Details: Aired in 2014. Also known as Gekkan Shōjo Nozaki-kun. Twelve episode where each episode is around twenty-something minutes.
Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun is a slice of life/comedy about a high school student who is also an award-winning shojo manga writer/artist. Shojo manga is a type of Japanese comic book that targets the teenage girl demographic. Stories generally star a teenage girl and are of a romantic nature.
The story focuses on our protagonist, Nozaki, and his classmates who help him draw and produce his manga and their shenanigans in high school.
Unlike shows that are pseudo-documentary like and actually teach you something about the subject matter the show is based on, Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun does not really go into the nitty-gritty of how shojo manga is created. It instead uses the common tropes in shojo manga as a thematic jumping off point for a series of comedic sketches.
This show is primarily a comedy, not a romance or a drama. Romance occasionally creeps into the show, but the show uses those moments of familiar shojo tropes and subverts your expectations. Where you’d normally expect a romantic scene instead turns into a ridiculous comedic scene. This happens constantly throughout the show. If you have a grasp of shojo anime tropes, then most of these jokes will likely work for you. If not, then this might be a confusing show to watch.
The animation is fine and mostly doesn’t dip in quality. Music and voice acting are fine and do the job delivering the jokes.
Overall, I enjoyed the show since I am a weeb familiar with standard shojo tropes. If you are also a similar kind of weeb, then I can easily recommend this show to you.
Score: 6.5/10
