depending on the context and story developments.
  • We have Asahi, Shima, Oka and Sakura as "the MC and his buddies". It becomes Asahi, Oka and Mikan if there's a middle school flashback.
  • Akane, Karen, Touko and Genjirou form the "previous generation group". It can be Akane, Akari and Karen if there's a school-affair related talk.
  • In part 1, Youko, Nagisa and Shiho are the "love talk" group, so to speak, with Shiho as a sort of sideline observer.
  • Mei, Yuka, Sen and Saki are the "freshmen" group, introduced in chapter 105 and solidified in chapter 116, Mei being the Only Sane Man.
  • Mikan, Rin and Yuka start to form a sort of small family after Yuka is introduced, with Mikan as the Team Mom.
  • In-Universe, Mikan gives Youko, Nagisa, Shiho, and Karen the collective label "The Complacent Four."
• Censor Steam: Played with, as Shiho and her mother can control steam at will, not to tone down the fanservice but to accentuate it.
  Shiho: Fufu. Everyone has their own idea of a perfect female body. By just barely not showing everything, I allowed them to draw the rest of the picture themselves...!
• Central Theme: In line with all of Masuda's series, Jitsu wa has a strong theme of learning to love yourself, your differences and your flaws, while trying to become a better person.
• Cerebus Syndrome:
  • Episode 12 of the anime completely veers off from the manga and has a noticeably darker tone than the others. It notably ends with Youko's dad kidnapping her on the roof of the school in his bat form, in front of a powerless Asahi. In the end it turns out Youko was just going to visit her mom who had a benign cold, after Genjirou panicked. Which, amusingly, is the kind of "twist" that could very well happen in the manga.
  • Part 2 has this to some extent. While the story doesn't get dark, serious and emotional moments do get increasingly frequent as it goes on.
    • Gets a lampshade in Chapter 160, in which Future Aizawa declares that she wants to Kill and Replace her past self; on the last page is a Note from Ed. saying "Sensei, isn't the series' genre changing a bit too much?!"
    • The last twenty chapters of the manga get pretty dark. Increased usage of tropes like Nightmare Face, Cerebus Retcon, and more out and out violence make for some pretty dark climax that makes the uplifting ending so much more powerful.
• Chained Heat: In Chapter 166 Fuku-chan's powers cause Mikan and Oka to get handcuffed together. Mikan calmly points out that they can just go to the police station to get them removed.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Played for Laughs. Perverts gain the power to control the wind in order to invoke Panty Shot and Censor Steam. The Charismatic Pervert can even make a clone out of steam.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Erasing Memory Weapon (A simple shovel) that Nagisa uses as a normal weapon, does really work. Is how Future Nagisa managed to forget the love she felt for Asahi.
• Clothing Damage: Played for Laughs in Chapter 125: whenever Shiho hears/sees something that suggests she ends up marrying Shimada, her clothes fly off on their own (including the buttons popping off her shirt, her skirt dropping, that sort of thing).
• Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: In the New Year's chapter, Asahi hopes that playing the Game of Life with Genjirou will distract him from his Papa Wolf tendencies. Unfortunately, everything that happens in the game riles him up instead: on one turn, Genjirou draws a card that says "Your daughter is getting married"; the very next turn, Asahi draws a card that says "You are getting married".
• Color-Coded Characters: The author not only gives flashy hair colors to most of its characters (notably all of the female ones), it also names them after said color.
  • Kuromine Asahi: Black.
  • Shiragami Genjirou: White.
  • Akemi Mikan: Orange
  • Aizawa Nagisa: Blue
  • Shishido Shiho: Purple
  • Koumoto Akari: Red
  • Koumoto Akane: Pink (specifically, of the madder plant)
  • Kiryuuin Rin: Yellow
  • Shirogane Karen: Silver
  • Ryokuenzaka Yumi: Green
  • Momochi Yuka: Pink
  • Minagawa Saki: Aqua
    • In an interview published with Volume 13, Masuda points out that Asahi and Youko have a second layer of this: besides their surnames, "Asahi" refers to the morning sun (symbolizing yellow) while the "You" in Youko means leaf (symbolizing green).
• Comically Small Demand: Karen is an Angel who believes she is a demon after losing her Halo. Like demons she offers generous gifts in exchange for a terrible price: a sincere thank-you.
• Conveniently Seated: Asahi is seated behind and laterally to Youko so he can gaze wistfully at her without her noticing. Aizawa is seated behind and laterally to Asahi so she can glare daggers at him because he didn't listen to a word she said.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: A joint version happens in Chapter 116, where Saki and Yuka get into a curry-making duel...and end up sharing a pot. Their "meal" includes soft-shelled turtle, natto, garlic, okra, honey, dried plums, lemon, and mint chocolate chip ice cream, but not the curry roux (much to Mei's distress). The freshman class gets put in the hospital by eating it, and their reaction is comparable to victims of Mikan's Russian chou.
• Covered in Mud: In Chapter 87, Akane sees that Asahi and Youko are still uneasy even after becoming a couple and decides to solve it in her usual Trickster Mentor way: put them on a "game show" where they have to honestly answer questions about their relationship; each false answer results in their booths being tilted towards a giant slide into a mud pit. And then after they "win", she sets them up to fall into the mud anyway by making them address Akari-sensei's unrealistic Knight in Shining Armor fantasy.
• Creator Cameo: Masuda drew himself into Chapter 193; he's the guy being thrown into the air when the results of the Touou-dai entrance exams are posted.
• Crossover: A one-shot story featuring characters from The Vampire Dies in No Time, another series published in Shonen Champion Magazine, came out after Chapter 142. In it, Drark decides to get a popularity boost by drinking the blood of the most popular male character in Champion — namely, Asahi. Given how Jitsu wa treats blood-drinking, Youko is naturally creeped out.
• Custom Uniform: Going by the girls' skirt and the emblem on the characters' clothes, the school does seem to have some kind of uniform, but the dress code is apparently pretty loose as no two characters wear the same thing. Only the graduation ceremony in chapter 88 shows everyone in their proper uniform.
• Damned by Faint Praise: In Chapter 155, the class is choosing a play to perform for the school festival. One play, which is obviously Youko's, is so bad/cheesy that it looks like it's physically painful to read (except Miss Ryokuenzaka, who calls it a masterpiece). Thankfully, Akari comes in and says "Like...you know...the penmanship is nice." The rest of the class seizes on that, and thankfully Youko buys it.
• Deep-Immersion Gaming: Chapter 112 has Asahi, Shirou and Genjirou playing Demon Hunter and Straight Fighter, as a scheme from Shirou to help the other two get closer. Strangely, the in-game avatars apparently really look like the characters, as Genjirou's avatar in both games is a giant like him.
• Delayed Reaction: In chapter 98, when Sakurada says he's going to confess his feelings to Akari, everyone continues their normal conversations for two full panels, before they start to compute what he just said and freeze, asking him to repeat. Then they all scream in shock.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Combined with We Need a Diversion in Chapter 120; Shiho engages in a "pervert battle" with her mother, but starts losing the battle and her cool because her mother called her out on the fact that she's hiding her "pure love" for someone — namely, Asahi. Aizawa saves the day by turning around and dropping her pants, showing off her butt (which even the Charismatic Pervert calls cute), then dropping a smoke grenade.
• The Ditz: It's far easier to make a list of the characters in this manga who aren't complete idiots. Special mention goes to Shiragami whose goofiness has more often than not put her secret at risk. The only more or less level-headed characters are Asahi, Okada and Sakurada, Shiho, Mikan after her Character Development, and sometimes Akari. Asahi's sister Mei also seems to have her head on straight.
• Dodgeball Is Hell: Taken − of course − to hilariously extreme lengths by putting Akari against the entire class, with weapons and shields allowed for the pupils. And it's the pupils who are at a crippling disadvantage, mind you. This isn't at all helped by the fact that someone (probably Akane) pushed Akari's Berserk Button and said "You're still alone, even in dodgeball!" The chapter features various military strategies to try and defeat her, all in vain. It also features an epic climax after Sakurada reveals that he will confess his feelings to Akari if they win the game. It doesn't work.
  Genjirou: Is this what PE classes are nowadays?!
• Driving Question: Part 2 introduces many scattered plot elements, but there are three central questions:
  • 1) "Who is the Charismatic Pervert II?" Answer: Future Youko; thanks to her natural Charm Person powers getting much stronger along with her other vampiric abilities. Rin ends up reuniting her with Future Asahi.
  • 2) "Why is Genjirou so opposed to Youko attending a normal high school?" Answer: He attended the same school, and just days before graduation his vampire powers went out of control, exposing him in front of everyone. People he thought were friends called him a monster and ran away, and the only person who didn't turn on him was Touko. As a result, he doesn't think humans and "monsters" can co-exist, and doesn't want Youko to suffer the same pain he did. Chapter 189 reveals another facet: to stay with him, Touko had to cut ties with her family, friends, and pretty much everyone else she knew and cared about. Genjirou understands that this was a massive sacrifice and doesn't want Asahi to have to do the same (nor does he think Youko is willing to make him do it).
  • 3) "What happened to Asahi and Youko's relationship?", though near the end the latter one gets replaced by "What happened to Youko and why do none of the time travelers ever talk about her?" Answer: Just like her father, Youko's powers went out of control around graduation and she ran away and was never seen her again. Asahi never married and fell into depression until Akane gave him an orphaned vampire baby (who's strongly implied to be Asahi and Youko's daughter, born from her drinking his blood); this child would go on to become Rin's mother.
• Dude, She's Like in a Coma: Asahi and Youko get locked in her room one night. She keeps falling asleep while her mother and Akane are watching from outside with magic. Every time he falls asleep he refuses to try anything, so the next morning both of them call him a coward. That said, it was pretty obvious that Akane was messing with him, so if he HAD done something he would have had an audience.
• Dutch Angle: Occasionally used in serious scenes, notably love confessions. This was already present in Sakura Discord. Of course, being the series it is, it also uses the trope parodically for scenes that have a serious tone but either have a completely silly context or are subverted the page after.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Outside from the obvious Art Evolution, the types of gags used in the early chapters were also quite different. For example, they had a few instances of Harsh Word Impact for Asahi, a visibly different panel layout and far less Identical Panel Gags.
• Ear Worm: In an omake, Asahi is listening to Karen's radio show when she leaves midway, putting on the Magical Akalyn theme song on loop. Asahi soon complains that it's stuck in his head.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Spoofed in Chapter 184 where Aizawa introduces the "Rock-Paper-Scissors of Idiocy": Straight Men keep Idiots in check, Idiots frustrate Serious Characters, Serious Characters outwit Straight Men. It's also played perfectly straight in that Youko's innocence and kind-hearted acceptance of Principal Shirayuki, in spite of her seemingly evil nature, are what ultimately saves the day and changes the future for the better.
• Evil Is Petty: Akane the demon principal is incredibly petty with her evilness. In fact, most of the time she’s ONLY petty, though she gets worse if she can’t get any candy. Everyone seems to agree that she’s definitely a demon though.
• Exact Words: At one point, Akane asks Rin why it is that even with all her powers, she can't sense the identity of Asahi's eventual wife. When the big Reveal rolls around we find out that Asahi never got married in the Bad Future, and therefore nobody is his wife.
• Face Palm: Akari and Asahi do a simultaneous facepalm at how difficult it is to take care of Akane and Youko. There are also many, many others, mainly by Asahi when witnessing the girls do something stupid.
• Failed a Spot Check:
  • During the Sports Festival, Akane tied up Akari, Mikan, Shiho and Rin so she can impersonate them to win the festival. Unfortunately, she forgot to tie up Touko, who was in alliance with Akari to take Akane down. Sure enough, she freed the four of them and Akari proceeded to give Akane her just desserts.
  • In chapter 34, Mikan; Youko; and Nagisa ask Shiho if she's seen Asahi, who they are chasing. After she sends them away, the next panel reveals Asahi crouching between Shiho's legs. How they didn't see him is a mystery for the ages.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Chapter 63 has the main cast visiting Akari to celebrate her… Nth birthday. Seeing that she's depressed by getting one year older, all of them try to give her presents to cheer her up. Every single one of them only manages to remind her of her Old Maid anxiety: Asahi and Youko try to tell her she doesn't need to worry, Aizawa gives her a cake "too small to put all the candles", and Karen a high-class wine bottle with a SINGLE GLASS.
• Fanservice: Mocked and parodied (yes, even that) with the "perverts", who almost seem like a distinct species of women with their own set of superpowers, and a sex appeal measured by an aura called "Pervert Power" ("Chijo-ryoku") and the nosebleed of men around them. And they Take Over the World in the future (which may or may not be a parralel to how a lot of modern series are overloaded with gratuitous fanservice). Female characters who don't possess any Pervert Power can only take riduculous poses.
• Feather Boa Constrictor: Anna the Poisonous Snake is a pervert who wanders around the zoo with a python wrapped around her.
• Femininity Failure:
  • When Shiho does sexy poses, noses bleed everywhere. When Youko, Akari and Akane try to imitate her, hum, well.
  • And again when the series introduces Saki, who attempts to look sexy while cooking and just ends up looking motherly and homey.
• Filler: There are occasional chapters that are just there for the sake of wackiness, though not as many as you'd think for a Gag Series. Ironically, some of them like the burger race (chapter 28) or the Magical Akalyn chapter (chapter 82) are among the most popular chapters.
• First-Name Basis: Between the primary cast members...
  • Asahi and Youko start off calling each other "Shiragami-san" and "Kuromine-kun" respectively, but after they get closer they change to using first names (with the same honorifics). When Youko is upset with Asahi, she might swap back to using his surname, assuming that she doesn't just call him "Eromine" or "dope" instead.
  • Youko refers to the school principal and student council president as "Akane-chan" and "Karen-chan" respectively; this is because they were friends with Youko's parents.
  • Aizawa is on a Full-Name Basis with everyone, but when she and Youko become better friends, she changes over to "Youko-kun".
  • Asahi and Mikan refer to each other with first names and no honorifics because they're Childhood Friends who have known each other since they were little.
  • Shiho, Aizawa, and Mikan all get on a first-name basis with each other after they learn each others' secrets. Shiho attempts to get cute by calling Mikan nicknames like "Akemin" and "Mikapon", which annoys Mikan, prompting her to respond with her own nicknames like "Shiho-nyan".
• Foreshadowing:
  • A major one for the identity of the Charismatic Pervert II: When she's first mentioned all the way back in Chapter 35, her silhouette is doing Youko's "cool beauty" pose.
  • In Chapter 88, Karen gives advice on-air about a student falling in love with a teacher. Sakurada put that suggestion in.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: No, Youko most definitely didn't get drunk on alcohol during the flower-viewing party. It's just some pervert juice.
• Funny Background Event:
  • In chapter 86 after Asahi and Youko confess to each other and promise to care for each other in the distance you can see Akane jumping of joy and Youko's mom lunging on her to stay hidden.
  • Rin's reactions (or rather, non-reactions) during Youko and Saki's "battle" in chapter 109.
  • In Chapter 155, Aizawa's "Space Princess Kaguya" play makes Youko cry and say "What a touching story!". In the very next panel, Yumi-sensei has the same reaction. Like father like daughter.
• Future Me Scares Me: Aizawa is none too fond of her 10-years-later self, AKA "Box Girl", for a lot of reasons: constantly talking down to her and calling her "rookie", acting as goofy and perverted as Shiho (even getting into an impromptu sexiness battle), and most importantly interfering in the lives of herself and her friends.
• Gag Series: While there is some genuine plot and character development, what people read the series for is really the insanity of the cast and the absurd situations their stupidity puts them in. It helps that the construction is usually rather "theatrical" (one chapter = one place and one situation). Part 2 is slightly more plot-heavy, though, especially in the post-105 chapters.
• Genre Shift: A very gradual, but noticeable one. During the first 10-or-so volumes, the series was a pure romantic comedy with harem elements; with part 2, it was still a romcom, but without the harem part as the two protagonists became a couple. The series then gradually became more plot-driven, started to focus more on Character Development and to treat the romance aspect somewhat more seriously, until around chapter 150-160 where drama became significantly more prominent (though the tone is still mostly comical). By chapter 180, the series has become more of a supernatural Dramedy where the stakes of the story go beyond mere teenage romance.
• Generation Xerox:
  • Asahi and Youko's romance seems to mirror Touko and Genjirou's (Youko's parents) a great deal. Sometimes to the point of Contrived Coincidence. Karen reveals her learning Genjirou was a vampire and he learning she is an angel ends up being nearly identical to Aizawa learning of Youko's true nature and vice versa.
  • Going beyond coincidence, Youko seems to be actively invoking this trope by trying to follow her parents' romance beat for beat. This leads to her giving Asahi their First Kiss in Chapter 69, because they were riding the same Ferris wheel where Genjirou and Touko shared their first kiss, but Youko was shown to be nervous and uncertain the whole time before just going for it on the spur of the moment. Genjirou has actually warned Asahi against this, saying that if they try following his and Touko's story too closely they'll only suffer heartbreak, but hasn't elaborated on that point any further.
  • Inverted in chapter 92: the new assistant teacher Ryokuenzaka Yumi reveals her wings to Asahi in a scene identical to chapter one. It turns out, "she" is actually Youko's father in disguise.
  • Taken a step further late in the series where Asahi is sent 20 years into the past and meets Youko's parents when they were teenagers. Teen!Genjirou actually acts a bit like Shirou while Teen!Touko is the Only Sane Man like Asahi himself. On top of that, Aizawa's father and Shiho's mother are in the class as well, and Genjirou has three friends who are Identical Strangers to Asahi's buddies and even have similar names (Okayama, Shimayama, Sakurayama).
• Gilligan Cut: While not as common, they do appear, frequently hand-in-hand with an Identical Panel Gag.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: A good many of the characters will spit each other glares that wouldn't look out of place in the creepiest, most yandere of horror genres... The problem is nearly all of them will do it for the most inane reasons. The largest offender by far would be Karen, the foulest, most evil demon around, ready to curse you at the drop of a hat.
• Goofy Suit: In chapter 111, Akane sticks Asahi in a superhero costume that he describes as looking like it was cobbled together from a whole bunch of sources. Said costume consists of briefs, suspenders, boots, wristbands, a cape AND a scarf, and a helmet that looks like Electro-Wave Human Tackle's with a heart and a Gundam V-fin on top.
• Graduate from the Story: Like in Sakura Discord, the final chapters of the manga take place during the main cast's graduation ceremony. Each of them gets a heartfelt mini-speech from Akari, and leave the school on pretty good terms.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Though referred to as a vampire, Youko is mainly just a human with big teeth, wings and a few quirky reactions to random things like garlic and crosses. Shiho/Shirou is a half werewolf, meaning there’s a human form and then a wolfman form that is actually just a guy with really nasty teeth.
• Harem Genre: A downplayed example. While there are four different girls attracted to Asahi, they remain friendly to each other, and the series is almost devoid of Fanservice. The accent is rather put on the general goofiness. In part 2, the harem part is ditched since Asahi and Youko become a couple, and Nagisa sort of gives up on Asahi, but the series becomes a Love Dodecahedron involving both old and new characters.
• Harsh Word Impact: Being in the friendzone early on impales Asahi.
• Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": Chapter 155 has the class picking a play to perform for the culture festival, and the three entries fall under this.
  • Firstly we have the tale of Princess Kaguya in Space, which is clearly an analogue for Aizawa's experiences over the course of the series. Later on it's subverted: the play was actually written by Future Aizawa, who then sent it to her past self with fake orders from the home planet to submit it for the class play.
    • I Should Write a Book About This: Aizawa's play essentially uses the story of Princess Kaguya as a cover to retell events from the last two years (read: the rest of the manga), allowing the audience to see all the good times the cast has had without their realizing it's real.
  • Next is "She Was...a Cool Beauty", which Youko is pretty invested in but the rest of the class seems to find physically painful. The day is saved when Akari praises the penmanship, which satisfies Youko.
  • Subverted with the final entry, "Momobutttaro"; it's written by Shiho, but she wants Aizawa to play the title character. According to Aizawa it reads like an erotic novel, and the boys in the class (minus Asahi, Oka, and Sakurada) are all for it^note As is Akari, who suggests that they cast Sakura as "the ogre with a mighty, mighty club". However, Aizawa says she'll approve of it on two conditions: Shiho has to play the lead...and Shimada has to play the "excessively perverted monkey". Cue Shiho throwing her own script out the window, to the boys' horror.
• Here We Go Again!: The very last scene of the series is Asahi and Youko stumbling upon a vampire spreading her wings in an empty classroom in university.
• Hidden Depths: Akari at first seems like a lazy, frequently drunk schoolteacher. Turns out she's tired from all the extra work she has to do dealing with a demonic great-great-grandmother and a class full of supernatural students with special needs, since she knew about all of them from the start of the manga.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: Invoked. Momochi decided that since ninjas are masters of stealth, the best way to pretend not to be a ninja is to not hide at all. Maybe that would have worked if not for the giant shuriken she carries everywhere.
• Honorary Uncle:
  • When Future Mikan sends her present-day self a message, she notes that Rin calling her "granny" doesn't necessarily mean that they're blood-related. In the end it turns out that they are related^note Rin's parents are Asahi's daughter and Mikan's son, but Future Mikan was just preparing her younger self for the eventuality that she wouldn't end up with Asahi.
  • In Chapter 124, Momochi referring to Asahi as "Grandpa" and Shiho as "Grandma" causes Shiho a lot of emotional distress. Thankfully, she explains that while Shiho really is her grandmother, many younger Resistance members call Asahi "Grandpa" out of respect and they aren't actually related at all.
• Horned Humanoid:
  • Devils like Akane have horns, apparently. She uses an illusion to pretend they're just an accessory, but normally they're the obvious giveaway for when she's just impersonating people with her body doubles.
  • Her great-granddaughter Akari becomes one in chapter 138, due to her power getting out of control.
• Human Alien: Apart from how tiny she is and the antenna on her head., Aizawa looks more or less completely human.
• Hypocritical Humor: In Chapter 171, Asahi is sent 20 years into the past and runs into Youko's parents when they were still high schoolers. On the spot, he comes up with the pseudonym "Yuuhi Kuromiya", which Young Genjirou calls a lame name. Asahi thinks to himself "You have no right to lecture me about fake names!", having just discovered that Genjirou used his wife's maiden name for his Gender Bender disguise (Yumi Ryokuenzaka).
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Sort of played straight and sort of parodied in the Sakurada vs. Akari arc, where the latter has lost her mind, around chapter 140. It's played straight in the sense that the stakes of the "fight" are real, but this being Jitsu wa, the way the fight unfolds is… rather silly. It involves an epic and dramatic… tricycle race, and other normally mundane sports fest events. The characters' expressions are still 100% serious, mind you. Though it does become a more traditional fight when Sakurada confronts Akari in the floating castle.
• Identical Panel Gag:
  • The author loves repeating the position of characters, bubbles and even the general panel layout between two pages. And he somehow finds new ways to use this trope in every chapter it seems. There is notably an elaborate instance in the scene where Akane tastes Aizawa's cakes.
  • Taken to the next step with chapters 80 and 81, which have nearly identical layouts◊ for the whole chapter. The joke works especially well, since chapter 80 is a serious and dramatic chapter, while 81 is a comedic one. The series essentially parodies itself.
  • It's also done with the first pages of chapters 10 and 69, when Asahi and Youko go to the amusment park together◊, complete with similar dialogue.
  • The Black Comedy Rape actually happens THRICE.
  • The end of chapter 92 when Asahi found out the new assistant teacher Ryokuenzaka Yumi is a vampire is almost exactly the same as a certain scene way back in chapter 1.
  • Lampshaded later on (and in episode 12 of the anime) when Asahi's friends encourage him to confess to Youko, using the same dialog and poses from way back at the start of the series: Asahi remarks "Hasn't this happened before?"
  • The first part of the series has a Running Gag of Youko, spaced out due to some romantic development, sitting in Akane's office while the latter mocks her. Chapter 113 flips it around, with Akane suffering the Freak Out (over Sakurada's crush on Akari) while Genjirou mocks her.
  • The first part of chapter 164 parodies the first part of chapter 160 but with Shimada and Ryou, similarly to 81 and 80.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All chapter titles are in the form "Let's XXX", or more rarely an exclamative sentence. Then chapter 125 to 128, titled "Shishido Shiho" introduce a third kind of pattern where a chapter or series of chapters is named after one or two characters it focuses on. These chapters are often more serious than average.
• Idiots Cannot Catch Colds: In chapter 4, when Asahi worries that Youko is not at school, Akari points out to him that people who are not idiots like him can catch colds sometimes (of course at that point Akari didn't know that Youko was, well, Youko). To Asahi's annoyance, the rest of the class nods in agreement.
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Youko has this reaction in chapter 88 when she sees a miniature Akane, remarking "Isn't she adorable?! It's like someone took out the cheekiness and kept the rest!" She quickly changes her tune when mini-Akane calls her an idiot.
• Imagine Spot: In Episode 6 of the anime, Aizawa wonders to herself how Asahi and Youko's date at the amusement park went. First she imagines Youko getting scared on a roller coaster and clinging to Asahi, leading to their First Kiss; she immediately dismisses this as unlikely. But then she imagines them in the haunted house, with Asahi getting scared and clinging to Youko, who smiles and snuggles back because he's triggering her maternal instincts; Aizawa considers this a likely enough occurrence that she lets out a Big "NO!".
• Improbably Female Cast: Kind of. If we look strictly at the numbers, the regular cast is fairly balanced gender-wise (10 girls, 7 guys, and one pair of glasses at the end of Part 1; 13 girls and 8 guys as of chapter 145), but the guys clearly get less exposure overall: Shirou, Ryou and Genjirou don't appear a whole lot, and Shimada, Okada and Sakurada, while they are often present, usually keep a limited role with a few exceptions. However, as the story goes on − and particularly in Part 2 − some of them are given a bit more focus and depth.
• Insane Troll Logic: Chapter 78 has Genjirou being very worried about Youko, who has gone to a tropical island for the school trip. Karen's solution for his worry? Make the house into an even more beautiful tropical paradise, so Youko will choose to return home over the school trip. Even Akane is completely dumbfounded at this idea.
• Interspecies Romance: All over the place, be it the parents (Youko and Shiho are half-vampire and half-wolfman, and Akari has a demon ancestor) or Youko and Aizawa with Asahi.
• Ironic Echo: In Chapter 113, Akane mocks Genjirou for getting so worked up at the idea of his daughter having a boyfriend. Then Sakurada (who has a crush on Akari) enters the picture, causing Akane to freak out and giving Genjirou the opportunity to gleefully throw each and every taunt right back in her face.
• It's Not You, It's Me: In Chapter 123, at Asahi's insistence, Oka tells Momochi that he already has feelings for someone else and therefore can't date her; she accepts it with a smile on her face and tears in her eyes.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: Built into the premise, since Asahi's comedic inability to keep secrets results in him having to protect the secrets of about a half-dozen characters (all of whom would suffer major negative consequences should they get out). This fades over times as the characters figure the secrets out for themselves, but is still in full effect for Youko, since her father has sworn to remove her from the school the second anyone finds out she's a vampire. This comes back with a vengeance near the end of the series, when it becomes virtually impossible to hide Youko's secret because her vampiric nature is asserting itself, i.e. she no longer appears in photographs.
• Kiss of the Vampire: Played literally. According to Youko, sucking blood is an incredibly intimate act for vampires, akin to kissing (and in fact, it's used in place of kissing in vampire weddings). As a result, whenever the subject is broached, Youko tends to get rather flustered: when Asahi asks about it early in the story, Youko says that it feels like he's sexually harassing her and protests that she's "not that kind of girl". Over 100 chapters later, Akane tells them that sucking blood is actually closer to having sex, to their shock. Though in a later chapter it turns out she was just screwing with them, and the original "kiss" assertion is more accurate. And then near the end of the series it's revealed that vampires in fact can reproduce via blood-drinking, and it's strongly implied that Youko had Asahi's child as a result of this in the Bad Future.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Lampshaded with Akari, who expects any of her potential suitors to literally sweep her off her feet while riding a white horse. Everyone else points out how completely unrealistic this is. Later lampshaded even harder when the main cast work together to make it so Sakurada can actually do this for her.
• Last Confession Wins: Averted. Shiho confesses her love for Asahi well after Youko has already "won"; in her case, it's more to take a weight off of her chest than in any hope of winning him over.
• Last-Minute Hookup: Averted, which isn't all that common in a shonen romcom. The main couple hooking up isn't the end of the series, but the halfway point. The second part develops their relationship as a couple, of course, but also (and mostly) a number of characters that didn't have much spotlight in the first part.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • In Chapter 150, after Asahi trips and gets a handful of Mikan's chest, Oka curses "Don't screw with me, you damn Rom Com protagonist!"
  • The final chapter and everyone's goodbyes before separating are directed to the audience just as much as they're talking to each other.
• Lighter and Softer: The author seems to go crescendo in this department. How to Make an Invisible Man was a grave and melancholic story. Sakura Discord was already more comedic but still relatively serious. Jitsu wa is pure, undiluted silliness, minus the occasional Wham Line or Wham Shot.
• Literally Falling in Love: Akane tries to make a use of this trope when Youko and Asahi are locked in the former's room by sending a sleepy Youko onto Asahi with a spring, or literally tilting the entire house so that they fall on each other. All her efforts are in vain.
• Look Behind You:
  • In Chapter 13, Asahi tries to distract Shiho by saying "Somebody dropped a porn magazine over there!" Not only does she fall for it, but she returns a minute later with an actual porn magazine she found on the floor. Needless to say, Asahi is rightly shocked.
  • In Chapter 30, Asahi and Aizawa have to pretend they don't know Youko's secret since Youko's father is watching them like a hawk. At one point Youko accidentally lets her wings out, and Aizawa shouts "Look, a UFO!" to give Asahi an excuse to look away (he believes it for a second because Aizawa's an alien); amusingly enough Genjirou also falls for it and starts looking for the UFO.
• Loveable Sex Maniac: Shiho. Even though she doesn't actually have sex with any of cast (that we see), she loves peeking at and/or stealing underwear, groping any sufficiently sexy body parts of men and women alike, and doing anything she can to make the male cast have arousal-induced nosebleeds.
• Maid Cafe: Chapter 73 features the most terrifying maid café ever seen. It has Akari working in it, and when it comes to Fanservice with a Smile, let's just say she has trouble with the "smile" part.
• Meaningful Name: Chapter 153 reveals the name of the school as "Morobare High". "Morobare" means "open secret", which fits… everyone studying in it.
• Missing Reflection: Very late in the series Youko's vampiric nature begins asserting itself and she stops showing up in photographs — which causes her friend Mikan to realize that she's a vampire.
• Mobile-Suit Human: Members of Aizawa's race use this to infiltrate the earth. It needs to be recharged frequently, or it stops moving.
• Moment Killer: A rapid-fire succession of those in chapter 100. Asahi and Youko's romantic moment in front of the giant fishtank at the aquarium is killed by Youko's stomach growling because she finds the sardines tasty. Then by Genjirou disguising himself as an ocean sunfish to drive the sardines away. Then by a horde of Akanes in penguin disguise when Akane spots Akari and Sakurada together.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • Chapter 101 is a diabetes-inducing meal between Asahi and Youko, full of blushing, stuttering and mutual teasing. Then, near the end we suddenly get an ominous, low shot of Youko with Hellish Pupils, staring at Asahi's neck as if ready to bite it… and then we get back to the sugar as Youko's stomach growls.
  • Chapter 132 starts off with a comedic sequence where Akane trolls Asahi and Youko by telling them that for vampires, drinking blood is like having sex, and comparing Youko drinking Asahi's blood to her "taking advantage" of him. After Youko runs out of the room in a huff, things get much more serious when Akane warns Asahi that vampires can be consumed by bloodlust and become monsters, and encourages him to be very careful from now on. Then she warns him about vampire hunters...as we see Youko running into a hunter from the Kiryuin clan, Rin's family.
  • Chapter 182 might have one of the most severe cases of Mood Whiplash in the entire series, if not all of Manga history. The protagonists seemingly drive off the reporters investigating the school, only for them to run headlong into Shirayuki]...and Genjirou in his Yumi-sensei disguise, working alongside her. Distraught, Asahi and Karen ask him how he could possibly support the woman who ruined his life...and the dramatic tension is blown to atoms as Youko, who overhears their conversation, finally realizes that (as she puts it) "Ryokuenzaka-sensei is my dad cross-dressing?!". This includes epic reaction faces from everyone involved, including Shirayuki getting an utterly blank-eyed Flat "What" expression.
• Move Along, Nothing to See Here: In chapter 140, the sports fest announcer tries their hardest to pretend that Akane summoning a GIANT CASTLE out of thin air is "just a demonstration".
• Mutual Masquerade: Nagisa (alien) and Shiho (werewolf) are neighbours and friends, but neither of them knows the other's real nature, despite Asahi and Youko knowing both of their secrets. This causes a few problems, like in chapter 17 where Nagisa thinks a panty-thief (actually Shirou) has broken into Shiho's house, or chapter 66 where Shiho thinks, like Mikan, that the mini-Nagisa is a figurine. The masquerade is finally broken in chapter 126, where Nagisa, Shiho and Mikan all accidentally reveal their secrets simultaneously.
• Must Be Invited: One of the vampire weaknesses. Shiragami, being a half-blood, can enter any room uninvited, but feels incredibly guilty when doing so. In the anime, this literally manifests by blocking Youko's room to Genjirou with Some Kind Of Forcefield.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: When Youko has a platonic declaration of love moment, she pauses to specify that she only likes Akane a little bit.
• Never the Selves Shall Meet: Averted; once the whole Kid from the Future plot hits full swing, Mikan's future self seeks her out to offer romantic advice. Also averted with Box Girl, who unmasks in front of Asahi and Aizawa, revealing herself to be Aizawa from 10 years in the future.
• No Romantic Resolution: The anime ends inconclusively, as it roughly follows the first 30 chapters of the series, but at the same time makes too many changes for a second season to be possible - not one following the manga at least. Thus the last episode simply has Youko going on First-Name Basis with Asahi before they leave her parents' house. Averted in the manga, where Asahi and Youko become an Official Couple halfway through the story.
• Not That There's Anything Wrong with That: Whenever Shima hits on boys, everyone is quick to point out that the problem isn't that they're boys—it's that Shima thinks they're girls (in addition to the standard sexual harassment problems Shima provides).
• Not What It Looks Like:
  • Rin hugs Asahi at every opportunity, feeds him, and even spends an entire day riding around on his shoulders. It's actually a rather cute grandfather/grand-daughter relationship, but it doesn't look like that from the outside.
  • In Episode 6 of the anime, Aizawa sees Shiho straddling a prone Asahi and chews him out for being a pervert. A few minutes later, she realizes it probably wasn't what it looked like, and goes back to apologize...only to find Shirou straddling Asahi, which makes her run off wondering if it was that Boys Love stuff she's heard about. Thankfully, at the end of the episode, she's shown accepting Asahi and Youko's explanation.
• Oblivious to Love: The series is notable for largely averting this. Aizawa noticed that Asahi was attracted to her and preemptively rejected him. Mikan gently points out that Okada is wasting his time by coming to her part time job, but he refuses to get the point. Even Youko realizes how Asahi feels after a while, and isn't very good at hiding that she likes him back. And of course Asahi is perfectly aware of Mikan's feelings after she directly confesses to him. He also doesn't fail to do the math when Aizawa calls him alone on a beach at night in chapter 80.
• Official Couple: After two aborted confessions on Asahi's part, some swimming lessons, two trips to the amusement park, one night in Youko's room, being lost in a snowstorm, Youko kissing Asahi on an impulse, a huge misunderstanding with Aizawa, and various pushes from Akane, Karen or Asahi's friends, the two main characters finally hook up in chapter 86. But that's far from being the end of the story.
• Officially Shortened Title: JitsuWata, although nobody uses it in the West, where "Jitsu wa" is more common. It's not like the full title is that long anyway.
• Oh, Crap!: Asahi has two serious ones in quick succession in Chapter 170: firstly when it becomes clear that Mikan seems to have figured out that Youko is a vampire; the second comes right afterwards when she asks him to tell her the truth, Genjirou (in his Yumi disguise) appears behind her with a katana, looking seriously terrifying.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Chapter 154 is all about this: Mei seems down and her friends assume she's still dealing with her feelings about Oka choosing to go after Mikan (with Mei's encouragement), eventually getting Asahi and Oka involved. However, Mei's Inner Monologue reveals that she's suffering a painful toothache and is trying to talk herself into seeing a dentist. Made funnier by scenes of everyone discussing how to make Mei feel better as narration captions pop in with "Hint: toothache".
• One-Winged Angel: Part of the more horrific bits of the series.
  • In chapter 132, Akane mentions that Genjirou had become "nothing short of a monster" when his vampire powers had started to go berserk on the day his secret was outed.
  • In chapter 141 Akari, who had already started to turn into a demon, grows wings, a demonic tale, and an electric aura because of her "courting impulses" (whetever that means).
• Only the Chosen May Wield: According to Rin, only the chosen can see her time machine/dragon. However, just in case you thought this might help narrow down the identity of Asahi's future wife, all of his potential love interests can see it.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Chapter 75 had a weather phenomenon where the weather would get worse when someone is being out-of-character (Youko acting like an actual cool beauty, for example). When Akane starts being nice, it almost resulted in The End of the World as We Know It.
  • In Chapter 150, even Shima is Squicked by Okada acting perverted towards Mikan; Asahi specifically points this out in an attempt to get Okada back to normal.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Youko has all the traditional weaknesses of a vampire, but hilariously downplayed: being exposed to the sun gives her a tan, being exposed to onion or garlic makes her cry, she is afraid of running water (but it doesn't hurt her) and seeing a cross irritates her a bit. So none of her "weaknesses" actually put her in danger of exposing her secret. More generally, it seems that for vampires, sucking blood is an equivalent of kissing. They also eat food like anyone else. However, later in the series Youko's "vampire purity" rises as a result of her drinking blood, which makes her more vulnerable to those weaknesses and actually does expose her secret, after Mikan notices that she doesn't show up in photographs anymore.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Their wolf form and human form are actually Split Personalities, and they switch whenever they look at the moon (or any pictures of a moon). Moreover, their body can even change features, including sex, depending on which personality is active. Although the only werewolf we've seen is only a half-blood, so how full-blood werewolves behave is still unknown.
• Page-Turn Surprise: The manga uses this often, both dramatically and as a visual punchline to a joke. Due to the series' heavy use of Mood Whiplash it's not always clear which it will be until you actually turn the page. Chapter 80 and 81 actually use very much the same page and panel structure, but page turns that were used dramatically in the former become comedic in the latter due to the different contexts.
• Paranormal Romance: The setting includes vampires, aliens, werewolves, angels, demons, time travellers, gods of fortune, steam-bending perverts, and other oddities. The story still mostly revolves around the progression of Asahi and Youko's romance, including the events after they become a couple, and the characters observing it.
• Playing a Tree: Happens to most of Asahi and Youko's class during their play in Chapter 162. Special mention goes to Shima, who didn't even warrant a tree and was stuck playing wild grass.
• Poor Communication Kills: When Asahi finally makes it to the roof to talk to Youko in episode 12, she's seen being carried off by a rather large bat. He immediately assumes the worst in that her father found out about others knowing she's a vampire, and was taking her away as a result. However, when they run into Youko at her father's mansion, it turns out that she was just visiting because her mother had a fever, and her father overreacted, hence her sudden disappearance. She never got to tell him because of Aizawa chasing after him throughout the school just before they were supposed to meet up.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: In the live-action stage play, the Charismatic Pervert wears a gauzy white harem outfit, which is probably the best way they could re-create her ever-present Censor Steam without actually having the actress strip naked on stage.
• Previously on…: Played with in the weekly magazine chapters. They all have a "summary of the previous chapter" in the first page… which consists in a laconic, humorous and hardly informative phrase, such as "Idiots will save the Earth.", "Shima is scary, isn't he." or "Strongest Jersey Akari." They're sadly absent from the volumes, though.
• Reality Subtext: In-Universe: in Chapter 162, Aizawa's "Space Princess Kaguya" play is underscored by the fact that, like Kaguya, she's leaving Earth to return to her home planet. At this point the cast pretty much abandons all pretense and everyone says their goodbyes right then and there, not even bothering to use their characters' names anymore.
• Really 700 Years Old: Akane is old but neither looks nor acts it. Well, most of the time… her experience in life does show up when she gives advice to the protagonists (even in a Trickster Mentor way).
• Relationship Upgrade: Youko and Asahi began dating at the end of chapter 86.
• Rewatch Bonus: In chapter 154, Saki and Yuka mention that they spied on Okada and Mei's date. If you look carefully in chapter 148, you can actually see the two hiding and blending in with the background.
• Romantic Spoon Feeding: Played with in chapter 101. Youko makes up some Blatant Lies about her omelet being better than the one in Asahi's bentou (even though it's the same) just so she can enact this trope, to her boyfriend's immense delight. Asahi then uses the exact same "tactic", full with a "say aaah", to his girlfriend's immense embarrassment. It's as adorable as it sounds.
• Running Gag: As the series' humour functions a lot on repetition, there are a few of those.
  • Asahi's lies being transparent (though that's mostly in the early chapters).
  • Youko's stomach growling.
  • Shirou ending up in Shiho's clothes (or lack of clothes) after she transforms.
  • Shirou immediately running away from danger by looking at a picture of the moon.
  • Akane getting her comeuppance from Akari.
  • Aizawa planting ice cream cones into Asahi's eyes (on the creamed side, not the pointy side!)
  • Asahi's nosebleed and his subsequent nickname "Eromine-kun" (and his other various nicknames).
  • Karen demanding a "thank you" as compensation.
  • Rin keeps accidentally revealing information about the future, leaving herself unable to go home for longer and longer periods of time.
  • Shimada being arrested after doing perverted stuff, by a surprisingly prompt police officer (it starts in chapter 18 as a Funny Background Event, but it doesn't become a recurring gag until chapter 81). This one is so persistent it actually continues (as a background cameo) in Masuda's next series, and then into the one after that, Yumemigaoka Wonderland.
  • After Mikan and Shiho go on First-Name Basis, they start to give each other multiple stupid nicknames such as Akemin, Shiho-nyan, Mii-chan, Shihopon, Mikarin, or Shii-chan.
  • Shiho standing behind Youko, only to get a face full of wing whenever Youko gets excited.
  • The Russian Choux, and by extension, the fact that everybody who eats one gets the exact same expression.
• San Dimas Time: Akane tries to Invoke this when Asahi travels back in time and attends class with Genjirou and Touko— if he spends three months in the past until they graduate, then he would miss his own graduation in the present. Then Rin points out that they can just travel back to the day they left, Averting this trope.
• The Scapegoat: Asahi goes through great lengths and sullies his reputation even more to save Aizawa's true identity from Mikan and Shimada in episode 4, after Mikan accidentally stumbles upon mini-Aizawa and initially mistakes it as a figurine.
• Serious Business: The series basically runs on this, from a hot-blooded training to "dodge the sun" to a desperate race to get limited-edition burgers, to Youko almost crossing the Despair Event Horizon when she learns there won't be any run-for-the-bun in the obstacle race this year. And that's just in the early chapters, it gets much more absurd later on.
• The Seven Mysteries: There are seven ones at the school. Karen, the "fallen angel," believes herself to be one of them until she learns the Elusive Student Council President isn't one of them. She is frustrated that Akane has two spots too. It is later noted the mysteries have been around for years. While The After-School Vampire was likely Shiragami's father, Akane keeping her spots, and Shiho's mother was The Infirmary Pervert, Asahi wonders who filled in the rest.
  1. The After-School Vampire is Shiragami and the near-moments she was noticed.
  2. The Dwarf of the Corridor is Aizawa when she is seen in her natural size. Chapter 159 reveals Aizawa's father scouted out Earth in the past and his flashback shows him being close friends with Genjirou, so he is likely this one.
  3. The Sexual Deviant of Light is Shirou when trying to change out of female clothing.
  4. The Infirmary Pervert is Shiho being herself. Unsurprisingly, the title is all but confirmed to have formerly belonged to the Charismatic Pervert.
  5. The Spirit of the Home-Ec Room is Ryou in his female-ghost robot body. Chapter 189 reveals that this title actually belongs to Principal Shirayuki, who was Dead All Along and moves on to the afterlife once Akane proves that her dream of human-monster peace is possible.
  6. The Missing Principal is Akane and her not being recognized as the principal by many students.
  7. The Mysterious Horned Girl is Akane being noticed with her horns and thought of as a student.
  • Comes back in a big way near the end of the series, with Shirayuki inviting tabloid reporters to the school under the pretense of investigating the mysteries, when in reality she wants them to discover and expose the school's non-human students.
• Share the Male Pain: In Chapter 182, a reporter trips and accidentally headbutts her cameraman between the legs (complete with an image of a tomato being squashed); in the next panel Asahi's three friends are all clutching themselves.
• Shout-Out:
  • One scene in the manga pays homage to the scene from Lupin III's opening where Lupin tries to dive (literally) into Fujiko's bed; the anime retains the gag by putting it in the end credits.
  • Mikan's Russian Choux are named Russian Chou Zeta, Chou's Counterattack, and Russian Chou UC^note the last one using the "abundant psy-chou fields" generated in homeroom, and Crossbone Chou. In the manga, she and Youko also develop a Russian Chou Mark V, which may be a nod to Gundam Sentinel and its Gundam Mk-V.
    • On a related note, the alien spaceships have the same basic structure as the Adzam from Mobile Suit Gundam, only with cat parts.
  • In episode 2 of the anime, when Nagisa explains that she read the function of the "memory erasing device" in a manga, we briefly see a page of Sakura Discord where a character uses a Hyperspace Mallet.
  • In the quiz portion of episode 7, Akari turns into a Titan after Akane tricks Asahi into saying "single", which can also mean "spinster"; this may be a play on words (dokushin vs. kyōjin).
    • In the same episode, Youko cosplays as the TV Tokyo mascot Nanana; naturally, TV Tokyo is one of the networks that airs the anime.
  • Nagisa's food tends to trigger Food Wars!-style foodgasms in Akane.
  • In episode 11, one of the prizes at the festival's shooting gallery is a statue of Kamen Rider #1 on his motorcycle.
    • The festival also has masks of Ika Musume and Kamen Rider Wizard.
  • The name of the maid cafe in Chapter 73 is "Jiji & Pinch", after a fellow mangaka.
  • In Ch.110, Nagisa's mental image of herself as an Idol Singer is dressed like Ranka Lee and doing the memetic "Kira!" pose.
    • The same chapter ends with Akane suggesting that Asahi become a superhero, with silhouetted Imagine Spots of him dressed as Akaranger, Ultraman, and Kamen Rider #1.
  • The fan translation adds one in Chapter 73: while working at the maid cafe, Akari mixes up a dish while chanting "Whip, stir! Whip, stir!"
  • Chapter 122 ends with an Tomorrow's Joe reference, with Asahi falling asleep in the same pose that Joe took when he died at the end of the series.
    • In Chapter 123, the summary of the previous story is "B-Fighter Asahi".
  • Chapter 135 parodies E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, with Nagisa's antenna touching Fuku-chan's branch, with the cat spaceceship replacing the bicycle in the moon shot.
  • The mosquito's description in chapter 152 is suspiciously similar to the one in a chapter of Jojo Part 6.
  • Chapter 161 is basically a Whole-Plot Reference to Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works]: A bitter and jaded person goes back in time and fights their past self, trying to destroy their own youthful idealism — only to give up and lose willingly (with smile on their face) when it becomes crystal clear that their younger self will always fight for their dreams no matter what.
  • In one chapter we get a glimpse of the classified ads Akane has been putting out for Akari to find a boyfriend; one of the requirements in the add is "Power Level 530,000 or higher".
• Show Within a Show: Spoofed in Chapter 121, in which the cast talks about a manga called Swept-Away Soumen-kun, which they all seem to treat as if it was a major cultural touchstone on par with Dragon Ball. Asahi, seemingly the only person who's never heard of it before, gets to lampshade the ridiculousness of the whole thing, such as asking how someone could write an entire manga about Soumen noodles and how people are acting like a simple noodle dish is such Serious Business.
• Something Else Also Rises: Aizawa's antenna on her real body shines brightly when she, or others of her kind, are sexually attracted to another being. She refuses to tell Asahi this especially when, in human-size, her antenna glows really brightly.
• Sore Loser: Fifty years in the future, Mikan still hasn’t given up on Asahi. She advises her younger self to aim to be more attractive as a wife instead of a girlfriend like she did. Subverted after the facts of the Bad Future come to light: Future Mikan isn't asking her younger self to steal Asahi away, but to be there for him after Youko disappears, since she regrets her own inability to comfort him after his heart was broken.
• Stating the Simple Solution: When Asahi and Aizawa try to help Youko get better at going out while avoiding tanning, Asahi casually mentions that it's a shame that sunblock doesn't help Youko. After all, he points out, it'd be ridiculous that she didn't think to try that first. Except, well, he forgot that she's The Ditz.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Early on, it's pointed out that Youko actually shows a fair bit of cleavage, but because of her utter lack of seductiveness, nobody noticed until their attention is expressly drawn to it. Jump ahead to the introduction of Saki, who has the same warped sense of seductiveness as Youko and immediately notices her cleavage.
• "Super Sentai" Stance: Might not be deliberate, but some of the "sexy" poses that hopelessly unsexy characters like Youko or Akari try to do look suspiciously familiar.
• Supporting Harem: Nagisa and Mikan might be pining for Asahi, but it's clear he only has eyes for Youko. And he does end up with her.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: In chapter 82.
  Akane: I'm not planning anything and I'm not hiding anything.
  Akari: WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING AND WHAT ARE YOU HIDING!?
• Sustained Misunderstanding:
  • Shima puts his foot in it in Chapter 23/Episode 10 when he sends Asahi a perverted text message. It gives Asahi the idea to use his cell phone to warn Youko that her wings are out, but Shima mistakenly thinks Asahi is showing her his text message, which is only furthered by her Oh, Crap! reaction. Then, in an attempt to apologize, Shima offers Youko his lucky silver necklace...which is a crucifix, causing her to glare angrily, which makes Shima think his apology has been rejected.
  • The entire plot of Chapter 65 is driven by one of these (Lampshaded by the fact that the title is "Let's Be Mistaken!"). Aizawa's brother Ryo calls for help because he's been captured by a "horned girl", who he says is "different from the usual horned girl". When he mentions that she's cooking, Youko calls her mother, who explains that the last time Akane cooked anything it was part of a ritual to summon the Emperor of Fear, which convinces the group to pull a full-fledged rescue operation, thinking they're saving the world. In reality, the "horned girl" is Karen rather than Akane; she fell for Ryo's Cute Ghost Girl disguise, thinking that "she's" chained to the real world by Unfinished Business, and is trying to prepare her a last meal so she can move on to the Afterlife. Of course, the fact that Karen put on the whole "devil" routine at first didn't help matters.
• Sweetheart Sipping: Done in chapter 68 between Shimada and Ryou (whom Shimada doesn't know is a guy). The latter has an expression of utter despair, while the former makes a really creepy smile during the scene.
• The Talk: Chapter 132 is basically this, with Akane teaching Youko and Asahi that a vampire sucking someone's blood is essentially sexual intercourse. In Chapter 133, Sen explains the puberty-like physiological changes that happen to a vampire after they suck someone's blood.
• Team Power Walk: Done in chapter 65 when all the main cast plus some others gather to rescue Aizawa's brother, who is in the awful predicament of... being pampered by a clueless Karen who takes "her" for a ghost and wants to help her pass on. Asahi has his face hidden by a shovel during the scene.
• Theme Naming: Most characters have a color in their names, like Kuromine (black), Shiragami (white), Aizawa (blue) or Mikan (orange − although it's the fruit). It's usually (except for Youko) the color of their hair.
• There Is Only One Bed: Due to a series of improbable events (helped by the principal using her powers to put them in a position to bang because she thinks it's funny), Asahi and Youko end up trapped in her bedroom at night. First she suggests he take the bed, which he refuses. She refuses as well, and gets halfway through suggesting they share it before she realizes what she's saying. They both end up sleeping on the floor.
• Those Two Guys: Shimada, Okada and Sakurada play this role in Part 1, before they each get some individual development. Chapter 144 also introduces Sasaki, Inaba and Matsumoto, three of Youko's classmates who befriend her and appear sporadically in later chapters, in a more conventional use of the trope.
• Title Drop: Since the title is a common phrase, it pops up every time someone reveals a big secret. The most epic instance of this comes in Chapter 189, where the "special" students reveal themselves to their classmates all throughout Morobare High (including members of the main cast like Aizawa, Shiho/Shirou, and Mikan), inspired by Youko's example.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: As Chapter 123 shows, Shimada is the only man Momochi has met without spontaneously falling in love with him. Being his granddaughter is probably an important part of this.
• Troperiffic: Don't worry, in this manga you will find every possible school-life and romcom event (the Amusement Park, the Festival Episode, the School Festival, the Beach Episode, the Hot Springs Episode, the Magical Girl Show Within a Show, Always in Class One, etc.)... only mocked, turned on their heads or taken to absurd extremes.
• Tsundere: Asahi and Mei have a brother-sister version of this, acting harsh and dismissive to each other when everyone can tell that they really do care about each other. Chapter 192 has a moment where Mei calls Asahi to wish him a (very terse) Happy New Year, then he looks up and sees his friends with knowing smiles on their faces, prompting him to shout "We hate each others' guts, okay?!" (and the next panel shows Mei going through the exact same thing with her friends).
• Two-Teacher School: The teachers shown in the school are Akari, Akane (now Principal) in flashbacks, and later Ryokuenzaka Yumi (first as a teaching assistant, then substituting for Akari on a few occasions).
• The Unfair Sex: Zig-zagged; Asahi gets a few Not What It Looks Like moments (enough to earn him the unflattering In-Series Nickname "Eromine"), but it never hits the absurd levels of Harem Genre shows for two reasons: 1) most characters realize that Asahi is actually a Nice Guy, and 2) quite often, the woman involved is Shiho, who's an aggressive pervert and proud of it. This is particularly obvious in Shiho's introductory arc, where she's the one receiving Youko's Dope Slaps instead of Asahi (though Youko does get upset with him when he accidentally grabs Shiho's chest).
• Unknowingly in Love: Youko actually tries to set Asahi up with someone else...then she sees them on a date and feels her chest tightening, which she brushes off as her reaction to the shrine they're at.
• Vampire Hunter: The Kiryuuin clan is a clan of vampire hunters, and Sen is revealed to be one of them. As it turns out, they only "hunt" vampires in a metaphoric sense of the word: in reality, they're just vampire experts who try to help them blend in or hide from humans, and they only kill vampires as a last resort if they become uncontrollably violent like Genjirou almost did. Sen in particular "hunts" vampires by seeking them out and immediately proposing to them.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Youko and Akane can't spend a minute together without bickering, but they still spend a lot of minutes together. Mikan and Okada also have shades of this, with the latter often teasing her as if waiting for her retaliation. And then there's the "rivalry" between Shiho the pervert and Rin the pervert-hunter.
• Vocal Evolution: Happens to an extent in the anime, where some of the voice actors get more comfortable as the series goes on. Aizawa and Mikan's voice actors notably adopt a slightly more low-pitched voice after a while, to be more in tune with their characters. Rikiya Koyama also adopts a more apropriately angry and coarse voice for Genjirou in episode 13, in constrast with the jarringly soft voice he has at the end of episode 7.
• Wacky Marriage Proposal:
  • In Chapter 188, Genjirou shows up because Youko revealed herself to her classmates and starts flying away with her. Asahi, cheered on by his classmates, leaps out the classroom window and his friends (including Sen, Aizawa, Karen and even Akane) play Stepping Stones in the Sky so he can catch up with Genjirou and ask his permission to marry Youko.
  • More comedically, Akane proposes to Aizawa after tasting her cooking. In true Akane fashion, she duplicates herself first.
• Watch the Paint Job: Akari is very proud of her brand new car. Sure enough, when Akane ends up driving it (or rather, levitating it with her powers) it gets ruined.
• Weirdness Censor:
  • People do notice Akane's horns, but they either think they are fake or that she's just a normal girl who happens to have horns. Mikan witnesses her powers firsthand but doesn't really ask any questions about it. This trope is also probably a reason any of the girls managed to keep their secrets for more than half a day.
  • If anyone attending Morobare High thought that the school was perfectly normal, those views were probably obliterated in the 67th Sports Festival, during which Akari becomes a literal demon and savages all of the events, Akane summons a giant floating cathedral, and Sakurada emerges from it with Akari in his arms while riding a pegasus. There's apparently only so much bullshit you can justify with "This is just a demonstration."
• With Friends Like These...: After Aizawa confesses to Kuromine then accidentally kisses him in public and rumors start circulating that they're going out, Okada and Shimada spread rumors that shift the blame off of her. Of course, the rumor they spread is that he's a scumbag abusing all the girls around him for money. It doesn't help that Sakurada takes all of the rumors at face value, or that Mikan, Shiho, Rin, and Akane all roll with the rumors and help propagate them. Akari pulls them all aside and lectures them about how, instead of supporting him in his time of need, all his friends basically turned on him and ruined his reputation.
• Wham Episode:
  • Episode 12 ends with Youko getting kidnapped by her father. Subverted when it turns out her mother got sick with a mundane cold and her dad was simply overreacting.
  • Chapter 169 is a cute and light-hearted chapter where Youko and Asahi have a date at the amusement park, but then the end of the chapter has two whams: one: it's becoming obvious to Asahi that Youko is becoming more vampiric, underscored with a flashback to Sen warning Asahi that she might become something truly demonic, and two: Mikan figures out that Youko is the "After School Vampire" because she doesn't show up in the photographs from her birthday party.
  • Chapter 178: Asahi is finally told what happens in the future: Youko's powers went out of control and she ran away, never to be seen again. Asahi never married and ended up raising a child who was strongly implied to be his and Youko's (born from blood-drinking rather than normal sex), who was Rin's mother. This makes Asahi more resolved than ever to protect Youko...and meanwhile Shirayuki returns, attacking Akane (leaving her unconscious in a pool of blood) so she can become Principal again and ensure that the future remains disastrous.
• Wham Line:
  • Rin is Asahi's grand-daughter from the future. Shortly after she convinces Akemi Mikan of this fact, she accidentally calls the girl "Granny." Whoops.
  • Chapter 71: I'VE ALWAYS BEEN IN LOVE WITH ASAHI-KUN!!!
  • Chapter 80: I, Aizawa Nagisa, hereby declare that I am in love with you!!
  • Chapter 86: I've always loved you, Youko-san!! The wham here comes from the fact that pretty much anyone familiar with long-running romcoms expected the line to be interrupted in some way.
  • Chapter 114: "What did you just say? In the future, the one Asahi marries... isn't Shiragami-san?"
  • Chapter 115: Related to the next one: "I never knew [Asahi] was actually grandpa." It's a Red Herring.
  • Chapter 123: "Grandma Shiho?"
  • Chapter 124 combines this with Given Name Reveal: Shiho's real husband in the future is "Shimada… Yuuta…?"
  • Chapter 153 hilariously subverts this: everything is set up for a dramatic reveal, with a tense action scene, a double-page spread, a Dutch Angle, Akane putting on her serious face and revealing that box-girl is the ex-principal Shirayuki… but it turns out she's not, and Akane's effect is completely ruined. Woops.
  • Chapter 169 gets one from Mikan looking at the photographs taken at Youko's birthday party: "Why isn't Shiragami in any of these pictures?"
  • Chapter 175 has a scene of Akane talking to Rin, which has two big ones: first, admitting that even she can't sense the presence of Asahi's eventual wife, and secondly, asking her "Why is it that none of you time travelers have never said a word about Youko Shiragami?"
• Wham Shot: Used more and more as the story gets closer to Part 2
  • In chapter 83, Youko awkwardly interrupts Asahi's intended confession of love, assuming he was trying to confess his feelings for Aizawa, in yet another comedic misunderstanding. She seems happy for the two of them, until she wanders behind the school by herself. Cue 3/4th page panel of her curling into a ball against the fence and sobbing mournfully.
  • In chapter 101, Youko and Asahi's the sweet and hilarious date is briefly interrupted by a full page of Youko with Hellish Pupils, giving a predatory look to Asahi's neck, before the scene returns to the usual silliness.
  • In chapter 131, Youko and Asahi wind up alone on a moonlit beach, and all indicators are that we'll finally get to see the Big Damn Kiss. They do kiss briefly, but the follow up Big Damn Kiss is replaced by a surprise Kiss of the Vampire, followed by a double-page of Youko with wings out, Hellish Pupils, and a suspiciously decadent look on her face while she licks a trail of blood from the edge of her lips.
  • In chapter 155, the mysterious "Box Girl" finally reveals her face. She's none other than a 27 years old Nagisa, who came from the future.
  • In chapter 191, Rin and Yuka break into the Charismatic Pervert II's fortress and confront her. Her identity is finally revealed by a shot of an earring shaped like a bat and crescent moon, which is what Asahi gave Youko for her birthday almost 30 chapters earlier.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Played for Laughs in one scene during episode 13. In an attempt to get to Youko's mansion faster, Akane knocks out Akari while she's driving Asahi, Aizawa, and Shiho to Youko's family mansion. She then uses magic to speed the minivan up to the point it's able to fly. Unfortunately it heavily damages her new vehicle. After she comes to, Akari has all of the characters on their knees, wondering where her new van is. When Asahi mentions that her van is behind them, she calls it a lump of metal, and then chases after Akane. In the end, Akane ends up buying a replacement vehicle for her as punishment. In the manga it happens in chapter 29, except Akane replaced Akari who was dead-drunk from beer, and the car was ruined because stuff kept happening to distract Akane (since controlling the car with her powers requires a lot of concentration).
  • Youko does this on Asahi in episode 13 of the anime, when he agrees to lose his memories of Youko in exchange for her being allowed back in school by her father, after he found out she accidentally revealed herself as a vampire to others at school. However, she gets upset, and tackles him just before he's able to hit himself with Aizawa's hammer. She says that if he loses his memories of her, then everything she's done with him, and their friends, would be meaningless. Fortunately during her tackle, he lost his grip on the hammer, which then ended up inadvertently hitting her father instead. Thus he forgot about the entire incident, allowing Youko to continue going to school while allowing Asahi to keep his memories of their time together.
• Winged Humanoid: All the vampires have the traditional large, retractable bat wings. Angels have a pair of pink feathered wings. Akari also grows black wings when she's in One-Winged Angel mode in chapter 141-142.
• World of Weirdness: Vampires, aliens, demons, sentient possessions, time travel... pretty much anything fantastic that could happen can be expected to happen all while trying to go undercover and have a supposedly normal school life.
• Worthy Opponent: Skewered in Chapter 116, where Saki and Yuka end up having a "cooking battle"^note Except for the part where they both shared a pot. Afterwards Saki drops the classic line "If we had met under different circumstances, maybe we could have been friends", which makes a thoroughly confused Momochi ask "Why in different circumstances? We're already friends, aren't we?"
• You Can't Fight Fate:
  • At one point, Rin reveals that nobody who's ever traveled back in time has successfully managed to change history. Heart-breakingly, Asahi finds this out first-hand when he's sent into the past and fails to protect Genjirou's secret. The silver lining, however, is that his resolve to protect Youko is strengthened.
  • Screw Destiny: In the final chapters of the series, Youko changes the future by deliberately outing herself as a vampire in front of her classmates, instead of it happening accidentally as with her father. This inspires all the other "weird" students to likewise confess, and their human classmates accept them for who they are. On top of this, Asahi and Youko manage to get Genjirou's permission to wed; since her powers didn't go out of control, the two of them are now open to be Happily Married unlike in the Bad Future.
• Younger Than They Look:
  • Sakurada looks like in his 30s. Nobody comments on this.
  • It gets brought up in one of the Yonkoma strips early on, where Youko notes that not everyone in Asahi's group of friends looks sixteen...which prompts Shimada to confess that he was held back a year, so he's actually seventeen.

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