Film Review: Teasing Master Takagai-san: The Movie

By J.D. Kelly

Based on the manga of the same name by Souichirou Yamamoto, the anime for Teasing Master Takagi-san has had a strange journey when it comes to its American release. The first season was licensed by Funimation and Crunchyroll. The second was licensed by Netflix who got an entirely new cast for the dub including friend of the channel Kayli Mills as Takagi. Season three was licensed by Sentai who brought back as much of the Funimation dub cast as they could and now, the journey comes to its conclusion in Teasing Master Takagi-san: The Movie. It had its American premiere at Anime Expo 2022 and I got the chance to see it.

While, this is the conclusion of the series, the generally episodic nature of the past three seasons makes it pretty easy to come into the movie with no prior knowledge. The basic premise is fairly common: Boy likes girl. Girls likes boy. Boy is denser than osmium and doesn’t realize girl likes him even though everyone else sees it. To be more specific, middle schoolers Nishikata and Takagi (Neither of their given names is revealed in the series.) both like each other even if they won’t say it out loud. Takagi likes to spend her time with Nishikata by playing games or putting him in a situation that usually end with him minorly embarrassing himself.  

For example, at the start of the movie, Takagi teases him by asking to guess what she’s drawing. What she has currently drawn looks like the top of an umbrella so Nishikata gets too embarrassed thinking that she’s going to draw an umbrella with their names under it. That’s the equivalent of drawing their names together in a heart in America. As soon as she’s done watching him squirm a bit, she reveals that she was actually drawing fish bones and asked him what he thought she was drawing. It’s all very cute and makes for a very fun series.

The movie splits this into three parts revolving around their last summer of middle school including visiting a festival to see fireflies and other adventures that would be best left unspoiled.  Like with the anime, in between the bits with Nishikata and Takagi, there’s a subplot about three of their classmates who are worried their friend group is about to break up when one of them goes to a different high school. It’s a nice distraction that breaks up the main plot without dragging it out for too long.  

The art of the movie doesn’t veer too far from the style of the show adding in more detail and smoother animation with its bigger budget. All of the Japanese voice cast returns and captures their roles just as well as they do in the series. Yuki Kaiji, who also voiced Toto in Goodbye, Don Glees!, plays Nishikata as the earnest, excited but also love shy boy he is and as Takagi, Rie Takahashi, who also plays Emilia in Re:Zero, once again captures the proper balance of loveable and teasing that gives her the title of teasing master.

To sum it all up, Teasing Master Takagai-san: The Movie is a nice, fluffy romantic comedy that will work for both fans of the series and newcomers looking for the innocence of teenage love. If you fit into either of those categories, make sure to check it out when it comes to American theaters this August.

Overall Rating: A