Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro – 03 – Going Steady

Nagatoro continues her daily intrusions on Naoto’s drawing sessions, but it’s clear it’s not out of malice. She slips off her skirt and top to reveal her school swimsuit for the sheer thrill of it, and to get her fix of that sweet, sweet Naoto fluster. This cold open is nothing new, but when the two are caught in the rain it begins the trend this episode of Nagatoro acting more like Naoto’s friend (and even admirer) and less like his tormentor.

When they find some temporary shelter, Nagatoro plays herself once more by warning Senpai not to look at her as her soaked uniform is see-through. He assumes she’s still wearing the swimsuit underneath, and takes a good long glance at her. You can watch Nagatoro shift from a neutral expression, to a bashful one, and finally to her mischievous one. But when the rain fails to let up, the teasing stops and she suggests they dry off at the nearest house—which is hers.

Once there, it’s Naoto who makes an unforced error by smelling the towel Nagatoro provides, in case she used it first. From there, it’s a pretty standard house visit, or it would be, if it weren’t the very first time Naoto was in a girl’s room. As for Nagatoro, she clearly couldn’t be happier to finally have Naoto firmly ensconced in her lair…so they can play her brother’s video games together!

At first, Naoto kicks Nagatoro’s ass and she is not gracious in defeat. Thinking this could be a way to exact revenge, Naoto presses his attacks, but Nagatoro starts using various forms of physical contact to distract him so she can win. After some tense back-and-forth, the two eventually settle in to having fun together, not worrying about teasing or being teased. Nagatoro seems genuinely touched when Naoto says he had fun before leaving for the day.

Of course, the teasing will never be fully over for Naoto, it will come down to how he chooses to react to it, or whether he ever tells her to flat-out knock if off (which will be never). When he braves the packed cafeteria for lunch, who should have an empty seat next to her but Nagatoro, who uses it to present her new…er…senpai to her two friends Gamo and Yosshi.

Naoto fully expects a three-on-one teasing assault, but both he and Nagatoro’s friends are surprised by how she reacts to them teasing him. While she’s all over him saying he’s her boyfriend/pet/slave, she does not take kindly to Yosshi trying to touch him—giving us the first look at Nagatoro’s “Possessive Face”. Gamo-chan picks up on this and calls Naoto a “bug”, which crosses a line for Nagatoro.

Naoto is shocked to find her getting angry for his sake! This motivates him to stand up for himself and loudly declare that Nagatoro isn’t his girlfriend. The thing is, Nagatoro looks miffed and even a little hurt that he denied it quite so strongly and publicly.

It’s clear from their encounter with Gamo and Yosshi that Nagatoro would much prefer to have her beloved Senpai all to herself. I mean, her demeanor at the restaurant with the other guys compared to her pure unbridled joy hanging out with him at home was as different as night and day. To this end, she attempts to get Nagatoro to fight back…not against her teasing, but the teasing of others.

She suggests the best way to do this is to smack the taunts down with a hearty slap to the shoulder. Nagatoro decides to do a couple of dry runs. The first time he slaps her, she’s surprised by the force and passion he put into it. She in turn cranks up the verbal abuse until once again Naoto is fighting back tears. This time, when he says she doesn’t have to “take it so far”, Nagatoro clearly regrets doing so and apologizes.

Then she changes gears by insisting he give her the shut-down smack, but he’s a little too forceful this time, and his arm ends up smacking against her chest. So he definitely has some work to do . But the bottom line is, even if she’d prefer to tease him at her leisure, she wants him to fight back against others. To her, there’s a clear distinction between their particular “thing” they have, and everyone else.

Episode 3 “Senpai” Count: 36 (+3 “Paisens”)
Total: 130

Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro – 02 – Vampire’s Kissu

This second outing’s segments add more nuance, context, and even turnabout to what was largely a one-sided, antagonistic first episode. For one thing, Nagatoro doesn’t make her senpai cry once! Still, in the stinger, she upsets his zen-like art room calm by hula-hooping in, a veritable Tazmanian Devil of energy.

Nagatoro playfully invites him to find the right moment to jump into the hoop with her, but when he actually tries to do so, ends up accidentally catching a glimpse of her underwear. It showed that she’s not always certain or prepared for how her senpai will respond to her teasing…which is clearly part of the fun for her.

When Naoto buys the newest issue of Big Boob Vampires, Nagatoro catches him making a lewd face. I’m not sure what Naoto was thinking even bringing such a book to school, let alone whipping it out in a room Nagatoro frequents, but after a physical stalemate she embarrasses him with dirty talk and snatches it away.

But here’s the twist: while BBV definitely has some pervy bits, it turns out she genuinely loves vampire stuff, and agrees with him that it’s pretty well written! This builds on her harsh but constructive criticism of senpai’s own manga, but also confirms the two have a shared interest.

When the electricity of the school goes out all too conveniently, a tomato juice-sipping Nagatoro starts to ponder what it would be like to be a vampire, showing Naoto her larger-than-average canines and insisting he let her bite his neck. When she mounts him, he says others might get the wrong idea about “things and stuff”, but it’s his post-yakisoba garlic breath that gets her off him.

Within seconds, she pounces on him again, but awkwardly, and her hand lands right on his crotch. For once, Nagatoro is precisely as flustered as Naoto, as she definitely didn’t mean to put her hand there. But she makes lemonade with crotch-grabbing lemons by congratulating Senpai: he got “accidentally lucky”, just like the MC of BBV!

On their walk home (during another lovely sunset) Nagatoro slowly lurks and stews behind Naoto, asks if it was the first time he was “touched”…as it was most likely the first time she touched. She gets in position to grab him again, only to go for his ribs before bidding him goodbye.

As he tries to read the vampire manga at home, his real-life interactions with Nagatoro that day intrude upon his thoughts. She may not have actually bitten his neck or drank his blood, but she’s gotten under his skin for sure…as if he were in thrall to a vampire.

The next day, Nagatoro interrupts his drawing session to play a game to determine if they can guess the precise location of one another’s nipples. There’s a funny cutaway to her in traditional archer’s garb hitting two bullseyes, followed by swirling her fingers around his nipples.

She doesn’t expect Naoto to even try to do the same to her, but he does agree to try, and the closer he gets to her, the more nervous she gets, until she gets a text alert and runs out of there. Naoto can’t see her face as she leaves, but she’s clearly flustered again; her tomfoolery getting her in over her head once more.

The final segment represents the first time since Nagatoro and her three friends were introduced that Naoto was observing her without her being aware, meaning he gets to see a different side of her. This time, she arrives at the same family restaurant he’s working on his manga, joined by one of her girlfriends and two guys. It’s clear her friend is trying to set her up with one or both of them.

Naoto stays hidden, and watches with relish, expecting Nagatoro to tear both guys a new one. But to his shock, she doesn’t tease either of them; rather, she firmly puts each of them in their place: the first guy for being a pretentious musician, and the second guy for bringing up groping a girl’s boobs when they’ve just met.

Nagatoro’s friend is disappointed she scared them off, but as Nagatoro says, “it’s just that those guys are boring.” Meaning she saw no point in messing with them. You could say that just as Naoto is in her thrall, when it comes to having fun with a boy, no one but her thrall will do.

As he walks home, bathed in gorgeous purple and pink light, Naoto ponders what looks to be a very distinct possibility Nagatoro toys with no one but him. Right on cue, Nagatoro appears and slaps him on the back, asking what’s up. Thankfully, she never noticed he was at the family restaurant. I wouldn’t have particularly liked that, since there would’ve been no way to tell if she’d adjusted her behavior knowing he was watching.

Instead, Naoto got the real unvarnished Nagatoro. She begins by teasing him for his unique and “creepy” silhouette, then goes on calling him “squiggly”. It seems like he’s about to ask her why she only toys with him, but decides not to, and she just calls him gross over and over as he denies it and tells her to stop.

I thought this was an improvement on the first episode, as some of Nagatoro’s pranks backfire, while she inadvertently demonstrated that the only guy she seems to pay any attention to is him. It may rarely be the kind of attention he wants, but there’s no doubt that their time together is never dull.

Episode 2 “Senpai” Count: 43
Total: 94

Overlord II – 12 – The Truth Can Be Surprising

Momon, embracing his role as protector of his adventurer brethren and fights off Demiurge, who also takes on the alias Jaldabaoth for the purposes of this pageant.

Witnessing Momon fight to protect her, Evileye is impressed to the point of fascination, becoming smitten with one of the few warriors she’s met who is actually stronger than her. However, she comes to be disappointed in how Momon ultimately decides to hold her: less like a princess, more like baggage.

The “Tuare” Climb & Co. rescue turns out to be Succulent in disguise, a trick that the warriors didn’t fall for. Zero, last of the Six Arms, shows up to occupy Brain, so Climb and the other guy fight Sucky, with the other guy showing Climb that in situations like this it’s okay to fight dirty. Climb takes the advice to heart by delivering a vicious kick to Succulent’s succulents.

Just when Brain and Zero are ready to get serious, Sebas arrives with the real Tuare, lets Zero (highly skeptical the old guy took out all of his comrades without taking a scratch)  take his shot (utterly ineffective) and ends him with one kick. The only mark against the fight is that he got blood on his attire.

With Sebas’ part of the mission a success, we return to Momon, Evileye and Demiurge, the latter of which retreats so he can set up a wall of fire in the capital, presumably to show the city who’s boss—though if he’s doing it with an alias and not in Nazarick’s name I fail to see how it serves the Tomb; I thought the point was to teach Eight Fingers a lesson?

Reagrdless, once that wall of fire is up, Momon decides to join Evileye, the Blue Rose, Brain, Climb, and a mess of other adventurers, all under command of Princess Renner, who sets up a battle plan, briefs her troops, and sends them out to fight the demons within the otherwise harmless wall set up by “Jaldabaoth.”

Renner stays behind in the palace, revealing to her brother and the Marquis her true plan, while showing her true, demented face: she’s counting on Climb dying so Lakyus can ressurect him, a process that will make him as weak as a newborn kitten, necessitating constant attention and care. And Renner intends to take good care of him.

Darling in the FranXX – 09

Poor Goro. The girl he’s coming to understand that he has feelings for has only ever had eyes for Hiro, whom Goro also likes and values as a person. Yet Goro is better at reading Ichigo’s often wildly shifting moods, and since becoming partners his affection for her has only increased.

Meanwhile, he must stand back and watch Ichigo stand back and watch Hiro get along so well with Zero Two. Ichigo and Goro are the “losers” in this love triangle, as neither has the attention of the person they want. But only Goro has a constant reminder of that staring him in the face: the hair clip Ichigo wears is identical to one he was going to give her; Hiro simply gave her one first.

Since he’s very new to all these feelings, now that he knows them he knows how long they’ve lasted, but he can’t resent or hate Hiro, even though Hiro is oblivious to Ichigo’s feelings. But the time for being silent about his feelings is over. Whether it’s uncomfortable for Hiro or not, Goro tells Hiro that he loves Ichigo just as Ichigo loves Hiro.

While it’s been established since they were youngins at the parasite “orphanage” that Goro and Ichigo are stronger as a duo, Goro’s one flaw as a Stamen is that he’ll always put Ichigo first and himself second, rather than treat the two of them as having equal value. In this regard, he loves Ichigo more than he loves himself, so when a Klaxosaur swallows up Delphinium, Goro hits the ejection button…for Ichigo alone.

The parasites are ordered back to base to regroup, and Nana and Hachi make it clear that the priority moving forward is protecting the Plantation from the Klax, even if it means leaving Goro to die. He did, after all, dig his own grave by ejecting his Pistil; he cannot pilot Delph without her.

When Ichigo wakes up from ejection blackout, she’s furious with everyone; from her squad mates for turning tail to Goro for being so stupid and selfish. She wants to know why he did this, but it’s blindingly obvious to Miku. She gives Ichigo a piece of her mind, saying how Goro has always looked out for her and tempered the volatility in her persona that has always threatened to compromise her leadership (Zorome sheepishly slinks away during their exchange).

The parasites have their orders, which do not prioritize saving Goro, but Ichigo is allowed to contact Goro, who is slowly running out of power and air, stuck in a relatively harmless part of the Klaxosaur but unable to move Delphinium. Ichigo’s exchange is more of a scolding, for Goro never leaning on her a little and taking everything on himself.

When Zero Two mentions a way for a parasite to enter the area of the Klax where Goro is trapped, Goro’s punishment for his “selfishlessness” is for the very person he aimed to save—Ichigo—to go right back in there to save him. It’s a quick and thrilling sequence as Argentea gives a boost to Strelitzia—carrying Ichigo in her palm—and then tosses her down the gullet of the Klaxosaur.

As she passes through the hazardous layers of fuel, Goro reminices on how he first met, befriended, and fell for Ichigo—when she decided to stand and fight bullies beside him. They’ve always worked better together…ejecting her went against that.

While he regrets never having the opportunity to tell Ichigo how he really feels, he takes solace in the fact that he’ll at least take the Klax out with him by self-destructing Delphinium.

He comes oh-so-close to turning the dial when Ichigo bursts in to the rescue, flashing the same peace sign she did when they first teamed up years ago.

She takes her position, Delphinium wakes up, and they blast out of the Klax, leaving the remaining fuel behind to detonate and destroy the Klaxosaur in an epic explosion.

Delphinium lies inoperative and powerless, but the Klaxosaur is gone, and Ichigo and Goro are alive. While swimming to his rescue Ichigo lost the hair clip Hiro gave her, but Goro has always carried the clip he meant to give her, and finally gets to here.

Goro takes the opportunity to confess his love, but asks for nothing else in return. Ichigo’s flustered reaction is priceless, as is her thanking Goro for being her partner and willingness to let their hug last a little longer.

She could learn a thing or two from this moment, as Goro was able to say something he needed to say to the person he needed to say it to, and will no longer worry about living with regret for not doing so, or saying “I should’ve done that back then.”

Ichigo also has something to say to Ichigo, who thanks to Goro at least has a cursory knowledge of what that might be, even if he remains frustratingly dense about it. I’ll be pulling for Ichigo, as always. And please, Trigger: don’t kill her off immediately after she confesses. That would be lame.