Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun - First Impressions

Studio: Dogakobo

Genre(s): Comedy, Romance, School, Shounen

OP: "Kimi ja Nakya Dame Mitai" by Masayoshi Ooishi

ED: "Ura Omote Fortune" by Ari Ozawa

Summary: Sakura Chiyo confesses to her crush, Nozaki-kun, but he mistakes her as a fan! Unable to convey her feelings, what happens when he invites her to his house? Find out in this hilarious series!

(Source: Panda Scans)

Going into Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, I didn't know what to expect but I did have Bakuman on the brain only because they both revolve about mangaka. With the just first episode, it feels like this anime will be more focused on the comedy aspects rather than the actual struggle of mangaka trying to become serialized. And that is fine considering I found the duo of an overreacting Chiyo and deadpan Umetarou to work well, resulting in some quick and silly humor.

Of course, like most romcoms that focus on comedy, we probably won't be seeing any real romance; sure there will be "hints of romantic nature", but I doubt there will be any progress between the two characters. And really, that is my beef with romcoms, they call themselves romantic comedies but they end up being just glorified comedies where any romance scene is just another comedy moment. Of course this is only my prediction, so we will see what actually happens between Chiyo and Umetarou, but really do doubt that there will be any relationship progress because it will ruin the dynamic of oblivious guy and girl trying to convey her feelings toward him.

Going back to the manga side of things, it's interesting to have a guy doing shoujo manga. Someone like Umetarou, where he is blunt and doesn't really show his emotions that often, you wouldn't really expect that genre to be his pick -- specially him being a popular shoujo mangaka at that. So the thing that feels strange is that he makes stories that resonate with a lot of females, resulting in him understanding females at some level, but he is oblivious to Chiyo's feels? That feels like the weirdest disconnect within a character, but this is only the first episode so I will cut it some slack for now.

As for Chiyo, she seems to be defined by her affection for Umetarou. Like I said in my first impressions for Sword Art Online II, I don't like those type of female characters but Chiyo is quirky and we still has time for her develop.

Right now, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun shows some potential. The dynamic coming from Chiyo and Umetarou is entertaining and it seems like there will be even more characters being added in pretty soon. I'm still preparing for this to be mostly comedy and no romance, so thats too bad for Chiyo but she'll live.

Orginally posted to the now shutdown sekijitsu.com: Archived Page