Teasing Master Takagi-san

Review (S1 - 3):

Found thru the anime section on Netflix and also references on YT and Instagram. 

So, before I review the anime, I’d like to mention that there is a movie that technically released in Japan on June 10th (funnily enough, the day I started watching the anime), but ISN’T released in the US until further notice. So basically, I can’t watch the movie right now, which really sucks because I like watching anime content from one series all at once. That’s why I’m rewatching Quintuplets, so I can appreciate the movie more. Really frustrating, but thankfully Takagi-san is a very simple story so I don’t think it’ll be hard to catch up on what the show’s about. Also, the movie shouldn’t be TOO far away, versus the quintuplets movie which I had to wait SO long for, like literally over half a year. 

OK review time. Wow, this one’s been on the back burner for a while. Kinda thought it’d be stupid when I saw it at first, but this was like pre-losersliceoflifenostandards zach. So, Takagi san has 3 seasons, 12 episodes a season, plus an OVA. I’ve mentioned this before, but If an anime is this long and is this much of a time investment, it’s gotta be good or else I’m gonna take away credit from it. 

Takagi san can be compared to a mix of Nagatoro and Kaguya sama. Obviously the teasing aspect of nagatoro, but also the “mini-episode” quality of Kaguya sama. There are title cards for each “mini-episode” in each episode of takagi, similar to kaguya. 

Now, in terms of the actual story, it didn’t develop as fast as I’d like. I went into the anime thinking “how could this possibly have 3 seasons?”. All I knew about it was that there was a girl teasing a guy and they fall in love, kinda like nagatoro. Except even nagatoro ends season 1 with a romantic finish. THAT’s why I respect nagatoro and even respected it alot more when I first watched it. If you can make something good out of just 12 episodes (like charlotte did), you already have my respect. I dont even like charlotte or nagatoro that much, and that’s probably because I only got like 0.2 seconds to spend time watching the characters. If you spend 30 episodes with any characters, you’ll get attached to them. However, the story and quality that was presented in just 12 episodes was great. Takagi san, re:zero, clannad, and overlord give PLENTY of time to show off the characters, develop them, and make a story. However, takagi san takes way too long to do so, as there are infinite filler episodes. The entire show is filler, but around the end of S3 is where things start to change. 

That’s my problem. The end of SEASON 3. Clannad has something going on at almost all times, that’s what I respect about it. Overlord kinda drags, Re:zero kinda flops on s2, but overall they all progress the story in one way or another. Takagi, even for a slice of life, doesn’t really do anything. 

Theres very slight developments in nishikata’s character where you can see him bonding closer and closer with takagi, but it just isnt enough. 37 episodes is too much, but that isn’t to say I dislike the show. I adore the characters, even more than kaguya and nagatoro combined. Nagatoro’s characters are kinda cringe (which is why I kinda said it didn't age well when I looked back at it), and kaguya's characters are bland at some points i feel like. In takagi san, you have the 3 friends, mina, sanae, and yukari, you have some side relationships, and obviously you have nishikata, his friends, and takagi. The best part is that all of these characters eventually interact with eachother, which seems like a no-brainer but it isn’t because at first they are all separated and have their own mini-episodes. It all goes back to the idea of “getting attached to characters separately, and then seeing them interact''. Why do you think I like isekai quartet so much? Seeing Yukari and her friends get invested in takagi and nishikatas relationship was really cool. 

Overall I just love all of the characters in the show. The story was alright, but nothing super special. It was just tamer, watered down version of nagatoro in terms of the storyline. Especially since it started to drag and repeat itself at times. I never got fully bored watching, but I can’t say I was totally excited. Overall, not a bad anime by any means, definitely better than kaguya sama, but I won’t put it above some of the other ones in C Tier because it's just so long, and nishikata still hasn't said “I love you”. I was 100% convinced he was gonna say it at the last episode. Gotta wait for the movie to get a conclusion… Will update the ranking then.

Review (Movie):

Wow. What a nice surprise this was.

Teasing Master Takagi-san has been low on this list ever since it was placed because it is a slow, fairly unoriginal, slice of life rom-(com?) that has THREE SEASONS. Sure, there are some very minor plot developments reminiscent of Komi's plot developments, but the story generally didn't go anywhere for the three seasons it ran. 

This movie changed that in two ways for me. First of all, I love cats. I'm 100% a cat person. And they fucking got me. The entire cat-adopting arc they put in this film was amazing, it wasn't even that clever or insanely well done, it was just up my alley. The fact that they had to let Hana go genuinely made me feel something for the first time in this fucking show. The rest of the movie was pretty boring, and this one scene where they were walking in this dark path when they were "scaring away bugs" had this awful cg with the torch and poor lighting. That brings down the visuals for me. But yeah, the rest of the movie was pretty boring. Until the end.

The last scene, they basically confessed to eachother without confessing to eachother. The whole thing about the cat tied it all in with them being there for eachother which is just such a W. I was pissed off though because I thought they were gonna leave it at that. Then, in the post credits scene, it cut to what I thought at the time was a flashback of Takagi. Turns out that was Takagi and Nishikata's daughter, which actually wasn't predictable in my eyes. I did not see that coming but they actually fucking did something good in the show for once. And of course, they got a new cat, and used the collar they bought for Hana. Can't get much of a better ending than that. I honestly think they wrapped it up perfectly but the show itself was super slow paced for me. Pretty good movie though! I liked the music and emotion behind it all.