English Dub Review: Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro “That Is, If You Win at Least Once, Senpai”

Overview: 

The school judo tournament is coming up. Senpai and Nagatoro are both reluctant to participate.

Our Take: 

I think my feelings on this series would be a lot different if it hadn’t taken this long to get a less toxic-feeling relationship. I understand that “bullying” is the selling point of this specific series, but sometimes it just gets to be a little much. Senpai being your typical rom-com protagonist is kind of annoying. I can’t think of anyone who is that socially inept when it comes to attention from the opposite sex but I suppose they have to exist. Erik Kimerer does the voice of Senpai and it’s interesting that he’s done this genre before but in an entirely different way. He played Ryuji Takasu in Toradora! and he was a bit more of a functional human being in that one so this is a different role for him.

I liked that neither Senpai nor Nagatoro won their important match but still found victory in other ways. Senpai held his own against a physically superior opponent and Nagatoro did way better against an Olympic-caliber athlete than she thought she could. Not only that but they both cheered each other on. Nagatoro asked that if she ever does win against that person that Senpai would kiss her. What was nice is that she didn’t say anything else about it and didn’t bully Senpai after either. These two characters are growing and developing. Very, very slowly but they’re getting there.