One of the most highly anticipated anime series in quite a long time is Please Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, the story of a mischievous gyaru whose hobby is spending time with her shy senpai and making him as uncomfortable as possible.
The Holy Trinity of Teasing Anime Girls
One type of story that’s become popular lately is “teasing girls” in which female characters with a penchant for teasing or otherwise pushing the buttons of male main characters, who are naturally the perfect surrogates for us as viewers. The three main ones are:
- Takagi-san from Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san. She’s a sweet girl who has a crush on her classmate Nishikata-kun, and in every episode has fun teasing him in ways that fluster him but are essentially harmless. She eventually becomes “the girl formerly known as Takagi-san” because she marries Nishikata…then teams up with their daughter to tease him some more.
- Hana Uzaki from Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out. While some viewers found her to be uzai (loud and annoying), the show was a real gem, with lots of character development as Hana and Sakurai-senpai got closer emotionally. There was frankly more story progression in one season of Uzaki-chan than in two seasons of otherwise-excellent Kaguya-sama: Love is War.
- Nagatoro-san, who loves hanging out with her senpai Hachiouji, a shy boy who never gets angry no matter what embarrassing situations she puts him in.
Let’s Learn Japanese with Nagatoro-san!
Something about the story of Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro! lends itself to linguistic debate, so I thought it’d be fun to delve into some of the words that are used in the show.
One day Nagatoro-san meets Hachiouji-senpai in the library with her friends as he’s working on a romantic fantasy manga. Rather than merely teasing him good-naturedly (karakau), she downright bullies him (ijimeru) because he never gets angry at her. From his reactions, she can tell he’s a “closeted pervert” (muttsuri sukebe) and she enjoys putting him in sexy situations, secure in the knowledge that he lacks the courage and pluck (dokyou) to actually make a move on her. Sometimes she miscalculates, however, allowing him (and us) to get a moment of unexpected sexy fanservice (lucky sukebe).
Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro is the “Drama Llama” of the Season
It seems that every season, there has to be one show that causes extra drama on Twitter, whether it’s people deciding Uzaki-chan is short and busty and must therefore be underaged (despite being, y’know, a university student), or that the new character in the upcoming Kobayashi Dragon Maid season 2 is is short and busty and must therefore be underaged (despite being, y’know, an actual dragon). In the end, fans who rage against this show or that online generally do nothing but bring lots of attention and new fans to the show, funding a second season (in the case of Uzaki-chan).
While fewer people seem to take issue with Nagatoro-san than they did with Uzaki-chan, one area of criticism has been Crunchyroll’s subtitles, which include lines like the one above. The word she’s using is キョドル kyodoru, a very uncommon slang abbreviation of 挙動不審 kyodou-fushin, meaning to act in a suspicious manner. Considering the esoteric-ness of the term she used, and considering that she’s a gyaru — what would be called a “Valley Girl” once upon a time in California — who is partially defined by speaking in stylized slang, I have to say that “acting sus” is the perfect translation for the above scene.
If Nagatoro were as annoying as she was in the first couple of episodes, I think most fans would just tune out permanently. Happily, there’s enough progression in their relationship for us to take a deeper interest. Like the time she tried to teach him how to turn her teasing back on her with a sharp verbal retort called tsukkomi, as in classic manzai two-man comedy routines. I also like how she becomes defensive if anyone tries to touch “her” senpai.
Will the show continue to impress us, offering real progression in their relationship as we got with Uzaki-chan? I can’t say for sure, but I’ll certainly keep watching!
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