Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun(also known as Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun) is a 12 episode anime series from 2014. The anime series itself was based off the 4-Koma manga of the same name. The story follows a high school student named Sakura Chiyo and how she has a crush on a classmate named Nozaki. Nozaki misinterprets her feelings and makes her assist him in his manga authoring escapades. Together with Chiyo trying to get closer with him they draw out stories based off their wacky schoolmates.
Many parts of this show can be seen as generic. A major example of this would be the school setting. The school setting will unfortunately turn off many viewers as many anime fans have grown tired of this plot element being milked dry by several anime works. And this is a shame because Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun does something pretty unique despite its run of the mill plot elements.
There isn't really pure romance in its essence which may disappoint some people but the Shoujo manga that Nozaki draws couples with the actions of the characters and that is what creates most of the comedy. A great example would be an episode where Mikoshiba and Nozaki are playing a dating sim. Dating sims don't exactly have the greatest reputation but all of the generic romantic Shoujo elements present in them move Nozaki and Mikoshiba to tears and I personally found this hilarious.
An important thing to consider is that despite its shounen demographic this show parodies Shoujo so much. This is the main joke of the series and creates much of the humor. Many of the gags also come from Nozaki looking at every day life and then just randomly taking notes and putting the scenario into a generic Shoujo manga. I personally found it to be pretty funny when he did this.
This is mostly an episodic anime. There isn't a massive scoping plot and there are many different sub plots present. Some of these sub plots are good but a couple of others seem kind of incomplete to me such as the sub plot of seo teaching Kashima how to sing. Most of the episodes are comedy driven and have a light hearted and funny atmosphere which is good for a romcom anime.
When talking about the characters in this show I can say that I enjoyed most of them. Not all of them had an interesting design or personality but shined with their interactions with other characters in the cast. I would say there is a fairly large cast of characters here and they are mostly all developed pretty well.
Nozaki can be seen as kind of boring at first and as a bit of a dunce. However his profession as this renowned manga artist and his behavior in real life due to this profession is actually quite interesting. His relationship with Chiyo is great too and shared in many comedic moments. However he misunderstands Chiyo's obvious feelings quite a bit which was pretty annoying. But I found him to be a good protagonist in the series and had some interesting attributes.
Chiyo is the heroine of this story and she isn't all that impressive. Her feelings for Nozaki are genuine though and despite him having noticeable idiosyncrasies and flaws she continues loving him which I found to be sweet. Aside from those 2 there are also some great side characters like the narcisstic otaku mikoshiba, the tom boy actress kashima, and the uber aggressive psycho Seo. They are also coupled with Wakamatsu, a weak basketball player and Hori the drama club director.
One of the 2 most interesting relationships in the series is between Wakamtasu and Seonand the second is between Kashima and Hori. Hori and Kashima had a very dynamic relationship that was filled with humor. Horn is always patronizing kashima for getting distracted by her fans but Kashima also respects horn to no end. Seo and Wakamtasu had an equally dynamic relationship with great humor. Seo's aggression played off wakamatsu's timid nature perfectly.
I personally had no problems with the art and animation. The art was appealing and had great color. The voice acting and music were also very good but I felt that some of the OST was a bit overused but it's good music in general.
So overall Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun is a fun romp that parodies the Shoujo genre well in a shounen context. The comedy incorporated is effective and the cast of characters were colorful. So if you want a good comedy anime with some good romantic gags check this one out.
