My Monster Secret Volume 21 Manga Review
Jitsu wa Watashi wa/実は私は 21
My Monster Secret: “Actually, I am…” 21

–> Buy My Monster Secret Volume 21 from Amazon.com

SPOILERS

I read this volume a long time ago, but as things are want to be, I never got around to reviewing it. However, as my entire manga collection is about to go into storage with my other household goods for the next several months, I decided to reread this volume and get a review up!

NOTICE!!! In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I am the adapter for the official English translation of the True Tenchi Muyo! novels, which are also published by Seven Seas.

* * * SPOILERS * * *

The Story, in Brief

Things kick off with Shirayuki revealing herself to a horrified Asahi and a blissfully ignorant Youko. She’s warded off by Rin, Future Nagisa, Karen, and others. Shirayuki calls an assembly, where she announces changes for Morobare High School. It is clear to the non-humans that these changes are designed to expose their secrets. An investigative reporter and her cameraman show up to snoop around, so Asashi and company have to do things to put her off the scent.

Youko discovers her father is in disguise as the female teacher’s aide, Yumi-sensei. Asashi collapses from exhaustion, so Youko goes to confront Shirayuki. The principle tells a story from the distant past where humans and non-humans lived together, but an incident caused them to split apart in distrust. After Asahi recovers, he and Youko have a discussion about the real possibility she’s pregnant due to drinking his blood.

Elsewhere, Karen, the fired Akari-sensei, and Future Nagisa search for where Shirayuki may have sealed Akane away. Eventually they discover her. However, their attempts to get Akane to break free fail, causing Future Nagisa to reveal she is in fact present day Nagisa who returned to help.

Shirayuki prepares for the event that will cause Youko to reveal her secret to everyone and follow her father’s path. Akane, in her original, pipe-smoking, devil form, confronts Shirayuki. She reveals to Karen, Nagisa, and Akari-sensei that Shirayuki used to be a human. Shirayuki battles Akane, then pulls her trump card. She jumps off a building, forcing Youko to reveal herself as a vampire in order to save Shirayuki.

The Tragedy of the Yuki-onna

With My Monster Secret Volume 21, we pick up things immediately after Shirayuki returns in the present. I’m not sure where she has been all this time after Akane usurped her. In the previous volume when Asahi went into the past to witness Youko’s father transform into a monstrous form, it was part of Shirayuki’s plan to keep humans and non-humans apart. However, we learn why Shirayuki wanted this to happen in this volume.

I understand Shirayuki’s anger at witnessing a non-human friend get captured and sold off for the amusement of other humans. And at the same time, the money from this helped her village survive a hard winter. I appreciate that Masuda-sensei had Shirayuki understand this as well. This made her character much more interesting to me.

So I get why Shirayuki would want to keep humans and youkai (or other non-humans) apart. Yet this segregation can never be the answer. And that’s something Akane understood all too well. For all of her trolling and trickery throughout the series, Akane really had a noble goal in mind. And as I see it, she did this based on a wish from a young Shirayuki.

Still, I wonder where Shirayuki has been all these years. Akane appeared to kill her in the past, but clearly, that wasn’t true. As a youkai, I suppose Shirayuki hid somewhere to recover, all the while shielding herself from Akane. And now, Shirayuki managed to get Youko to reveal her secret.

Youko’s Tale

One of the things Masuda-sensei cleverly does is weave Youko’s tale through the bigger story in My Monster Secret Volume 21. We start off with a flashback, showing a young Youko resenting the fact that in human fiction, vampires where a monster to be destroyed. Then through Mikan, we see how Youko caused her to evaluate herself as a person.

I also liked how Masuda-sensei ties in events in this volume with the earlier volume, when Youko would get angry with Asahi for not having regard for himself in order to protect her secret. Here, she gets angry with him for trying to take on the fight with Shirayuki and more without regard for himself. So when Asahi passes out, Youko forces the others to fill her in on what Asahi has shielded her from. And then she goes to confront Shirayuki on her own.

It is interesting that Youko trusted Shirayuki so implicitly as to accept a meal from her. I think this moment is what gave Youko the courage to save Shirayuki at the end of the volume. Sure, Shirayuki’s plan was to get Youko to reveal her secret and thus be ostracized. But unlike her father, Youko chose to reveal her secret in order to do the right thing. Youko’s father started transforming against his will.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

If I had more time, I might have expounded on a few more elements. As it is, My Monster Secret Volume 21 sees Akane return, but Youko’s secret revealed. While it was mostly a serious chapter, there was some humor added with Youko to keep things from getting too dark. That said, I enjoyed it quite a bit.