Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san | Episode 3 Review

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Episode Three Thoughts

I saw these ‘two arcs’ in the manga, and is often the case, I am pretty happy with the animation. Especially with regards to Nagatoro’s weird obsession with not letting anyone less toy with Hachiouji. As shown when one of her friends tried interacting with Hachiouji. Nagatoro was quick to disapprove and say/do whatever possible to stop her friend from touching her Senpai. How that scene is expressed through its animation and voice acting is spot on and that’s something I liked most about the episode.

All that being said, I am still not sold on the premise of Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san. I do not think the pairing we have at the moment (Nagatoro and Hachiouji) is a strong enough to carry this anime to completion. This is in large part because episode three’s comedy was solely based on reaction. Nagatoro does something to get a reaction out of Hachiouji, then from that it opens up many avenues to go down. Obviously, there are the personalities that come into play, but, Nagatoro’s personality is a little too overpowering when we compare her to Hachiouji. Is that a good thing? In the case of episode three, yes it was a good thing. If Nagatoro didn’t show her weird obsession of wanting Hachiouji all to herself then this episode would have definitely been boring.

Since we’re still early on in the anime, you can probably tell that there is a lot of room for improvement. In terms of comedy but also in terms of characters. Hachiouji is very underdeveloped and Nagatoro is there to help him grow as a person, she’s there to help him open up. I don’t quite know the role of Hachiouji though, he’s just there, being the ultimate cringe factor.

Overall, episode three was mediocre. Nothing really blew me away. I think it has something to do with the characters, if I’m unable to connect with atleast one of them then I find myself enjoying the episode much less. Furthermore, I’ve seen and wrote lots about comedic anime over the past year, so I know when a joke, innuendo or lighthearted humour hit. I’m still searching for that in Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san and I hope that it’ll come soon. B-