#the people are supposed to be from teasing master takagi san but i didn't try too hard | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jjr1971 · 3 years

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I suppose this shouldn't surprise me but this particular anime title (and personal favorite show of mine) is really violently triggering a lot of online incels at the moment...the Japanese title is イジらないで、長瀞さん, Hepburn: Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san; In English, it's known by the longer title Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro. It's a new manga series (I'm current on it and have the next volume, #8, on pre-order when it releases in August) and it's basically a romantic comedy....it was even more recently picked up for an anime adaptation which is currently airing in Japan and streaming in the USA with subtitles on the Crunchyroll site/app. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets picked up for an English dub & North American home video distribution eventually; it really is that good.

But it really is a very subtle show with complex emotions. It's also kind of a role reversal story. It's reminiscent of the earlier series Teasing Master Takagi-san (Japanese: からかい上手の高木さん, Hepburn: Karakai Jōzu no Takagi-san, lit. "Good at Teasing, Miss Takagi"), another romantic comedy set in Late Elementary/early Middle School...it features a very emotionally mature and smart girl who likes a boy but he hasn't matured at the same pace and still views her as a practical joker rival. He's playing checkers and she's playing chess. He keeps trying to one-up her and she easily parries him and makes him embarrassed. But from the audience POV she's definitely flirting with him, he just can't perceive it. With Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro our characters are High Schoolers. The main character (known only as "Senpai", a polite form of address for people older than you) is a shy, reclusive, sensitive artist type who wears glasses and keeps to himself. He's a Junior in High School. He's been the victim of actual bullies in the past (that we see via flashback) but just kept his head down and endured. One day he's in the school library, trying to study and there's a group of first year girls socializing at a nearby table (Sophomores, technically. Japanese High Schools have only grades 10-12; 9th graders are still in Middle School in Japan). He resolves to just ignore them and try to study but clumsily knocks over his satchel, sending books & papers flying, including (*gasp*) the adventure/romance manga he's been drawing as a personal side project. The girls all look up, noticing the commotion. One of the girls walks over to help pick up his things and to "Senpai's" horror notices the manga drawings and skims them. The other girls leave but she stays behind and starts asking questions about the manga and its characters. She begins to act out the scene he has drawn, playing the female protagonist. She doesn't have a sword like the character so she does a karate kick and holds it. He's kind of impressed but intimidated. She critiques the story and offers suggestions. She even teases him a little. The next day she shows up in the Art Room, where "Senpai", who is a member of the Art Club, is working on a sketch drawing. She's loud and obnoxious and resumes teasing him, getting on his nerves. She even follows him while he's walking home, laughing and teasing him playfully some more. She claps his back a little too hard and sends him flying into the nearby canal. But we can see from the regretful expression on her face she didn't mean to and feels bad about it. And all the times she's around him and even when she's being very intense with her teasing, she's blushing red in the face the whole time. She helps him out of the canal and apologizes and introduces herself. He's tall and lanky and she's short & athletic and on the swim team. She gazes up at him as she says her name syllable by syllable ("Na-Ga-To-Ro") and with one finger playfully traces the Kanji on his chest through his wet shirt, again with a playful look on her face and blushing. And so it goes for the next 7 volumes of the manga. He tries to remain aloof & dignified, while she says loud & obnoxious but also playful and clearly the more emotionally immature of the two...so they're like a comedy duo of sorts. He completely misreads her at first and has little fantasies predicting how she will be terrible next, but they never pan out. He expects her to be obnoxious to other guys and terrorize them the way he feels a bit terrorized but....she doesn't. To guys she doesn't like or have interest in, she's quite cold & cutting. She reserves her "special treatment" only for her Senpai. All this is a long introduction to make note that a lot of incels who are also into anime really REALLY don't understand this show....they complain bitterly that it "glorifies bullying" and reserve the most hateful language for Nagatoro herself, using all the usual hateful words for women (c-word, etc)...they really really hate her. On the one hand, I would

love to see this series dubbed into English but on the other hand I feel bad for the online abuse any voice actress will inevitably suffer from lending her voice in English to this character someday. A lot of these guys seemingly have a real issue separating fantasy from reality and will yell at voice actors when they're actually angry at the character they play.... Nagatoro does arguably cross the line into bullying territory initially, but like I said, she feels remorseful for pushing him into the canal. Her friends are kind of dimwits and *are* themselves traditional bullies....but when THEY try to bully HER Senpai she gives them death stares and they back down. She's very possessive of him. In the manga especially, Nagatoro sometimes "gets out over her own skis" and winds up revealing her real feelings and getting embarrassed herself, overplaying her hand and getting little bits of come-uppance. She sometimes blurts out her real desires then covers them up quickly with a dismissive joke....it's a little gas-lighty but I understand it's mainly a defense mechanism. What the incels who hate-watch this show can't conceive in their heads.....is that Nagatoro has genuine feelings for her Senpai. She's not bullying him....she's flirting! Aggressively and badly, sure, but it's not mean-spirited. She even coyly suggests to him he should be bolder with her, she could make it worth his while. In my past, I've dated a hyper-aggressive flirt who reminds me a lot of Nagatoro. I just have a lot of empathy for both characters and wish them well. Just like with the male protagonist Nishikata in Takagi-san the viewer feels like doing a loud "stage whisper" to him: "psst! she likes you, dummy." There are a few moments here and there between the two of them that are so wholesome & sweet it makes me want to cry. It's such a good show and it's so horribly misunderstood by a lot of very damaged people who are too blinded by their own misogyny and self-pity to see it. To sum up, Nagatoro wouldn't constantly hang around her Senpai and do the things she does if she didn't have genuine feelings for him....which she very plainly does. And by Ep.5 of the anime, it's clear he cares about her, too.

Anyway, I look forward to reading the next volume of the manga and finishing season 1 of the anime adaptation. I would definitely watch it again if it gets an English dub release.

#don't toy with me miss nagatoro #ijiranaide nagatoro san #manga #anime #crunchyroll #romcom #high school #nerd #flirt

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