Teasing Master Takagi-san Season 3

Episode 8

We really have to hand it to our boy Nishikata. The poor kid is too dumb to realize when he is straight-up tricking himself into being a great boyfriend and taking Takagi out on an incredibly romantic date. A couple of weeks ago, he literally took on the role of Takagi's Prince Charming and swept the girl off her feet. This time around, he tries to trap Takagi in one of his completely rigged “contests” by taking her on a scenic walk up a local mountain staircase and challenging her to guess the number of steps they climbed (which he got the answer to ahead of time, naturally). Except, whoopsies, it turns out that these are the “Famous 415 Steps”, a local romance spot that is so named because of how the words for “sweet love” are pronounced similarly to the number of steps on the staircase. Even if you didn't already watch the episode, I'm sure you can perfectly imagine how Takagi handles the situation.

Even when the tried-and-true Takagi-san formula is on display in this first ”Side Trip” segment, it's still awfully charming, mostly because I really appreciate this latest addition to the show's repertoire of joke setups. We've had years' worth of “Nishikata Is Too Thick To Realize That Takagi Likes Him” gags, but now we've got “Nishikata Accidentally Bumbles His Way Into Being A Player”. Good stuff.

What also makes the “Side Trip” story fun is that Takagi and Nishikata's story is indeed only one part of a series of related vignettes. We also get to see what happens when the show's other two romantic couples get to take their own trips up the 415 steps. Hojou and Hamaguchi's trip is sweet enough; they're on the more mature side of their awkward will-they-won't-they dynamic compared to Nishikata and Takagi, but they're still goofy kids. The better sketch belongs to Takai and Mano, though. Not only does it explain why Nishikata even ran into Nakai in the first place in part one, but the reveal that Nakai wrote Mano's name in the notebook of romantic wish-fulfillment long before she asked him to is just too darned cute.

Speaking of “too darned cute”, the “DVD Rental” sketch provides one of the rarest (and best) kind of Takagi-san stories, where Takagi herself actually has some trouble navigating the rocky waters of young love. It's not a huge deal or anything — she simply doesn't have the nerve to ask Nishikata to go with her to the premiere of the 100% Unrequited Love movie in person — but even small stumbles like these are much-needed reminders that Takagi is, in fact, a human child, and not some freakishly omniscient trickster demi-goddess. Plus, not only does Nishikata decide against pranking Takagi with a movie that might scare her, he doesn't even hesitate to accept when Takagi instead texts him about the movie premiere. Our terminally dense little protagonist is growing, everyone! Doesn't it just warm your heart?

Rating:

Odds and Ends

• Girl Squad! The girls also have their own adventure on the 415 steps this week, and once again the joke of the sketch boils down to a minor misunderstanding: Yukari thinks that Mina and Sanae have come to the steps to confess that they have finally matured enough to dish all the hot goss about cute boys with her. Turns out, they just wanted to go on a brisk jog together. Maybe someday, Yukari.

• Finally, don't think I missed the not-at-all-subtle Attack on Titan reference that popped up when Nishikata was choosing DVDs for Takagi. That doesn't make it any easier to wrap my head around the fact that Nishikata shares a voice actor with Eren Yeager, The War Criminal With Anime's Most Rockin' Man-Bun.

Teasing Master Takagi-san Season 3 is currently streaming on HIDIVE.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.