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Go For It, Nakamura! Anime Premiere Mixes Retro Charm with Wacky BL Antics

Crunchyroll had its second round of premieres this Saturday morning at Anime NYC, and starting was the upcoming rom-com Go for It, Nakamura!. Retro animation combined with BL comedy and drama has generated a decent amount of hype for the show. It was intriguing to see how it all came together.

Me, on the other hand? Subjectively speaking, I'm not sure this series was made for me, and a lot of it is my fault. I'm just a chunk of coal who hasn't seen all of Urusei Yatsura yet, and I've barely seen Ranma 1/2. This isn't to say Nakamura-kun is bad or even inaccessible to people who haven't delved into Ranma or Urusei Yatsura yet, although I'm certain I'd appreciate Nakamura-kun more if I was familiar with that side of the Takahashi universe a bit more. Its aesthetic owes a huge debt to the iconic mangaka's work and gracefully borrows the vibes without cheaply regurgitating them as a cheap imitation. There are frames where our lead resembles Ranma, and the jokes of the show may or may not evoke that sort of zany, retro humor.

The moments of zany humor are very well-directed. One segment has Nakamura try to have a meaningful interaction with his love interest, all while trying to hide a BL manga of his own. And sure, he's able to hide the manga, but his plan still backfires in another way, drawing out some hilarity. Another bit has the lead picking up a handkerchief in a manner that leads into some good moments of sakuga.

The part that really stuck with me, however, is one where a cockroach flies up Nakamura's shirt, accompanied by good comedic timing, bright colors, and well-paced editing. I also have to give the show credit for coming up with the cutest cockroach I have ever seen in anything--you're almost excited for this little stinker to go on its merry quest to let hijinks ensue. It's even satisfying how the sequence ends with the cockroach being let out a window to carefreely fly back outside. Granted, I didn't necessarily laugh out loud at this scene, but on an objective comedy level, I can't argue against it. It works the way it should.

Of course, the BL is very, very, very much there. The show rips up the “they're just friends” card by having Nakamura say that he's in love with his classmate at the beginning of the second episode, and then later feeding his crush an octopus-shaped weiner. The aforementioned BL manga belonging to Nakamura also showcases some self-reflexivity. I wouldn't call the bromance in Go For It, Nakamura-kun! subtle by any stretch of the imagination, but it does have a streak of slyness to it. However, two episodes in, Nakamura-kun isn't fully fleshed out yet (he's just an anxious bean so far), and we don't know much about his fling yet. Therefore, I can't really comment too much about the chemistry thus far, although I'd be shocked if they didn't end up hooking up in some manner.

There are definitely some slow moments contained in these first two episodes. Because Nakramura-kun can't truly bring himself to confess his feelings to his crush, there's a game of “will he or won't he” that plays out. Which is the point of these types of stories, although in this instance, it feels a bit dragged out. There's also a cooking class involving a tank of living octopi, which starts with an interesting premise. The irony here is that despite the presence of aqueous creatures, things resolve themselves too dryly.

Again, there's been hype surrounding it, and I can't pretend it isn't deserved. Its mixture of '80s aesthetic and campy BL is enough for folks jonesing for some well-directed rom-com with a retro twist. But again, having not totally gone down that old-school comedy anime rabbit hole yet, I can't say I'm jumping up and down for Nakamura-kun. At least not yet.

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