Review of Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro

Review for season 1 & 2 here (Series rating: 4.4/10). I truly misjudged what this show was about. And that’s because the first season, and especially the first episode are complete trash. This has one of the worst pilots I’ve ever seen. But you start to pick up what the show has to offer halfway through season 1. Ok let me explain, this show, at surface level, is about this nerdy virgin loser who gets picked on by a promiscuous girl who likes him. Sounds like a fucking cringefest. And the first season is. Every single fucking joke is just this girl doing some innuendogetting the guy uncomfortable and flustered to where she pushes it to the point to where he thinks something lewd is gonna happen before she pulls back and says “did you really think I was going to do that? Such a creep lol”, that’s the entire fucking joke and they do that shit every episode for the first season. It gets old really fast and it wasn’t ever funny in the first place. In fact, it was genuinely uncomfortable at times. I know she's 'teasing' him but some of these really felt like assault and legitimate bullying. And that’s all I thought it was, just a bunch of unfunny sex jokes and picking on a virgin loser. I mean the romance was good every once and awhile, and I really liked how they handled the actual serious scenes, but I didn’t fully understand what the show was going for until season 2, which is so much better than season 1. I don’t know why I watched it but I’m glad I did. This show is ultimately about the loser gaining self confidence. I mean obviously, but it’s the way the show does it that’s actually really intelligent. You know Kazuya from Rent-a-Girlfriend, the absolute worst protagonist from any show? This show takes that character, and makes him good. This guy is pathetic as fuck, in fact they go out of their way to make him as pathetic as possible, which makes those moments where you realize he’s growing all the more cathartic. What's more, this show doesn't just take the easy route and make it so he learns to stand up for himself, he still is very nonconfrontational and I don't see that changing. It's not so much of growing a spine as it is learning to love himself. He never becomes that 'alpha male' who can protect anyone and stands up to the unjust, but through his relationship with Nagatoro, you can see he gains the motivation to want to grow as a person. Just seeing him grow is so fucking satisfying and his relationship with Nagatoro grows more tame and normal (thank goodness) and her teasing is no longer the intrusive and uncomfortable nightmares of season 1, but warm ways of showing affection like they were always meant to be. Instead of feeling like bullying I could actually see it as teasing because the MC began to take it as such. It makes me look forward to later seasons because I feel like the show will become more focused and tame as time goes on. Might climb the list actually depending on how it’s handled. Now it is still annoying, immature and overly promiscuous, but I can see where they are going with it. Or maybe the only reason I like this show is because it shows Rent-A-Girlfriend how it’s done. Fuck Rent-A-Girlfriend.