Review of Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro

Watching this anime was something I did on a whim. I remember being bombarded by Crunchyroll Collection's video clips of "Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro," thinking to myself about how "average" the anime looked. Not boring, just average. Just a couple of days ago, I saw it was finished airing and decided to give it a look. This has reminded me of the saying to "never judge a book by its cover," something I feel that I am constantly in need of being reminded. At first glance, "Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro" seems to be an anime about your run-of-the-mill romance protagonist being bulliedby a Tsundere, but it manages to be "something more" and stand out from the crowd.

"Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro" is about a second year high school student named Hachioji (commonly referred to as Senpai by other characters) constantly being teased by a first year high school student named Nagatoro. Senpai is usually a pushover when it comes to being teased, so he is typically fine with it, which allows Nagatoro to continue her mischief. As the story progresses, they begin to get to know each other, learning about each other's hobbies, likes, dislikes, mannerisms, and personalities. Slowly but surely, they become more comfortable with one another, and Nagatoro directly and indirectly helps Senpai improve by helping him become more confident in himself, while being able to tease him. As this continues, they become good friends and start to develop a romantic interest in one another.

I'd consider this anime to be good because of how great the character development is, as this story is quite character-driven (the plot is used to develop the character/characters). Being a non-linear story in a skit-based format, it ends up resulting in most of the anime being dedicated to building up the relationship between Senpai and Nagatoro, neglecting most of the other characters. You'll notice that there are a lot of "quid pro quo" situations in the way the story was written, and even in the way it was animated, although sometimes sacrifices have to be made depending on what is more important pertaining to the story in the long run.

The relationship between the two is not only quite touching as they grow closer, but it's also very intriguing considering that the two main characters are arguably polar opposites in terms of personality. It's certainly a breath of fresh air to see such different people accentuate the best parts about the other, which is what compelled me to write this review. Bravo to the writer on the execution.

It was also nice to pick up on how well the character's designs reflect their personalities. Nagatoro is more of a popular, hyper, and carefree extrovert, wearing metal hair pins and ear cuffs, not caring if her uniform is see-through due to soaked clothes, etc. Her eyes are also full of energy and her face is full of expression, which just continues to further the notion that the little details in the character designs truly make the characters unique. On the other hand, Senpai is the complete opposite, being a nerdy, shy, introverted loner. His eyes are lacking energy and look rather dull, although his face is very expressive, similar to Nagatoro.

Now, to get one of the lesser things in terms of importance out of the way, the sound was fairly good. It complemented the situations well, and the soundtrack was pretty good for a skit-based anime. Don't get me wrong, sound is most definitely important. I don't want to come across as taking sound for granted, as I know if the show lacked sound, it would be quite dull. For example, the death stares from Nagatoro would quickly become awkward without any kind of sound/music to accompany the situation.

In terms of art, the animation is crisp. It's quite apparent that the animators sucked detail from unimportant characters to help allocate said detail to the pivotal characters. An example of this is how the unimportant characters LACK EYES, which was creepy yet hilarious the first few times, but this has been done in other works so it's understandable. The art is certainly better than a lot of other anime, so it definitely deserves some praise.

This was an anime I certainly did not expect to write a review on, but I always believe that credit should be given where credit is due. Nagatoro definitely deserves credit for its excellence in standing out from other anime in its minor ways that slowly become more noticeable towards the end.

I recommend "Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro" for anyone looking for a funny and naturally pleasant love story that takes a bit of a different route from other anime in its genre.