As with all of my reviews I like to speak on my initial thoughts on the series prior to actually watching it. This review will be no different as I feel it is an extremely important aspect of why I've given the rating I gave to Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro. I also want to mention that, as with all my other reviews as well, this review will be 100% spoiler free!

Prior to watching this series I had heard some horror stories regarding the manga and how it is geared towards a certain type of fetish in men. As someone who isn't particularly into the fetish that this series is geared towards I found myself going into this season of anime fully expecting to skip over this anime. On a whim I decided to watch the first episode of the series and to my surprise the first episode was FAR WORSE than I could have ever expected. The first episode contains what is nothing short of some of the worst bullying I've seen portrayed in any form of media. Senpai (one of our two main characters) is bullied to the point where he cries. Absolutely disgusted by this initial episode I decided it was best for me to drop the series all together because I didn't feel I could give this series a fair watch. That being said, one day later in this season of anime I found myself with some additional free time and no other series from this season of anime to catch up on. I decided to give episode two of this series a try. Much to my surprise I began to see what this series was actually all about. The series began to transform before my very eyes. What was once a disgusting display of bullying was slowly becoming a build towards a relationship between two teenagers who both don't fully understand how to properly display their emotions. Next thing I knew I was up to date (episode seven at the time) and wanted more of this anime. Shortly after this I decided to purchase all of the currently released physical volumes of this series and funny enough finished them all just two days prior to the final episode airing today.

This rant/backstory aside, I'm going to go into what I really enjoyed about Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro and also what I didn't enjoy as much.

Story:

The story of this series isn't anything incredible to write home about. It follows Senpai and Nagatoro as they go about their daily high school lives. It follows a daily plot with very few episodes truly connecting to one another until later in the anime. While the episodes don't seem to connect in terms of importance of an overarching plot, they do serve a very important role. As each episode passes and each activity happens the viewer learns more and more about the two main characters. We learn more and more about Senpai and see him develop into someone who begins to stick up for himself. Along a similar note, we see Nagatoro change from someone who is simply a cruel bully into someone who helps Senpai better himself as a person. Overall, the story of Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro isn't anything special but it instead serves as a vesicle for the viewer to better understand the series' true strength, its characters.

Characters:

If you had told me going into this series that I would come to believe that this series' greatest strength would be its characters I would have told you that you are crazy. The series follows a guy we know only as Senpai and a girl who gets kicks and giggles from teasing him. The reality is that these characters are so much better than a viewer's initial impression of them. Senpai is someone who lacks greatly in confidence and as a result allows for some very cruel comments and jokes be made his way. Nagatoro is a character that is so much more than her surface level, initial impression, you get from her. Upon first glance she's a dominant female who seemingly gets joy out of bringing emotional distress to Senpai. However, once you get a couple of episodes into this series you begin to see that this teasing does not have mellitus intent behind it but it is simply Nagatoro's way of befriending someone. I want to clarify right now I am not excusing her behavior throughout the show because as someone who has been bullied in their life I completely understand the feelings that can result from being teased! I will put it quite simply, Nagatoro is a perfect example of an awkward teenage girl. She is that high school girl who has been told her entire life that she's pretty by every guy she encounters. As a result, people (more specifically guys interested in her romantically) have allowed to conduct herself in a way that isn't in her own self interest. What we can see throughout the series is that Nagatoro's teasing is actually her way of displaying her care for and interest in Senpai. She's someone who isn't going to explicitly state her interest and is instead going to hide her own feeling (likely out of fear of being hurt herself).

I will say that the side characters in this series are honestly pretty weak. Nagatoro's group of friends are all very generic and all feel like dumbed down versions of Nagatoro herself. President simply doesn't get enough screen time for her to be anything more than your ruin of the mill romance antagonist as well. So while the main characters of this series are pretty great, the side characters do suffer quite a bit.

Romance:

Call me crazy but the romance in this series just works (strange as that may seem). When I watched the first episode of this series I thought there was no way I could buy into Senpai falling for Nagatoro and wanting to be with her in a relationship but as the series progresses that is just what I found myself believing! What we see is that the further into the series we go the more and more apparent it becomes to the viewer that this relationship is something that is healthy for both parties. On Senpai's side you can see that Nagatoro makes him stand up for himself and in some cases her as well. The self-confidence he greatly lacked at the start of the series (while still certainly lacking in the final episode) has come a long way as a result of being around Nagatoro. On Nagatoro's side we can see that being around Senpai makes her more sensitive and caring. She realizes that some of her actions and words do truly cause pain to Senpai. Furthermore, Senpai grounds her more in reality. Senpai does not shy away from telling her that her words hurt him and also displaying how he feels for her. My main complaint regarding this series' romance is that it develops at a snail's pace. We don't get to see any real development towards a relationship in this series (though it has begun to be more present where I am in the manga). I am aware that this slow build towards a relationship exists in large part due to the nature of both of the main characters but it doesn't change that it leaves the viewer largely with an unsatisfactory feeling.

The First and Final Episode:

I've already gone over my thoughts briefly earlier in this review so I won't go in depth on this but I do want to bring it up again. WITHOUT A DOUBT the weakest aspect of this anime is its first episode. The first episode completely misrepresents what this series is as a whole. It is seemingly done strictly to appeal to male viewers who have a fetish for cruel and rude women. (Not saying that there's anything wrong with that if it is something you are into but it isn't my cup of tea.) The issue I have with that first episode is that it is seemingly done for shock value alone. The light teasing Nagatoro does throughout the rest of this series hails in comparison to what she does in the first episode. I honestly can't fault anyone for dropping this series after the first episode.

On the other hand, I want to bring up the final episode of this anime. It does not follow the script that the manga sets out originally and that is a good thing in this instance. Had the anime followed the manga's script in this final episode then the anime would have felt unfinished. On the other hand, the final episode of the anime leaves the viewer with a sense of completion and happiness for the two main characters. Overall, the final episode of this anime does a great job wrapping up the series assuming that it isn't getting a season 2 (which it easily could).

Final Verdict:

Overall, Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro is a series that is better than its initial episode gives off. It establishes a solid pair of main characters and a fun romance between them. It suffers from an extremely slow build up that never actually occurs in the anime and also (in my opinion) one of the weakest first episodes that I have seen in any anime. It's a fun watch and much better than I had initially anticipated. 100% worth a watch!