Crunchyroll Is Finally Unleashing 2026’s Most Adorably Awkward Romance

While Netflix has been steadily releasing some of the sweetest, purest romances of the present, Crunchyroll has a uniquely special offering in Spring 2026 to rival this output. Rather than the usual wholesome fare of saccharine high school girls and boys developing a slow-burn romance, Go for It, Nakamura-kun!! is just about the most innocent BL (Boys’ Love) anime around.

Go for It, Nakamura-kun!! focuses on its absurdly shy protagonist, Okuto Nakamura, as his internal monologue narrates to the viewers about his all-consuming crush on a fellow student. Even Nakamura teases at first before the reveal that his crush is a charming boy in his class, Aiki Hirose, and what ensues is a comedy of Nakamura’s romantic errors.

The anime’s set to release on April 2, 2026, but thanks to an early screener of episode #1 provided by Crunchyroll, Screen Rant was able to see how the premiere holds up. Go for It, Nakamura-kun!! benefits from the genre’s recent explosion of popularity with recent yaoi-style mainstream hits like Heated Rivalry, offering a sweeter, hilarious, yet equally relatable alternative.

Crunchyroll’s Adorable New Romance Is a Delightful Spin on First Love

Nakamura’s introduction encapsulates the classic social anxiety of a high school boy in love: daydreaming about making moves on their crush, all sadly wrapped in a thick layer of hilarious delusion. Go for It Nakamura-kun!! is a particularly funny BL rom-com, focusing often on Nakamura’s utterly abysmal social graces, imagining himself wooing Hirose, but ideally settling for talking to him.

Go for It, Nakamura-kun!! is a strong reminder of a near-universal experience for high school boys. Not everyone has a crush quite like Nakamura’s, and certainly not everybody has a crush on another boy, but nearly everyone has a first love story, often riddled with awkwardness as they attempt to break out of their shells.

Nakamura describes himself as shy, and while he frequently has difficulty talking to or engaging with his peers, he’s endlessly expressive when narrating to the audience, and honest about his feelings. He’s in love with Hirose, and every interaction they have, from handkerchief tropes, to home ec mishaps, is specifically Nakamura-coded in its brand of romantic comedy.

Go for It, Nakamura-kun!! Is a Solid Starter BL

While the BL genre is loaded with excellent anime like Given, they frequently deal either with heartbreaking subject matter or, in the case of anime like Dakaichi, get rather spicy, with Mignon’s aeni being on the particularly mature side. For those curious about the BL genre, Go for It, Nakamura-kun!! is a wholesome and easy recommendation alongside Sasaki and Miyano.

But for those truly uninitiated and unfamiliar with even the above classics, Go for It, Nakamura-kun!! has a certain social anxiety coding fans of Komi Can’t Communicate may easily appreciate. Its bright colors, coarse linework, and energetic animation give it a timeless finish that makes this anime accessible. Plus, and this can’t be stressed enough, the anime is really funny.

Nakamura Is a BL Icon in the Making

Okuto Nakamura is one of the sweetest, most adorably awkward romance protagonists in or out of the BL genre. He’s honest to himself about his feelings, but has nobody to speak to aside from his pet octopus (also fantastic) named Icchan. Nakamura is uniquely memorable for his actions and absurdly expressive body language, making up for a rather bland character design.

Every interaction in Go for It, Nakamura-kun!! is typically broken down into two sequences: one in which Nakamura, with absolute moxie, approaches and successfully speaks to Hirose; the other being hilarious and cringe-inducing failures. However, the former is almost always in Nakamura’s head, his actual interactions often falling short.

Perhaps the greatest instance of this is when Hirose drops his handkerchief on the floor. It’s a classic romance trope, in which one lead picks it up and returns to their owner, giving them a chance to speak face-to-face, however briefly.

While Nakamura fantasizes about this classic trope playing out, in reality, a girl reaches for it first, only for Nakamura to stomp the handerchief down so hard he breaks through the floor. It’s an instantly endearing Nakamura moment: plenty of folks have fantasized about impressing their crush, but rarely do they also pull off action-shonen feats of property damage.

But Nakamura scores one success in a parade of failures to speak meaningfully with Hirose in the later half of the episode. While gawking at his classmate’s bare forearms in Home Economics, Nakamura and the class soon come face-to-face with a set of octopuses, and a misunderstanding with the school’s biology teacher.

Nakamura’s adoration for octopuses allows him to genuinely come out of his shell before anybody else, holding one with ease, coaxing Hirose to do the same. It prompts a real interaction between them, and while Nakamura attempts and fails to ask for Hirose’s friendship, he treasures this memory as he lays out his specific feelings for the viewers.

Go for It, Nakamura-kun!! Is a Perfectly Pure Comedy for Any Viewer

At the end of the episode, as Nakamura bikes home after cleaning octopus from his face from earlier hijinks, he narrates to the viewer, in no vague terms, who he is as a character:

“I’m just an ordinary high school student, and…I’m shy, gay, and in love with Hirose Aiki.”

-Okuto Nakamura

It’s a refreshingly honest spin where the protagonist is fully in touch with his feelings. In a way, he’s like a more disastrously awkward version of Taiki Inomata from Blue Box, making incremental progress in talking to somebody with whom he is absolutely infatuated. The comedic interactions he has with his class, and his frequent failures at basic interactions, are totally relatable.

But truthfully, without even having to read the manga, one can tell that Nakamura would benefit at least from becoming friends with Hirose. They clearly match energies, exchanging pleasant conversation points, and while Nakamura doesn’t know if Hirose feels the same way about him, their friendship alone is something for which the viewers should hope.

Go for It, Nakamura-kun!! is, at its core, not a slow-burn romance. It tells the story of how its protagonist, in need of human connection above all else, works up the courage to engage with his crush. It’s a hilarious show with plenty of potential as a BL alternative to new hit Crunchyroll romances, and a highly relatable experience at heart.

This review of Go for It, Nakamura-kun!! episode #1 was made possible by a screener courteously provided by Crunchyroll ahead of its release. The anime will have its worldwide Crunchyroll streaming debut on April 1, time TBA.