The first episode in season 2 ofDon’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatorostarts with a new duo of romantic leads andseems like an entirely different rom-com altogether, only for the veil to be lifted and reveal that it was the manga Senpai was reading. Shame on the creators for teasing viewers with a funny manga they can’t get their hands on. Nagatoro bursts into the room and interrupts Senpai as he’s reading, but he’s quick enough to hide the book behind his back. She takes a seat and asks Senpai his opinion of her new loafers. Nagatoro sees the book behind Senpai’s back, and he excuses it with the age-old claim “I heard itwas getting an anime adaptation, so I bought it out of curiosity.” Who hasn’t been there? Nagatoro doesn’t tease him for it but instead mentions how close she feels to the protagonist Ai-chan. She claims Senpai would get teary-eyed if he was teased like the character in the story, but he disagrees and says someone he knows teases him worse instead.
This catches Nagatoro’s interest, and she convinces him toengage in some light teasingbased on the scenarios in the manga. He agrees, but he has no idea what’s really in store. She pulls up a more recent chapter that he hasn’t read and dares him to go through with some “shoe-licking” play. He recoils in shock before she pretends to spill some water on her loafer. In anime fashion, he accidentally knocks a drop of water from the bottle onto one of her loafers. It catches them both off-guard for a moment. Senpai gets to his knees and just as Nagatoro thinks he’s about to call her bluff, he wipes her loafer with a napkin instead. She thanks him awkwardly andhe awkwardly downplays it.
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No Such Thing as a Normal Greeting
On Senpai’s walk to school, he sees Nagatoro walking ahead of him and considers being the one to get her attention instead of the other way around. Then, he reconsiders putting himself in such a troublesome situation and hides behind a pole, but Nagatoro appears behind him and so begins the noodle-armed teasing.
As they walk, she teases him about being a creep and letting him off easy instead of calling the police on him. He admits that he considered talking to her since he noticed her, and she appreciates his natural authenticity. She offers to teach him how to talk to people. She shows him five different types of greetings, most of thempretty aggressive and visibly painful. Yet, the last one is a hug that leaves his heart pounding and that just leaves him open to more teasing.
After they keep walking, Senpai imagines how Nagatoro might respond if he actually patted her on the head or hugged her. Not paying attention as he walks, he trips over a curb in the path and clumsily lands on her in an awkward position. He jumps back and apologizes, but she’s so embarrassed she thrusts him backward into the path ofher friends who suddenly appear. Before he hits the ground, Nagatoro’sfriend Yoshi bounces himback into Nagatoro’s arms. The girls invite Nagatoro to the culture festival after-party, and she invites Senpai.
Girl’s Fashion Is All About Grit
After school, Senpai draws in the art club while Nagatoro lounges on the club couch. Feeling cold in the room, she decides to wear tights. Senpai is surprised to see she has tights since he didn’t see her as the type to wear them, and he assumed girls were less prone to being coldsince many of the schoolgirlswear skirts. She points out that girl’s fashion is all about grit, but sometimes they want warmth too.
As Senpai thinks back to being so used to seeing Nagatoro without tights, he offhandedly says “you gotta do what you gotta do.” By the time he realizes Nagatoro’s caught the slight air of acquiescence in his voice, it’s too late, and shelaunches into a teasing tirade.
She teases him for being disappointed and dares him to help her put her tights on if he isn’t obsessed with her legs. With his pride at stake, he rises to the challenge. She teases him for his hesitation and as he pushes forward, he does start to get lost in the process. He’s only pulled out of the moment when he notices Nagatoro make an awkward sound and then try to cover it up with a clearly fake cough.
As he continues, they both become shy and awkward until hegoes a little too far, prompting Nagatoro to lock his hand in a sandwich grip and yell out that she’ll finish it herself. After the tights are on, Gamo texts Nagatoro to let them know the other girls are ready to head to the culture festival after-party at a conveyor belt sushi spot.
Sushi Deserves Respect
As Senpai sits with the girls at the sushi spot, the girls entertain each other and Senpai thinks to himself about how he feels out of place. Nagatoro interrupts his train of thought to ask for a piece of sushi from the belt. This opens the floodgate for everyone to toss out their requests at Senpai. As he grabs request after request, he realizes that his seat is the so-called “slave’s seat” and he’ll be stuck being the sushi gopher for the whole meal.
After he silently resigns himself to his role, Nagatoro sees how hard he’s working and gets him a piece of sushi. She proclaims she’ll treat him for the day since he worked so hard at the festival, and she asks the others to treat him with respect for the day. They agree and Senpai realizes that he might’ve been wrong about their intentions for inviting him.
The girls all prepare original sushi combos for Senpai, with Nagatoro peeping it the whole time and getting more annoyed with each subsequent treat senpai praises. But Senpai really can’t be blamed. The sushi all looked next-level good. The trend continues of anime food looking better than food in real life.
Nagatoro decides to make one of her own, a special “preggers sushi”, that the other girls all turn on her for. Admittedly, Nagatoro disrespected the sushi, and such acts of sacrilege can not stand. Feeling bad for her, Senpai tries it and praises that one too. It lightens the mood again, and they all goback to enjoying themselves.
If the rest of the second season ofDon’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatorodelivers as this episode did, then it can be a great season. The episode had plenty of light humor with some slight give and take to the relationship between Nagatoro and her Senpai. It’s easy to see that the events between them up to this point have added a new dynamic to their interactions. Senpai is less passive and rises to Nagatoro’s teasing. Nagatoro teases him plenty, but she also has her own jealous moments as well as moments when she shows him kindness and appreciation. Consider the fans excited for whatever comes next!
