Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro 2nd Attack – 12 (Fin) – Not Just a Dry Run

On a perfect, dazzling day, suddenly Naoto and Hayase are off on their first date together. When Senpai steals a glance, Hayase makes clear this is just “practice”, but I didn’t believe her for a second. Meanwhile, Gamou and Yoshi are following the couple close behind, while Hana and Sana are in hot pursuit, with Hana fanatically determined to protect Senpai’s love.

Gamou and Yoshi are worried it’s several centuries too early for Naoto’s cherry to pop, likening it to Kushana releasing a God Warrior prematurely. When there’s a dang Nausicaä reference in the first two minutes, you know it’s going to be a special episode!

Despite all the potential interference, Naoto and Hayase end up having a blast, even with Hayase constantly “docking points” for various demerits. At the same time, she takes an unironic selfie with her arm around her Senpai, and he accidentally does exactly what she wants him to do when she takes her hand in his and runs. He’s spotted her friends, but thankfully, Hana and Sana block them from following.

The dating bliss continues with Hayase messing around with tasting each other’s ice cream until their cones collide and they get the indirect kisses she was teasing about. At the dolphin show, Naoto acts super cool by keeping a splash of water from hitting Hayase, who thanks him by drying him off with a towel (she came prepared!). Also hilarious is the way Hayase mimics penguins and turtles messing with each other in how she messes with Naoto.

Their date reaches its finish with a romantic sunset walk on the beach. Hayase tallies up all of Senpai’s point deductions and additions, and comes up with 50 (out of a thousand) points, which Naoto thinks is pretty harsh. That’s when he asks what she thought of her role in this date, whereupon she says she considered it “the real thing” (as opposed to just practice).

Naoto says he never thought of it as a dry run either, phrasing that Hayase immediately jumps on, as it sounds like he wanted a “wet run”. At this point, Gamou and Yoshi are ready to stop Hayase before she “takes Paisen’s virginity”, but in a shock twist, Yoshi acts on her own for the first time in the series and stops Gamou, lest they become “cock-blockers.”

Hayase proposes one of two endings for their date, since it is for real after all: a hug or a kiss. Naoto goes the safer route, which is more than enough for Hayase as at the end of the day she’s as shy about this stuff as he is. They open their arms to each other and draw nearer, only to be interrupted by the Sunomiyas chasing her friends. Hayase then pretends she and Senpai are merely practicing judo. No one is fooled, but the moment is spoiled.

Back at school, Hayase avoids Gamou and Yoshi for a time, but at Sakura’s urging, makes up with them by inviting them to eat lunch in the clubroom with Senpai/Paisen. Hayase is mortified to find Hana feeding him a homemade lunch as an apology for following him on his date. It’s here we get perhaps Yoshi’s best one-liner: “Foie gras!”, in reference to Hana stuffing Naoto with food.

Hana offers to make his lunches all week, but Hayase puts a stop to that by declaring she’s got his lunch covered tomorrow. When she asks Senpai if that works, he brings up her morning practice and not wanting to be too much of a nuisance. This pisses Hayase off, but he’s not done: he’ll make lunch for her tomorrow, then she can make it for him the next day. Needless to say, it’s a deal!

That afternoon on their walk home, Hayase exploits the fact they’re alone again and proposes they finish the ending to their first real date. Naoto is flustered, but ultimately game. What follows is one of the warmest, most tender and heartwarming scenes I’ve seen in an anime in recent memory, which not even another utterance of “creepy” from Hayase can spoil.

Seeing the two gently come together and stay that way, and seeing how happy it makes both of them to finally be able to be this close without putting on excessive airs, is the perfect way to end the episode, and the season. It wasn’t a kiss, but it didn’t matter. I award full marks, no deductions!

Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro 2nd Attack – 11 – Almost There

After art club, Hana gets a ride on her cousin Sana’s motorcycle, and tells Sana the situation with Naoto and Hayase. Sana’s advice to Naoto is to simply follow his heart. These Sunomiyas may be a bit kooky and intense, but they’re also good people looking out for Naoto’s happiness, and their encouragement is just the kick in the bum Naoto needs to take action.

After waiting for Hayase to be done judo, the two have a perfectly nice and relaxing walk home. Along the way, Naoto finally works up the courage to vaguely ask Hayase “where she’d want to go on her day off”. Hayase can see what Naoto is getting at, but since she misses messing with him, she messes with him here, telling him places like Everest, the Amazon, and the Mariana Trench.

This almost backfires spectacularly when Naoto drops the topic and the two part ways. Naoto’s problem is he isn’t sure where she’d want to go, but when he sees a construction sign with a penguin, he remembers she wanted to see them. The South Pole is out, so…how about the Aquarium? Naoto’s “Well?” isn’t quite direct enough for Hayase, who tells him if there’s something important to say, he should say it properly.

With this, Naoto remembers Sana telling him to follow his heart, and he comes right out and asks Hayase if she wants to go the aquarium on their next break. He fully expected her to mess with him, slap him down to size, and say the word “creepy” a lot, so he’s surprised when she doesn’t do any of those things, and instead says “sure” with one of the biggest grins she’s ever mustered.

Now it’s official: Naoto and Hayase are going to go out together. Even then, when announcing to an extremely ecstatic Hana of their plans, he says “it’s not really a date, we’re just hanging out.” Like hell! Hana knows better, and as someone who has never experienced love but is rooting for Naoto all the way, she pretty much gets him to accept it’s a date worthy of hearty congratulations.

Hayase is out of it too, and Gamou and Yoshi witnessing her being hyper and “freaking out” to just plain spacing out. When they ask her if she wants to visit Paisen in the club room since they’re done practice early, she says no; she’ll save seeing him for their date instead. Shocked, Gamou and Yoshi see her look in her eyes and believe that she is after Paisen’s virginity.

That night, we get twin scenes of Naoto and Hayase working out what they’ll want to wear. Naoto’s mom doesn’t bother him, but Anetoro can’t help but mess with Hayase, telling her to wear something sexier. All I could think is that after nearly two full seasons of circling one another, these two dopes are finally going to have an honest-to-God, no-holds-barred date.

The big day arrives, and the two have no trouble meeting up—Naoto in subdued but sufficiently un-dorky duds, and Hayase in an oversized tee, jean shorts and red kicks. Hayase starts messing with him almost immediately—not that he minds—but little do they know they’re being tailed by Gamou and Yoshi, who are determined to protect Paisen’s chastity.

Little to Gamou and Yoshi know that they’re being watched by Hana and Sana on the latter’s bike, determined to stop the two “demons” from ruining Naoto’s date. If this show knows what’s good for it, it had better deliver a lovely and adorable date with minimal problems that may or may not end with some kind of kiss. It has that one job next week. Don’t let me down!

Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro 2nd Attack – 08 – A Beautiful Throw

Naoto is sick of still-lifes, and wants to draw another portrait—Nagatoro specifically. She cycles through a number of martial arts poses until she gets to one specific one Naoto likes. It’s a judo pose, but Nagatoro seems self-conscious about it. Later, her friends come in, see the pose, and Nagatoro flees, not willing to tell Naoto what it means.

Gamou and Yoshi tell Naoto he should work out more; this is borne out during his judo club, when he’s annihilated in every match. Gamou gives him a flyer from her family gym, which features not only a photo of her, but also Nagatoro fighting. When Naoto sees that Nagatoro saw him “fight” and was thoroughly unimpressed, he decides to go for it.

Mind you, he arrives at the gym without telling Nagatoro, and ends up seeing her in the middle of MMA sparring with Gamou. For someone always barging into the art club room while he’s doing his thing, she’s awfully sensitive about him basically pulling the exact same thing on her!

When Naoto comes right out and tells Nagatoro he knows he sucks and judo but wants to get better, and asks if she’ll teach him, she runs off and returns with a white tunic for him. They get down to it, and Nagatoro relishes the opportunity to tussle around and pin her senpai—though her technique is so solid, he ends up committing a cardinal sin and calls her “heavy”. Not cool, Naoto!

Nagatoro is, as she says, “dainty”, which puts her at a disadvantage in MMA where mass and reach are more important. Naoto watches Gamou punch and kick her from great distance, before Nagatoro borrows a move from judo, draws in, and subjects Gamou to an epic throw. It’s notable that Nagatoro is also beaming from ear to ear when she does this.

On their way home, there’s little to no usual teasing. Instead, Naoto asks Nagatoro about judo again, and she actually opens up a bit, using her normal voice to talk about how she was once really into it but got frustrated with her physical limitations that kept her from beating the biggest and best.

Before they part ways, Naoto does her a solid at tells her the truth: her judo throw on Gamou was beautiful. He’s basically telling her she’s beautiful, so of course she runs of flustered to all heck!

A part of Nagatoro clearly still loves judo, so I wonder if Naoto will be able to convince her to participate in the same tournament he’s in and rekindle her passion. As for him, thanks to Gamou and Yoshi Sana finds out that he’s trying to get better at judo, and volunteers her services. She’s as pushy as Nagatoro, and isn’t wearing anything under her tunic to boot!

Nagatoro gets there just in time to see Sana burying Naoto’s face in her ample bosom, and briefly manifests the same powers of electricity as Lum, Uesaka Sumire’s Urusei Yatsura character. But it’s Naoto who tells Sana thanks but no thanks, he wants Nagatoro to teach him. That makes Nagatoro happy, and elicits a proud smile from Sana.

Then, Sana meets with a mini-Sana outside. Even with Naoto’s senpai done with exams and school, it looks like a new Sunomiya is about to enter his school life…and perhaps even give Nagatoro more healthy competition!

Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro 2nd Attack – 07 – Ski ga Kirei

Naoto has decided he wants to try ditching his frames for contacts, but after failing to get them in the previous night, he gives up. When Hayase spots the box, she immediately volunteers to put them in for him. A few “is it in yet?” double entendres later, and Naoto is seeing the world—and Hayase—clearly without frames for the first time. When Hayase puts on his frames and flusters him, we learn he’ll do his glasses-straightening tic regardless of whether he’s wearing them.

Ditching the frames means he’s able to do more energetic activities, like skiing. As luck would have it, he and his guy friends are at the same ski slope as Hayase and her friends. The difference is, Hayase and her friends are much better at skiing and snowboarding. That hardly matters to Hayase, who invites her senpai to join him, aweing his friends by being so friendly with one of the “popular girls”.

But again, Naoto is bad, even on the beginner slope Hayase normally wouldn’t bother with. That said, she relishes the opportunity to teach him, and when he steers himself into the sides, creating a sequence of Snow Naotos, she doesn’t laugh but shows genuine concern for his progress, which is slow and, at least to him, not very noticable despite her pointers.

That night, when Naoto and his friends expect to be done with skiing, they spot the popular girls (and guys) going out for night skiing. Again Hayase invites him to join her, but he passes, citing sore legs. Hayase is clearly disappointed but respects his choice and leaves. Gamou and Yoshi then gang up on him, asking him if he’s sure, and he explains he doesn’t want to slow Hayase down from having fun. The other girls assure him that Hayase going at her own pace is not the point.

Naoto suits up and heads out, surprised he’s suddenly gotten into something like skiing, which he wouldn’t expect of himself had he not met Hayase. As he’s practicing, a younger skiier loses control and careens towards a tree. Naoto forgets all his hang-ups and skis beautifully in order to catch the guy before he injures himself.

Hayase saw him do this, and I’m sure she thought it was pretty cool. She’s also surprised to hear him ask her upfront if she’ll keep teaching him, which is, of course, what she wants to do on that slope more than anything. When she notices he’s always looking down at his feet, she skis a bit ahead of him and tells him to keep his eyes on her.

A backlit Hayase, with her black hair shimmering and snow-dappled trees behind her, makes for an undoubtedly arresting sight. Unfortunately, Naoto is overconfident the next morning, and when Hayase tells her friends to watch how far he’s progressed, he faceplants into the side once more.

Back at school, Sana tells Naoto that she got into art school, which was totally expected but something for which Naoto congratulates her nonetheless. Sana then asks her kohai what he plans to do, and he says with a level of confidence that surprises her that he’s going to try for art school too. She chalks up this confidence to “the cat-eared girl’s” influence.

Naoto denies this, but in his head, he looks back at the year he’s known and hung out with Hayase, and concludes that she really has influenced him. But even after all this time, there’s still so much he doesn’t know about her, and wants to know, like what plans she might have for the future.

Maybe he can apply his newfound assertiveness to keep cutting through her teasing smokescreen and ask her about serious things like that. I think if he does, he’ll find she’ll be quite happy to tell him.

Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro 2nd Attack – 03 – Tortoise and the Bunny Girl

This is a week of Naoto taking the initiative, which is progress! When Hayase heads to her homeroom for girl talk with her friends, she leaves her phone in the art clubroom. Rather than wait for her to come back, she heads down to the first-years’ hall and even asks one of them where Nagatoro’s classroom is.

It dawns on him he doesn’t know her first name beyond the “Hayacchi” nickname, but that’s enough for the girl to point him in the right direction. Unfortunately, when Hayase comes in with Sakura and two other friends, he panics, hides in the broom closet, and inadvertently eavesdrops.

It’s there where he hears Hayase reluctantly tell her friends that “her type” is someone she likes hanging out with. Someone…like Naoto? He ends up banging the side of the closet, and he’s lucky Hayase goes to check it out, distracts her friends, and gets him out of there.

Hayase thanks Naoto, but says he was being “actually creepy” in a very stern tone…and she’s right! Accident or not, Naoto shouldn’t be hiding in the broom closet of her classroom while she’s engaged in girl talk! This also pretty much confirms that when she says “creepy” and words like it, most of the time she doesn’t mean it.

Naoto wants to impress Hayase for once, so he actually practices running in preparation for the next school marathon. Unfortunately, he twists his ankle the night before, but it feels good enough to run the next day. That’s when Hayase and her friends catch up to him and challenge him to a race.

When the girls watch Sana running in bunny girl cosplay as performance art, they decide that they’ll help the tortoise (Naoto) beat the hare by giving him a boost. The train gets separated at a crosswalk, but Hayase and Naoto continue on their own.

When Naoto’s ankle barks at him again, Hayase can tell what’s up, and decides right then and there she’s not going to leave Senpai behind. She supports him and they walk in each others’ arms. When the pain gets worse, she insists he let her carry him on her back.

Naoto is impressed how far the tiny Hayase is able to carry him, but it becomes clear that even a “twiggy string bean” like him is a bit too much weight. Fortunately, Hayase’s pals meet back up, and propose a cavalry formation, with Paisen as the rider.

The combined strength of the four girls is enough to catch up to Sana. When she kicks into another gear, Yoshi takes point and makes herself big so the others are in her slipstream. They end up beating Sana to the finish, but are promptly disqualified for not running separately.

Nevertheless, it’s a wholesome and heartening exercise in which Hayase and her pals help Naoto out without any teasing, bullying, or insults. They’re just having fun out there!

Naoto’s final instance of taking the initiative is when Hayase doesn’t visit the club room for two straight days. Curious about her whereabouts (and apparently unable to message her) he asks Gamou and Yoshi, who are surprised he’s approaching them on his own for the first time.

They tell him Hayacchi has a cold, then do him a solid by handing him printouts to deliver. When no one answers the doorbell, Naoto worries Hayase is in dire straits and peeks in the window. As with delivering her phone to her classroom, good intentions lead to more “actually creepy” behavior.

This time he’s caught not by Hayase…but by her big sister! She snaps a photo and threatens to report him to the police, but he tells her he’s from Hayase’s school and has brought her printouts and a gift, the sister softens her stance, now that she’s finally in the presence of “the Senpai.” Clearly, she’s heard a bit about him!

Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro 2nd Attack – 02 – Her Favorite Animal

Sana-senpai pays Naoto a visit for the first time since the art festival, and suggests he go the zoo to reignite his passion for drawing, reminding him that love is the most important aspect of art. Hayase only catches the tail end of the conversation, in which Sana orders him to make Hayase “come with him.” She googles “zoo date” on her phone and gets super excited.

An awkward battle of wills ensues, in which Hayase blushes and eagerly awaits a proper invitation, and Naoto attempts the most roundabout, least propositional way to invite her. Eventually the right combination of words comes out of his mouth, enabling Hayase to say what she would have said no matter how he asked her: Yes.

When Hayase meets Naoto at the zoo, it looks every bit like the proper date, but she didn’t realize he invited her so they could draw animals. She’s initially grumpy, but when he offers to walk around with her instead, she decides to make lemonade. It’s also an opportunity to tease him into teaching her “hand-in-hand”, but she eventually get serious and has fun drawing.

Hayase’s drawings aren’t nearly as precise and realistic as Naoto’s, but they have an essential charm to them (like Hayase herself), and Naoto is honest when he tells her she’s getting much better, which brightens her up to no end. When she goes to the washroom, Naoto is approached by two annoying “it” people who start laughing at Hayase’s drawings. Naoto gets up and speaks up for Hayase, saying it’s wrong to laugh at people doing their best.

This only incurs the guy’s irritation, but before things get nasty Hayase comes to the rescue, asking what exactly the couple wants with his senpai. While she then tosses a flurry of insults at him for being such a wimpy wimp, the truth is she overheard him defending her, which truly touched her and led to her wanting to protect him that much more.

Before they leave for the day they agree to one more animal drawing. Naoto asks what Hayase’s favorite is, and she points to a sloth enclosure. But while Naoto draws the sloth up close, Hayase sketches further away, revealing that she was actually drawing him.

Naoto is sore about her teasing him once more, but on closer inspection he determines that while it’s not the best drawing, it’s drawn with care, further reinforcing Sana’s words about love being the most important element of art.