Teasing-Master-Takagi-san
Normally I am not much of making entries for festivities beyond Halloween or my traditional annual count that I publish every new year, however since this year my usual Friday text coincided with Valentine's Day, I think it is a more than ideal opportunity for I refer to a peculiar and simple series that I wanted to write about for some time. Dealing with the theme of naive romance, we have an innocent approach using the old concept of people who annoy another, just to get some of their attention in an idealized childhood love. Based on the homonymous manga written and illustrated by Sōichirō Yamamoto that was nominated for the tenth Manga Taishō Award in 2017, this work has a total of 10 compilation volumes and continues to be published. Karakai Jōzu no Takagi-san or also called as The mistress of jokes Takagi-san is a fairly innocent romantic comedy series that has two seasons of 12 episodes each (plus an ova) produced by the Shin-Ei Animation studio between 2018 and 2019. Both seasons were directed by Hiroaki Akagi, scripts by Michiko Yokote and a character design by Aya Takano, without forgetting how the protagonists receive their voices from the always popular Yuki Kaji and Rie Takahashi.
The synopsis for this series is as follows: Nishikata is a normal student with a quiet life, however day by day his classmate Takagi decides to play pranks on him. Unfortunately for him, every time he tries to play a prank on her to return the favor of her usual pranks, they end up against him since it seems that she understands him too well. So their days follow the same routine where they both play pranks on each other, or at least try to, spending time together like this.
Regarding openings, the series has "Iwanai kedo ne" and "Zero Centimeter", both by singer-songwriter Yuiko Oohara for the first and second seasons respectively. Meanwhile, as far as closing themes are concerned, the long list of themes performed by Rie Takahashi with "Kimagure Romantic", "AM11:00", "Jitensha", "Kaze Fukeba Koi", "Chiisana Koi no Uta", "Ai Uta", and "Deatta Koro no You ni" as the eight examples from the first season. For its part, the second season again has eight endings performed by seiyuu Rie Takahashi in her role as Takagi, these songs being "Kanade", "Konayuki", "Kiseki", "Arigatou", "STARS", "Anata ni", "Iwanai kedo ne" and "Yasashii Kimochi". At the end of the day this is a pretty cute series, although its formulaic nature can make some people tire of it quickly. However, the childish and naive approach to first love that this series deals with is something pleasant to observe when normally one usually finds more drama or fanservice in romantic comedies, this is a series that although it starts simple and somewhat repetitive, as it progresses with each episode It manages not only to develop the link between its characters, but also a link with the viewer.