go for it, nakamura! [syundei]

nakamura pines over his crush, hirose.

review [CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS]

this manga has been on my read list since 2023. i hadn't gotten to it until 2026. 3 straight years of waiting -- & i'm honestly in disbelief i didn't read it sooner. it's kind of odd, really, how much i genuinely enjoyed the story.

i love shonen ai. i love the wholesome, tender moments & all of the buildup leading up to it. though we've been left on a cliffhanger (volume 2 just came out lol), i still believe that this manga was solid in its approach to hirose & nakamura's relationship so far.

the slowburn is real -- but as long as there's humor in it, i'm so down. lots of silly antics occur, it's difficult to say anything bad about the content itself. jealousy is something i'll always eat up when it comes to romance & pining.

when i read the MAL, i was surprised to see that there wasn't much discussion about the art. i really like the 90s-esque manga style that the author used, it was clean & nice to look at. the character design is quite nice too -- nakamura's design is so realistic for a high schooler, it keeps the story grounded.

the thing about go for it, nakamura! that deeply bothers me is the relationship between hirose & the teacher. i'm not going to say that i'm completely unaware of people's odd perversion for teacher-student dynamics, but it seriously blindsided me. i was not expecting some age gap shit in what i perceived to be a vanilla ass shonen ai. but here i am, i guess.

despite the fact that hirose & the teacher are only implied to have a romantic (at most, sexual) relationship, i'm still disturbed that this pairing was introduced in the first place. i know syundei is a total freak for this trope, but i can't help but be weirded out. it doesn't really impede on the content -- even though nakamura is shown to be incredibly jealous of his teacher's supposed "relationship" with hirose (made more egregious in volume 2) -- their dynamic is usually played off in a joking or unserious manner. or, at least, i hope it is.

overall, a 6.5/10 for me. it could've been everything i ever wanted in a romance, but i've been totally disillusioned by its inherent weirdness