Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun (Japanese: 月刊少女野崎くん, Hepburn: Gekkan Shōjo Nozaki-kun) is a Japanese manga series with four panels in each chapter. The author and illustrator is Izumi Tsubaki. The chapters are published online in parts on Gangan Online and have been released in book versions by Square Enix. An anime version made by Doga Kobo was shown on television from July to September 2014.
A Chinese drama version called The Comic Bang was shown online on iQIYI from May to July 2025.
Plot
High school student Chiyo Sakura has a crush on her classmate Umetarou Nozaki. When she tells Umetarou she has a crush on him, he thinks she is a fan and gives her an autograph. When she says she wants to spend time with him, he invites her to his home to help with his artwork. Chiyo later learns that Umetarou is a well-known 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 students help them and provide ideas for the story.
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 tankōbon volumes. In addition to the comics, an official fanbook and an anthology manga containing stories by Satsuki Yoshino (Barakamon), Yasunobu Yamauchi (Daily Lives of High School Boys), Tachibana Higuchi (Gakuen Alice), 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. Individual chapters are called "issues."
Frontier Works released a drama CD on June 26, 2013, featuring a cast that differs from the later anime. The CD reached the 32nd position on Oricon's CD Album rankings. The cast includes:
• 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 revealing key cast and staff members, which differ from the drama CD. The anime is produced by Doga Kobo and directed by Mitsue Yamazaki, who worked on Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East and Durarara!!. Series composition is handled by Yoshiko Nakamura. Junichirō Taniguchi, who worked on the second season of Genshiken and the Puella Magi Madoka Magica film, is in charge of character design. The anime premiered on July 7, 2014, on TV Tokyo, followed by TV Osaka, TV Aichi, TSC, TV Hokkaido, TVQ, and AT-X throughout the week. The opening theme, "Kimi Janakya Dame Mitai" (lit. "Seems It Can't Be Anyone Other Than You"), is composed and performed by Masayoshi Ōishi. The ending theme, "Uraomote Fortune," is performed by Ari Ozawa under her character name, Chiyo Sakura.
After the anime announcement, a campaign was launched around the fictional manga magazine Monthly Girls' Romance, where Nozaki publishes his series. First, the author Izumi Tsubaki tweeted on April Fools' Day that an issue of the magazine had been released. Later in June, a printed manga tankōbon resembling the magazine, containing bonus content and sample chapters, was distributed in limited numbers. In August, a website for the magazine was launched, and a special manga was reprinted and distributed nationwide in September. After the anime finished airing, the website was removed.
On July 25, 2014, Sentai Filmworks announced they had licensed the series for home video release. Media Factory released the anime on Blu-ray and DVD formats in Japan starting on September 24, 2014, across six volumes. Mini-OVA specials were included with each Blu-ray/DVD volume.
The series began streaming on Netflix on May 1, 2020, with English, Spanish, and Portuguese dubs. 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 ran for 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 sold 117,310 copies when it first came out, debuting at fifth place. The fifth volume sold 185,392 copies and debuted at fourth place. The series was listed third among the top 15 manga recommended by bookstores in 2013. It was also ranked 11th in the top 20 manga for female readers in the 2014 edition of Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook, which collects opinions from manga industry professionals. In 2015, the series ranked 11th at the 8th Manga Taishō awards.
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 said the anime adaptation both celebrates and makes fun of shoujo manga. He noted the story flowed smoothly and enjoyed how the characters showed emotions and expressions. He gave the series an A grade, saying it was one of the two funniest comedies of the season. He also mentioned that the characters rarely acted mean or cruel, except toward Maeno, which he felt was fair. He believed the show showed how silly some common shoujo manga ideas can be.
Andy Hanley of UK Anime Network gave the series a score of 7 out of 10. He praised the friendly and likeable characters and the show's visuals, though he did not call it a classic comedy. Dee Hogan of The Mary Sue said the show was both very funny and clever. She wrote that the series managed a rare situation with three unexpected plot twists, all of which explored how stories portray gender roles.
Reviewers at Anime News Network listed the anime as one of the best shows of 2014. Amy McNulty and Theron Martin named it their favorite. Kelly Quinn of Tor.com also included it in her list of the top 10 shows of 2014.