Review of Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro
OMG! THIS SHOW PROMOTING BULLYING. I CANNOT EXCUSE THE PORTRAYAL OF THIS ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP IN AN ARTISTIC MEDIUM SUCH AS ANIME. IS THIS ANOTHER KOIKIMO? These are the vibes you’d expect from a negative review of this series, which so many people have come to “love.” Well, I’m here to say I couldn’t give a rats ass about the “bullying” in this show. When Nagatoro was first announced, I thought it’d be some nasty shit and the first episode proved my point: I was ready to go SJW keyboard warrior mode on this show like many others did for Koikimo (deserved btw, that show is ass). Yet,I found that the bullying and teasing wasn’t as atrocious as I thought it’d be, nor as bad as many manga readers were making it out to be.
Unfortunately, that didn’t stop me from realising that Nagatoro, at the end of the day, is just another “generic” romcom, but severely lacking in the comedy department. And by generic, I mean following the same formula because it’s the easiest and go-to, not because it works for the story’s setting and characters. Sadly, this is the case for almost every single romcom out there these days (excluding Kaguya) so judging a show like Nagatoro extremely harshly over something everyone else does is a bit extreme imo.
As with any romcom “story,” there is none. There is no progression for 80% of the series. A good way to judge any series’ quality when it comes to story is to look back when it’s done and see how many memorable moments you can recall.
Well then kiddos, let’s show and tell our favorite scenes from Nagatoro! Uhhhh… the fireworks and festival episode? A little bit of the beach episode…. and the part where senpai confronted the mobs? So that’s what, 3-5 memorable moments? Nice! Out of… 12 episodes with almost 20 minutes of content each? Ehm, maybe not so nice.
While most romcoms are like this, at least they have vibrant characters or comedy to make the lack of a story feel more digestible. While the character dynamics were at times interesting, for the most part, it was the same rinse-was-repeat formula of teasing, misunderstandings, moving onto the next arc. There’s really only 2 actual characters in the entire show, and somehow, we get next to no development whatsoever. Senpai/Paisen remains the same until the final few episodes, and Nagatoro is basically the same from start to finish. The show doesn’t make any effort whatsoever at proactively developing its characters, hoping you can take the excuse of “they’re awkward highschool students” for no reason. I’m sorry but people more immensely more awkward and introverted than me found girlfriends/boyfriends before I did in highschool, so I don’t get why this excuse is tolerated by so many people.
On the bright side, I did enjoy the audiovisuals. Sound mixing, OP, and VA were all quite good for the series, and yes, while there were strong "hentai" vibes in certain scenes, the art and animation was quite good overall and befitting of the series.
At the end of the day, did I enjoy watching Nagatoro? Not really. I spaced out in a lot of the episodes because the lack of content/engagement was just that bad. Watching the first 6 episodes is a pain and right when you think there’s some development, and senpai will start acting differently, he takes 100 steps back so he’s really only progressed like 5 steps from the start of the series. I also don’t get why we don’t see any changes in Nagatoro’s character; about as stale as the bread my mom makes (jk ily mum).
Will you enjoy Nagatoro? I can’t say. It’s an attempt at copying the traditional romcom formula, but maxed the stats out for “lack of development” and “absence of enjoyment.” If you watch the first 4 episodes and don’t like it (not for the bullying), then I don’t think you’ll enjoy the series. That being said, I can see why your generic romcom enthusiast will enjoy a series such as this: it’s pretty much the same as everything else out there.