Review of Teasing Master Takagi-san

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san is an anime equivalent of Tom & Jerry. Just without the slapstick humour and even a glimpse of hope for Tom to not only ever emerge victorious, but even get the upper hand for a brief moment. This is a very "hardcore" slice-of-life series, with no plot and no real conflict, since any possibility of friction is denied by a single, indisputable rule: Takagi-san always wins. The plot is as simple, as they come. A boy named Nishikata constantly ends as the victim of his female classmate's, eponymous Takagi's, "teasing". Bulk of the runtime is dedicated to Nishikata trying to one-up hisopponent by carefully analyzing all his options and eventual outcomes, and without fail, always making the worst possible decision, thus ending as butt of Takagi's jokes. There are no exceptions, no ties, no lucky victories, no wins granted out of pity and no consolation prizes - unless one would consider Takagi actually being in love with Nishikata, which he is obviously being oblivious about, as such.
This relationship was not enjoyable for me to watch. It's far too one-sided and with Nishikata never getting a break or a breather, it's simply frustrating. Under the guise of all the teasing there's apparently strong affection, but I can only wonder how twisted and sadistic one's personality has to be to enjoy seeing their loved one in a state of perpetual distress. Any decent person would hold back seeing how often the teasing ends up with Nishikata getting in trouble with teachers, not to mention the negative impact on his academic performance.
I've been told that it would have been an innocent flirt, if only Nishikata wasn't so dense, which I would agree with, if the whole relationship wasn't defined by this power struggle where one of the sides is assigned a role of the loser for life.

While Nishikata does seem somewhat convincing as a middle schooler, the same cannot be said about Takagi. To begin with, her demeanor and wittiness make her appear at least five years older than her peers. She's completely flawless, makes no mistakes, always wins her gambles, can easily read everyone's minds and never gets flustered (at least not in front of others). Takagi is basically a goddess, with everything going her way and the story itself being dedicated to her, without ever delving into her thoughts - an entity possibly meant to exact vengeance on behalf of all girls ever teased by boys. Do I even have to say that a series revolving around an infallible Mary Sue is not very entertaining?
It seems that there was an attempt made to break the monotony of constantly watching Nishikata getting the short end of the stick by bringing a small cast of side characters with their own comedy routines, but they too grow old really fast while further emphasizing repetitive nature of the whole show.

In terms of animation and sound design there is not much say. It's a solid craftsmanship, but the audio-visual techniques accentuating jokes are used rather sparsely. The opening sequence is saccharine and feels very by the numbers. Fortunately, every two episodes end with a cover of a different pop song, performed by Takagi's voice actor, which is a nice touch. As a side note, Yuki Kaji's screaming and high pitched tone quickly become grating.

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san in the span of 12 episodes keeps recycling the same jokes, usually in the form of Nishikata's exaggerated reactions (which also serve as fuel for Takagi, so she can keep tormenting him without ever growing bored) and inability to get a clue, mixed with moments which were probably meant to be heartwarming, but come off as forced, because seeing the same song and dance of a girl dropping hints the boy she likes just cannot pick up to save his life, due to the blindfold the author forced on him, is just not very convincing. I'm certain the series would benefit immensely from Nishikata growing over time more resistant to teasing, forcing Takagi to put more effort in devising her schemes, which could also serve as stimulation and maybe even make her fall in love with him a little bit more thanks to increasing challenge. With illusion of progress at best, "status quo" brought up in the second episode really sums up the series' nature nicely. I don't expect anything to change in the second season, so I won't be picking it up.

While I'm no stranger to comedy series relying on Schadenfreude to bring smile on the audience's faces, I didn't have much fun watching Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san. With so much repetition and humour simply lacking any spice, I cannot recommend this series as anything more than a side distraction to be watched with one's brain turned off, but even then there's probably a number of anime better serving that purpose.