YMMV / Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun

• Accidental Innuendo: The Yen Press translation of Chapter 72 has Sakura tell Nozaki, "But with just your right hand...you bring excitement into the lives of a lot of girls". ^note After Nozaki hears Waka and Mikoshiba refer to his work as embarrassing, he falls into a depression. Sakura cheers him up.
• Adorkable:
  • Nozaki's character being a strange mishmash of stoicism and expressiveness, not to mention having some of the most unpredictable behaviors and quirks, can make him strangely endearing.
  • Kashima manages to be charming even when she's pulling the stupidest stunts.
  • Some of Mikoshiba's usual states is to be quickly and adorably embarrassed over him foolishly trying to act suave again before realizing he can't actually keep his composure over it or getting shy over his Closet Geekiness. People call him "best girl/heroine" for a reason.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Due to the character dynamics being driven by misunderstandings and idiosyncratic character traits, their personalities are open to a lot of interpretation within the fandom:
  • Nozaki's manga-centered attitude and extreme obliviousness regarding Sakura's crush on him gets this the most. Is he so focused on manga that his rare signs of concern for his friends, especially Sakura, are merely just concern for useful, free "assistants"? Or does he actually care in his own odd way? Does his concern about being ignored by Sakura and his subconsciously basing Mamiko off her appearance mean that he's in love with her too but hasn't realized it? Is his obsession with Ken just because he's a competent editor compared to Maeno, or does it move into Ho Yay territory?
  • Does Sakura's Stalker with a Crush tendencies and extreme emotional shifts regarding Nozaki speak of an unhealthily obsessive attitude, or is she just a Cloudcuckoolander allowing her inexperience with love and frustration with Nozaki's obliviousness get to her? Does she actually see anything deeper in Nozaki at all, or are her feelings merely shallow infatuation?
  • Does Hori's obsession with Kashima's face and Tsundere tendencies toward her (coupled with his outspoken fetish for leggy girls) speak of an attraction toward her, or does he really just see her as a close friend and student of some sort that he wants to nurture as an actor?
  • Is Kashima's clinginess toward Hori, need for his attention, and tendency to set him off (on purpose or otherwise) mean that she likes him romantically, or does she see him as an odd combination of friend, mentor, and even familial figure? Chapter 60 showed that even she's not sure exactly how she sees him.
  • Is Seo a Loving Bully who likes hanging with Wakamatsu and targeting him because she's attracted to him? Does she think he's attracted to her and is she stoking said attraction or just leading him on for her own amusement? Does she enjoy watching him compliment Lorelei because she's savoring his ignorance until she feels like breaking his illusion for amusement (as she has done/claims to want to do to other boys), or does she like being flattered by Wakamatsu in particular, even if indirectly? How much of her Jerkass behavior is malicious as opposed to being Innocently Insensitive?
  • Despite his distaste for her, does Wakamatsu actually like hanging out with Seo to some level, or does he feel that he has no choice because he can't escape her attention? Is Wakamatsu attracted to her on some level, or is he genuinely uninterested in her because he's so focused on Lorelei? Does he even see her as a friend in the first place? Or if he does hold affection for her of whatever type, does he even realize he does or is he too blinded by the Seo/Lorelei dichotomy?
• Alternative Joke Interpretation: In one strip in Chapter 52 - the one where Nozaki, Sakura, and Mikoshiba play a mystery game - the three of them all toss out final theories for who the culprit is immediately before the reveal that it's the game's protagonist. None of them visibly react to this reveal at all, and all three casually claim it's obvious despite all three of them having accused someone else only one panel ago. Is the joke that all three of them are trying to look smart by acting cool and pretending to have gotten it right? Or are they so checked out due to the amount of confusion the game has put them through that they don't care anymore? Or have they spent so much time building up a completely made up image of the protagonist to cover for their own mistakes that they barely even recognize the real character exists?
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Tomoda from the dating sim game in Episode 4, now that the anime is out. People on tumblr are attempting to make an entire fanmade visual novel for Tomoda, a character that appears once and isn't even a secondary character, let alone a main one.
  • The girl in Sakura's art club who takes inordinate glee at making Mikoshiba pose like a harshly dumped philandering boyfriend (see Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick in the work page) also endeared herself to the fandom even before the chapter she appeared in was animated. This scene has thus far been her only significant appearance, all other appearances being in the background in a few chapters.
  • Okada, a boy Seo played with during childhood. He is only shown once in a flashback, when Seo recalls how she put him in a back of a truck and said truck drove off with him on it... and Seo abruptly stops there, not bothering to reveal what became of him. His fate worries not only Sakura but readers too, as it's revealed to be the most frequently asked question in the fanbook (to Sakura's disbelief, as she remarks he isn't even a main character). ^note The fanbook reassures readers that the truck went to a strawberry farm and Okada safely returned, and even gave Seo strawberries as a souvenir.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Ribbons" for Sakura due to her Signature Headgear. Later becomes an In-Series Nickname, courtesy of Miyako's classmate.
  • "BEST GIRL/HEROINE" for Mikoshiba due to him being the inspiration for the Show Within a Show's female protagonist Mamiko.
  • The art club member who makes Mikoshiba pose like a despairing boyfriend who just got dumped for infidelity is referred to as NTR-chan.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In Chapter 41 Sakura is asked to imagine an affectionate person suddenly giving the cold shoulder. She thinks of Kashima going from affectionate to cold towards Hori, and her subsequent agitated reaction suggest it's a rather stressful scenario. Jump to Chapter 60 where Kashima is made to ignore Hori for acting reasons, and it doesn't last long because neither party can stand it.
  • In Chapter 36/Episode 8, Sakura goes frantic over Hori taking a photo of her and Nozaki for manga references and thinks to herself, "I'm supposed to be Mamiko!?". Jump to Chapter 48, and it turns out she was unintentionally the inspiration for Mamiko's design not long after she and Nozaki met as first-years.
  • In an earlier chapter, during Miyamae and Maeno's class reunion, Miyamae complains that all shoujo mangaka editors (and probably by extension, mangaka themselves) talk about when they're drunk is shoujo manga. When you read Chapter 63, which features a drunk Yukari, you find out he was completely right. Almost doubles as unintentional Foreshadowing.
  • A lot of SeoxWaka fanart usually portrayed her domineering or teasing a flustered/shy Wakamatsu in some way, with varying shades of femdom. Then came Chapter 66, when Wakamatsu discovered something about Seo that he actually found attractive: The fact that SEO is the one who becomes incredibly shy and flustered when Wakamatsu starts teasing her with fake romantic confessions. Later in the manga even has her resort to knocking Wakamatsu out with her singing whenever the mood between them seems to be turning romantic, something Nozaki points out in chapter 131 as Seo being a coward.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Mikoshiba. On the official fanbook's first pairing poll, right after the three official pairings are Sakura/Mikoshiba, Nozaki/Mikoshiba, Mikoshiba/Kashima, and Mikoshiba/Hori. Of particular note is that he is shipped with characters of both sexes, and the canon gave no Ship Tease to any of these pairings at the time. And not only did the four ships still rank within the first 12 spots in the second pairing poll, but a fifth Mikoshiba pairing also rose to fourth place — Mikoshiba/Mayu.
• Memetic Mutation: Naturally, quite a lot of the gags of the manga have gone viral online, even one-off gags. The following are among the most popular:
  • "TOMODAAAA!!!"^note After an NPC in an in-universe Dating Sim who supports the main character to such a degree that Nozaki and Mikoshiba end up making a BL fan comic from all the Ho Yay. That NPC was supposed to be a Mr. Exposition.
  • "Boxes!"^note From Chapter 36 where Hori develops a hatred for boxes due to Nozaki using them to cheat perspective. Also see the second bullet point under Comically Missing the Point on the main work page. Even Sentai Filmworks plays with it on Twitter right after the scene was animated in Episode 8.
  • "Needs more tanuki."^note Maeno's obsession with tanuki has resulted in him making Miyako incorporate this animal into her manga in some way, no matter how ridiculous. This usually elicits the reply of "MAENOOOO!!!"
  • In discussions of who the best couple is, many will often answer Mikorin/2D or Tomoda/Suzuki(lol)^note The name Nozaki made for the player character in the above-mentioned Dating Sim. Although the name was later changed to his own, fandom uses Suzuki(lol) as a quick reference to the in-game character..
  • Due to him inspiring the tsundere personality of Mamiko, most fans will often say that "Mikorin is the Best Girl". In China, he's called "the REAL female protagonist."
  • Some fans noted Sakura's strange resemblance to Paras from Pokémon and ran with it◊. Her ribbons and their white-on-red polkadot pattern have also achieved memetic status as well. She's also been associated with KanColle's rendition of Prinz Eugen (see: Characters.Kan Colle Six) due to Ari Ozawa voicing them both, as well as some similarities in appearance. The extra chapter 84.5 nods at this since a flashback of a middle-school Sakura shows her with a hairstyle exactly like Prinz Eugen.
  • Fans have taken to saying that out of all the main characters, Nozaki is the ideal housewife due to having excellent cooking skills and often unashamedly wearing a heart-emblazoned apron while cooking.
  • Blue Ribbon Chiyo. In a certain imageboard, fans made up a creepypasta story featuring Sakura with blue ribbons instead of red. Blue Ribbon Chiyo is depicted as a yandere Humanoid Abomination that isn't afraid to kill the entire cast just to get Nozaki, and can even possess normal Sakura. The story got so memetic that every conversation about the series will inevitably have someone bring up this topic.
  • The scene where Nozaki shields Sakura from the rain under his jacket and the two run in the downpour screaming in episode 9 has been parodied many, many times in fanart of other series.
• Moe:
  • Sakura, due to her petite feminine looks and hilarious reactions, is seen as very cute by many. Seo even calls Nozaki a lolicon for appearing interested in her.
  • Mikoshiba is found so adorable by both Nozaki and Sakura that they call him Mikorin. The fandom shares this sentiment due to dorky ways.
  • Wakamatsu has been likened to a big puppy by many fans, and often elicits a response of wanting to take care of him. Even Nozaki feels the need to look out for his sensitive underclassman.
  • The debut of Yumeko, Nozaki's little sister, in a side chapter had a good chunk of the fandom exploding due to her cute and innocent character.
• One-Scene Wonder: Okada, a little boy from Seo's childhood, has only appeared on half a page in the manga (and for a few scenes in the anime). Said appearance is very popular (to the point of being the most asked about topic for the fanbook) because it comprises him playing with Seo and getting driven away on the back of the truck he was playing on, followed by Seo casually brushing the story off and having no intention of saying what happened to him.
• Signature Scene:
  • The entire Dating Sim skit, which makes its way not only into the anime but the Drama CD as well.
  • From the anime, the original scene where Sakura confesses to Nozaki during the festival fireworks. For better or for worse, it's seen as a shining example of the cliche in shoujo.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • The series is often compared to Ouran High School Host Club, due to both using common shoujo tropes while parodying them at the same time.
  • Comparisons have been made to School Rumble, another shounen Gag Series that parodies shoujo tropes and even has two main characters who are secretly mangaka.
• Unpopular Popular Character:
  • While in-universe the tanuki are almost as despised as Maeno himself, with one being destroyed by Sakura and Hori in the anime OP, the fandom finds them an amusing aspect of the series. An official fanbook poll even had them place 9th out of 15 to Maeno's 13th.
  • Seo isn't liked very much in-series due to her abrasive personality, but she came 5th in the fanbook character poll and is loved by fans for the comedy she contributes to.
• Vanilla Protagonist: Of all the heroines in a love story, Sakura, while admired, is thought to be the weakest of the heroines in characterization compared to Kashima or Seo.
• Woolseyism: One of the scanlation teams, Roselia Scans, have had some impressive takes on certain language-related puns in the manga. One example is from Chapter 55 relating to a nigh-untranslatable pun; Wakamatsu's manga character looks in the mirror and sees that "スキだ" (suki da) is written her forehead and, depending on the Japanese writing system used, it can mean "I love you" or "you're defenseless". The scanlation's take was to use an ambigram which says "love u" but can also be read as "idiot" upside down.

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