Webcomic / My New Girlfriend Is Not Human?

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My New Girlfriend Is Not Human? is a webcomic written and illustrated by NeitheYAGI. The comic is about a 28-year-old salaryman named Haru Ikeda and his new girlfriend Taya who, when not taking on a human form, is a giant spider-like creature. Together, they do typical couple things like cooking for each other, taking walks in the park, watching movies at home and buying beetles for some snacking.

The comic began on November 12, 2024 and can be read on the artist's Twitter / X page, their Bluesky page and MangaDex. The comic has been dubbed in English by Crystal Blitz and posted to their main YouTube page and in Japanese in their secondary YouTube page.

Tropes

• All Myths Are True: Not only do spider-people exist in this series, but so do ghosts and other Yōkai. Akane meets a blue-eyed Bifauxnen who is a Yuki-onna.
• Ambiguously Human: Taya's adoptive mother certainly looks human, and she shoots down Haru's perceived expectation that she's going to "turn into something," but it sounds like she's been with Taya's adoptive father for a bit longer than a normal human lifespan.
• Ax-Crazy: Kiri was born under a blood moon, inflicting her with a horrible thirst for blood that caused her to slaughter her entire clan. She seems to manage it mostly fine in the present, though it isn't clear how.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • There had been numerous mentions throughout the comic that Haru might've had a shady past before becoming a salaryman, with "Brothers" seemingly revealing that he used to be a debt collector, presumably for a criminal enterprise... but then another strip revealed that he was actually an actor who played those types of roles.
  • When Haru goes back to being a Stunt Double, the director is shown to have an interest in Taya, implied to be sexual, with Chapter 70 ending with the implication that he's trying to pressure Haru into letting him sleep with her... only for 71 to reveal that he actually wants to convince him to have a Western-style wedding, as, in addition to being a director, he runs a wedding dress business with his wife.
• Bifauxnen: The Yuki-onna Akane meets on the train.
  Akane: Sorry, I've just never seen a guy with such pretty eyes.
  Yuki-onna: A guy? [pops her jacket open to reveal her breasts] Very bold of you to assume, lady.
• Brick Joke: Early on, it is revealed Taya doesn't understand that marriage is different from simply living together with your partner, needing the idea of a proposal, wedding rings, and a ceremony explained to her (in part because Youkai don't really do that, and her father, who used to be human and as such did know about it, never thought she'd marry a human and as such didn't tell her). Later on, it's revealed that Kiri, who introduced herself as Haneda's wife, has also made the same mistake and doesn't realise it until Taya wonders why Jade didn't confront her about her marriage to Haneda.
• Career-Ending Injury: Haru was once an up-and-coming stuntman who dreamed of becoming a big action star. However, at the time of his big break, he had an accident while doing a stunt during bad weather. He ended up getting severely hurt and, despite eventually regaining the ability to walk, his doctors told him he could never be a stuntman again. Thus, Haru retired from stuntwork to be an ordinary salaryman.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite her true form initially being horrific, Taya is not malicious at heart.
• Dead All Along: Haru's mother died when he was a child, and he never noticed because he could see her ghost.
• Extreme Omnivore: Taya, being a spider-monster, likes to eat bugs. Beetles in particular. Haru always goes out to buy live ones for Taya to eat, since she never really eats human food. One chapter has Haru buy a bouquet of flowers for Taya after he initially felt bad he only bought her food. Taya eats the flowers anyway. It is also revealed that long before she met Haru, she once ate humans but had since stopped.
• Eye Scream: When Taya explains that she never actually poisoned Akane and said it to make her scared, Taya claims that she actually injected ward spiders into her body with some spiders crawling underneath her eyes.
• False Abuse Accusation: Back when Haru was dating Akane, she made a false accusation of abuse against him when he found out that she was seeing another man. Because of that, he openly resents her in the present.
• Fantastic Racism: Taya and her birth mother were discriminated against because of their true appearance. When Taya rescued a boy, said boy called her a monster, leading to a witch hunt ending with the death of her mother.
• Fingore: Taya injects what she claims to be "poison" into Akane's ring finger saying that she would die if she tried cheating on her significant other again. To work around that, Akane cuts her own finger off.
• Fish Out of Water: Taya is fairly competent at blending in with human society, but there are some details she misses, such as the significances of rings and weddings to marriage.
• Foil: Kiri and Taya contrast with each other. Both are arthropod-based Yokai (Kiri a praying mantis, Taya a spider) that can voluntarily shapeshift between their humanoid and true forms. Both are older than their significant other (though Kiri is younger in centuries). Even their stances are based on animals (Kiri leering forward with her arms in a prayer position and Taya leaning back as if to pounce).
• Good Is Not Nice: While Taya can be aloof, she is a kind person for the most part; however, if anyone tries messing with Haru, she is viciously protective of him.
• Happily Adopted: Neither show it much, but Taya and her adopted family clearly love and appreciate each other; she instantly bonded with her adopted father when they first meet many years ago, specifically over their shared loneliness and desire to be more human (despite hating humans).
• Happily Married: Taya's adoptive parents are a bit reserved but obviously deeply care for each other.
• Hate Sink: Akane, Haru's ex-girlfriend, is a serial cheater. Back when they dated, Haru found out she was seeing another man. In response, she went to HR and accused him of abusing her, which muddied his reputation. Even when Taya warned her that should she cheat again, she'd die unless she cut her finger off, Akane would rather cut it off than stop what she was doing.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Taya's mother died protecting her, pushing her to leave to save her enough time.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: The rabbit yokai wants Taya for unknown reasons.
• Hidden Buxom: The Yuki-onna that Akane meets in the subway station initially appears to be a boy until she takes offense at the assumption and opens her jacket.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: This is shown to be a recurring theme in the webcomic.
  • Akane goes as far as to file a false report of abuse against Haru when he found out that she was cheating on him.
  • The villagers near where Taya grew up discriminated against her and her mother and ultimately killed the latter as a result of their blind hatred.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Titles: Played with. The titles of the first three chapters are all generic statements about Taya as questions, e.g., #1 is a Title Drop Chapter. Chapter 4 drops the "new" ("My Girlfriend Eats Bugs?"), and then Chapter 5 leaves it as a statement ("My Girlfriend Likes Fish"). Most later titles follow #4's or #5's examples, but some are about specific events (e.g., #8: "My Girlfriend Is Angry"), some are titled after people other than Taya (e.g., #44: "I Like Candies"), and some ditch the pattern altogether (e.g., #95: "Blessings"). Starting with chapter 48, "girlfriend" is replaced with "fiancée" (with #48 itself being "My Fiancée Is Not Human").
• Interspecies Romance:
  • The comic is about the relationship between a human salaryman and a shape-shifting spider-woman.
  • After ending things with Akane, Haneda ends up getting a new girlfriend who, much like Taya, is an arthropod-humanoid.
  • Taya's adoptive parents are a skeletal revenant and a human.
• Irony:
  • Taya's fascination with humans ended up having massive impacts on her life. When she was younger, she saved a young boy from drowning, which led to her being forced to flee home and her mother dying to save her. Hundreds of years later, she rescued Haru from drowning and would end up dating him.
  • Taya's adoptive father is a Revenant kept alive by his hatred for humans. He's Happily Married to a human woman.
• I Want Grandkids: Taya's adopted parents really want her and Haru to start having kids before they both pass on, her mother especially.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Taya can block memories in people if she wishes. She did this once to Kiri, a mantis girl who killed her whole family under the influence of a horrible curse, because didn't want the girl to suffer from the guilt.
• Last of His Kind: As revealed in episode 77, Taya is the last of the spider-people yokai. However, chapter 117 reveals that her biological father, who is also a spider yokai, is still alive.
• Mayfly–December Romance: Haru is an ordinary human who is dating a spider-like shapeshifter who is revealed to be over hundreds of years old in later chapters. When Haru actually brings this up in Chapter 103 and asks Taya what she would do in case she ends up outliving him, she breaks down into tears over the thought of losing him; Haru immediately apologizes for the rather blunt question while giving her a Cooldown Hug, and reasons that at the very least they'll both still have many years in front of them where they can be together.
• Ms. Fanservice:
  • Taya's human form is a dark-skinned beauty with raven hair with several prominent shots of her hips. After molting, she goes over to Haru naked to show herself off.
  • Kiri herself reveals that she is pretty ripped while in her humanoid form. Probably helps that she's a stunt person like Haneda.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Centuries ago, when she was a little girl, Taya saved a human boy from drowning; however, he called her a monster and ran off, leaving behind a mysterious bag. Sure enough, a mob of human villagers quickly came, burned Taya's home to the ground and soon killed her mother.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Taya gives her sweet potato over to a young girl when she accidentally dropped hers.
  • During her quest for vengeance, Taya discovered a young Kiri after she had slaughtered her own mantis clan. She altered her memories so the girl wouldn't have to live with the guilt.
• The Power of Hate: Taya's adoptive father is a skeleton spirit who thrives off hatred, specifically his hatred for humanity, and if the hate is gone, he'll cease to exist. This is something of a problem, because he cares a lot for his wife, who seems to be human. The reason he works as a psychiatrist in the present day is so he can find more ways to hate people and keep himself alive, lest he fall apart and make his wife sad.
• Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Both Taya and her adopted father are two of the oldest characters in the webcomic, with the latter being implied to be on his last legs since his hatred for humanity has dwindled throughout the years, especially in regards to Taya's boyfriend Haru.
• Rescue Romance: Haru and Taya's romance began when she saved him from drowning in the river after he accidentally fell off a bridge. Expressing gratitude, Haru offers Taya his coat to keep her warm. Touched by this, she came to his apartment the very next day, and their relationship quickly blossomed.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Taya was on a quest to avenge her mother's death at the hands of the villagers who oppressed them when she first came across Kiri. It's not yet revealed whether or not she succeeded in getting her revenge.
• Sex Shifter: Taya's father can not only shapeshift into a human, but also switch genders. He spent most of his earlier appearances masquerading as Haru's human, female boss.
• Shout-Out:
  • In chapter 59, Haru meets the spirit of a woman who was clearly modeled after Makima.
    • In chapter 64, the flashback to the aftermath of Kiri's slaughter of her village has the corpses in the same position as the astronauts in the Darkness Devil's iconic introduction.
  • Taya is a fan of a manga that is fairly obviously Frieren: Beyond Journey's End with the names of the characters changed. She's owns a large plushy of "Firren", and is seen reading the manga later on.
• Spider People: Taya's true form is that of a six-eyed, four-armed, spider-like giant. She also likes to eat bugs, can spew out web-like silk from her body and can get drunk on coffee. Taya's biological mother was also a spider-woman.
• Splash of Color:
  • In "A Mother", Taya's biological mother's webs are red in the last two panels she's in, where she's fending off the humans who want to kill her and Taya.
  • In "Blue Eyes", the yuki-onna's eyes are blue.
• Title Drop:
  • Almost Defied in the narration of the first comic:
    I don't think my new girlfriend is human.
  • Dropped word-for-word (albeit not as a question, and referring to a totally different girlfriend) in #50:
    Haneda: I think my new girlfriend is not human.
  • Played with in #96:
    Haru: Dad, Toki… my wife is not human.
• Title Drop Chapter:
  • Chapter 1's title is the same as the comic's.
  • Chapter 48's title is "My Fiancée Is Not Human", reflecting Haru's proposal to Taya in that comic.
• Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Taya greatly despises Akane because of her remorseless habit of being unfaithful to her partners. As a consequence, Taya injects her with her blood, lying about her dying should she continue to cheat on her significant other to "teach her a lesson".
• Tsuchigumo and Jorogumo: Taya is an interesting variation in that she and her mother were known as tsuchigumo since they lived in the mountains being called cave dwellers and such. (This is revealed in an episode titled "My Fiancée Is Not a Jorogumo".) However, Taya and her biological mother lack Oni faces, and her shapeshifting falls more in line with a jorogumo.
• Voice of the Legion: In the comic dubs by Crystal Blitz, Taya's voice becomes demonic and garbled when in monster form, or just when she's upset.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Taya can seamlessly change between her human form and monster form at will. She can even keep part of herself human, namely her ring finger, where she keeps her engagement ring. Her adoptive dad is capable of doing the same.
• Wham Episode: Several things are revealed towards the end of Volume 2. For starters, not only will Taya be able to have four children, she already has one on the way. Additionally, her adoptive father knows about the rabbit yokai and was offered a deal by her in return for handing her Taya.
  • Chapters 113-117 not only reveal that Haru's new boss is also a shapeshifting spider-youkai like Taya, but also the latter's biological father and he's planning on resurrecting Taya's deceased mother.
• Wham Line: After Haru and Taya visit the former's father and mother, Haru's brother Toki arrives to pick them up. Haru's dad also gets ready to leave, and Haru asks where the two are headed to.
  Toki: You two are coming too. You need to.
  Haru: Where?
  Toki: To Mom's grave.
• What If the Baby Is Like Me: After interacting with a little girl, Haru asks Taya is she wants to have children. Taya, however, tearfully tells him they shouldn't because she is different from other humans and asks him if he really wants their kids to look like her. Haru reassures her that he wants their kids to be as kind as she is, implying he wouldn't care if they do end up looking inhuman.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Taya's adoptive father chastises her for what she had done to Akane. While acknowledging that she loves Haru and that he has no problem with their origins, Haru is an outlier, and they made a vow to keep their true nature a secret from other humans.
• Where I Was Born and Razed: Haneda's new girlfriend, Kiri was born under the red moon and thus became cursed with bloodlust by it. In her bloodlust, she wiped out her own clan including her parents. Because of it being such a traumatic experience, Taya altered her memories.
• You Killed My Father: Taya encounters Kiri, Rui's girlfriend and a mantis-youkai. She believes Taya killed her whole family years ago and now wants to kill Taya. When Taya recalls her, she reveals the truth is more tragic: Kiri was born under a curse and killed her whole clan while under its influence. Taya used her powers to remove the memories of the event so the young girl didn't suffer from it; however, lacking context, Kiri grew to believe Taya was the killer.
• You Can See Me?: Sometime after dating Taya, Haru develops the power to see ghosts. He encounters one in his office's file room, who is shocked at first and offers to read his fortune.