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.

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.

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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Overview

I always see different English titles for this series, so as I did with season 1, we’re going to be sticking with the Japanese title for season 2. Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 2 (からかい上手の高木さん2) is just the second season of Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san.

If you’ve seen the first season, then you basically already know what this series is like. It follows the exact same formula as season 1.

But since I need something to write about, let’s just break down what that formula is again. The series follows two middle school (I think) students who are locked in a battle of wits — not unlike Light and L from Death Note.

The scenarios these students find themselves in follow one of two paths. Either Takagi suggests a game and wins or Nishikata suggests a game, it backfires, and he loses. That’s it. There is no third option. Oh, other than the skits with the side characters, but they aren’t important.

And strangely enough, although this series is a slice of life, real time passes. Usually series like this have different seasons showcased, but year after year the characters don’t age and they’re still in the same place. That’s not the case here.

In season 1 Takagi and Nishikata were first years, but in this season they’re second years. What this means is that eventually the series is going to come to a natural end. I’m not sure if we got to see any of this in season 1, but in season 2 we do get “flash forwards” showing Takagi and Nishikata in the future.

Once we catch up to those scenes is probably when the series will end. And honestly, if that’s the case it would be extremely satisfying.

Difference from Season 1

The main difference between Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san seasons 1 and 2 is the relationship between Takagi and Nishikata. The first season focused on how they both had crushes on each other, but were too shy to make anything of it other than teasing.

However, during this season we see the relationship between these two begin to take shape. It’s nothing official yet, but you can see the two of them becoming more comfortable with expressing themselves to one another. And there’s hand holding this time around.

One of my favorite parts of the season actually came during the credits of the final episode. In it we got a montage of all the times Takagi and Nishikata either held hands or almost held hands. It was a good way of showing how their relationship is slowly building up.

We also get to see the pair outside of their usual stomping grounds a bit more this time around. Previously the only places we saw Takagi and Nishikata were at school, specifically in their classroom, and on their walk home from school down the not-so-shady alleyways.

The walk home from school also includes locations such as the empty lot, shrine, and candy store, all of which we revisit in this season.

Some of the new locations we visit this time around include the mountains their class goes to on a camping trip, the school gym’s storage room, and the mountain on which the summer festival takes place. All of these locations, and the events surrounding them, lead to new and unique interactions between our main characters.

Main Takeaways

If you enjoyed the first season of Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san, you’re probably going to enjoy this one as well. It’s the same formula you know and love, but it’s improved upon this time around by including a slightly more stable relationship between the characters.

I do think that the first season had some better jokes/pranks/games, but the development that came with the second season made it better overall. It doubled down on the romance aspect of the series rather than the comedy aspect, and that’s fine with me.

Another thing I think this season improved upon from the previous season is how the side characters were used. We still get skits from Mina, Sanae, and Yukari, but they didn’t seem as frequent, which was good since we’re focusing more on relationships now.

At the same time, other characters who are in relationships were pushed more towards the forefront. It’s as if the author was attempting to show that Takagi and Nishikata are getting to that age at which relationships between their peers are more commonplace and out in the open.

You know, just like the direction their relationship is heading in.

And the last point I want to touch on is that while Takagi and Nishikata’s relationship is starting to form, it’s really because of Takagi. Yes, she still teases Nishikata, but more and more she outright tells him how she feels about him. And it’s up to Nishikata to decide what he’s going to do with that information. It’s cute to watch.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that I liked it more overall, I still gave Karakai Jozou Takagi-san 2 the same score as the first season, an 8/10. It was better than season 1, but not quite good enough to receive a 9. In fact, only one 2019 anime has received a 9 from me so far and I don’t think the Fall season is going to change that.

And since I always mention the OPs/EDs during the conclusion, the OP for season 2 is better than the OP for season 1. Season 2 also has a total of 8 EDs compared to the 7 EDs for season 1, so I’ll just assume and say that season 2 has a better ED as well. Specifically, I liked ED 6 「Anata ni」the most.

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My review of the third season is available now.

Overview

The general idea of Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san is that our protagonist, Nishikata, is constantly being embarrassed by Takagi, the girl who sits next to him in class. This anime follows Nishikata as he attempts to get back at Takagi by embarrassing her in return.

Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san is essentially the anime version of children teasing each other because they like each other. There’s no deep plot, no magic or otherworldly phenomenon (besides the size of Takagi’s forehead), it’s just two kids playing pranks on each other and that’s what makes this anime so good.

For the most part, this anime takes place either in English class or on the walk home from school. However, there are some episodes which include other settings such as the mall.

Characters

Nishikata is roughly 11 years old and seems to be a below average student, although this could be due to Takagi constantly distracting him in class. Ever since the first day of school he has wanted to get revenge on Takagi for embarrassing him, but she seems to always see through his plans and so they backfire. He’s prone to over thinking situations which is something Takagi uses to her advantage

Takagi is roughly the same age as Nishikata, but she’s one of the best students in class despite constantly talking to Nishikata and playing pranks on him. She’s an expert at mind games and is always able to either predict how Nishikata will retaliate or put him in a situation where he’ll make things worse for himself.

There are a few supporting characters, but the main three are Mina, Yukari, and Sanae. These three girls are friends in the same class as Nishikata and Takagi, but don’t usually interact with them. Instead, they have their own little segments in most, if not all, of the episodes.

I think their purpose is to break up the show so we’re not constantly watching Nishikata and Takagi, but I didn’t find them as entertaining. Mina is the overly hyper one, Yukari is the upstanding class president, and Sanae is the bored one who tends to side with Mina against Yukari.

While I generally seem to like the overly hyper child characters, Mina was an exception, much like Tatsuko from Prisma Illya. Her hyper-ness combined with her lack of understanding about anything just made for an annoying character rather than an entertaining one with chunibyo.

Conclusion

I was actually surprised by how much I liked this show. In the end I thought it was an 8/10 which makes it one of the best anime of the season; better than Laid-Back Camp, Citrus, and The Ancient Magus’ Bride which ended earlier this season. There are still a few more anime I need to finish up from this season, but Mitsuboshi Colors seems like it could give this anime a run for its money.

If you’re looking for a wholesome comedy, then Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san is the perfect anime for you.

My review of the next season is available here.