One of the anime I was really happy about this year was Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun. I read a few chapters of the manga before it aired because a friend was really insisting on it and I fell in love. And so the anime was an instant watch.
You see, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun is about a guy named Nozaki who also happens to be writing a shoujo manga in a monthly magazine. It reminded me a lot about Otomen (do you guys remember Otomen? Aren’t you sad it never got made into an anime?) but in the end I found it completely different. Mostly because Otomen clearly is a shoujo while Nozaki-kun isn’t. Nozaki-kun is a comedy first (it’s a 4 panels manga in the first place) and a comedy second. And, the whole comedy is completely based on turning stereotypes around.
The first thing that crushes stereotypes is obviously Nozaki himself, his whole character is completely anti-shoujo. He is a man, he seems to be completely unable of any other feeling but love. For his manga.
It was very fun to look trying to think logically (or less logically) about love and what would be more natural for his manga. It was a really nice change from the usual shoujo heroes who all are thinking about love all the time.
Of course Nozaki-kun has characters in love. The main character, the observator Sakura-chan, is head over heels for Nozaki and she can never manage to tell him and when she tries he doesn’t understand anyway. Yet, Sakura isn’t an annoying heroine who can only think about love and turns her whole life around it.
Mikoshiba is another character who destroys stereotypes. He is the kind of character you always find in shoujo, the kind who always acts flirtatious and confident around girls. This kind of character doesn’t often get a lot of character development in shoujo usually, they start that way and they stay that way. Well, in Nozaki-kun, Mikoshiba only acts confident. He is actually very shy and wishes he could hide whenever he says such a comment to a girl. It’s pretty cute and it even makes you think about what hides behind the facade of this type of character in shoujo.
In the end though, the most manly character of the whole manga happens to be a girl. Seo is one of the stars of the school. Whenever there’s a sport meeting she is the go-to girl and she secretly is the best singer of the school. She is also incredibly violent both in love and out of love. You don’t see this kind of character often in shoujo and that’s another thing I really liked in Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun.
To sum things up, if you were afraid of Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun being a regular shoujo, it’s not. It’s actually quite entertaining and a very light watch.
