Nishikata-kun sits next to Takagi-san. He wants to embarrass her, but he’s not very skilled at doing so. Takagi-san, on the other hand, is the master of teasing—and being naive, sincere, and easily frustrated, Nishikata is a perfect victim for her. He’s just too busy trying to get his own revenge to realize it.
Ahh, well this was cute. Going into the initial episode of Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san, I wondered how much mileage one could get out of the plot device, which in short is this: in the battle of blushing, boy always loses to girl. But it’s clear there’s plenty in that tank. Takagi is three steps ahead of Nishikata, which puts her one step ahead of the audience, too, so we’re entertained by how she creatively dumps on the poor boy. And Nishikata feels like a kid we all could have known in elementary school, so his failures are authentic and forgivable. If anything, the series could make it hard to like Takagi, who is pretty unrelenting, if not for the fact that early on we see a motivation for her teasing.
I would definitely be in with this series if I had more time, but since I only watch about 3-4 series a season, I don’t see myself watching this through—unless it’s with my wife, who was equally charmed by episode one.
—
Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san is available for streaming on Crunchyroll.