Who Would Like this Anime?
Jitsu wa Watashi wa is a typical harem rom-com with the focus on the comedy part. There’s “drama,” from now on I’ll refer to this kind of “drama” as a “drama-faker.” Every time things seem to get inconvenient, the alleged drama turns out to be no drama at all. A lot of anime/light novels seem to do this these days; not that I mind it, it’s pretty fun to watch!
tl;dr: Not really any drama.
Translation Where?
I’ve watched this release and it was alright! Nothing fancy, nothing terrible. I don’t think the visuals justify going for the 1080p version, so save yourself some time.
Premise
Kuromine is a really bad liar: As soon as he’s saying something he doesn’t mean, it shows on his face in an unbelievably obvious manner. Lately, he came to become interested into Shiragami, a girl which always seems to be by her own. When he finally found the courage to confess to her after school, he finds her in the classroom with her wings spread – she’s a vampire. That, however, has to be kept secret since Shiragami promised her father to come back home if she was ever to be found out. Kuromine promises to give it his all to keep her secret and even does his confession: He asks her to be his… friend?
Visuals
The visuals in Jitsu wa Watashi wa are a bit on the underwhelming side. Personally, I don’t like the art style, the protagonist frequently has the look of a victim in an NTR story on his face and the girls often make cum faces like in eromanga. There’s just something really weird about it; you could also just call it unique and like the style, it’s up to you, really. Another thing are the animations, lots of scenes where hardly anything moves at all, it seems a bit on the low budget side of life. MVP are the backgrounds: sharp ‘n crisp but fairly empty; I liked what the studio did there, anyway.
Conclusion
Jitsu wa Watashi wa is a harem rom-com with an obvious winner: Shiragami. The protagonist, Kuromine, doesn’t really care for the other girls, which the mangaka makes very clear. As such, the other girls’ love is unrequitted. The harem consists of four girls. Shiragami is the main heroine, a vampire. She just wants friends to have fun with and to be there for. A kind girl and at the same time totally oblivious when it comes to other people’s feelings as she doesn’t realize Kuromine’s true feelings no matter how obvious it is. While she does fall for him, she doesn’t realize it herself or rather doesn’t want to realize it since she knows that her friends – the other girls – do have feelings for him and she doesn’t wanna be in their way.
The “side harem” is lead by Aizawa, an alien. Pretty much your usual tsundere. She’s the strict class president who grows to like Kuromine, but also doesn’t wanna hurt the other girls and keeps being dishonest to herself until almost the end. Shishido is a werewolf and childhood friend of Shiragami. She’s the super proactive and perverted kind of heroine who rather just plays with Kuromine. Finally, Mikan is a sadistic kind of girl and a childhood friend of Shiragami. She’s the president of the newspaper club and the biggest thread to have Shiragami’s cover blown in the first part of the anime. Secretly in love with Kuromine.
Kuromine himself, as I already mentioned above, is a dude who can’t lie without it showing greatly on his face. He displays a mix of bravery when it’s necessary and wimp-ness in romantic encounters. Just your usual protagonist shell.
All of the characters stay pretty shallow and show hardly any development – if at all. Only Mikan developes rather radically and drops her sadistic act almost altogether. That, however, isn’t a good thing, since the tension of Shiragami’s secret on the verge of being uncovered by the overzealous and sadistic Mikan gives Jitsu wa Watashi wa a lot of good spice like when she’s spanking the poor liar Kuromine to drag the secret out of him while he franticly tries to keep it in.
As I mainly see Jitsu wa Watashi wa as a comedy, I don’t mind the lack of depth too much. A bit more nagging is how the heroines aside from Shiragami get treated: It feels like most of them simply get the spotlight for a short arc of their own and then step back into the shadows as support characters. Escpecially Shishido seems to have outlived her “usefullness” pretty quickly and hardly makes an advances on Kuromine whatsoever. Aizawa does get a fair amount of attention while Mikan’s having it even worse than Shishido and doesn’t even make a significant appearance in a few episodes.
Jitsu wa Watashi wa has its strongest point in the comedy. Especially in how it deals with drama. There are tense and dramatic situations that it’s hinting at, only for them to turn out as something utterly silly. It’s very unconventional in how it handles different kinds of situations, which allows Jitsu wa Watashi wa to catch you with your pants down and gives the jokes more punch. Nicely done! Good comedy with a bunch of gags you probably won’t see coming (well, maybe now you will, my bad).
On the weak side, however, is how Jitsu wa Watashi wa handles pure romance. If it does go the conventional route, it does so full throttle: Pulling a reversed Rail Wars!, Jitsu wa Watashi wa‘s romantic scenes are cliched at the best of times and cringy at the worst. Poorly executed and hard to not avert your eyes. Want an example? Shiragami and Kuromine sneak into the school’s swimming pool at night, teach each other swimming in – of course – bathing suits, so high skin exposure, don’t bat an eye to that, but then the “Did you call me by my first name?” stuff arises and they go full beet-red stutter face mode, sigh. You’ve seen all that stuff a hundred times over, Jits wa Watashi wa is stuck in 2008 as far as the romance is concerned.
All in all, the anime is alright. Yeah, it’s alright. If you’re a rom-com fan, it should be a bit higher on your priority list. It won’t blow your mind, doesn’t revolutionize the genre, nor is it a masterpiece, but it’s rocksolid and fun to watch; you won’t regret it. For me, time went by quickly when I watched it, which is always a good sign that the stuff you’re doing isn’t boring. It also doesn’t seem like the anime went for an original ending, it’s more of an open end, so probably stood true to the manga. Another indicator for that is that Jitsu wa Watashi wa doesn’t end in some kind of “by the power of friendship” drama crap. Anyway, I would advise you to watch it for the comedy, not necessarily for the romance since that part might let you down a bit. I give Jitsu wa Watashi wa a solid seven, something to maybe rewatch someday for a good giggle.
Rating 7/10
A reader of the manga here, I never saw the Jitsu wa Watashi wa anime since the characters desing felt like they took a bit of the personality away from them. However the manga is big recommend for me since is one of the few rom com that doesn’t end after the characters get together and you get to see the challenges they face as a couple, it does get a bit dramatic sometimes but that does help the cast be fleshed out since it gives them desires beside “I want to be with x character” and does desires and their consequences have actual weight.
Thanks for the intel! That’s interesting to hear, Love Hina also didn’t shut down after they got together and I liked that last portion quite a bit, I might give the JwWw manga a try.