When is it safe to be yourself? That's maybe a more intense question than you'd expect from Fall in Love, You False Angels, which is unquestionably a romantic comedy. But that doesn't mean that it lacks any heavier subtext, and the story of Otogi and Toki can be read in such a way to facilitate discussions of who we are and who we present ourselves to the world as, and that makes it easy to see why this title made it on 2024's Kono Manga ga Sugoi list.

The story takes place in a high school, where the first-year class has two “angels.” These two students, a girl, and a boy, are held in the highest regard – they're beautiful, kind, smart, and every other possible virtue you could assign to them. They're also lying through their teeth to maintain this façade: underneath the veneer of perfection, Otogi is more than aware that she's just a regular girl with some less savory elements…or at least more normal, human ones. But Otogi has always known that she's beautiful and smart, and that led to her putting up the front of perfection, because she frankly enjoys the adoration, even if she has to work for it.

The pressure feels especially high now that she's in high school and the same class as Toki, the male version of her in more ways than one. Otogi's the president to Toki's vice-president, and the two of them are the most beautiful duo in class, inside and out. But when Toki gallantly escorts Otogi to the station after she's sidelined with cramps, something happens: a couple of punks come up and start hitting on her, causing Otogi to break character. That's when she learns that Toki is putting on a show, too, and things begin to change between them.

If there's a theme to be traced in this volume, it's the idea of when it's okay to be two-faced. Otogi and Toki are contrasted with a predatory teacher to prove this point. When a girl in their class comes to them for help, they discover that Seki-sensei has a history of making moves on his female students, highlighting him as a very different sort of two-faced. Where Otogi and Toki hide their true selves for selfish reasons, Seki cloaks himself in a veil of respectability that disguises his unsavory nature. Our protagonists can deal with him because of their deception: it gives them a way to function undercover, so to speak, using their acts to help a classmate. Seki, of course, is using his act to harm others.

Still, there's a real sense that it's at least a little exhausting for both. We don't get inside Toki's head very often, but Otogi is constantly on her guard. Each little slip-up in her demeanor is something she feels keenly, whether it's letting her true self out or accidentally calling Toki “Ikkoku,” which is how she misread the kanji in his name when she first saw it. (The gag about her viewing his true self as “Dark Ikkoku” is funny in a very early-2000s way.) From their interactions, it seems as if Toki may be a bit more aware of the toll his angel act takes on him, and some of the best scenes in the volume take place at a coffee shop owned by his childhood friend and object of worship Gen-nii. Gen is one of the people who know the true Toki. When the latter invites Otogi to visit the shop, Gen tells her that Toki thinks it would be nice to have a safe space where they could be themselves without worrying about anyone else or their reputations. He's told Gen that he feels safe with Otogi, which is a major compliment and a possible indication of where this story could be headed, per the title.

Although the romance subplot feels very “sub” here, that may be good. It allows Toki and Otogi to come to it naturally, something she's already approaching head-on. Again, we're almost exclusively in her head in this volume, so Toki may simply be better at hiding his fluttering heart, but it's still a good pace for the story. Right now the more important element is the two of them learning how to manage their acts versus their truths, and creator Koko Uzuki is doing that fairly well.

Unfortunately, the volume does feel a little awkward in its pacing, and it's not surprising that Uzuki says this is their first serialization. There's a fits-and-starts feel to the plot's progression that doesn't quite work, and Uzuki's art, while mostly pleasant, also takes a bit of getting used to; it's more clear that we're being told that the false angels are beautiful than us being able to see it for ourselves. Still, this is a good first volume, and it gives the impression that as Uzuki grows more comfortable, the story will only get better from here.