English Dub Review: Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san “Calligraphy / Seasonal Change of Clothing / Pool”

From the school room to the swimming pool, Takagi and Nishikata can’t help but tease one another.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Nishikata and Takagi-san continue their teasing war throughout the school day, from calligraphy class to the swimming pool.  In the second episode, Takagi’s tricks often involve more mind games than outright prank-ery. No matter the situation, Nishikata keeps trying in vain to one-up his schoolmate.

Our Take:

Karakai doesn’t mix things up in episode two. It’s more of the same: two kids competing to out-tease each other. Seeing how they transform everyday school activities into opportunities for playful pranking sure is fun, though. In Calligraphy class, for example, they each write down what they want from each other. Takagi writes that she wants Nishikata to continue being an amazing teasing target, while Nishikata writes that she should try being a little more kind. (The actual assignment was to write ‘something you want’, leading to a cute overview of the kids’ various answers, which range from ‘winning a lawsuit’ to ‘grilled meat’.)

Frankly, it’s amazing Takagi and Nishikara manage to get any learning done at all when they’re so consumed with getting in each other’s heads. At this point, Nishikata is clearly losing the battle. Scarred from all the teasing, he overthinks practically every interaction with his crush. As the show continues, I’m eager to see if it will switch things up. Perhaps by having Nishikata get one over on Takagi a few times, or by introducing more side characters. There is a group of three classmates who are featured in the OP. They seem to be getting one quick gag of their own each episode, but it’d be nice to see them interact and get mixed-up in the main storyline with our leads.

The English dub is still very well-done, with Sarah Wiedenheft and Aaron Dismuke doing a great job selling the dynamic between their characters. The scriptwriter did their best with the calligraphy scene as well, making it easy to understand for an audience that can’t read Japanese calligraphic characters.

All in all, the show is delivering quality jokes with cute character moments… and I’m definitely shipping Nishikata and Takagi already. Takagi’s teasing often veers into playful flirting, but it’s tough to tell how much of it she truly means. I can’t wait to watch the show (and their relationship) continue to grow.