Teasing Master Takagi-san (2017)
[からかい上手の高木さん]
Volume 5
Author/Artist: Soichiro Yamamoto
Publisher: Gessan Shounen Sunday Comics Special
Synopsis:
In the future, the former Miss Takagi reflects on her middle school days with her daughter.
Story/Characters:
We open with a flash-forward some years in the future with Takagi looking at her school album with her daughter Chi. This serves as the jumping-off point for the spinoff series Teasing Master (Former) Takagi-san. I do appreciate that the subject of her trolling this time around is the audience.
We jump back to the good ol' days where Nishikata runs into Takagi at the mall and he tries to hide the fact that he bought the latest volume of the shoujo manga he likes. She then has him go with her to pick out a swimsuit, and if that isn't embarrassing enough for him, Mano and Nakai show up on the same errand. We then have the school running a marathon and, as you'd expect, Nishikata has to turn it into a challenge with Takagi. Next, a confounding choice at the vending machine gives Nishikata the brilliant idea to try to give Takagi a hard time by posing difficult hypotheticals. It gets turned around on him, of course, as the series isn't called Teasing Master Nishikata-kun. We continue with our vending machine theme a bit as our next chapter has Nishikata trying to show how grown up he is by getting a coffee. You can imagine how well the effort goes. Next up, we have a typhoon rolling in and Nishikata goes a little chuuni when he thinks no one's looking. (Someone was looking, and we all know who.) After that, Nishikata tries to scare Takagi with a horror website. In our next outing, Nishikata thinks he has the power of the stars on his side to score a critical hit (due to a favorable horoscope, that is). Will he actually succeed for a change? I'll let the ending of this one be a surprise for you.
Art:
Although she hasn't changed all that much, it's interesting to see Takagi as an adult. The reactions are always great, particularly with the typhoon chapter. The horrific transformation of the goat in the scary vid shows Yamamoto has the potential to venture into darker territory if he ever gets tired of doing heartwarming slice of life.
Other:
We get an omake comic of Takagi giving Nishikata Valentine's chocolate, with a side of teasing, of course.
Conclusion:
Not that the quality has ever dipped thus far, but we get a lot of nice chapters in this volume. I particularly like the glimpse into the future. Just as it's no surprise that Nishikata's efforts to get one over on Takagi are doomed to fail, no one's heart is going to skip a beat from shock when I say you should add this one to the collection.
Rating:
Own It