Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun (Japanese: 月刊少女野崎くん, Hepburn: Gekkan Shōjo Nozaki-kun) is a Japanese four-panel manga series written and drawn by Izumi Tsubaki. The chapters are published online in Gangan Online and have been released in book versions by Square Enix. An anime version made by Doga Kobo aired from July to September 2014.
A Chinese drama version called The Comic Bang was streamed on iQIYI from May to July 2025.
Plot
High school student Chiyo Sakura has feelings for her classmate Umetarou Nozaki. When she tells him she likes him, he thinks she is a fan of his work and gives her an autograph. When she says she wants to spend time with him, he asks her to visit his home to help with his drawings. Chiyo later learns that Nozaki is a famous shōjo manga artist who writes under the name Sakiko Yumeno. She agrees to work as his assistant to be near him. As they create the manga Let's Fall in Love (Koi Shiyo; also known as Let's Have a Romance), they meet other students from their school. These classmates help with the story and provide ideas for the characters and events in the manga.
Media
Izumi Tsubaki started publishing the manga in Square Enix's online magazine, Gangan Online, on August 25, 2011. As of August 2025, the series has been collected into seventeen book volumes. In addition to the comics, an official fanbook and an anthology manga (featuring stories by Satsuki Yoshino, Yasunobu Yamauchi, Tachibana Higuchi, Shigeru Takao, and Dan Ichikawa) were published on August 22, 2014. North American publisher Yen Press announced they had licensed the series at Sakura-Con in April 2015. Each individual chapter is called an "issue."
Frontier Works released a drama CD on June 26, 2013, with voice actors listed below. These actors differ from those used in the later anime. The CD reached the 32nd position on Oricon's CD Album rankings.
- Chiyo Sakura: Asuka Nishi
- Umetarō Nozaki: Hiroki Yasumoto
- Mikoto Mikoshiba: KENN
- Yuzuki Seo: Miyuki Sawashiro
- Yū Kashima: Chie Matsuura
- Masayuki Hori: Junji Majima
- Hirotaka Wakamatsu: Daisuke Namikawa
- Mamiko: Yukari Tamura
- Saburō Suzuki: Daisuke Namikawa
- Tomoda: Takahiro Mizushima
Media Factory announced an anime adaptation on March 21, 2014. The anime's official website shared videos showing the cast and staff, which differ from the drama CD. The anime was produced by Doga Kobo and directed by Mitsue Yamazaki, who worked on Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East and Durarara!!. The story was written by Yoshiko Nakamura. Junichirō Taniguchi, who worked on Genshiken and Puella Magi Madoka Magica, designed the characters. The anime premiered on July 7, 2014, on TV Tokyo, followed by TV Osaka, TV Aichi, TSC, TV Hokkaido, TVQ, and AT-X later that week. The opening theme, "Kimi Janakya Dame Mitai," was composed and performed by Masayoshi Ōishi. The ending theme, "Uraomote Fortune," was performed by Ari Ozawa under her character name, Chiyo Sakura.
After the anime announcement, a campaign centered on the fictional manga magazine Monthly Girls' Romance, where Nozaki's series is published. First, the author, Izumi Tsubaki, tweeted on April Fools' Day that an issue of the magazine had been released. In June, a real manga book was printed to look like the magazine, containing bonus content and sample chapters. It was distributed in limited numbers. In August, a website for the magazine was launched, and a special version of the manga was printed and sent nationwide in September. After the anime ended, the website was taken down.
On July 25, 2014, Sentai Filmworks announced it had licensed the series for home video. Media Factory released the anime on Blu-ray and DVD in Japan starting September 24, 2014, across six volumes. Mini-OVA specials were included with each Blu-ray and DVD.
The series began streaming on Netflix on May 1, 2020, with versions in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. All episodes were written by Yoshiko Nakamura.
A live-action Chinese drama adaptation titled The Comic Bang (Chinese: 开画！少女漫) began streaming on iQIYI on May 22, 2025. Directed by Zhong Qing, the drama stars Shen Yue and Wang Jingxuan. The drama has 33 episodes.
Reception
The second volume of the manga reached 18th place on Oricon's weekly manga chart. The third volume reached 11th place, and the fourth volume appeared in fifth place, selling 117,310 copies. The fifth volume appeared in fourth place, selling 185,392 copies. The series was listed third in a 2013 list of top 15 manga recommended by bookstores. It was ranked 11th in a 2014 list of top 20 manga for female readers in Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook, which collects opinions from manga industry professionals. The series also ranked 11th at the 8th Manga Taishō award in 2015.
The official fan book reached 14th place, and the anthology book reached 17th place on Oricon's weekly best-sellers chart.
Greg Smith of The Fandom Post described the anime adaptation as "both a celebration and a humorous take on shoujo manga." He noted the natural flow of the story and the characters' emotions and expressions. He gave the series an A, stating it was one of the two consistently funny comedies of the season. He observed that the series avoided cruelty or harshness, except toward a character named Maeno, which he said was fair. He also noted that the anime highlighted the unusual and exaggerated themes common in shoujo manga.
Andy Hanley of UK Anime Network gave the series a score of 7 out of 10. He praised the cast's charm and the show's visuals but did not call it a comedy classic. Dee Hogan of The Mary Sue described the show as "both very funny and cleverly written." She wrote that the show achieved a rare success by presenting three story twists that explore how fiction portrays gender roles.
Reviewers at Anime News Network named the anime one of the best of 2014. Amy McNulty and Theron Martin selected it as their top choice for the year. Kelly Quinn of Tor.com also included it in her list of the top 10 shows of 2014.