Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun — 07 | Always Sometimes Never

Episode 7: Seventh Issue: The Manga Artist’s Brain, Nozaki-kun

I wish I’d been born a slender bishounen!

With all the characters introduced, we take a little break and refocus on our main trio again. For once, Nozaki has some rare free time, so he and Sakura hang out at the mall. For a while, she’s excited about their “date” but soon she realizes Nozaki’s still all about manga–they watched a movie because Nozaki wanted to see the different angles of the school in it, they eat at a restaurant because the characters in Nozaki’s manga will be going to a restaurant and he needs reference pictures, and when they go into a clothing store Nozaki picks some out for Mamiko.

When Sakura refuses to wear a sailor uniform for Nozaki to take pictures of (and he himself doesn’t fit into one), they instead go shopping for dolls/figures. They run into Mikorin buying himself another bishoujo figurine and it’s awkward, but all Nozaki does is ask Mikorin if he’d wear a sailor uniform. Moving along, Nozaki goes around to pick a figure since he can use it as a model for his drawings. Sakura worries that his type of doll wouldn’t be anything like her but he instead returns with a bishounen figure to use for reference for Suzuki instead of a female one.

Afterwards, they head to the art supply shop. While Nozaki and others quickly and without thinking grab manga supplies, Sakura takes her time perusing the oil paints section. We’re reminded that to the other characters, Nozaki’s manga isn’t all they do. Sakura is part of the Art Club and, despite being in charge of beta, has some serious artistic skills like watercoloring and oil painting. But the most important part of her life right now is still Nozaki, whom she misunderstands again when he invites her over his house for non-manga reasons. Turns out it’s because he cooked too much food.

Speaking of modeling and art skills, in the second half of the episode Sakura asks Mikorin to model for the Art Club. Although he initially refuses, when a different Art Club member asks him, he gets carried away like he always does and agrees. Back at home, Mikorin tries out poses but misunderstands the S Curve of contrapposto and can’t reference his figurines since they’re all bishoujo. So it eases his worries when Sakura explains to him that the Art Club members would be the ones instructing the pose. They all ended up asking for some specific but personal poses, including one of “a guy having a fifth affair is found out, and is told by his girlfriend that she’ll break up with him this time. So he gets on his knees and desperately begs her not to abandon him.” Sakura even asks Mikorin to pose as Nozaki while he’s working on his manga.

When Nozaki himself shows up, instead of saving Mikorin by taking him away, he asks the Art Club if he can take pictures of the club activities while waiting. He later hijacks the club by getting not just Mikorin but everyone in the room to pose. In the end, Mikorin gets too comfortable and uses some flowery language to say he’ll be a nude model next time… Oh, Mikorin, you really need to work on what you say!

This episode is a great example of the variety of situations and funny moments you can get out of just three characters. Granted, Nozaki, Sakura, and Mikorin are the most developed ones so it’s easier to put their characters together and have it make sense. But one of the successes of this manga is how good it is at being hilarious without being too crazy. While there are some exaggerations, the comedy stays within the realms of the possible and hinges on the characters’ interactions, which are almost always funny. Even better, though, is how Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun can mix and match the huge cast of characters to bring out even more new situations, just like we’ll see in future episodes.

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