Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun / Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun
It is a classic romance story as old as time itself. Girl meets boy. Girl falls in love with boy. Boy doesn’t seem to notice. Drama and/or hilarity ensues! Such is the plight for our hero, Chiyo Sakura, who is attracted to the tall, handsome, but quiet-spoken Umetarō Nozaki. On the day of reckoning, she confesses her love for him but it did not turn out exactly the way she wanted. Inexperienced in matters of love himself, Nozaki misunderstands this confession and gives her an autograph & later invites her to become his inking assistant after flubbing her wishes to always be with him.
As it turns out, Nozaki is secretly a famous shoujo mangaka working under the psuedonym Sakiko Yumeno. Refusing to admit defeat, Sakura agrees to help Nozaki in developing the increasingly popular manga series, Let’s Have A Romance! in order to closer to him. Over the the course of time, an eclectic cast of characters cross into the their lives and later become inspirations in their manga.
Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun is a charming, well-written, smart, and consistently funny series that both honors and pokes fun at shoujo anime / manga tropes. Many a time you and your significant other will give pause to many of ridiculous thing that happens in the genre all too happen, and send everyone into hysterics. And this happens ALL THE TIME. It is inevitable considering how incredibly quirky the plot and its characters are. The show incredibly self-aware and at the same time refreshingly progressive in its statements of re-examining romantic stereotypes, norms, and mores. Truthfully, there is more comedy than actual romance that goes on in this series but that ultimate feel-good vibes it gives off is more than enough to make Valentine’s Day feel extra special.
Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun is available for streaming on Hulu and Crunchyroll.
NERD PALS NETWORK 