Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun Volume 3 Review

Author: Izumi Tsubaki
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback

 

Nozaki-kun might be popular shojo manga-ka but being a hard working manga pro doesn’t mean very much when you can’t talk to girls. Nozaki-kun is on-point when it comes to producing a big hit, but when he has to help someone figure out how to go on a date, everyone realizes he’s not great at everything. In this volume, everyone has a
weakness and it’s thoroughly exposed. Can the crew get themselves together to tackle all of the obstacles in their way?

Content:

This volume reminds me of How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend, in reverse. Most of this volume explores the silly tropes that are abundant in shojo stories. In Nozaki’s case, he bases all of the romance scenarios in his manga works on the strange behaviors of his peers. It’s important to note that most of Nozaki’s classmates are
unaware of his secret life as a manga-ka, which is fantastic for delivering humor based upon the misunderstandings that occur between his manga crew and the normal students in the school.

A lot of this volume focuses on double-dating and the proper ways to keep conversations going with the opposite sex. Nozaki-kun decides to roleplay as a woman with bunny ears – supposedly to help keep things realistic during the pretend date. If anything, the events that proceed are more ridiculous than anything we have seen in the series so far. It’s really impressive that Nozaki-kun can’t figure out dating
when his job is to create shojo manga.

As the volume progresses the focus expands to include a few of our other favorite regulars – like Prince Kashima who also has a weakness revealed. Somehow she gets roped into a singing performance and needs to find a fast way out before her reputation gets tarnished. Additionally, Chiyo’s weakness (which we already knew) gets some action in this volume, but quite frankly, it’s not nearly as
interesting as watching Nozaki-kun and Kashima.

Final Thoughts:

I am never sure what to expect from this series. While the formula can be repetitive,Tsubaki’s endless cast of characters keeps the story fresh. The new characters play off of the regulars in a dynamic way because often the new characters are unaware of the context of Nozaki’s conversations. As I previously mentioned, a lot of people in the high school do not know that Nozaki author’s shojo. This gives ample opportunity for his classmates to misunderstand him and his friends because they don’t really know what he’s talking about when they overhear him.

This series continues to be funny and worthwhile. At only the 3rd volume in, there is really no excuse not to check it out.