First and foremost Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun is a romantic comedy, and although it never strays from that path it also never bogs itself down with many of the typical trappings that often accompany shows of this genre. Relying more heavily on the comedy aspect for the greater part of the series it offers a solid overall balance of comedy and romance often at times forgetting about the romantic interactions completely. Gekkan Shoujo paces itself slowly and deliberately and isn't afraid of placing it's side characters in the spotlight for an entire episode at a time. This however is one of the more glaring faults to it's credit, as it causes episodes with little to no story progression and the characters placed at the center of these episodes garner no development themselves, but rather are simply used as tools to promote various gags or misunderstandings of comical nature.
One of the driving plot points and a recurring theme throughout the anime is a parallel that is continually drawn between the manga that Nozaki is writing and the actual events taking place within the show. The first of these parallels is that the characters in Nozaki's manga are directly based off of his friends, the second being that he draws inspiration for his plot by simply watching the interactions between him and his friends and then casually edits it to fit the shoujo genre. These parallels are one of the two main sources of comedy that this show uses, often changing the mundane happenings of Nozaki's life into outlandish shoujo manga settings, and the other way around.
The character cast is not anything that could be considered surprising for a a show of this nature. The two mains consist of Chiyo Sakura, who is energetic, cute, and always willing to help. Then there is her counterpart Umetarou Nozaki, who is quiet, calm, and has a penchant for misunderstanding the situation. Although this balance of characters is quite common overall it is certainly played out to the best of its abilities, knowing when to use the comical nature of such a pairing, and when to slow the pace for the more romantic scenes.
The plot mostly revolves around these two as Chiyo helps Nozaki with his manga not only by working directly on it, but by explaining and helping him understand certain misconceptions he has about girls in real life compared to girls in shoujo manga. The second main culprit of the humor in this series is derived from the misunderstandings that Nozaki has with both real life and fictitious girls and romantic interactions, often to the point of complete obliviousness on his part. Chiyo, unlike Nozaki, is often quick to understand the situation at hand, though sometimes she still falls victim to Nozaki's misconceptions.
The remaining cast of characters follows suit in that none of them particularly stand out, and generally follow typical shoujo character designs, aside from certain twists. The first twist, and general pattern that the side characters follow, is that they all are somewhat gender swapped, that is to say the males are usually put into situations that you would commonly find female characters in and vice versa. This is made more obvious during the series as Nozaki uses his male friends as inspiration for the female characters in his manga. The second twist, only applying to some of the side characters, is that they are stereotypical shoujo characters on the outside, but almost completely different on the inside.
Among these characters are Mikoto Mikoshiba, a smooth talker who is never afraid to be a braggart on the outside. On the inside he is easily embarrassed, often embarrassing himself with the way he speaks, and needy, complimenting others or acting aloof as to gain compliments or attention himself.
Then there is Yuu Kashima, playing the part of the ever charming "prince", except she's a girl. Always willing to sweet talk other girls she is seemingly charming and charismatic. She has a problem remembering the names of her followers and is easily misunderstood, often trying to make a positive impression, only to have the end result be the polar opposite of her intentions.
Lastly is Yuzuki Seo, for those who are unfamiliar she may appear as a talented beauty, being referred to as Lorelei, the Adonis of the choir club. To those that know her she is a wrecking ball of energy and crass behavior and can often be found laying waste to the boys basketball team, even though she believes she is helping.
As far as the musical score is concerned Gekkan Shoujo boasts a slightly above average sound track. The best of the tracks being the fantastic opening song, both unusual and catchy it's an energetic way to start each episode on a high note. Otherwise aside from a well placed piece every so often the background music is fairly standard, nothing overly dramatic, and also nothing worth complaining about.
Overall Gekkan Shoujo is a pleasantly funny, if not slightly standard, romantic comedy that is certain to make you laugh more than feel for the characters. I would recommend this show to those who are fans of either romance or comedy, but would suggest that those looking for more depth from their romances look elsewhere.
I gave Gekkan shoujo Nozaki-kun an overall score of 7/10
