Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san (2024)

The Sweetest Drama Ever!

Teasing Master Tagaki-san is an absolute delight to watch. This live action adaptation is reminiscent of a time when Jdoramas delivered well written and beautifully told stories, not unlike (similar to) last year’s Maiko-san Chi no Makanai-san.

I found myself transported back in time to when I was a youth living in a much more simple world faced with similar experiences. Teasing one another was something that happened. Sometimes, it had the desired effect, a reaction that actually meant something, other times it was not so great.

What we have is a young couple, in all but name, sharing the common bond of enjoying each other’s company even if Nishikata was forever on the losing end of the teasing exchange.

I thought the young actors did a marvellous job. Takagi with her smiling face and Nishikata always looking dazed or confused when he had lost another exchange.

There are some beautiful moments: being with each other at the beach, reaching the shrine at the top of the hill or simply walking to and from school.

This show is worth three and a half hours of your time. I’m looking forward to the movie which is set ten years later. It has its release in Japan within the next two weeks.

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Thoughts on the Takagi-San franchise (Anime, Manga, Live Action)

If I had to choose one genre in anime that is by and far my least favorite, it's the romance genre, not because I am a cynic (well, maybe), but the shows all tend to fall into two camps: harems and melodrama. Finding a show outside of that mold is like finding a needle in a ginormous haystack, which is why "Teasing Master Takagi-San" was such a surprise when I stumbled upon the first season of the anime in 2018. There were no love triangles, miscommunications, and it was just the innocent and budding relationship between two youth in the form of "teasing" as she likes to playfully tease the male character, Nishikata, who tries to find ways to get her back. As they are in middle school, she is shy about her feelings and he is not fully aware of them, creating a nice push and pull between the two characters.

Once I watched the first season of the anime, I went and picked up the source material and found myself breezing through the chapters. While they often found themselves falling into repetitive situations, there was a nice calm enjoyment that came from watching the two characters interact. The anime continued into seasons 2, 3, and a movie and decided to take what was an episodic story and create a more serial approach to the story which helped it stand apart from the source material and create two different experiences with the story. With both the anime and manga over, I thought that was the end of Takagi-San but here we are in 2024 with both a live-action television adaptation and a sequel movie coming later this year.

I at first was skeptical as live-action adaptations of anime struggle in adapting its source material but once I got into the first episodes of this adaptation, all my worry was gone. While holding onto remnants of the source material, the series was able to craft its own path, creating a third and just as engaging adaptation of the story. Our two leads have great chemistry and feel like the characters come to life but would work just as well if this was your first introduction to them. With this review, I can recommend all three; the manga, the anime, and now the live-action as each approach the story in an entertaining and thoughtful way.

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