Review of Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro

TRIGGER WARNINGS: ABUSE, HARASSMENT, GASLIGHTING, MANIPULATION, MISOGYNY, INCELS, KINK SHAMING Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san is not a traditional romantic comedy because it is neither romantic nor funny. Rather, it is comparable to a horror movie. The horror genre appeals to people who enjoy being scared. You put yourself in the shoes of a frightened protagonist as they get chased by psychopaths, monsters, demons, etc. It’s almost masochistic how we enjoy horror. In Nagatoro-san, a teenage beta-male cuck gets tormented by a sadistic girl he has a crush on. He is repeatedly gaslit, humiliated, and manipulated by her. Similar to a horror film, it is frustrating, disturbing, uncomfortable, but strangelyentertaining for a particular audience.

Naoto, our virgin loser protagonist, is the audience’s avatar. He is devoid of character depth. The sole reason he exists is to fulfill the viewers’ sadomasochistic fantasies. Have you ever wanted a gaudy teenage anime girl to bully you? You’re in luck. Every time Nagatoro enters Naoto’s art room, where he works on his latest painting, it is clear exactly what will happen. She will bully him. Regardless of how she goes about the bullying, it will be sexual in nature. Red flag: they’re both in high school—if that will upset you, then don’t watch it. Nagatoro acknowledges Naoto is attracted to her, and she uses that power to toy with his emotions. Giving the impression, or verbal agreement, that she wants to date him, then backing off as soon as he gives in to temptation. Just as Naoto begins to reciprocate, she pulls the rug out from under him, making him look like a fool. As a comedy, this joke isn’t funny enough to hold an entire show. They didn’t have well-written jokes in mind while making this anime. That becomes clear after the third time seeing Nagatoro pretending to strip for Naoto; then, he accidentally grabs her boobs. It is transparently fetish fuel. Acting like it but fetish fuel only makes the stale humor more unfunny. Could it have been self-aware like other ecchi anime? Yes, but that still wouldn’t have saved it from being mediocre. Another red flag: If you’ve experienced bullying, you will most likely feel repulsed by ALL of this anime.

Witnessing their twisted relationship progress into romance is horrifying. The power dynamics are crucially imbalanced. If it were a friendship, there would be no problem. The thing is, Nagatoro and Naoto’s relationship is sexually charged. Seduction, partial nudity, fantasizing about each other. It is not ‘cute’ teasing like the comedy anime Teasing Master Takagi-san.

Although both Nagatoro and Naoto derive pleasure from the bullying, there is a dangerous imbalance. Only the Dominant holds power in their relationship, whereas the Submissive should be able to revoke consent whenever they want. The English title, “Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro” should set off red flags immediately. Nagatoro bullies him whenever she pleases. On the other hand, Naoto never has the power to withdraw consent. Their arrangement is unspoken. There’s no safe word to pause her mortifying teasing, which makes it very bizarre seeing them together in public. Rather than coming to an agreement, as a healthy S&M relationship would, she continuously bullies him until he enjoys it. While it initially seemed like they could have a symbiotic connection, it is more like an abuser desensitizing a victim until they give in to the abuse.

Calling Nagatoro an ‘abuser’ would be an overstatement. She continuously manipulates and gaslights Naoto. Though, it is impossible to sympathize with him because he always falls for her blatant ploys. I felt schadenfreude seeing Naoto get shat on, but that enjoyment ran out eventually because he is intensely unlikeable. He never learned, and so the teasing never escalated past the first episode. I doubt many people like Naoto, why would they? Curiously, he becomes friends with Nagatoro and all of her friends, even though they exist to humiliate him too. They appear in random places to come and tease him. They have nothing better to do with their lives, apparently. Every female character in this is a fanservice vehicle. Their surface-level personality traits range from ‘kind of rude’ to ‘complete asshole’. Naoto even got invited on a trip to the beach with them—seemingly so they could step on him while in swimsuits. It’s not like they were pandering towards humiliation fetishes! For humor, you know?

As for art and sound, it is decent but unremarkable. The environments are static; the comedic facial expressions are mostly traced and gain almost nothing from being animated. The few times the art looks good, it is a close-up on Nagatoro copied directly from the manga. Due to the nature of the source material, it requires little to no animation. Thanks to that, the character designs look adequately drawn. These designs are slightly altered from the manga; however, they look fine. Although I find flesh-fangs disgusting, if you’re into that sort of thing, then Nagatoro’s design won’t bother you. Her voice performance more than made up for it. Though many viewers will write off Nagatoro as an annoyance machine (understandably), it is worth praising Sumire Uesaka’s stellar realization of the deranged girl; every inflection and mannerism associated with the titular psycho comes to life believably. The opening and ending tracks are good, with the latter performed by Uesaka. All I can praise about the sound design is the original soundtrack’s editing, especially between flashbacks and the present day. It is most successful during dramatic scenes.

This is not an anime aimed at the average S&M enjoyer. Instead, it is targeted at teenage male viewers interested in dabbling in taboo fetishes without fully delving into smut. Unsurprisingly, cleavage and thigh shots are ever-present to appease the hormonal adolescent audience. Nagatoro and Naoto’s non-consensual relationship is framed as titillation for the viewer; it bears more similarities to a virgin porn addict’s view of S&M. Instead of writing an accurate and informative portrayal of S&M power dynamics, this is a pseudo hentai plot. Mangaka 774 could write a halfway decent romantic comedy, he certainly has the fanbase who’d devour it, but this isn’t it. Had Nagatoro-san been explicit hentai, as the mangaka’s other works, I would review it as such. Nonetheless, this is a TV anime, and you have to admit, hentai writing is kind of garbage.