A few seasons ago, Uzaki-chan was the talk of the town. In case you don’t remember, she was the little short girl with short white hair sporting a bratty attitude and a shirt that read “SUPER HUGE” on her super huge boobs. Her body proportions even caused a bit of controversy. Oooh, scary. The anime itself was alright though, a pretty fun little comedy ride. When I saw Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san! airing this season I immediately thought “oh okay, this is gonna be a similar situation where we have some annoying but somehow loveable bitchy girl dicking around with the MC” based on the description and cover art. After the first episode, I was checking the damn genre tags to try and piece together what the hell I just watched.
According to AniChart, it’s listed as a comedy romance. Now I don’t know about any of you who’ve seen it, but I didn’t laugh once the entire first episode. That shit was so uncomfortable at times I thought I was watching a horror anime disguised as a comedy. Let me put some more context. Uzaki-chan is an immature little gremlin, but the series plays it off very lightheartedly. Sure her and the MC get into fights over dumb shit, but it’s usally meant for laughs and the characters end up growing closer after the argument is over. In this anime? Well, the episode begins by Nagatoro finding out that the MC draws manga. She then proceeds to mercilessly criticize it and explain to the MC why it’s the most pathetic shit he’s ever created in his life. I’ll admit, the manga DID seem trash, but still. She berates him until he starts crying (mind you he’s clearly set up to be a bullied, socially awkward boy) and then seems to… relish in wiping his tears??? Okay, okay. I was confused, but I wasn’t ready to send an email to AniChart stating to change the tag to “Psychological”. Weird start, but I’m gonna keep watching.
Just a screenshot from a regular down-to-earth romcom!
Twice. Oh my fucking god, she did it twice. In the second half of the episode, she asks our MC to draw a portrait of her in the art room and if he does well she’ll give him a “reward” (lewdness implied). The MC’s main passion is art so he feels compelled to do good and prove her wrong about his art and manga. He draws a pretty decent portrait in my book, and Nagatoro plays into it at first saying it was pretty good and that he earned his reward. She tells him to close his eyes so of course our boy is like “oh shit, is it kiss time?”. Sike, my gamer friends. Nagatoro insults the shit out of him for thinking he could EVER get a kiss from her, then insults his portrait saying it was hot garbage because he can’t draw thighs. My boy breaks down and starts crying again and it was at this moment I stared at the screen asking myself what the actual hell I was watching. Is this going to be a regular thing? Watching a boy get bullied and cry every episode?
Twice in one damn day? Not the wombo combo...
Uzaki-chan had quite the similar plot to this anime, yet the feeling was drastically different. The comedy and romance aspects were clear as day. With Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san! I’m not sure either aspect was apparent at all in the first episode. I’m not above the three episode rule though so I’ll see if the next few establish the tone in a different direction or if things stay this spicy. Is Nagatoro going to be popular this season? Are you watching this anime? Leave a comment below, but don’t make us cry!
