With the Winter 2022 season ending, many seasons draw to a close. Many notable sequels aired, such as for Shingeki no Kyojin: Final Season (Attack on Titan: The Final Season) and Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer). However, one largely looked over series is Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san.
Contrary to the more popular airing sequels, which are primarily action and drama focused, Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san, typically referred to as Takagi for short, is a romantic comedy. Based in Junior High, Takagi focuses on the interaction and relationship between Nishikata and Takagi.
The premise of Takagi is simple. Takagi finds some way to tease Nishikata, whether it be through some sort of friendly competition or verbal jab. This anthological setting gives the creators the freedom necessary to do let their subtle jokes and nuances, as well as diverge from the canon material when necessary.
The first two seasons follow a fairly linear episodic format too. There is usually a school or after school based interaction where Nishikata tries to beat Takagi in some sort of competition, loses, and gets teased. These moments are the foundation of the wholesome romance of Takagi. There is a general sense of adolescent like innocence that makes the series so endearing. However, in my opinion, the third season is a cut above the rest. It manages to take the already enjoyable premise and make it significantly better.
The third season of Takagi focuses more clearly on the romantic interests of both Nishikata and Takagi. While the previous seasons had romance as an underlying undertone, romance becomes a focal point of each episode.
This season has heaps of character development, with Takagi growing bolder by the day and Nishikata coming to realize both of their feelings. There are multiple callbacks to previous encounters, both from prior seasons and within, that make us realize that contrary to our initially thoughts, these characters do remember what they’ve gone through, and are growing from it.
The season itself follows the typical anthological slice of life format, but in two parts. That means that there are episodic moments that lead into a two to three episode plot thread. While this also happened last season, once again, these arcs allowed for immense amounts of development between the characters.
Takagi is beloved due to its fun wholesome nature. While at some points the series may seem cheap, even bordering nostalgia bait at times, it is a great watch for almost anyone looking for a simple adolescent romantic comedy.
On a slightly different note, Takagi’s voice actor, is particularly famous. Rie Takahashi, known for her roles as Megumin from KonoSuba or Emilia from my recently talked about Re:Zero, as always, does an exceptional job in the role. For some, this might be enough reason to check out the show on its own.
So TL:DR: good feel good show, romantic comedy, fun middle school nostalgia and interactions. Nine out of ten would recomend.