A timid second-year high school boy gains the attention of first-year high school girl Hayase Nagatoro who teases him relentlessly.
Episode 1 – “Senpai is a bit… / Senpai, don’t you ever get angry?”
First Thoughts.
Hayase Nagatoro joins the annoying skinfang almost-girlfriend genre of manga and anime. She even had a crossover one-shot with Tejina Senpai. The point of the teasing is a comedy, which requires sympathetic characters. There’s controversy whether Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san has sympathetic main characters. I don’t like limp noodle bully targets while Nagatoro’s teasing style appears overly sadistic in earlier chapters of the manga. She made her Senpai cry twice in the premiere episode! The anime makes it clear she’s blushing hard as she acts this way to provoke Senpai, so Nagatoro-san offers deeper psychological and emotional motivations for why these two seek each other out.
Hmm.
This spring season is when two popular hentai themes made it into mainstream anime. HigeHiro covers the teen runaway trading her body for room and board. Nagatoro-san covers the other kind of story where a bunch of flashy gals hijack a sad sack’s life and give him insane amounts of sex. Both HigeHiro and Nagatoro-san will not be showing insane amounts of sex. Sadness. However, the premises of both stories add the element and expectation of adult situations. While Nagatoro teases Senpai mercilessly, both HigeHiro and Nagatoro-san tease their audiences mercilessly with the hope of sexy times. We can enjoy those flashes of skin though.
Heh.
Nagatoro-san presents the seaside town of Kazahaya High School as idyllic and calm. It’s lies! All lies! Beware the skinfang! Fear her! Ahem. The librarian girl has no power. The loud gals bother everyone. Especially that mousy nerd boy. Creepy! The girls stopped their loud chatter to stare at the nerd boy. Aw, nerd boy thinks they’re pretty. The gals stare at him again. Did they catch him staring? Don’t look away, dude! That just makes you a target for them. Ah, crap. The gals saw his manga panels. The nerdy boy is an aspiring manga artist. Hoh. The small tan gal took a long look at those pages. She wants to stay and talk with the nerd instead of walking home with her friends. She’s an important character because she has eyes. Nagatoro-san has only drawn eyes on the nerd and “Hayacchi” so far. The skinfang bothering starts now! Nerd boy’s designation is “Senpai.” There’s your prologue.
Nagatoro-san’s first-half episode took a while to display its title. I can see why “Hayacchi” felt the need to tease Senpai. He titled his manga, “A skilled swordsman lacking in life skills: Siegfried!” Self-insert much? The tan gal called him out! “Hayacchi” blushes just as hard as Senpai as she reads his manga. Does she like it too? Is she feeling embarrassed reading embarrassing lines? If the latter is the case, that means she’s not dismissing Senpai’s art and story. She wants a knight to protect her too! Skinfang! It’s clear that “Hayacchi” is a serious consumer of manga.
Senpai has game. A cute, tan gal wants to play-act his manga! Brush a strand of hair from her ear, Senpai! What a tease. This is the formula for Nagatoro-san’s teasing scenes. Senpai chickened out. That’s “Hayacchi’s” point. Either don’t chicken out, or don’t draw a projection of yourself who can touch a girl. That’s a harsh and roundabout way of asking a talented artist to be a better man. That’s so meta, considering the manga writer for Nagatoro-san does the same thing to himself. Look at “Hayacchi” blush as she commands Senpai to be like that strong knight.
Nagatoro-san’s smug levels have gone to eleven. “Hayacchi’s” face shows different emotions simultaneously. She’s complicated! Kabedon! She went too far calling Senpai “creepy.” She made him cry! She’s comforting him in the middle of this onslaught. She’s a young dominatrix in training. She’s ecstatic she found her exclusive submissive. Collecting bodily fluids from an orifice is a metaphor, people. Letting Senpai keep her handkerchief is the equivalent of gifting some other used garment. She left the library satisfied. Was that humiliation play good for Senpai too?
The next half episode for Nagatoro-san hints at “Hayacchi” trying to make Senpai show anger. Ha! “Hayacchi” is stalking Senpai now. She correctly guessed he must be in the art club if he’s drawing manga. Oh man. She looked friendly here, but there’s something about Senpai that flips her sadistic switch. Aw. She wanted Senpai to keep her handkerchief. It’s all good. She has a reason to tease him some more.
Hoo boy. She confirmed that she’s alone with Senpai. Bow chicka wow wow! Nagatoro-san sets up ecchi scenes well. Senpai can’t ignore her if she’s the model he needs to draw. Senpai doth protest too much. Oho! Swimsuit tanlines. That’s a fancy bra too. Poor guy, that Senpai guy. Making eye contact with a new model as you sketched her always made me nervous too. It takes practice to focus past the person to be objective. No wonder “Hayacchi” teases him. He’s too easy to provoke. She encourages him in her own way.
Ahahaha! Senpai’s sketch was good until it got to the intersection of her short skirt and delicious thighs. “Hayacchi” says it’s reward time. More like sadistic humiliation time. We had kabedon earlier, and now there’s chin-in-hand! Swoon! Nagatoro-san plays off those romantic devices so well comedically. That’s a nice gender role reversal. Don’t do it, Senpai! Don’t do it! Don’t purse your lips! Ah, Senpai lost the game. She would have planted one too! Too bad he shut his eyes. Oh, man. She pointed out that blurry part with her thighs and skirt! Now we know Senpai is a leg man. Crying time. She’s stronger than Senpai. Those tan lines suggest she’s an athlete, so that’s not surprising. Handkerchief time. She’s so into it.
Walking home together! She loves her new toy. Har. Senpai is so not ready to handle this jelly. When he can answer her confidently about dating her, watch out. She admitted she treated Senpai horribly, so why doesn’t he get angry? That’s where the Nagatoro-san episode title comes from. She wants something genuine. Ah. Senpai’s backstory shows he’s been a bully target for years. He went the turtle route, which only encourages more bullying.
Putting all that aside! This is adorable. This is Senpai’s confession. He doesn’t mind the attention! Uh, she knows that already. But he likes talking with her. That got a response. Oh finally. “Hayacchi” introduces herself. Nagatoro. She even signed her name in kanji (長瀞)… on his chest. Take the hint! What’s Senpai’s name? Doesn’t matter. At least I can call her Nagatoro now too. I didn’t “know” it from the anime until she said it either.
Opening credits at the end of the first episode. Nice pop art feel. Recycled images from the episodes, though, showing us what Nagatoro will be wearing and teasing us with during the season. Fun. Nagatoro’s gal friends get eyes too, so they’ll be part of Senpai’s flashy gal invasion.
Next time, Senpai imagines many things about Miss Nagatoro.
Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san (DON’T TOY WITH ME, MISS NAGATORO) streams weekly on Crunchyroll and VRV.
