Anime Reviews (2010-2019): Teasing Master Takagi-san – The Complete Series (2019)

A delightful story about young love, “Teasing Master Takagi-san – The Complete Series” is definitely worth giving a try!

Click here to purchase “Teasing Master Takagi-San – The Complete Series” on Blu-ray

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TITLE: Teasing Master Takagi-san – The Complete Series

DURATION: Episodes 1-12 (300 Minutes)

BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Japanese Dolby True HD 2.0, Subtitles: English

COMPANY: Funimation

RATED: TV 14

Release Date: February 19, 2019

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Originally Created by Yamamoto Soichiro

Director: Akagi Hiroaki

Series Composition: Yokote Michiko

Character Design: Takano Aya

Anime Production: Shin-Ei Animation

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Featuring the following voice talent:

Kaji Yuuki/Aaron Dismuke as Nishikata

Takahashi Rie/Sarah Wiedenheft as Takagi

Okamoto Nobuhiko/Blake Shepard as Takao

Uchida Yuma/Chris Thurman as Nakai

Tadokoro Hinata/Cris George as Tanabe-sensei

Ochiai Fukushi/Jerry Jewell as Kimura

M.A.O./Kristen McGuire as Yukari

Ogura Yui/Kristi Rothrock as Sanae

Kohara Konomi/Leah Clark as Mina

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Tired of being mercilessly teased by his classmate Takagi, Nishikata vows to get back at the girl that’s made him blush countless times. After all, if you blush, you lose! But getting vengeance isn’t so easy when every attempt blows up in his face. Will Nishikata ever make Takagi blush, or will he gain something more fulfilling from his bumbling attempts?

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Mangaka Yamamoto Soichiro created the manga series “Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san” (Teasing Master Takagi-san).

Still ongoing in Japan (with a total of 10 volumes printed), an anime TV series adaptation by Shin-Ei Animation was created and broadcast from January through March 2018 and an OVA followed several months later.

With a second season announced, the anime series will now be released on Blu-ray and DVD courtesy of Funimation.

“Teasing Master Takagi-san” is a series about a middle-school student named Takagi and she sits next to Nishikata.  Nishikata is always trying to find ways of getting back at Takagi for one-upping him and constantly teasing him in class (and in effect, getting him in trouble by their teacher Tanabe-sensei.

But in truth, the reason why Takagi tends to tease Nishikata is because she is in love with him and likes seeing his reaction to her.  While Nishikata is quite oblivious but while he always wants to find ways to one-up her, he wonders why she likes spending time with him.  He wonders if it is to tease him?

But what happens when these two start spending more time together?

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I have to admit that when I first started watching the anime series, the first thing that came to my mind was if the series was going to be similar to another series “Tonari no Seki-kun” (My Neighbor Seki).

While I enjoyed “Tonari no Seki-kun”, it became too repetitive about two classmates, one who fools around in class while another tries to trip him up.

In “Teasing Mater Takagi-san”, it starts out with Nishikata wanting to one-up his classmate Takagi-san, who always teases him and somehow he often gets into trouble.  And no matter what plan he has, she’s always on top and that gets on his nerves.

But in truth, it’s not because Takagi dislikes Nishikata.  In fact, it’s more because Takagi really likes Nishikata and always wants to be around him.  Of course, he is young and doesn’t understand why she wants to be around him.

But as they spend more time with each other, the more the two grow on each other.

Nishikata from watching the anime and reading the manga “100% Unrequited Love” to going to the beach and hanging out, having Takagi come to his home to study with him and just seeing how these two slowly start to flirt with each other and seeing love blossom among these two kids.

The series also features Takagi’s friends Mina, Yukari and Sanae and also Nishikata’s friends Takao and Kimura, but they are mostly featured to give each storyline a breather.

But for the most part, I feel the series is delightful, fun and it got better as the story went on and with the announcement of a second season, I can’t wait to see how this relationship develops and wonder if there will be an age progression or it just continues on to the next school year.

As for the animation, the anime series is vibrant and while I haven’t read the original manga series, I’ve read that Shin-Ei Animation did a good job of being respectful to the original work.  Character design is good, especially art backgrounds that are well-painted.  If there is one thing that I found quite different, it was the the voice acting.

With the Japanese voice acting, it seemed age appropriate for middle-schoolers.  For the Japanese soundtrack, Takagi and Nishikata voice talent sound their age, while the English dub, they sound like older teenagers or college kids.

As for special features, surprisingly this was a bare-bones release.   There are no special features and I don’t count Funimation trailers as special features.

Also, with Funimation releases, you tend to get the Blu-ray, DVD and digital but for this release, it’s just the Blu-ray and Digital.  Which is still cool, but you don’t run across many Funimation releases with just Blu-ray and Digital only.

Overall, “Teasing Master Takagi-san – The Complete Series” is for those who want a fun and delightful series about first love.  Two young kids, joking with each other, pranking each other but as they spend more time with each other, slowly discovering feelings that they are not quite sure about.  But they enjoy each other’s time, despite Nishikawa thinking that Takagi just likes to frustrate and get him in trouble.

A delightful story about young love, “Teasing Master Takagi-san – The Complete Series” is definitely worth giving a try!

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Click here to purchase “Teasing Master Takagi-San – The Complete Series” on Blu-ray

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