The romance in this anime is not developed in the common pace. It is more a fleshing out of the early stages of infatuation and love. Sakura Chiyo is the heroine while the "hero" is Nozaki Umetarou. While Nozaki sees Sakura as a friend, Sakura is more than interested in Nozaki; Sakura says that she is in love with him. The romance I was expecting was of progressing states of love. First meeting the person, then interested, falling, confessing and finally establishing a relationship. This anime plays out in between meeting and falling and sometimes (accidentally) reaching out to confessing. Sakura constantly finds herself swinging back and forth between falling and confessing as she is always neutrally and unintentially friend-zoned. The anime illustrates the internal struggle of infatuation with your SO and them not reciprocating the feelings you hide in the warm comfortable shade of friendship. This is happening in unique ways between almost all the characters in this series. Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun does a good job in depicting the mismatching early stages of friendships starting to cross into love relationships. I rooted for Sakura at first as my original goal for her was to obtain her love, but as the story went on I began to respect her as she matured. Her patience with Nozaki grew while her feelings were unchanged and unwavering. The flame of her feelings was bright and flickering in the beginning but became strong yet steady (a bit more assured and content), humble yet confident. I went from rooting to applauding her growth.
Comedy:
The comedy was more realistic and relatable so I had relatable feelings when the characters found themselves in embarrassing situations. I felt embarrassed at times for them. I wouldn't say that the more laughs in a series the better the comedy, no. I would say that even though I didn’t laugh so much, when I did laugh it was more like when laugh about moments that went a bit wrong or weird or embarrassing. Not like a laugh when one tells a joke. My brand typically is slap stick and over the top ridiculousness (which is what I love about some animes) so I am switching to a calmer pace in the anime which I still enjoyed.
