English Dub Review: Teasing Master Takagi-san 3: “The Grip Strength Thingy / Tan / New Semester”; “Presence / Presence, Continued / Desk Check / Library Duty / Sunset”

Overview: Nishikata (Aaron Dismuke) and Takagi (Sarah Wiedenheft) deal with their feelings following their night at the firework festival with Nishikata’s teasing war against her continuing to rage on. 

Our Take: The teasing returns at long last with Takagi and Nishikata and thankfully the events at the firework festival are still ever prevalent. The series has many simple yet cute slice of life moments with them hanging out and that doesn’t stop here either. There are fun teases like Takagi adding gasoline to the fire that is Nishikata’s sunburned skin by slapping him. 

However, it is nice to see how their hand-holding has pushed them ever closer to becoming the couple we all know that they will. Each of one of their dreams takes them on quite an emotional ride in very different ways with Nishikata’s quite literally feeling like an acid trip. It is enjoyable to see a new wackier sense of humor to the series which has not been explored up to this point. Although even with the eccentricity, it subtly highlights how much he didn’t want his firework date with Takagi to be a dream and how much he cherishes it. 

Takagi’s dream on the other hand, is that of her wanting to watch fireworks with him and hearing him on the verge of admitting his feelings for her. Each converges on the single point of their feelings for one another with Takagi looking forward to when Nishikata opens up, especially when she has been so honest with how many not-so-subtle hints she has dropped. 

The second half of the episode is some new antics in silent films for both Takagi and Nishikata as well as everyone’s favorite trio in Yukari, Mina and eventually Sanae as well. They are a fun diversion and style of doing so that feels fresh and new with good use of strong musical cues as well as visuals to help tell the soundless romp. The desk check bit is yet another neat way of showing just how gullible Nishikata is and how well Takagi gets one over on him with ease. Library Duty is another adorable way of showing how much Takagi knows Nishikata to a t, despite how much he may hate it and how much she loves him even if he hasn’t quite realized it yet. The final chunk of the episode is even better in Takagi fooling Nishikata by provoking his very obvious competitive side in order to watch the sunset together. With Nishikata blushing giddiness at impressing Takagi as well as Nishikata spending time with him over the beauty of a sunset, it makes for a draw with both of them getting their wish. A rare yet incredibly wholesome one at that.