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My Monster Secret, known in Japan as Actually, I am...(実は私は,Jitsu wa Watashi wa,), is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiji Masuda. It has been serialized in Akita Shoten's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Champion since January 31, 2013. As of December 2016, the series has been collected in 20 tankōbon volumes. An anime television series adaptation began airing July 2015. AnimeLab has secured streaming rights in Australia & New Zealand. Seven Seas Manga acquired the rights to translate and distribute the manga for North America with the first volume being released in January 2016.
Asahi Kuromine, a normal high school student who supposedly cannot keep a secret, finds his demeanor quickly challenged when he spots his classmate, Yōko Shiragami, unfurling a large pair of wings from her back. He learns that Yōko is a vampire, and that she is only able to attend a normal school on one condition: no one must discover her true identity. This secret becomes difficult to maintain, as Yōko herself is an airhead and Asahi's childhood friend Mikan keeps bullying the two of them. Later on, he discovers more girls in his school with secrets of their own: a tiny alien who rides a human-sized exoskeleton of herself, a werewolf capable of switching gender at any depiction of a moon, a thousand-year-old demon who secretly runs the school, and more who pose a challenge as Asahi tries to maintain Yōko's secret.
Characters
Asahi Kuromine (黒峰 朝陽,Kuromine Asahi)
Voiced by: Natsuki HanaeAsahi is a second year high school student who seemingly cannot keep a secret, so much that his nickname is "leaky basket." He discovers that his current crush, Yōko, is a vampire when he finds her unfurling her wings after school.[ch. 1] As a result, he is forced to keep her secret, lest she have to drop out of both school and his life. Throughout the series, he comes to learn secrets about his other classmates and finds that the people around him are not who they seem to be. Often forced to play the straight man in increasingly absurd situations, Asahi often acts as the narrator through his inner monologues. He is also susceptible to projectile nosebleeds when confronted with perverse situations, earning the nickname "Eromine" from Yōko. Asahi has a younger sister named Mei, though she is barely mentioned in the story until much later on. In Chapter 86 of the manga, Asahi and Yōko begin dating.
Yōko Shiragami (白神 葉子,Shiragami Yōko)
Voiced by: Yū SerizawaYōko is a classmate of Asahi and the daughter of a human and a vampire. Though she has long canine teeth, many other typical vampiric characteristics are downplayed, such as only getting tanned in sunlight or feeling guilty when entering a room uninvited. She has a Kansai accent, but speaks in honorifics so as not to expose her teeth. While initially coming across as haughty, her true personality is bubbly and absent minded. Her dream is to become a cool beauty, but has yet to accomplish this goal. Though initially friendly with Asahi, she develops romantic feelings for him, but keeps them to herself because she believes Asahi likes Aizawa. She is also often hungry, due to not being able to eat lunch for fear of revealing her teeth. In Chapter 86 of the manga, Asahi and Yōko begin dating.
Nagisa Aizawa (藍澤 渚,Aizawa Nagisa)
Voiced by: Inori MinaseNagisa is a classmate of Asahi and Yōko, and is also a small alien riding a human-sized robotic exoskeleton of herself. Initially the love interest of Asahi before the series began, she turned him down believing that her secret would be discovered if she started a relationship with him. She, like most of Asahi's friends, is aware of his feelings for Yōko, and develops feelings for him after the fact. Her alien species is militaristic, and she often uses military terminology when describing things. Her exoskeleton runs on an internal battery that must be constantly recharged with an AC outlet and has on many occasions run out of power for comedic effect. She is usually meticulous and serious with her actions, though loses her composure when dealing with embarrassing situations. Nagisa has an older brother, Ryō, whom she respects and draws inspiration from, though he is less reliable than she initially realizes. As a small alien, she is always wearing the same clothes her robotic is wearing. Though no one knows her true alien identity, she has a metal screw cockpit opening with an antenna sticking out of it. No one guesses what she really is despite this.
Mikan Akemi (朱美 みかん,Akemi Mikan)
Voiced by: Reina UedaMikan is a childhood friend of Asahi who bullies him relentlessly. She is the president of the Newspaper Club, and has used her position to turn it into a supermarket tabloid. Most of the time, though, the newspaper club members do all the work for her. She secretly likes Asahi, but perceives her lack of femininity as a barrier she cannot overcome, and prefers instead to bully and tease him. She wears fake glasses Asahi won at a carnival when they were younger, and they later become the host of a fortune god in training, though this god's attempts to help only end up causing her more misfortune. Mikan has two younger brothers who occasionally appear in the story.
Akane Kōmoto (紅本 茜,Kōmoto Akane)
Voiced by: Mao IchimichiPrincipal of Asahi's high school and a thousand year-old demon, although her appearance is of the body of a young girl with demonic horns. Despite her age, she is often quick to exhibit childish tendencies, such as playing large-scale pranks on the people at school and quickly getting excited whenever she believes sweets are nearby. She takes special delight in ruining Akari's life when given the chance. As a demon, Akane is capable of magically transforming herself and others around her, as well as multiplying herself (though the clones will also display copies of her horns on their head). She was the teacher of Yōko's parents when they attended her high school.
Akari Kōmoto (紅本 明里,Kōmoto Akari)
Voiced by: Emi NittaAsahi's homeroom teacher and former delinquent known as "Akari of the Hundred Visits" due to responding violently after being rejected by several boys across different schools. She is Akane's great-great-granddaughter, and while she does not retain any demonic powers, her short temper and fighting ability allows her to rein in Akane's misbehavior. Aware of the various secret students in her class, she attempts to be a reliable authority figure. However, she often finds herself dragged into crazy situations between her heavy drinking, her near-impossible wish for a perfect man to literally appear on a white horse and marry her, and Akane's own devilish mischief. She is later called Akari-chan by Yōko, who comes to see her as an equal rather than just a teacher.
Voiced by: Aya Uchida (Shiho), Kenichi Miya (Shiro)Shishido is Yōko's childhood friend and a wolfman. Initially appearing as Shirō, an intimidating man with sharp teeth, upon seeing any depiction of The Moon, he transforms into Shiho, a busty, self-proclaimed pervert. A second glimpse of The Moon transforms Shishido back into Shirō. Shiho is the dominant personality, and is aware of everything that occurs when Shirō is in control of her body. While Shirō has a crush on Yōko and attempts to discover if Asahi is aware of her secret, Shiho is more playful and amorous, deriving enjoyment from being perverse. She often tries to force Yōko into admitting her true feelings towards Asahi, and having a perverted crush on Asahi, and tries to expose herself to him. While her father is also a wolfman, her mother is only shown in silhouette and is referred to as the "Charismatic Female Pervert."
Rin Kiryūin (黄龍院 凜,Kiryūin Rin)
Rin is a first high school student and secretly Asahi and Mikans' time traveling granddaughter from the future. She returned to the past to prevent a dystopian future in which an entity known only as "Charismatic Female Pervert II" has taken over the world, turning 90% of the male humans on Earth into masochistic slaves and most of the females into like-minded perverts. She travels back in time using a dragon-shaped time machine and wields a sword capable of making clothes more modest. Usually quiet, she is protective of Asahi, whom she treats like a grandfather, not adapting her behavior to his younger appearance. Also like Asahi, she has trouble keeping a secret, accidentally letting slip to him that she was a time-traveler despite the possibility of creating an irreversible temporal paradox by doing so.
Okada (岡田,Okada), Sakurada (桜田,Sakurada), and Shimada (嶋田,Shimada)
Voiced by: Daisuke Hirakawa, Wataru Hatano and Hiro ShimonoAsahi's three male friends. Okada wears glasses and is often seen with a juice box in his mouth. Shimada often attempts to hit on various female classmates (notably Nagisa's disguised older brother, Ryō) with little success. Sakurada is younger than he appears to be, and is often smiling. All three try to support Asahi, though they often mock his inability to keep a secret. Sakurada's revealed surname is Kōsuke (浩介,Kōsuke); Shimada and Okada's surname is unknown.
Voiced by: Rikiya Koyama (Genjirō), Yōko Hikasa (Tōko)Yōko's father and mother who had a high school romance similar to Yōko and Asahi. Genjirō is a scarred 4-meter tall vampire with an intimidating aura. He is overly protective of his daughter, at one point even disguising himself as a female assistant teacher at the school to find out the truth of Asahi's relationship with his daughter. Tōko is a normal sized human woman who often ends up reigning in Genjirō's behavior through various blunt instruments.
Karen Shirogane (銀 華恋,Shirogane Karen)
Introduced as a demon, Karen is actually a fallen angel who lost her halo, which Akane uses as a light bulb without her knowledge. Honest and gentle to a fault, her attempts to be demonic are often seen as angelic, though annoying. She was Genjirō and Tōko's classmate, and is the current student council president, having retained the position for over 20 years at the request of Akane. Her feathers can invoke one of the seven deadly sins in whomever gets stuck with them.
Ryō Aizawa(藍澤 涼,Aizawa Ryō)
The older brother of Nagisa. He, like his sister, moves around in an exoskeleton that is the size of a human body. His exoskeleton is the body of a girl 'ghost' so that Nagisa wouldn't know that he was in there. He is usually the victim of Shimada's continual flirtation, even to the point of almost kissing him.
Yuika Momochi(桃地 結香,Momochi Yuika)
A ninja from a different time-period who tends to fall in love with the first guy she bumps into, including Asahi and Okada. However, her use of ninja equipment usually intimidates anyone she tries to attract. Revealed to be Shimada and Shihos' time traveling granddaughter.
Mei Kuromine(黒峰 鳴,Kuromine Mei)
Asahi's younger sister. Not much is known about her, other than she is Yuika's somewhat supportive friend.
Saki Minagawa(水奈川 咲,Minagawa Saki)
The student representative of Mei and Yūka's class. Secretly a succubus who drains men's energy when seducing them, though Saki herself has little in the way of skills or experience doing so. Following the decline of the succubus race due to the "Charismatic Female Pervert," she vows to return the race to its former glory in the "Tokyo Pervert Olympics."
Manga
Written and illustrated by Eiji Masuda, My Monster Secret has been serialized in the manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Champion since January 31, 2013. Akita Shoten has published fifteen volumes so far. Seven Seas Entertainment has licensed the manga for North America under the title My Monster Secret and published the first volume on January 12, 2016.
Anime
The anime adaptation of My Monster Secret began airing on July 6, 2015 in Japan and streaming to North American audiences via Crunchyroll as Actually, I am.... the same day. The opening theme is "Himitsu o Chōdai" (ひみつをちょーだい,Give Me Secrets) by Ars Magna and the ending theme is "Ienai Ienai" (言えない言えない,Can't Say It, Can't Say It) by Hilcrhyme. Additionally, three character song volumes were released: Volume 1 featuring Yōko Shiragami (Yū Serizawa) and Shiho Shishido (Aya Uchida), Volume 2 featuring Nagisa Aizawa (Inori Minase) and Mikan Akemi (Reina Ueda), and Volume 3 featuring Akane Kōmoto (Mao Ichimichi) and Akari Kōmoto (Emi Nitta).
The anime is licensed by Discotek Media and will be released on DVD and Blu-ray in February 2017.
Character Songs
Volume 1 primarily features Yōko Shiragami and Shiho Shishido. Songs included are Zettai Himitsu Shugi!(絶対秘密主義!) sung by Yōko; Tropical Sisters(トロピカルシスターズ) sung by Yōko, Nagisa, Mikan, and Shiho; StartingHeart sung by Yōko and Shiho; and Tsukiyo no Persuasion Way(月夜のPersuasion way) sung by Shiho.
Volume 2 primarily features Nagisa Aizawa and Mikan Akemi. Songs included are Chikyū senpuku sakusen + a(地球潜伏作戦+α) sung by Nagisa; Itsuka no Summer Day(いつかのSummerDay) sung by Mikan; and Silent Note sung by Nagisa and Mikan.
Volume 3 primarily features Akane Kōmoto and Akari Kōmoto. Songs included are Satanic Surfer Satanikkusāfā(サタニックサーファー) sung by Akane and Akari;Sekai seifuku chokorēto dai sakusen!(世界制服チョコレート大作戦!) sung by Akane; and Day by Day sung by Akari.
