Teasing Master Takagi-san – J-drama Episode 1 Recap & Review

The Sunset

Episode 1 of Teasing Master Takagi-san begins with Takagi greeting Nishikata on their way to school. He recalls how she always teases him and decides it is finally time for him to get his revenge.

He plants a DIY Jack-in-the-box in his pencil box to scare her. But she does it first and he even gets scared. When she forgets her eraser he lends her his. He again falls for her prank when she claims his eraser mentions his crush’s name but it turns out to be empty. He also notices that she has had her eraser the whole time.

When she gets to the washroom, he decides to write a fake name on her eraser. But he sees that it already has a name – Roukamiro which turns out to be “look in the hallway” and he sees her laughing in the hallway. But what he doesn’t know is that there is a real name on the back of the eraser that he missed. 

The next class happens to be art class and they have to draw each other. They have a moment before she teases him for staring at her and he points out that they need to draw each other. 

Even while walking home, she riles him as she refuses to believe that he can run to the coast and he runs to prove it while she heads home. He sends her a photo of the coast once he reaches and she thanks him for the sunset which annoys him. She asks him if that isn’t what he wants to show and he is shocked to see her in person. She gives him water while thanking him for running to the coast for her. She is happy she got to share the view with him and he is flustered but happy.

She tries to give him a ride home on her cycle but he refuses. Once she pokes fun that he can’t pedal for two unlike the last man who had given her a ride, he agrees and takes her home.  She later reveals that the man is just her father. At home, we see that the back of her eraser says Nishi at the end of Teasing Master Takagi-san Episode 1.

The Episode Review

Teasing Master Takagi-san Episode 1 is super cute and adorable as it establishes the dynamic between Takagi and Nishikata really well. It takes all the right moments from the manga to set up the premise while also explaining the show for newcomers making it easy for fans and non-fans alike to watch. The J-drama is pretty easygoing and from what we can gather, it is going to be like your usual episodic rom-com J-dramas. 

As for the live adaptation confusion, it seems to have been cleared up with the premiere of the TV series. The J-drama will most likely follow incidents from the first half of the manga, Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san which focuses on the middle-school years of Takagi and Nishikata. The movie which has the same name will release in May and will focus on the characters 10 years later when they are adults.

Check out the interview of Monster’s director and cast which includes Kurokawa Souya who plays Nishikata in Teasing Master Takagi-san.