English Dub Review: Karakai Jozu No Takagi-san “Cat / Taste / Portrait / Fortune Telling / Critical”

Nishikata finally scores a critical hit on Takagi in a solid 11th episode.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Nishikata can’t even pet a cat without being made fun of by Takagi. Whether it’s in portrait drawing class or cleaning a classroom, Takagi always gets the upper hand. (Even when she throws a game of rock-paper-scissors, she still wins in the end.)  Is Nishikata destined to continue on being teased with no end in sight? Or will he finally realize the reasons behind Takagi’s teasing?

Our Take:

This episode was a solid step up comedy-wise from the past several episodes, I think. There were just enough new twists and different kinds of conversations to keep things feeling fresh. Plus, we get tons of more romantic teasing between Nishikata and Takagi!

The first segment, Cat, was a strong one. Who doesn’t want to pet a fluffy cat they see on the street? It’s a little sad that Nishikata thinks Takagi will think less of him for wanting to pet something cute, but luckily things turn funny pretty quickly, as Takagi finds the perfect ‘all you can pet’ cat to tempt Nishikata. Though he doesn’t get to feel the adorable fluffiness in the end, at least he’s able to admit to Takagi that he wanted to pet it after all. That’s progress!

We’re making progress on another front, too. Fortune Telling finds Takagi and Nishikata getting arguably the closest they’ve ever come to confessing their crushes on each other. Nishikata has to ask himself if he actually has a crush on Takagi. While he doesn’t really come up with an answer, his blushing cheeks speak volumes on their own. This segment was pretty funny in how it gave Nishikata his first ‘win’, while also showing how Takagi ended up considering it a success for her anyway. And Critical allows us to listen to a bit of Takagi’s inner monologue for once, expressing her disappointment at not getting to walk home with Nishikata.

I’m glad that this penultimate episode was fairly strong because it takes some pressure off the finale. Coming off an episode that managed to be consistently funny while also dropping hints at further romance between Takagi and Nishikata, the finale will hopefully up the game even more! Based on what the show has done so far, I’m not expecting anything too genre-breaking or different than the norm, but I’d like to think the show will be smart enough to deliver something that feels like a proper finale.