The Fall 2024 Manga Guide

Nakamura-san, The Uninvited Gyaru

What's It About? 

Akiyama and Nakamura-san are polar opposites. As an easily flustered otaku, Akiyama can't even imagine a world where an outgoing, flashy gal like Nakamura wants anything to do with him. But after she saves his life, she demands something unbelievable—to live with him! Proud, bold, and unafraid to show off her body, Nakamura is the perfect image of a gyaru. Except, the moment she's apart from Akiyama, she becomes a flustered, blushing mess. Discover what sweetness lies beneath the surface in this odd couple rom-com!

Nakamura-san, The Uninvited Gyaru has a story and art by Sachiko Orihara, with English translation by Alan Cheng & Rowena Chen. It is adapted by Hayame with lettering by Roland Amago.

Is It Worth Reading?

I didn't go into Nakamura-san, The Uninvited Gyaru with a ton of expectations. It's another entry in the prolific "Hot girl bothers a guy in his own home" genre, and I mostly checked it out because, hey, gyaru. The manga quickly found ways to surprise and impress me, having its leads be independent young adults in their twenties, and decently quickly defining lead gyaru, the titular Nakamura, as a bit more than a caricature fantasy object. I mean, she is that; she's a cute, cool gyaru who moves in with the lead boy and immediately starts hanging around in various states of undress and straddling him as a morning greeting. But by letting the narrative get inside Nakamura's head and reveal that she's harboring an actual crush on our boy Akiyama (with some actual reasons for doing so!), the series sets about giving her some layers that drive the book beyond mere fanservice antics.

Nakamura's multifaceted, but she is, importantly, also a total dipshit, and her character is the driving force of how entertaining The Uninvited Gyaru is. She's funny when the story needs her to be, but she also encourages readers to root for her in her crush. If anything, it's Akiyama who comes off poorly in the plot. There's some sympathy to his initial annoyance with Nakamura's freeloading, sure. But as his personal connection with her grows, some aspects come off as more dismissive than he ought to be towards his friend, such as when he temporarily turns her into an iPad kid to distract her so he can game without talking to her. It feels demeaning, as does the earlier segment where the writing feels the need to demonstrate the Inherent Biological Weakness of Women as the nebbish Akiyama is effortlessly able to restrain this girl who Judo'd his ass only a few chapters earlier. It's a souring moment that passes quickly, but annoyingly undermines Nakamura's coolness while making Akiyama look like more of a jerk. It's annoying, because other than that, The Uninvited Gyaru is a good-natured good time. Akiyama and Nakamura's supporting cast add a few extra little dimensions to their stories so it's not all two kids annoying each other in an apartment (I'm personally a fan of Enomoto, their almost impossibly cool co-worker). Sachiko Orihara's art style didn't grab me at first, but it comes into its own, with neat uses of sequential facial expressions and some effective sudden impact panels. I can hope that Akiyama ends up growing as the story goes on, but as an introduction, this gyaru is totally worth inviting in.

Like any boy who grew up loving dinosaurs, I love gyaru. They're cute, they have cute outfits, and the gyaru we've seen in anime can have various personalities and hobbies. But I'm not quite sold on Nakamura-san? This manga isn't doing anything offensive. Nakamura is perfectly cute and Akiyama isn't horribly unmemorable. But the set-up for this manga is a bit more rote, and the twist that Nakamura is secretly an otaku just like Akiyama feels a bit too “wish-fulfillment”-y. Add in the usual rom-com stand-bys—walking in on the girl in the bath, accidentally grabbing her boob, accidentally finding her underwear in the hallway, her sneaking into your bed after a scary movie, check-check-check—and I feel like I'm reading another forgettable rom-com from the early '00s, only with more tans and bleached hair.

Both of these characters are just a little too weak to sell me on this romance, is the thing. Akiyama gets bonus points for having a circle of similarly nerdy friends. And one of them is a girl, wouldn't it be so weird if she also harbored secret feelings for Akiyama? Conversely, it's cute that Nakamura fell for Akiyama from the word “go” because he's the only dude who recognized her doing her hair up like her favorite anime character. But past that, I just don't get anything from the leads. Akiyama is too much of a square, Nakamura is just a manic-pixie-dream-girl mooching in his apartment. Some scenes help demonstrate the deeper lives these characters have. Like Akiyama and his friends (whom Nakamura meets, furthering her interest in otaku culture) or the time Nakamura takes Akiyama clubbing (which introduces Akiyama to Nakamura's friends while also seeing a mutual coworker in a new light). I'd like more of these kinds of scenes, proof that these characters are people who have more going on than just dancing around each other in a trite will-they-or-won't-they.

I've been around the block and read a lot of romantic comedies, with or without gyaru. Nakamura-san, The Uninvited Gyaru isn't offensively bad, I think I've just got better options for romantic comedies or my daily dose of Vitamin Gyaru. Maybe Nakamura-san, The Uninvited Gyaru doesn't rock the boat at all or do anything new, but maybe that's what someone needs. I still see promise in this manga and its cast. And hey, if you need a gyaru, you'll be adequately supplied. This one gets a tentative “Gyaru?”, which translates to a slight recommendation for everyone else.