Shuffling up the duos
Creative Staff:
Story & Art: Izumi Tsubaki
Translation: Leighann Harvey
Lettering: Lys Blakeslee
What They Say:
Acquaintances old and new get to know one another!
Nozaki’s manga assistants keep mum about their sideline gigs… sometimes even from one another! What will happen when wakamatsu discovers Mikishiba’s secret and the two “meet” all over again…? And when Wakamatsu encounters Seo’s older brother, Ryousuke, for the first time, what will come of the psychological warfare that ensues? Later, Hori’s true feelings for Kashima come bursting out!! Will it change their relationship?! And everyone finally gets to meet the youngest Nozaki sibling, Yumeko!!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun is definitely a series that relies on the interactions between their characters for their source of comedy over the situations they get themselves into. That said, one can only milk certain interactions for so long before some variety needs to be thrown in. Author Izumi Tsubaki clearly noticed this as a good chunk of the first half of volume 8 involves different interactions between characters that usually don’t hang around each other. Though while odd-couple combos of Wakamatsu and Mikoshiba, or Wakamatsu Ryousuke are serviceable enough, they’re not the most stand-out chapters of the volume.
If anything, the most noteworthy unexpected interaction comes in the form of Mikoshiba and the younger Nozaki brother, Mayu. Given that Mikoshiba has a tendency to overreach when it comes to being in social situations and Mayu is lazy to the point of unintended aloofness, the two make for an excellent mismatched couple that’s only further underlined in a group-date scenario. Seeing Mikoshiba eventually grow more and more uncomfortable the longer he interacts with strangers only to inevitably recoil back to Mayu who couldn’t care less about the situation best makes use of both character’s quirks. And while the duo itself is too odd in-world to serve as a recurring premise, I would be open to Tsubaki utilizing the two as a backup to the main cast interactions.
The second half of the volume falls back into Tsubaki’s more standard couplings and running gags. And while you’d assume such would be stale after 8 volumes, it’s interesting to note that the repeated premises of Seo torturing Wakamatsu and Hori falling prey to Kashima still deliver. It’s not that Tsubaki has done anything notably different to keep her scenarios fresh. But rather, that the characters themselves are just that funny enough to sustain solid laughs even within the confines of a single setting like the school (or office in the case of the manga editors). From the get-go, when you see the tall Wakamatsu slowly cower in the presence of the unabashedly blunt Seo, you know a good time will be had. And the same can be said for the rest of the go-to cast pairings as well. Tsubaki has just grown that accustomed to these characters to the point that they feel less like fictional people being written for, and more like actual (albeit stupidly quirky) people being unleashed into the world—Tsubaki merely following what they’re up to this time.
In Summary:
Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun volume 8 takes a while to get into the swing of things, but once it does, it delivers consistently. Author Tsubaki doesn’t hesitate to mix and match characters for different interactions, and her go-to comedy duos continue to serve as a solid foundation for the series.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: Teen
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: July 18, 2017
MSRP: $13.00
