Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!! (Go For It, Nakamura!)

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: ガンバレ！中村くん!!

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 1

Chapters: 11

Status: Finished

Published: Dec 27, 2014 to Aug 27, 2016

Genre: Boys Love

Theme: School

Serialization: Opera

Authors: Syundei (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.86¹ (scored by 14,705 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1167²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #620

Members: 29,133

Favorites: 885

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Wikipedia

7.86

Ranked #1167Popularity #620Members 29,133

MangaOperaSyundei (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /1

Chapters: /11

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Synopsis

Okuto Nakamura is a timid and gloomy-looking student who cherishes only two things in this world: his pet octopus and his kind-hearted classmate, Aiki Hirose. Ever since the school entrance ceremony, Nakamura has admired his jovial classmate, albeit from a distance due to his poor social skills. After mustering up all the courage within him, he finally decides to talk to Hirose.

During this first attempt to make contact, an instinctive mistake turns the idea of friendship into a distant dream, as he creates a hilarious impression on his crush. At school, students are expected to cooperate on numerous activities together, meaning Nakamura gets to spend extra time with Hirose. Given these opportunities, can he successfully redeem himself and accomplish his goal of becoming good friends with Hirose?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!! was published in English as Go For It, Nakamura! by Seven Seas Entertainment on July 3, 2018. It was also published Spanish by Milky Way Ediciones.

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Related Manga

Sequel:

Motto Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!

More characters
Characters

Nakamura, Okuto

Main

Hirose, Aiki

Main

Kawamura, Hifumi

Supporting

Otogiri, Sou

Supporting

Takeuchi

Supporting

Hamaoka

Supporting

Oomori

Supporting

Tamura, Arandou

Supporting

Aokiyama, Reiko

Supporting

Reviews

Mar 16, 2024

Leme-Le

Recommended

Perfect for new fans of romance and BL, perfect for the old fans too! If you're starting now with BL, this is a great start!

"Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!" caught my attention because of the memes and fan arts that I saw, and I loved the art style. As a BL fan who has seen every type of toxic and weird story, this manga is such a relief.

The art style is so nice and cute, so you're constantly stopping to appreciate it. The history is nice, clear, and comfy, and it definitely made me feel so many emotions reading it. The characters are kinda of cliché, but in ...

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Sep 19, 2022

sanareda

Mixed Feelings

Spoiler

First of all, I really like the art. It's retro but also modernized, the lines are soft unlike how rigid many yaoi mangakas drew their works. It's the reason I read in the first place. Story is seemingly light, sweet about a gay boy and his crush from strangers slowly become friends and possibly something more. But even though this was supposed to be Hirose and Nakamura's story, this teacher guy who ain't even cool comes in and makes things weird especially in the sequel. Considering the author's other works it's likely they have teacher/student fetish and it's fine if they wrote works dedicating entirely ...

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Mar 29, 2023

skylucario

Not Recommended

TL;DR: What with the push among some for BL manga to be “wholesome” and “relatable”, I think it’s hilarious that Ganbare Nakamura-kun is one of the poster children. This manga could be considered insidious—it masquerades as a cute, silly story about a guy who loves his classmate, but if you squint, you can easily reveal the author’s fetishes. If you’re uncomfortable with some of the less savory BL tropes, be wary of the sequel. This is relatively tame; the sequel is worse. I doubt that the events of that story are a misunderstanding or a setup for criticism of that trope because of what I’ve ... seen in the author’s other work. Overall, I think the uproar in favor of this work as one that is a “great step forward” for LGBT+ manga is misguided; from my perspective, it’s just more of the same old stuff I hate and would like for authors to move on from.

The rest of this review will contain minor spoilers.

As for my problems with this manga outside of that: I found Nakamura kind of annoying and just downright weird. I’m not really rooting for him, though the author most certainly wants me to. The humor was the wrong kind of ridiculous for me, and that’s coming from someone who has a flair for the bombastic. Like, it wasn’t believable, which is fine, but it wasn’t even interesting. I couldn’t take any part of the story seriously because of it, but the more serious parts are not all that riveting or groundbreaking to begin with. For some, the themes might be a breath of fresh air, but I’ve read so many works with LGBT+ themes that this one felt dated and stale.

To clarify what I alluded to in my introduction, a student is mistaken to be in a weird situation with a teacher for “haha funnies”. However, it was not funny at all because it was like, “why would THIS be what you’d jump to”, and it made me feel suspicious of the author. I tracked down their other works and I found…more teacher/student stuff, but worse. I am fine with reading about morally questionable topics as long as they are treated with sensitivity; there are shown to be consequences for the negative actions (and the author shows awareness that it was messed up); and/or the execution is thought-provoking or interesting. Ganbare Nakamura-kun isn’t that for me. While nothing actually happens, it comes off like adult/minor teacher-student relationships have been normalised and fantasised about by the author; after all, it is clearly a BL trope they like. It doesn’t do much to critique the trope, merely playing it off for laughs and to shed light on Nakamura’s extreme anxiety. That is why it irks me that people think this manga is one of the pinnacles of “wholesomeness”. You’re allowed to like stuff that isn’t 100% sanitary anyway, but it’s also ridiculous to blindly promote something as “wholesome” just because you loved parts of it so much you didn’t notice that something was off. If the “wholesome” medal is meant to protect younger readers, then be extremely careful with what you choose to bestow it upon.

Anyway, there’s no actual romance, so I don’t feel inclined to call it much of a BL. If you are chill with that and just want to read about a guy with a crush, this will be fine for you. If you don’t have a thick stomach and don’t want the positive connection you made with this book ruined for you, you probably shouldn’t read the sequel.

Overall, I do think there should be more queer stories about “a guy with a crush”, as they can be relatable for many readers (just DEFINITELY not me). However, I’d prefer for them to be thoughtful, well-intentioned, and actually funny. IMO, there is much better BL (and otherwise) out there if you feel like looking for it.

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Poll: Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!! Chapter 11 Discussion H_Erifu - Sep 19, 2017	17 replies	by LynHuyin »» Dec 9, 2022 12:50 PM
We seriously need an OVA of this or something Bizaster - Apr 1, 2021	3 replies	by gumrats »» Apr 4, 2022 6:48 PM
Poll: Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!! Chapter 10 Discussion Hana-mo - Sep 28, 2020	1 replies	by onewaybrillo »» Mar 25, 2022 6:26 PM
Poll: Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!! Chapter 9 Discussion Hana-mo - Sep 28, 2020	1 replies	by onewaybrillo »» Mar 25, 2022 6:21 PM
Poll: Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!! Chapter 8 Discussion Hana-mo - Sep 28, 2020	1 replies	by onewaybrillo »» Mar 25, 2022 6:17 PM

Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!
Go For It, Nakamura!
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Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!
Go For It, Nakamura!
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