Anime Reviews (2020s): Teasing Master Takagi-san (season 3) (2022)

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

“Teasing Master Takagi-san – Season 3 – 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. And the final TV season is a build-up for the the conclusion, which is for the upcoming animated film.A delightful story about young love, “Teasing Master Takagi-san Season 3 – The Complete Series” is definitely worth it, especially if you invested the time in watching the first two seasons.

Click here to purchase “Teasing Master Takagi-San Season 3 – The Complete Series” on Blu-ray

TITLE: Teasing Master Takagi-san Season 3 – The Complete Series

DURATION: Episodes 1-12 (300 Minutes)

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

COMPANY: Sentai Filmworks

RATED: TV 14

Release Date: December 20, 2022

Originally Created by Yamamoto Soichiro

Director: Akagi Hiroaki

Series Composition: Itami Aki, Fukuda Hiroko, Katou Kanichi

Character Design: Takano Aya

Anime Production: Shin-Ei Animation

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

Teasing Master Takagi-san Season 3 contains anime episodes 1-12 of the anime directed by Hiroaki Akagi. Nishikata has become a very confused middle school student. That bothersome girl Takagi has been teasing and pulling tricks on him for what seems like forever now! Nishikata’s initial response of fighting fire with fire by taunting and pranking her back hasn’t been working so well. In fact, it’s been working horribly, because she almost always seems to outthink him. And the really disturbing part? He seems to be getting used to it! No, it’s worse than that! He seems to be getting used to HER! Like she’s worming her sneaky way into his brain! And is he… gasp… starting to care about her sometimes? Is that what their classmates think? Is that what SHE thinks? Exactly what is going on in her mysterious and calculating mind?

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

Still ongoing in Japan (with a total of 18 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.

The first season was also streamed on Crunchyroll and released on Blu-ray through Funimation, while the second season (2019) was on Netflix and has not been released on Blu-ray.

Sentai Filmworks acquired the rights for the third season which was broadcasted from January to March 2022 and also acquired the rights to the animated film which was screened in theaters in June 2022.

While the Japanese voice talent are consistent with all three seasons, for those who watched the English dub, the voice talent is different in season 2 (as it was a Netflix series and they use their pool of voice talent).

It’s important to note that the third season marks the final animated season of the series, and the film is the conclusion to the story.

“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?

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 Master 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.

The third season now features the adventures of Takagi and Nishikata. It is more obvious that Takagi really likes Nishikata, but Nishikata in his own mind is thinking Takagi is trying to make him look stupid or teasing him that he feels the need to one up her.

For the most part, the third season, we start to see Nishikata finally have some sort of inkling that perhaps she likes him and he likes her. But he’s a little slow when it comes to realizing that.

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. But it’s important for people to know that if you enjoyed the English dub voice acting of season 1, the same voice talent are featured in season 3. Otherwise, if you preferred the Netflix voice talent in season two for the English dub, unfortunately they are not utilized for season three.

As for special features, this is a bare-bones release. There are no special features aside from the clean opening and closing animations.

Overall, “Teasing Master Takagi-san – Season 3 – 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. And the final TV season is a build-up for the the conclusion, which is for the upcoming animated film.

A delightful story about young love, “Teasing Master Takagi-san Season 3 – The Complete Series” is definitely worth it, especially if you invested the time in watching the first two seasons.

Click here to purchase “Teasing Master Takagi-San Season 3 – The Complete Series” on Blu-ray

More from my site