English Dub Review: Karakai Jozu No Takagi-san “Typhoon / Marathon / Ribs / Regret”

Nishikata might be able to survive a typhoon, but the school marathon is another matter entirely!

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Nishikata and Takagi have overcome their tandem riding training hurdles (mainly Nishikata’s embarrassment at being held onto), but this means they don’t have an excuse to meet up every day anymore. Luckily, school is starting up again so they’ll be seeing plenty of each other, like at the school marathon, or walking home together. And no matter where they are what they’re doing, you can bet that Takagi will be up to her traditional teasing.

Our Take:

While this episode didn’t have any moments that stood out to me as being especially bad or boring, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I have previous episodes. I think this is due in part to the nature of the series. As a short segment show with the main purpose of showing off Takagi’s teasing, there are only so many new ways you can present her triumphs over Nishikata. The typhoon segment, while making me laugh, felt like a retread of the pool scene from an earlier episode where Nishikata is hesitant to guess Takagi’s true motives because he thinks it would be too embarrassing to say out loud. Ribs fell a little flat as well. Sure, I’m invested in these kids’ relationship, but seeing Takagi laughing at Nishikata’s embarrassed blushing is feeling stale. (Why didn’t we get to see Takagi’s funny face at the end of the scene?)

I enjoyed Mina, Sanae, and Yukari’s scenes more than our main duo this time around. (It’s nice when everyone is together in the same segment, like during the marathon.) Mina is such an exuberantly hilarious character, and Leah Clark does an amazing job bringing her to life without making her sound too high-pitched or annoying.

We’re eight episodes in, and I’m worried the typical formula might be fading in it’s effectiveness. The plot wasn’t the only thing that dropped in quality; there were definitely some wonky faces and distractingly off-model characters. This was most noticeable in the marathon scenes, where the running animation for everyone was borderline comical. Here’s hoping that next week’s episode will erase my doubts and return to it’s usual mix of sharp comedy and sweet teasing.