Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 3

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 3

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 3 anime series cover art
Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 3

Season Overview

Teasing Master Takagi-san Season 3 (Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 3 / からかい上手の高木さん3) is probably going to be the final season of the anime series. The only thing I’m basing that on is that there’s a Takagi-san movie coming out in a few months. And to me, that seems like a good way to end the series.

I’m sure back when the first season of the anime concluded, I wanted more seasons. But, now that we have three seasons completed and a movie on the way, I think I’m all Takagi’d out.

If you’ve watched the previous seasons of this series, you may have noticed a bit of a trend. The first season primarily took place within the school or on the way to the school. The second season branched out a bit more and included scenes of Takagi and Nishikata outside of the school setting.

And, surprise, the third season continues this trend by including even more content beyond the school setting. This transition makes sense for a few reasons.

First, there’s only so much that can be done in a school setting without the content getting a bit repetitive. And, potentially worse than the content getting repetitive is if the content becomes tropey by doing the same things every other anime with a school setting does.

Second, as Takagi’s and Nishikata’s relationship develops, it simply makes sense for them to be spending more time together outside of school. Since you’re reading an anime review, I know you don’t understand how relationships work. But, trust me.

Based on this direction the series has been going in, I’m going to guess that the majority of the movie is going to take place outside of school.

A Bit More of the Same

I ended up rating Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 3 lower than the previous two seasons. The main reason for this is that I felt that the first half of the season was too similar to the content that we’d already seen before.

There were a few times when I found myself thinking, “wait, haven’t I seen this skit already?” And, as you might expect, these were the skits that took place either at school or on the way to school. Obviously, they weren’t the same exact skits. But they were similar enough to not be entertaining.

This is why I’m completely fine with the series ending with the upcoming movie. It’s had a good run, but I think it’s gotten to a point at which it’s only going to suffer if it continues on. I’d even argue that it began to go beyond that point in this season.

Nishikata and Takagi fishing from the anime series Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 3
Nishikata and Takagi fishing

On the other side of things, the “new” scenes in this season were fairly different from what we’d gotten before in the series. What made me like this series originally was how Takagi could always turn Nishikata’s challenges around against him. That still happens in the scenes that take place on school grounds.

But, the scenes that take place elsewhere, such as when Takagi and Nishikata go fishing or climb a really long flight of stairs are different. In these scenes, the punchline typically isn’t that Takagi was able to outwit Nishikata. Instead, they both “lose,” kind of like what happens in Kaguya-sama: Love is War at times.

I still enjoyed these scenes. It’s just that when watching them I could really tell how much the series has changed over time. And that made me think that maybe now would be a good time to stop.

Romance Intensifies

So far, I’ve avoided mentioning the biggest change this season brought to the series: the focus on romance. Obviously, romance has always been a part of the series. And the romance was turned up a bit in the second season, especially with the summer festival episode.

But, even the romance in the second season doesn’t compare to the romance in the third season. We got a Christmas episode, a New Year’s episode (that may have been the same episode as Christmas), a Valentine’s Day episode, and the season ended with a White Day episode.

There was gift-giving between Takagi and Nishikata on multiple occasions, they acknowledged wanting to spend more time together outside of school, and they even went on a movie date together. The series really transitioned into more of a traditional romance anime at times.

Nishikata auditioning for a role in the class play with Takagi from the anime series Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 3
Nishikata auditioning for a role in the class play with Takagi

And, of course, Takagi and Nishikata aren’t the only characters who are romantically involved. Nakai and Mano have been the supporting characters who were in a romantic relationship throughout the series. In this season, there were more parallels between them and Takagi and Nishikata.

For example, when Takagi and Nishkata climb the long staircase that has a rumor about relationships, we find out that Nakai and Mano already did the same thing. And, we later see Hamaguchi and Houjou climb those stairs, as well.

Speaking of Hamaguchi and Houjou, they’ve been around in the series since the first season, I believe. But, they’re far more prominent in this season. Like Takagi’s and Nishikata’s, their relationship is one that everyone recognizes, but that they won’t admit to.

I also just want to say that Houjou is probably my favorite supporting character. She’s cute and she’s voiced by Aoi Yuuki.

Conclusion

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 3 is a 6/10 from me. That’s 2 points lower than I rated the previous seasons. But, as I said, even though I enjoyed this season, it felt like the series was beginning to overstay its welcome.

Oh, and the OP for this season was definitely the worst OP of the series. So it has that counting against it too.

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