By Izumi Tsubaki. Released in Japan as “Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun” by Square Enix, serialization ongoing in the online magazine Gangan Online. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Leighann Harvey.

It’s a stretch to say that reading this series can teach you the ins and outs of how the manga industry works – this isn’t Bakuman, or Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga. But when it’s able to be mined for humor, anything is game. And so we get things like Nozaki trying to draw his shoujo heroine as a superdeformed character, or having a mascot for the series, much like Yukari’s endless tanukis (which litter the cover of this volume, so I can’t even make my tanuki joke at the end of the review). We also get a hilarious look at cover art, where the artist likely has to work with a different editor. There may be a seasonal theme. You may have to try to translate your editor’s art, which shows at a glance why they edit and don’t draw manga. So things are learned, but the humor comes first.

This series does not have plot and character development per se, but there are some amusing chapters that make it look as if things might develop. Mikoshiba discovers the tragic truth behind Wakamatsu’s crush on “Lorelai”, and is as horrified as you’d expect. Waka, meanwhile, continues to think that Kashima is a guy, though the beach episode may have cleared that up – it’s left up in the air. Actually, the beach episode is probably the highlight of the volume – the anime actually adapted it into a later OVA as it was too good not to animate. This features the famous “those are just lumps of fat, aren’t they?” line, Seo stealing the drawstrings of all the boys’ swimtrunks, Kashima and Mikoshiba continuing to be endlessly attractive to the same sex, “I’m wearing that lame pink bra you picked out!”, and more.

As for romance, as you’d expect, it’s status quo. Nozaki-kun is about the comedy. This volume, though, does show how natural Hiro and Kashima are with each other when she’s not driving him to violence, and has some lovely Seo/Waka tease, which is really all she wants from Waka at the moment. The majority of the shipping here, though, is Sakura’s seeming one-sided crush on Nozaki. She even admits to Mikoshiba she’s now too scared to confess as she knows it will just be used for manga fodder. She tries changing her attitude in order to get him to notice her more, but that just makes him worry. In the end, as we know, being herself is the best, even if it means Nozaki is still his oblivious self. The sweetest chapter in the book is the final one, where we flash back to Sakura first falling in love with Nozaki – as you’d expect, it was as much from him being a giant loser as it was his looks – and how she unconsciously influenced his heroine for the manga.

Nozaki-kun remains a wonderfully hilarious title, and now has finally gotten away from the anime, so fans of that will want to pick it up to read new material. Go read it, or the tanuki will be sad. (Oh look, I got to work in the joke anyway.)

By Izumi Tsubaki. Released in Japan as “Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun” by Square Enix, serialization ongoing in the online magazine Gangan Online. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Leighann Harvey.

For those who greatly enjoyed the Nozaki-kun anime, this volume in particular contains some of the most beloved parts of that anime. Here is where you can find Hori desperately trying to teach a lazy Nozaki about background, which leads to the wonderful “Lately everyone’s been really into boxes!”. We have Nozaki, Hori and Wakamatsu playing the otome game, and boggling at the “good-heartedness” of the lead girl, even when it turns out she can date Satan. And we have the festival, which doesn’t have the sweet ending the anime tacked on to make it more of a finale, but does have Wakamatsu thinking Kashima is a guy and Seo’s date, and the beloved candy apple eating. Basically, everything here is a gem.

(Also, we have that cover, which is absolutely wonderful. You don’t normally think of this title as being sexy, but trust Seo to upend that with one pull of a tie.)

We also meet the rest of Nozaki’s family, though his brother is the one who will actually show up on an occasional basis in future. Like many manga families, the children turn out to have similar personalities to the parents, though both Nozaki and Mayu both seem to be a bit more like their stoic mother. Mayu actually manages to top Nozaki in the “can’t be bothered” sweepstakes, which makes it even more amusing later in the book when he’s paired with the emotionally draining Mikoshiba. Indeed, circumstances have them both end up at the apartment of Tanuki manga author Miyako’s apartment, and Tsubaki shows us why much of the comedy that comes from Nozaki-kun can simply be taking people who’ve never interacted and throwing them together. Turns out their strip, who knew?

And of course there’s Nozaki’s manga, which continues to roll along, even if I imagine its core audience must read it for the eccentricities. Ken can’t possibly smooth them all out. Nozaki trying to “surprise” Sakura ends up failing miserably till he’s not trying anymore, at which point he wins her heart all over again. And speaking of non-romance, Wakamatsu still hates Seo but adores Lorelai, which frustrates Nozaki no end. Seo, of course, is quite happy to go along with this as long as it amuses her, but amusingly, when Wakamatsu ends up being too preoccupied with it to be irritated by her, SHE loses interest in singing! Personality-driven comedy needs to keep surprising, which can be especially difficult in titles like these that don’t really allow for character development, and seeing Tsubaki achieve it every volume is fun.

As always, caveats apply: This is a 4-koma book, which the punchline being a shouted “what the heck?” 90% of the time. But if you don’t mind that, this remains gloriously funny stuff, with a cast that’s extremely strange but fascinating nonetheless.

Very few tanukis this time round, though. Alas.

By Izumi Tsubaki. Released in Japan as “Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun” by Square Enix, serialization ongoing in the online magazine Gangan Online. Released in North America by Yen Press.

There’s not really much in the way of plot or character development in a series like Nozaki-kun (indeed, much of the comedy relies on everyone not growing or learning in any way), so when it comes to reviews such as this, I need to look elsewhere to find things to talk about. This is another great volume, and Chapter 27 is one of my favorites in particular. It’s a pitch-perfect example of how everything is about the gags, but it doesn’t overuse the same gag, and its comedic rhythms are highly suited to the 4-koma style. It bears examining, so let’s do so.

We begin with what is probable the ‘default’ gag in this series, as Nozaki and Mokoshiba show up pretending to be delinquents because Nozaki has to write in a rival character. They’re horrible at it, of course, so this leads to 2-3 pages of them doing something silly or out of place and Sakura giving her best tsukkomi comeback. She fulfills her traditional straight man role. However, we can’t forget that Sakura is in love with Nozaki. And, as we see when he attempts to climb a tree, fails miserably, and her heart skips a beat, she seems to especially be in love with Nozaki being an adorable loser. We then have 3-4 pages devoted to Mikoshiba and his issues, ranging from his embarrassment to simply being unable to climb back down the tree, and both Nozaki and Sakura serve as dual straight men. Finally, they leave and Seo shows up, being a genuine “delinquent”. Now it’s Mikoshiba who’s the straight man, observing Seo’s uncaring, oblivious antics. And Seo ends up getting the final punchline: “I’m late ‘cos a cute guy fell from the sky”.

In non-Chapter 27 news, Seo proves that she can use her obliviousness for good as well as evil when she buys a new exacto knife for Wakamatsu, and they also go on the worst date ever (at last from Wakamatsu’s POV); we see that everything horrible in Ken’s life is a result of Maeno’s very existence; While searching for a flaw that Suzuki could have, Nozaki misses the obvious, which is Kashima’s incredibly horrible singing voice; We find that Hori really is an excellent actor, but has trouble distinguishing between the actors and the characters they play, be it wanting to beat up Kashima or Miko-rin’s resemblance to a shoujo heroine; And Sakura’s attempts to show her affection fail miserably, be it old Valentine’s Day chocolate or someone mistaking her for the third wheel in a love triangle.

If you dislike standard Japanese comedy, this may not be as funny to you – much of the humor still relies on screaming “what the heck?” in disbelief. But for me, this is top drawer humor, and the 4-koma format means it doesn’t have to stop for pesky story development like Oresama Teacher, her other series. I love this series.

Also, though they aren’t as prevalent as before, the tanukis continue onward.