This review about Karakai jouzu no Takagi-san 3 contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the chapter yet, we encourage you to do so and then come back to read the review.
Chapter 11: Valentine
It’s February 14th and Nishikata receives chocolates in her locker, but not with the expected joy, but with concern that Takagi will find out, despite wanting to tell her that she’s elusive and distant, not even encouraging challenges she and Nishikata does. He tries, he even wants to lose on purpose to make her happy. It doesn’t work Three girls are looking for Nishikata and he says he can’t see him, Takagi sees him, he doesn’t say anything anyway. These three girls are happy because the chocolates weren’t for him. At the exit they don’t go together, but they meet and calmly they can talk and Takagi manages to give him the chocolates the same day. Hamaguchi will declare the White Day and asks Nishikata to do the same… What!?
Chapter Opinion
This chapter ended my little animosity. It was a beautiful chapter, funny for everyone but full of sadness (too sad for me at least). I will examine these aspects later, but keep in mind that I speak from personal experience. On the other hand, seeing the three friends was kind of relaxing, it was like a calm in the middle of a storm. We keep seeing that Kimura is god, he knows when to leave, you see that with Hamaguchi and Houjou. Kimura, you deserve heaven. And well, that was the chapter where we saw Takagi the least, despite the fact that he appears a lot, his presence isn’t felt, Nishikata has a bigger lead, I think that’s what they wanted and they got it. This chapter was beautifully sad and sadly beautiful.
What a pretty Nishikata
Right off the bat, it’s totally believable that Nishikata got chocolate because the paper says it’s because of what he did at the festival. And yes, in the end Nishikata took the cake and unlike Takao the protagonist is prettier. It’s a good preamble to everything that’s happening. This event upsets both Nishikata and Takagi, him because he can’t imagine anyone else giving him chocolates (he was expecting Takagi’s) and them for specific reasons that we’ll explore later. It was an excellent departure from this anime’s classic scheme, in part because it feels like this can happen to anyone in a relationship or in love.
Why explain?
If you take us outside, why does Nishikata Takagi have to explain anything if they’re just friends? Formally yes, emotionally no. Nishikata is suffering internally, in a way he is desperate because although he doesn’t express it, he likes takagi and chocolates from other girls implies that he accepts their feelings (this indicates the large amount shoujo that I’ve seen) by accepting them he betrays himself and goes bankrupt. When you add the possible feeling of loneliness the child might have and the emptiness that fills the forehead, the result is the fear of losing the loved one.
Nishikata has no objective motives, but rather subjective ones. Although they are not a couple, he doesn’t want to have any secrets with the girl who is special in his life, let alone any secrets that can spoil the relationship they enjoy. I think that’s something we should learn from the kid.
“Because that’s what a man does”
With Uncle Phil’s may he rest in peace sentence, Nishikata did two things that show he got it right. At first, he tried to make Takagi feel better in various ways, even if it meant doing the last thing he wanted (losing). Seeing that one’s efforts are in vain also hurts, although they didn’t express it, it seems to me that Nishikata was also having a hard time internally and that prompted him to do the second thing: deny the girls chocolate . I thought they would ask him “why” and he would say it was too easy because he likes Takagi. It was a good start, they were wrong, but what matters here is denial.
Looking at the chapter, we think that Nishikata did nothing wrong (as did Griffith) and that it was all a whim of Takagi making a world out of nothing. If Nishikata is in love, he has done the right thing, because it really hurts a lot.
It hurts, it really hurts
This chapter touched me because at one point I was the Nishikata just without doing it well and I met someone who was Takagi so you can understand what the forehead was feeling. We’ve already seen her insecurities of not feeling pretty enough, being jealous of another girl, and feeling bad about how maybe her feelings aren’t mutual. She is in love and the actions that bring about the person to whom the “love” goes, even if they are nothing. And that doesn’t mean it’s “poisonous”, I would say it’s very human. She knows she doesn’t want to be like that, but it’s not her fault because she can’t resist her feelings. Asking him to stop behaving like this is asking him to stop loving him. In the end they manage to work things out and the Forehead, I would say with some trepidation, manages to give him the gift. I’m happy for them, although we still know they’ll get together…
Now before I go to a corner to cry, well TAKAGI MOVIE IS COMING! Something tells me that this movie will be the culmination of their teenage relationship and that what we so much hope will be there, maybe the confession in chapter twelve (because of what happened at the end). I will be very excited when it arrives in my country, it will be a massive cinema cleanup. I will cry with the last chapter, beautiful season.
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