Teasing Master Takagi-san Season 3

Episode 12

Wow. Given how absolutely wonderful this third season of Teasing Master Takagi-san has been, I was trying to keep my expectations as low-key as possible going into this finale. There's a shiny new theatrical release on its way, after all, so I figured that the show would save its biggest romantic revelations for the big screen. Now, it's true that we don't technically get a confession this week, so that Takagi-san movie still has some ammo left in its pocket to work with, but that doesn't prevent “March 14th” from being one of the most sweet and satisfying finales that I've ever seen in a romance anime. Even if we didn't have a movie to look forward to, and this final episode of Season 3 was the last we were ever going to see of Nishikata and Takagi, I would have walked away from Teasing Master Takagi-san feeling completely satisfied. To steal a phrase from New Girl's Schmidt: “No notes!”

First of all, it is impossible to understate how gosh darned adorable it is to see Nishikata slowly-but-surely piece together his own feelings for Takagi after Hamaguchi tries to pressure him into confessing to Takagi. At first, of course, Nishikata feels like there is no way that he feels anything other than a friendly (but fierce) rivalry towards the girl who teases him so much, and his elaborately designed “Nishikata Quest” is going to be the ultimate test of Takagi's mental fortitude against his. It's just pure, platonic friendship that is fueling Nishikata's urge to spend inordinate amounts of time arranging elaborate scavenger hunts for the girl he spends nearly every minute of his free time with…right? Sure, he does like hanging out with Takagi, and he can admit that she's pretty cute…and his heart starts to sink when he realizes she's not around to play the usual games with him in class…and he was so excited to see her face when she discovered the game-to-end-all-games that he made just for her…

That alone would have been enough to dial my heart's Melt-o-Meter™ to dangerously high levels, but then the show actually goes out of its way to bring back the sneaky love confession that Takagi gave with that book she was teasing Nishikata with all the way back in Episode 2. Nishikata learns that there certainly wasn't an oddly specific and direct love confession for Takagi to read in the text of the book, and if that was Takagi trying to stealthily communicate her true feelings for Nishikata, then maybe the dozens of other times she's pulled similar stunts have also been….

(Dear readers, let me tell you that watching the truth of it all slowly dawn on our precious idiot's face has been one of the anime highlights of the past who-knows-how-long for me. I can only thank the Anime Gods that text reviews are incapable of transmitting the embarrassing noises I was making for half of this episode).

Also, can we talk for a moment about how incredible of a boyfriend Nishikata is going to be once he realizes that he's already been dating Takagi for, like, two years now? Nishikata may have been able to fool himself into thinking that “Nishikata Quest” was nothing more than an attempt to finally one-up his lifelong rival, but you and I (and the Girl Squad!) all know that his insanely elaborate scavenger hunt is one of the most romantic gestures imaginable, and if I had just one completely petty complaint to make about “March 14th”, it is that we have to settle for watching Mina and Co. solve all of the puzzles instead of Takagi herself. Yes, I am fully aware that the sight of Takagi falling in love with Nishikata all over again as she played Nishikata Quest would likely have fully killed me, or at the very least sent me into a shock-induced coma, but dammit, that's a risk I'm willing to take! I need this, Takagi-san!

Ah well. I suppose I'll just have to settle for the utterly delightful ending scene that sees Nishikata racing after Takagi's car to make sure he can get her the traditional White Day gift on time. Could I maybe nitpick a little about how some of the running animation looks a little off, or how the general timing of the scene feels just a little bit stretched out? Sure, I could…if I was a monster that hated love and art. I am not a monster, though, so instead I will simply revel in the simple joy that comes from watching two sweet kids get one step closer to expressing how much they love each other. Sure, Nishikata might not say “I love you” in this finale, but he doesn't need to. All Takagi needs to hear is that the boy of her dreams wanted nothing more than to see her, and to give her a small token of appreciation, because she really does mean the world to him.

That's more than enough for me. Whatever comes next for Teasing Master Takagi-san is just icing on the cake. What we've got here, already, is maybe about as close to a perfect anime love story is you can get.

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Teasing Master Takagi-san Season 3 is currently streaming on HIDIVE. James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.