Are we who we are when no one is watching? If so, is the person we display to the world an alternate version of us or a fake persona? When we meet those who let us take the masks down, are we finally allowing ourselves to be seen?
Fall In Love, You False Angels by Coco Uzuki explores the relationship between two students who are perfect to their peers. But underneath the surface, they are both hiding personalities that completely contradict their public perception.
For the older anime fans in the room, we would have all made the His and Her Circumstances comparisons on our own without the synopsis needing to do it for us. How could we all forget the charming dynamic between Yukino and Arima? Perfect students who led completely different lives at home. Fall In Love, You False Angels differs in the both the leads “real selves” are bad asses, akin almost to the delinquent type (minus the crimes.)
Enter Otogi. She is known as the school’s “heartthrob angel.” Everyone is in love with her. She’s beautiful and sweet. She’s the class president and perfect. On the inside, Otogi is crushing hard on her vice president, Toki. She tries to maintain her cool around him so as to not let on that he’s driving her crazy.
Toki is seemingly her exact counterpart. He’s soft-spoken and charming, with all the girls swooning over him. He seems to know exactly what to do to handle conflicts as the vice president and has a commanding presence.
One day, while getting hit on, Otogi lets her mouth loose and reveals in front of Toki that she’s not just an angel. She’s a strong and outspoken girl who isn’t afraid to tell someone off. Because of this, Toki feels at ease enough to reveal that he also isn’t the perfect image he portrays and has a dark side. “Dark Ikkoku” is what Otogi has nicknamed him in her mind.
From this moment, the two start hanging out outside of school, with Toki inviting Otogi to get to know him better. As she learns more about Toki, Otogi struggles to keep her composure and not let Toki in on the fact that she’s falling hard.
On the surface, Fall In Love, You False Angels may feel a bit like “we’ve seen this already.” Once I started reading it, I realized how wrong I was. Usually, the “perfect” girl is a slob behind the scenes. Whereas Otogi is just a bad ass who doesn’t take anyone’s bs. And then Toki on the other hand, seems to be just a cool guy, unbothered about things.
As soon as I finished volume one, I wanted volume two immediately. The developing friendship between Toki and Otogi is cute, and how hard she is working to keep her feelings under wraps is hilarious. I love that Toki has already introduced her to someone important to him and revealed a lot about himself in a small amount of time. He reminds me so much of Itsumi from A Sign of Affection, so of course, I am in heaven.
The story so far is so promising. I can’t wait for it to dive deeper into the two “real” personalities of Otogi and Toki, and hopefully uncover why they have the angel personas. There is so much that can be done here, and I look forward to seeing where it goes.
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Fall in Love, You False Angels Vol 1
Mangaka: Coco Uzuki
Translation: Susumaji
Letterer: Lys Blakeslee
Editor: Julia Murphy
Publisher: Kodansha
Fall in Love, You False Angels Vol 1 is available now here.
Thank you to Netgalley and Kodansha for an advanced reviewer copy.
This looks like a cute one, thank you for the review.
I was wondering if you could do a manga review for Peach Girl by Miwa Ueda