We’re ramping up for what promises to be the year of the middle school romcom in anime. For my money the best of the lot – Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu – is on the way, plus Suki no Ko ga Megane o Wasureta among others. As such, it’s a perfect time to slot the film for the unchallenged top dog of the subgenre commercially, Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san, into the schedule (especially because of the tie-in it has with BokuYaba). And the short answer is if you love this series, it doesn’t disappoint. It gratifies in just about every way you could hope.
I have many thoughts, above and beyond the fact that I loved the movie as an example of how to do all the things this adaptation sets out to do. If this wrecked me this much, I don’t even want to think about what BokuYaba will do to me when it (especially in anime form) reaches this sort of denouement. Above and beyond that, though – my goodness, this series has come a long way. I feel as if I know these kids like they were family. I’ve watched them grow up. If you’d told me when I started the manga that I would ever have this depth of feeling for anything Takagi-san related, I would have laughed it off as absurd. But here we are.
As I’ve said many times, I really like Yamamoto Souichirou’s manga. It’s very smart and very good at what it does, and has a genuineness about it that’s very appealing. But it can’t be overstated how much the anime has enhanced the material. Part of that of course is that it’s delivered original content that’s among the very best in the entire mythology, and that includes the movie, which by recollection is probably 90% original material. It also matters that Karakai Jouzu in particular seems to benefit from being brought to life – from movement, from music, from the human (and feline) voice.
This series also benefits from a sense of place – the manga, and the anime even more. The Shodoshima of Yamamoto’s youth is a principal character in the story, and that’s never more true than in the movie. It can be something as straightforward as the Sanae angle in the “Douyoubi” trio’s subplot – in Japan, it’s very likely that most of the friends you make in middle school will go to different high schools, but on an island like Shodoshima it’s expected that you’ll stay together. It cuts deeper, though – you can see the meaning these places had to Yamamoto (and surely still do). And even if he didn’t write this material, the movie still manages to capture that feeling in a very powerful way.
In some sense, this film is more episodic than a typical one – a chain of memories strung together loosely. That works for the occasion, however, because I think what director Akagi Hiroaki and writer Fukuda Hiroko are going for here is to evoke the feeling of remembering a summer from your childhood from a hazy distance, but with surprising clarity. It starts off on the teasing front, in fact – the eternal janken, holding your breath, et al. You might almost be lulled into believing it was going to be an extended TV episode, in fact. But the series itself often did this, starting slowly and then building to something quite powerful. It’s insidiously clever, really.
The first sign things are heading in that direction is the Mushiokuri, the summer festival for warding off harmful insects. On Shodoshima it’s held in the Nakayama area, the island’s famous terraces rice fields – a truly beautiful sight at any time, but with long trails of lantern light all the more so. I admit I couldn’t stop thinking “My God, the mosquitoes would be terrible”, but it was nevertheless detailed beautifully. The whole point of this was to see fireflies, which Nishikata knows Takagi-san had wanted to see for their supposed blessing of a relationship. That doesn’t happen (I was very pleased with the callback later, though) but Takagi does get to see Nishikata at his most chivalrous.
Nishikata is such a sweetheart, truly – he’s a complete sentimental fool, which is both why he’s so helpless against Takagi-san and why she fell in love with him. The whole incident with Hana-chan (Minase Inori) highlights this side of him. All in all it’s one of the best threads (and totally original as far as I remember) in the entire series – it touches on everything that makes this a great story in a profound and touching way. When Nishi-kun and Takagi find a month-old kitten alone at the Shrine (which is really “their place”), Hana effectively ends up being their first child together. They both fall in love with Hana of course, but also with the way their partner bonds with her. It’s quite beautiful and surprisingly heart-rending.
I was never worried that something bad was going to happen to Hana, but the way this was brought to a conclusion was terrible for my allergies. I could never have lived with the worry leaving that kitten alone outdoors every night if it had been me – one way or another I’d have gotten her safe indoors while searching for a long-term answer. What a cruel blow for this couple to have their beloved first-born taken from them, even if Hana wound up going to a good home. Again, though, Nishikata comes up big in the big moments – he grows up a little in his reaction to this tragedy, and in the process takes his relationship with Takagi-san to a place Yamamoto himself never has (unless you count Moto Takagi-san).
The outro was wonderful, of course. Fans finally got their extended Moto cameo, and the firefly story was tied back in poetically. I can take or leave Moto broadly speaking – for me Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san is a snapshot of first love and that’s how it works best. That’s really what this movie is, a time capsule of a period in life where we feel things more deeply than our adult selves could ever believe. That’s why the melancholic nature of the series – and the movie – works so beautifully. I find stories of this time in life perhaps more emotionally powerful than any other, in case you hadn’t figured that out already.
As a huge BokuYaba fan, I can’t help but be glad that Akagi-sensei and Shin-ei are in charge the adaptation. It does have a different writer than this series, but Hanada Jukki is as good as it gets with anime adaptations. As for Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san, what I said after the third season ended is even more true now – if this is where the anime chooses to leave the story, I would be completely satisfied with that. The manga is ongoing, and I’d never be unhappy to see more from this superb anime team. But it’s hard to imagine leaving NishiKagi in a better place. It all ties into that feeling of having watched them grow up, I guess – what better way to remember them could there be than this?
sonicsenryaku
January 15, 2023 at 2:43 amGlad you finally had the time to catch this one; this was for me as perfect of an “ending” to the series as you could possibly get. Like you said, what makes this series such a heartwarming effort is how it so efficaciously captures that melancholic snapshot of that period in our lives where we feel things extremely genuinely and portraying such interpersonal encounters in wholesomely affectionate and thoughtful way. Nishikata coming in to console Takagi after giving away their “newborn” and essentially telling her that he would be there to comfort her through any hardships they’ll go through going forward is as good of a marriage proposal as you’re ever gonna get with these kind of stories; just what a soul-cleansingly wonderful climax to the anime adaptation. The movie truly elevated what was already a good source material adaptation into a memorable, cathartic middle school tale; no amount of cynicism could ever convince me otherwise
Guardian Enzo
January 15, 2023 at 1:57 pmThe adaptation is a soaring triumph, a model for what every manga adaptation should aspire to. What higher goal can there be than to make the source material significantly better? All of which obviously gives me hope for BokuYaba, where the source material is significantly better to begin with.
sonicsenryaku
January 15, 2023 at 5:39 pmYour hype for BokuYaba is infectious; I’m actually thinking about checking out the manga real soon
Marty
January 15, 2023 at 7:45 amHere’s a question.
Would u have preferred it if Nishikata and Takagi never got together?
I understand as a franchising mechanism a spinoff in that direction would be an obvious winner, and I cannot deny the romantic in me would like the thought of these 2 growing up and spending their lives together.
However, when I truly stop to think about it, I feel that the better narrative and thematic route would’ve been to have them stay as childhood crushes, and eventually drift away from one another as life goes by.
I’m not saying it’s impossible, but honestly, how many of us can say we met our soul mates in Middle School?
Guardian Enzo
January 15, 2023 at 10:14 amMy answer is, “read my Tsuki ga Kirei finale post” (though only if you’ve seen the series). I go about 12 paragraphs and much of it is on that topic.
sonicsenryaku
January 15, 2023 at 5:47 pmI guess my question here would be why would it have been the better “narrative and thematic route” to have them stay as childhood crushes that eventually drift apart? For that route to have been better, the story’s tone and narrative inclinations would have needed to allude to that kind of reality or dilemma; but it show never does, hence that route would have never resonated with any of the macro and micro storytelling blueprints already established. Takagi and Nishikata just eventually drifting away given the context of everything we know so far would have felt like a subversion of the wholesome romance route just for the sake of it rather than feeling like an organic outcome of the characters’ circumstances
Rob Barrett
January 20, 2023 at 3:43 pmKimura really is the greatest wingman in anime, isn’t he?
Guardian Enzo
January 20, 2023 at 5:59 pmHe’s a hall of famer.
Jaritemmy
January 31, 2023 at 12:10 amFor a series that I initially discovered by pure chance when scrolling Twitter halfway through Season 1’s broadcast, Takagi-san was such an incredibly cute, emotional and heartwarming story that I’m glad I followed through the rest of its animated run and still keeping up with its mangas. Also, not only was it a great romcom that shows an organic and adorable take on young love, but it also made me appreciate a lot more the slice of life, more down to earth aspects of series from other genres too. Following the daily and ordinary lives of the characters can be just as exciting and immersive as drama or action heavy stories.
And yeah, the movie definitely lived up to the anime’s greatness. Sure, it initially felt like an extended episode, but once the cat showed up things really picked up for the better. The montage where the duo was raising and having fun with the cat was incredibly cute, which also increased the emotional impact of the later scenes quite a bit. There’s also a lot less teasing by that point, mostly Takagi and Nishi bonding and strengthing their relationship even further. Something else worth highlighting is the last sequence before the timeskip, which showcases how far NishiKagi have progressed as it takes places a year after the Season 2 finale, and where definitely Nishi made up for his mistakes from last time. Without even having to say the “big words”, by the end scene it’s more than clear that they’re already a couple who truly love each other. “I’ll make you happy” is a very fitting indirect love confession quote for a series like this, and it’s great that we actually got some kind of closure in that department given that the manga is still going (which has become a bit more direct with the romantic undertones lately though). Makes me wonder how the source material will eventually end after seeing the movie.
Anyway, I was also very pleased to know that the Takagi-san movie did have a brief theatrical run in parts of the Americas thanks to some anime festivals bringing it over a few months ago, which I honestly didn’t expect to happen. And it even had a showing in my home country, though the theater was way too far away from my home to safely go there. Still, it even being screened internationally at all was great, and shows just how far this little series has come. Now if only the show’s messy streaming situation gets resolved someday…
Lastly, with that amazing timeskip sequence at the very end (which was quite a bit of a subversion since most have been expecting a straightforward chapter 31 adaptation for a proper first look at the future), makes me hopeful that we’ll eventually get a Moto anime adaptation later, even as a short form miniseries. The middle school era seems to have concluded, but I think there’s still some room for a bit more of Takagi anime goodness with the spin-off. Even the VAs have expressed interest in doing that. But yeah, thanks to covering this series and hopefully your anticipated BokuYaba anime also turns out great.
Guardian Enzo
January 31, 2023 at 6:47 amThanks for that, and I agree on balance with your comments. I’m not that bothered about Moto myself, as I think it lacks most of the charm of the parent series, but I think it’s almost inevitable that it receives an adaptation eventually. The issue is, in anime terms I don’t think they want to start Moto until adaptation of the parent series has well and truly finished. Has it, with the manga ongoing? Hard to say.
AK
April 30, 2023 at 3:27 amNicely put. I was hoping to get at least a little of a Moto Takagi-san anime adaptation, maybe one season. Or maybe even just an OVA would be enough. But I think you’re right about the period being important to the feel of the series. For as many of these romantic comedies as are set in high school, Takagi-san is special partly because it has its characters right on the edge of adulthood, or at least coming out of childhood. That confession (or very close to it anyway) that Nishikata gave was a perfect development, but also a sign of serious growth, looking forward to a future with the one he loves. We should all be so lucky to have something like they do.
Guardian Enzo
April 30, 2023 at 8:35 amThanks. I’ve come to prefer middle school romcoms over HS generally for some of the reasons you mention. And also because at the moment there are just so many good ones.