Jitsu wa Watashi wa

Thank you and goodbye.

 

This manga will sit in my heart for as long as I live.

Thanks to Tarage, Lyendith, Rottenpantsu and the rest of the team for actually finishing this series. You did it guys.

 

You guys literally saved this series, I mean, Underdog couldn't do it haha. And I know the hardships of doing a weekly series. 

But you did it and managed it through the end. I salute you guys. Seriously, job well done!

 

Ofc thanks to Masuda for doing a really great romance comedy manga. Hopefully, more people would check out Shonen Champion now haha

 

PS: Why is it Underog? T.T

Thank you, Masuda-sensei. Thank you, FwPA. Thank you, Underdog Scans. Thank you, anyone who is involved in this scanlation. It's a wonderful journey that I will not forget.

Has it been 4 years? What a wild ride. Good job, Masuda. Good work, Underdog & PrettyAnon.

 

A heartwarming finale all around, with some funny little moments here and there. And of course it wouldn't be a Masuda chapter without a random nightmare face, lol.

 

Probably the best romantic comedy of this decade. See you in your next manga, Masuda-sensei.

Everybody has his own happy end

 

Except Ryou. :þ

 

…Well… This is it. I've translated quite a few manga by now, but few gave me as much sheer joy and fun translating every panel. I consider myself priviledged for getting to analyse every detail of every joke to try and get the translation just right. It was like discovering each chapter twice or thrice.

 

So what can I say beyond: thank you to Masuda Eiji and his team, thank you to Kobe for letting me in on this ride, to Tarage for having the courage to continue it to the end despite all the obstacles and headaches, to RottenPantsu and Tanktopfag for taking their share of the translating load, to all the cleaners and redrawers (Dji, si tu me lis :þ) and to all those who read and enjoyed this series with us!

 

I don't know if I will have the time to help on Masuda's next series, but hopefully we'll meet again. o/

 

 

And now the only thing missing is A GODDAMN FRENCH RELEASE. è__é I don't care about the bazillionth spin-off of Saint Seiya, bring us some Masuda goodness, dammit.

You have reached your quota of positive votes for the day

You bet I am!

What a manga, what a ride! Thanks to the author and translators!

I've been an anime fan for a long time, ever since the early 90s, when local UHF stations ran Castle of Cagliostro at ungodly hours and my brother had to order purple fansubbed VHS casettes from VKLL in order to find out what happened in Sailor Moon beyond the dubbed episodes. I've seen the cliches and tropes that modern anime fans take for granted back when they were still in their infancy. I've seen shows come and go, some becoming the basis of legendary franchises that endure to today, others that were obscure two-episode OVAs from some studio that hasn't existed for almost 20 years. Put simply, I've seen a lot of anime.
One of the genres I've grown to hate is the romcom, mainly because it seems like every author is more concerned with shamelessly imitating successful series like Ranma 1/2 and Love Hina than creating their own ideas. It's the same thing over and over: a gutless nobody loser somehow attracts a harem of a dozen-odd girls and gives them the runaround for hundreds of chapters, only to get married in the very last chapter to the psychopathic tsundere who spent the entire series beating him senseless with blunt objects and saying how much she hated him. It's nothing but shameless, masturbatory wish fulfillment stories aimed at lonely guys who'd love to believe that they could somehow charm women without having to change anything about themselves.
Then one day in early 2015, I was browsing Anime News Network and noticed the announcement about a "vampire romantic comedy" manga getting animated. To be totally honest, the main reason I gave it a shot was because the early teaser artwork was so bad, I wanted to see if it'd actually look like that (kind of thought it'd be another Gakuen Handsome-type situation). But to my surprise, it was cute and - more importantly - legitimately funny. So I decided to check out the manga and see what it was all about.
Needless to say, Jitsu wa rapidly became one of my favorite manga I've read in recent years. It gets right what so many other romcoms get wrong. The characters are actually likeable, interesting, and fun people, the kind you'd want to hang out with (as long as you had a handy supply of ulcer medication). Asahi actually had a defined personality and actual positive qualities, and Youko...well, she's just too damn sweet and adorable. With most romcoms I come away saying things like "These people are both terrible and I don't want to ever think about them having children", but with Asahi and Youko I was cheering for them every step of the way. And while the characters being dopey is part of the series' charm, they weren't falling into the same tired romcom ruts. They behaved in understandable ways and did actually try to resolve confusion and misunderstandings by explaining things and apologizing, instead of just shouting and hitting each other.
And of course, it's not just them. Every character was special in their own way, and we got to watch them all grow over the course of these two years. In fact, because the characters were so charming it actually became kind of unfortunate that we knew they wouldn't get a happy ending with Asahi. It's amazing that in the end, there's not a single character in this series that I hate, not even Shirayuki, the nominal "Big Bad". And no, not even Shima; he was a punching bag to be sure, but he did have his moments to show that there's a reason the guys actually hang out with him.
And the most important part of the puzzle, the author himself. Masuda knew what he was doing, from the early chapters all the way to the end. He had it all mapped out, kept things fresh with the right mix of comedy and plot developments, and knew how long he could stretch a joke before it got too old. Most importantly, he had the guts to do what many authors won't and actually resolved his love...whatver-gon halfway through the series instead of belaboring the point with needless drama. And of course his art evolved into a uniquely quirky style perfectly suited both to zany gag reactions and some seriously stunning detail images in important chapters.
It's late, it's Thanksgiving, and you guys have better things to do than listen to some random nobody talk about manga on the Internet, so I'll just wrap things up here:
Thank you to Masuda-sensei and his assistants, for bringing this fantastic series to us all. I'll treasure it forever, and it's already been given a spot alongside Kimagure Orange Road as my personal examples of what a romance manga SHOULD be.
Thank you to the staff and cast of the anime; it wasn't perfect, but you did your jobs well and helped provide the stepping stone to introduce more people to the series. I still hear Natsuki Hanae and Yu Serizawa's voices in my head whenever I read the manga.
Thank you to Seven Seas for licensing the manga in America so I can actually support Masuda-sensei directly and let him know that quality manga like his will always be appreciated, even in another country.
Thank you to Tarage, Lyendith, and the rest of Pretty Anon for sharing this wonderful series with all of us here on Bato.to, and to everyone who was reading it right along with me. It was a lot of fun, and you guys helped make it even more fun by sharing the experience.
Guess that's about it; time to head down that flowery path myself. Take care, everyone, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

The ride was so great it gave birth to a new essay-kun. Thanks for everything Futari wa Pretty Anon. It was a very enjoyable experience.

Thx for this wonderful series o/

to think that at the begging i didn't want to read because of the art style... but as the number of chapters grew i got interested and then was instantly hooked, such a great master piece deserves to be read by all and i am indebted to all the staff from Futari Wa Pretty Anom, thx again and again for let us experience all these sorrowful, joyful and hilarious moments (￣^￣)ゞ

Damn... Just... damn, tear jerker really. For a while I thought, it felt, like it was stuck in mired stories. I can't explain it. You knew it was necessary and yet it felt stuck, but it wasn't... I also have no clue how to explain it. This is, I think, that I could feel it starting to close its story as we came to the end. And to close it off with that 4-koma look into their post graduate life was just perfect. I nearly feel like I've read another dozen chapters with that... it's enough to evoke the imagination to fill in the blanks... "That was a damn fun ride" 'nuff said, Ending shows a possibility of a sequel, but not expecting it.

At the end of this series all can i say "I gonna miss this series" while hearing this song..

This is what I'll miss the most about this manga, all these little details he puts in that make it infinitely more funny.

Actually, I'm .... crying. T_T

Damnit... I'm not crying! You're crying!

 

Indeed it was (￣^￣)ゞ

If there's a series that deserves a spin-off, it's this.

 

Damn that was an enjoyable ride.

And she still didn't get her halo back

It was a fun ride. The ending is really good, no bitter taste in your mouth, in opposite to a lot of romance stories. Everybody has his own happy end without being the flawless one.

And, it has come to an end... T-T

 

Thank you very much, Masuda Eiji and Futari wa Pretty Anon

I've been an anime fan for a long time, ever since the early 90s, when local UHF stations ran Castle of Cagliostro at ungodly hours and my brother had to order purple fansubbed VHS casettes from VKLL in order to find out what happened in Sailor Moon beyond the dubbed episodes. I've seen the cliches and tropes that modern anime fans take for granted back when they were still in their infancy. I've seen shows come and go, some becoming the basis of legendary franchises that endure to today, others that were obscure two-episode OVAs from some studio that hasn't existed for almost 20 years. Put simply, I've seen a lot of anime.

One of the genres I've grown to hate is the romcom, mainly because it seems like every author is more concerned with shamelessly imitating successful series like Ranma 1/2 and Love Hina than creating their own ideas. It's the same thing over and over: a gutless nobody loser somehow attracts a harem of a dozen-odd girls and gives them the runaround for hundreds of chapters, only to get married in the very last chapter to the psychopathic tsundere who spent the entire series beating him senseless with blunt objects and saying how much she hated him. It's nothing but shameless, masturbatory wish fulfillment stories aimed at lonely guys who'd love to believe that they could somehow charm women without having to change anything about themselves.

Then one day in early 2015, I was browsing Anime News Network and noticed the announcement about a "vampire romantic comedy" manga getting animated. To be totally honest, the main reason I gave it a shot was because the early teaser artwork was so bad, I wanted to see if it'd actually look like that (kind of thought it'd be another Gakuen Handsome-type situation). But to my surprise, it was cute and - more importantly - legitimately funny. So I decided to check out the manga and see what it was all about.

Needless to say, Jitsu wa rapidly became one of my favorite manga I've read in recent years. It gets right what so many other romcoms get wrong. The characters are actually likeable, interesting, and fun people, the kind you'd want to hang out with (as long as you had a handy supply of ulcer medication). Asahi actually had a defined personality and actual positive qualities, and Youko...well, she's just too damn sweet and adorable. With most romcoms I come away saying things like "These people are both terrible and I don't want to ever think about them having children", but with Asahi and Youko I was cheering for them every step of the way. And while the characters being dopey is part of the series' charm, they weren't falling into the same tired romcom ruts. They behaved in understandable ways and did actually try to resolve confusion and misunderstandings by explaining things and apologizing, instead of just shouting and hitting each other.

And of course, it's not just them. Every character was special in their own way, and we got to watch them all grow over the course of these two years. In fact, because the characters were so charming it actually became kind of unfortunate that we knew they wouldn't get a happy ending with Asahi. It's amazing that in the end, there's not a single character in this series that I hate, not even Shirayuki, the nominal "Big Bad". And no, not even Shima; he was a punching bag to be sure, but he did have his moments to show that there's a reason the guys actually hang out with him.

And the most important part of the puzzle, the author himself. Masuda knew what he was doing, from the early chapters all the way to the end. He had it all mapped out, kept things fresh with the right mix of comedy and plot developments, and knew how long he could stretch a joke before it got too old. Most importantly, he had the guts to do what many authors won't and actually resolved his love...whatver-gon halfway through the series instead of belaboring the point with needless drama. And of course his art evolved into a uniquely quirky style perfectly suited both to zany gag reactions and some seriously stunning detail images in important chapters.

It's late, it's Thanksgiving, and you guys have better things to do than listen to some random nobody talk about manga on the Internet, so I'll just wrap things up here:

Thank you to Masuda-sensei and his assistants, for bringing this fantastic series to us all. I'll treasure it forever, and it's already been given a spot alongside Kimagure Orange Road as my personal examples of what a romance manga SHOULD be.

Thank you to the staff and cast of the anime; it wasn't perfect, but you did your jobs well and helped provide the stepping stone to introduce more people to the series. I still hear Natsuki Hanae and Yu Serizawa's voices in my head whenever I read the manga.

Thank you to Seven Seas for licensing the manga in America so I can actually support Masuda-sensei directly and let him know that quality manga like his will always be appreciated, even in another country.

Thank you to Tarage, Lyendith, and the rest of Pretty Anon for sharing this wonderful series with all of us here on Bato.to, and to everyone who was reading it right along with me. It was a lot of fun, and you guys helped make it even more fun by sharing the experience.

Guess that's about it; time to head down that flowery path myself. Take care, everyone, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Romantic comedy mangas are generally terrible. They get stuck early on and don't go anywhere. Most characters are never properly developed after their introductions, and the primary characters are often bland and unsympathetic at best. Rom-com mangas are quick to rely on gimmicks and fan-service, and end without any meaningful events taking place other than "protagonist chose character A: the end!"

 

I feel like I can count the exceptions to this on one hand.

 

Jitsu wa Watashi wa is without a doubt at the top of those exceptions. This was a true masterpiece! I laughed, I cried, and I loved and wanted to support almost the entire cast! What started off as an awkward, paranormal, 'girl-of-the-week' type series, not only managed to keep my interest for years, but never stopped improving all the way until the end.

 

Thank you so much for bringing us this series.

The manga is being released in North America as "My Monster Secret" (not a great title, but the translation is fine), and I strongly recommend that everyone who can buy it does so to show support for the author. I eagerly await his next work.

The saddest part:

I remember when it only had 15 chapters. I followed Jitsu wa just for its art, and it was a long and happy journey from that day. For me, Jitsu wa Watashi wa is one of the best Mangas I've read. **I'm little upset with Seven Seas because they are not printing the cards of each volume.**

Those cards were specific to a store. They don't have the rights to them.

It's like asking why people in Spain can't get limited edition Burger King Pokemon Cards. It's just not a thing.

This manga is one of the very best. Masuda-sensei ended it with wit and class. Many thanks to the folks at Futari wa Pretty Anon for providing us with the goods for so long! <deep bow>

I remember when it only had 15 chapters. I followed Jitsu wa just for its art, and it was a long and happy journey from that day. For me, Jitsu wa Watashi wa is one of the best Mangas I've read. **I'm little upset with Seven Seas because they are not printing the cards of each volume.**

This has been a wonderful ride