Obligatory beach arc
Creative Staff:
Story & Art: Izumi Tsubaki
Translation: Leighann Harvey
Lettering: Lys Blakeslee
What They Say
The summer of a boy shoujo manga-ka meets the spring of a girl’s first love!
The Umetarou Nozaki gang heads for the sun and surf! When the group tags along for the Drama Club’s training camp, summer fun runs amok, and seasonal gags abound, whether at the beach, at an inn, or even in the bath!! And if that’s not enough to get hearts racing, the story is finally told of the spring day Chiyo fell in love with a certain rather dense young man!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
What makes Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun a consistently enjoyable comedy to read is that it’s able to maintain the same type of humor between each volume without feeling too redundant about it. The majority of author Izumi Tsubaki’s humor can be broken down into either: misunderstandings, meta manga discussion, and visual gags. And yet now five volumes into the series, the humor still holds up.
From the get-go, the first arc this volume stars Sakura and her realization that her romantic progress with Nozaki hasn’t gone anywhere. Following this, we’re treated to a series of gags all surrounding Sakura’s current understanding of Nozaki, which while are a clear step forward from volumes past, still remain far from fully understanding him as a person, which is where the humor in their interactions has always lay.
Most of the other gags this volume follow a similar pattern, not in terms of subject matter, but in terms of continuity. With so many characters introduced to Nozaki’s world now, it’s only become fitting for author Tsubaki to make use of the continuity and running gags formed in that time. So while jokes like Wakamatsu falling asleep at the drop of a hat aren’t drawn as clearly as previous volumes have had him, it’s because Tsubaki trusts that the readers have become familiar enough with the characters to pick up on their quirks by now. Keeping that in mind, the jokes land perfectly more often than not, with the pacing of each 4-panel gag feeling a lot more immediate now that any backstory on the joke is simply understood—the need for any explanation dropped entirely, making for a blunt type of humor that lands perfectly.
To add, Tsubaki is clearly having fun mixing up the different interactions between the cast, pitting characters that normally don’t interact with each other in ridiculous enough interactions to incite some kind of reaction from at least one of them. Seeing Mikoshiba speak on behalf of the sick-ridden Kashima feels like a match made in heaven, considering how the two are popular among the girls in school for similar yet wholly different reasons. Meanwhile, other gags that have started to wear thin like Wakamatsu’s misunderstanding of Kashima’s relation to Seo are finally put to rest (the drama between the characters starting to take precedence over the actual humor being made), with Nozaki’s younger brother Mayu becoming the new subject of interest in its stead. And while Mayu still feels like a separate entity from the rest of the cast, it is clear that his personality is being fleshed out slowly but surely.
The true star of this volume, however, is Seo. Her character as a whole is already incredibly brash and actively inconsiderate of others’ feelings, making her a great tool to incite humor into what could become a tired setup. Tsubaki even makes a point of getting both Seo and Wakamatsu into some of the most shoujo-typical scenarios, only to have things snowball into this unforgiving onslaught of sight gags and tropes completely turned on their head. Nozaki’s premise in general relies heavily on subverting shoujo tropes in a humorous manner, but they’re clearly at their best when the unlikely comedy duo of Waka and Seo are involved.
In Summary:
Five volumes in, and Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun finally feels like it’s gotten into the groove of balancing out all its humor mainstays. Running gags like Sakura and Nozaki’s continued misunderstandings have advanced just enough not to feel trite, while the more visual gags like Seo and Wakamatsu’s shenanigans feel like they’re at the top of their game. And while newer additions to the cast like Nozaki’s brother still don’t feel fully realized, author Tsubaki’s writing is strong enough that I’m sure later chapters will only better flesh out the character.
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: Teen
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: November 22, 2016
MSRP: $13.00
