Exploring Shoujo Part 1: Monthly Girls Nozaki-Kun (Not sure if you can spoil a comedy show)

This will be my first step into exploring more of the themes of the shoujo demographic stuff.  Since this is a deconstruction, this was where I decided to start off so I can see some of the themes and tropes of the demographic in a more interesting way before going onto somewhat more traditional-ish stuff.  I’m a nerd in a lot of ways and one of those is me taking apart things and getting a good understand on how things work.

The other shows that I will be watching will be Princess Jellyfish, Princess Tutu, Escaflowne (I’m a mech fan, so it’s a sin that I haven’t watched this yet), Utena, and The Rose of Versailles.  From what I understand, that’s a lot of crossdressing for different reasons.  Anyway, I will be interspersing these series between others that I’ve wanted to watch for a while just to make sure everything feels fresh.  I also don’t know when all of these series will be done because it takes a little more time for me to finish series now since I’m getting busier and busier all the time.  Anyway, onto the review thing.

—

Monthly Girls Nozaki-Kun is a comedy of mixed gender roles and misunderstandings.  Each “couple” has a different blend of feminine and masculine traits that make each character genuinely unique and interesting.  This starts from the pair of Sakura and Nozaki who are supposedly what we would call the “normal” type of people to keep the show more grounded, though there is humor that comes from Sakura’s expectations and Nozaki’s out of nowhere shenanigans.  I don’t think I will ever forget the standard couple bike scenario ruined by a bike that requires two people to peddle it.  It’s just hilarious.

Other pairings like Seo, the rude and crude female who can sing like an angel with Wakamatsu, the jock who is very emotional and timid.  Seeing these two together in different situations is rather endearing, because they bounce off each other so well.  The same way the “relationship” between Hori and Kashima works out.  Hori is an older student that is also an exceptional actor who wants to see Kashima, the female who is the very essence of a prince and the only way you can tell she is a female is by her skirt, who is an exceptionally at everything including acting.  Half the time I feel like Hori strikes Kashima because he has a feeling of inadequacy from about his masculinity.  Maybe I am reading too much into that, but that’s what I feel like the situation is.  Though, it seems the best way to get your senpai’s attention is to slowly give him a well-coordinated dress outfit into his locker.  It’s strange, but it seems to work.

Now I need to touch on more of the comedy.  I’ve already explained about half of it.  Interesting characters in interesting situations and traits interacting with each other and creating comedy through throwing them together.  This may seem like a lot, but there is even more.  Monthly Girls is extremely self-aware.   A little subtler then Deadpool’s shenanigins.  The two main characters, Nozaki and Sakura provide different lenses that we see the show through.  You get the average every day kind of antics that the characters through Sakura’s point of view.  From Nozaki’s perspective, you have what the characters usually would be in their gender swapped states.  This comes from Nozaki who turns the male characters of the show into females and the females into males in his manga.  The two intertwining perspectives and Nozaki’s reactions to them really turn up the comedy to eleven.

As for the other aspects of the show, the animation, arts style, and soundtrack don’t really have to play into comedy shows because usually the characters can carry the show by itself, but boy is this show gorgeous.  The animation is fluid, the character designs are very distinctive and great, but the soundtrack isn’t anything to write home about.  I honestly don’t remember any memorable bit of music from this show at all.  I think that’s alright because the music shouldn’t detract from what is happening in the fore front anyway.  The backgrounds aren’t as exciting because it takes place in the not so original setting of a Japanese High school.  I think Japan knows how to draw those by now.

So yeah, I would highly suggest that everybody should watch this show.  It’s just a whole lot of fun and episodic so you don’t have to rush through it to get everything you want from this show.  Take your time and have a few laughs.  That’s how I watched it.