Yen Press; $13.00
Sixteen-year-old Chiyo Sakura tries confessing her feelings to her crush, Umetaro Nozaki, but stumbles over her words in such a way that she only manages to say “I’m your fan!” Mistaking what she’s trying to say, Nozaki gives her his autograph… and then brings her to his apartment to work on manga as his assistant. Yep, as it turns out, the ordinary high schooler Nozaki is secretly a massively popular shoujo manga artist. So now Sakura gets to spend all the time she wants with him, but he’s still completely oblivious to how she really feels about him. Together they attempt to make his manga, “Let’s Fall In Love,” a success, while also dealing with the other antics of their schoolmates.
Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun was one of my favorite anime series of 2014, so I’m glad that Yen Press was able to bring the original manga over stateside. The manga is a “4koma” or four-panel layout – it’s more akin to an American comic strip than what might be otherwise expected of a manga series. Thankfully the layout doesn’t become much of an issue as the humor in the book is solid throughout. Nozaki-Kun is a solid series that plays on classic romantic comedy tropes and is a solid book for anyone looking for something new manga-wise.
-Carrie Wood