“Love at first sight,” “puppy love,” “teen angst and longing.” All of these and more are apt and immediate descriptors for Syundei’s Go for it, Nakamura!, first published in Opera magazine in 2014. The manga follows Okuto Nakamura, a lovesick 15-year old high school freshman, and his crush, Aiki Hirose. There is just one tiny problem: Nakamura has never even spoken to Hirose, let alone made his feelings known. Shenanigans, as they want to do, ensue.
Let me start by saying boy love (BL) and slice-of-life are not my genre. I was interested in the challenge of approaching this work with a fresh eye, as a queer adult and anime fan. Experiencing not only this story, but any story of its kind, for the first time was a great turn from what I’m normally consuming and made for a very engaging first episode watch!
Minor spoilers.
Our story starts with Nakamura-kun in class, giving a monologue about having a crush on Hirose, his classmate. He then works up the nerve to ask Hirose out for coffee. . .
. . .in his head. Outwardly, Nakamura is awkward, terrified, and annoyed about it. Kobayashi Chiaki does a wonderful job voicing the character in three different planes: his outward, awkward self, his smooth and more confident fantasy self, and his disgruntled inner monologue.
After what I’m learning is a “signature” awkward moment between Nakamura and his classmates, he goes home in complete despair over how his first day of school went. After a pep talk with his pet octopus, though, Nakamura resolves to give it another shot tomorrow. The next day, Nakamura, Hirose, and their classmates are in a cooking class. Again, cue shenanigans.
End spoilers.
I don’t want to go into too much detail because I don’t want to give too much away, but I do want to talk about a few things and answer a couple of questions.
First, the animation. This show is animated in bright, inviting ways, and the animation borrows from other subgenres to paint a vivid picture of what life is like for Nakamura, Hirose, and their classmates, but also for life in general in high school. There is a level of camp and drama and inner world that is, to an extent, just life for a high schooler, and I love that they lean into that in the animation. The animation style evokes Ranma ½ and plays up the fact that the awkwardness that seems to be Nakamura’s whole aura is almost adversarial and a character in and of itself.
This leads to my first question: who is this for? This is a great, cozy representation of being a queer teenager. It’s not overt, but I think that really works to the show’s benefit. The first episode ends simply: “I am shy, gay, and madly in love with Aiki Hirose.”
It portrays queer people as people, and that is a lovely, small thing. The vibes are similar to something like Fruits Basket in terms of character interactions, but if it was cut with a healthy amount of Doug.
The latter bit made it a cozy and amusing watch from beginning to end, with the show almost having a sitcom pace – good laughs and low-stakes magnified by teenage emotions. All in all, this was a super solid first outing, and I am excited to check out more. Episode 1 is streaming now on CrunchyRoll, with new episodes dropping every Wednesday.
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