Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san – 08

「意外と楽しいかもしれないっスね、元センパイ♡ / じゃんけんしましょう、センパイ！！」 (Igai to Tanoshii ka mo Shirenaissu ne, Moto Senpai♡ / Janken Shimashou, Senpai!!)
“That Might Actually Be Fun, Senpai ♥ / Let’s Play Rock-Paper-Scissors, Senpai!!”

Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san decides to give Nagatoro a much more difficult time as she is constantly dunked on, often by her own recklessness. While Paisen remains flustered and unable to bring himself to handle Nagatoro’s teasing, it acts as a double-edged sword for the girl as she constantly finds herself being the one that gets flustered when her plans go awry.

One interesting thing about this series is that it doesn’t hesitate to mock Nagatoro or place her in a tough spot where she ends up on the receiving end of the embarrassment. Uzaki-chan might’ve been more willing to make a fool out of its leading lady than Takagi-san, but Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san really enjoys playing with Nagatoro’s heart when things start to go haywire.

This episode in particular lays into Nagatoro from the start as other students observe her trying to ride on Paisen’s back like a horse. From there, the universe takes it upon itself to toy with Nagatoro’s heart. Whether it be from thinking her friends were getting hot and heavy with Paisen when they were extracting a splinter from his hand, or from Paisen’s positive reaction to being held back to hang out more with Nagatoro, or from a game of Janken that lead to her having to carry Paisen’s bags, this episode had its fun with giving us a more compromised Nagatoro.

It revels even further in her getting flustered and embarrassed when Paisen ends up involved in her goof-ups. With Paisen having to carry her on piggyback, his attempt to re-calibrate his positioning only led him to hoist his hands further higher up her legs, leading her to run away embarrassed. Similarly, she accidentally clicked on the FaceTime button right when she decided it’d be an awesome prank to give Paisen a phone call while she was in the bathtub.

Part of me only expected to see Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san rarely try to tease Nagatoro directly, but her suppressed crush on Paisen has been the source of much of the character’s troubles. She was able to gain some semblance of normalcy when she had a good time mocking Paisen for possibly getting held back enough that she can call him “Ex-Senpai”, but the friendly reminder that he had to take the make-up test with the rest of her friends caused almost as much ire on her behalf as the splinter mishap. There isn’t too much to say about the episode beyond this, but it was funny to see instances where Nagatoro constantly played herself.