Gekkan Shoujo is about Nozaki-kun, a high-school student who is secretly a shoujo manga artist, and his life. (The anime is based on a manga as well, so I guess it’s manga-ception?) Now Nozaki-kun is not the world’s most perceptive character, and so when his adoring fan and the anime’s main character Sakura tries to ask him out, he infers that she wants an autograph, much to his satisfaction and her dismay. Similarly dense moments make the biggest running gag of Gekkan Shoujo. This is a show that creates scenarios so that the relationship between our protagonists might develop, only in order that they can be shut down in the most hilariously tragic way possible. You might be wondering whether it’s a parody of the shoujo genre or just a funny shounen? It doesn’t really matter when you’re laughing.
Sakura is a feisty protagonist if I ever saw one, the polar opposite to the Nozaki’s docile silence. But she’s very sweet and loveable all the same, such that you’re always excited when her relationship with Nozaki seems to be getting better. And what better way is there for it to improve than to help Nozaki with his manga? That’s right, not only is this show funny, you’re getting an insight into how manga is made at the same time! It’s not Bakuman levels of complexity, but it’s nevertheless really interesting to see all the different roles that make up the creation of a manga.
Obviously, Sakura can’t do this job on her own however, so this is where Gekkan Shoujo brings in its remaining cast of quirky characters. There’s Mikoshiba, our very own male tsundere with a talent for spouting cheesy pick-up lines and becoming embarrassed immediately after saying them. Then there’s Seo, the most insensitive best friend you could ever have – she’s desperate to attract the attention of one of Nozaki’s assistants Wakamatsu, but will happily compare Wakamatsu to a dog without so much as considering it might be insulting. Finally, there’s the drama club dream team Kashima and Hori. These two are the Laurel and Hardy of the show, and Hori is always Kashima’s throat trying to drag her away from her doting female fan club.
What’s great about this rag-tag bunch is that they’re all given room to let the story explore their relationships. All of them are also built into storyline of Nozaki’s manga, often in ridiculously roundabout ways. Mikoshiba (a guy) is used as reference for the school-girl heroine Mamiko! What’s more, Kashima then becomes the reference for the hero’s rival, who tries to snatch up Mamiko’s love! With the sheer eccentricity of all these characters, Nozaki wisely decides to use his entire school life as one big reference for the manga. This results in all sort of comic situations for Nozaki and Sakura, including Nozaki trying to get into the mind of his manga characters (and possibly the best line ever muttered in anime: ‘I wish I’d been born a slender bishounen!’) Needless to say, when summer arrives Nozaki suddenly seems very keen to organise a guy’s pyjama party...
At the end of Gekkan Shoujo, I don’t really feel as though the story progressed all that much, and certainly Sakura and Nozaki are nowhere near the relationship level Sakura pines for. So if that’s something you’re looking for, you might want to look to something a bit more focused on the serious romance department. But as a comedy which uses romance as its medium, Gekkan Shoujo certainly delivers. I look forward to season 2, where perhaps Mikoshiba will learn not to volunteer for nude modelling until after he’s calmed down a bit.
Recommendations: School Rumble – Romance may be an element of both shows, but it’s an excuse in both to laugh at whichever wacky situation the characters will plunge into next!
