Review of Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro

NON-SPOILER REVIEW: I don't normally write reviews—in fact, I never write reviews. This is currently the only review I've ever written in my many years of being a MAL lurker and user, and it may be (and most likely will be) the only review I'll ever write. But, this is the one anime of the countless I've watched that has forcibly made me decide to write a review, and it's because this anime is actually so much more than what most see it as. Given all the other reviews, I don't think it's a spoiler to say that the show is controversial. It easily makes you hateNagatoro (the character) and Senpai for opposing reasons: one is too harsh and offensive, and the other is too weak and pitiful.

But, the show is deeper than this. Its focus isn't on the surface level of these traits but what's underneath, and once you start to see this, you begin to appreciate the show for what it stands for. None of us are perfect, and in many of us, our understanding of our feelings aren't the greatest. This is especially the case when we were younger, and this show exemplifies this through the way Nagatoro and Senpai interact. Now and when we were younger, some of us hide our feelings by shrouding them in aggressiveness and dominance, while others simply try to blend in and disappear. The characters here embody these feelings, and the seemingly harsh results are simply the result of the characters being unable to effectively process and come to terms with these feelings. But it's seeing how these underlying feelings come through that makes this show such a masterpiece

I sincerely hope you who is reading this will be able to give the show a more in-depth analysis than what you might think right off the bat, and I strongly encourage you to watch several episodes to see how the message is portrayed and developed through the multiple interactions between the characters. This show is a rare gem in that it executes exactly what it wants to set out, and it does an amazing job at it. The scenes, characters, voice acting, art style, and everything else come together cohesively and, in my opinion, beautifully to portray the newby-ness of how people may be with their feelings.