Teasing Master Takagi-san 3: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Teasing Master Takagi-san 3: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Teasing Master Takagi-san 3 is a charming and sweet-natured slice-of-life comedy. The heartwarming anime series was created by Sōichirō Yamamoto. Licensed for release in North America by Sentai Filmworks, Teasing Master Takagi-san 3 is a series that wears its heart on its sleeve. The series features animation produced by Shin-Ei Animation (Tonari no Seki-kun: The Master of Killing Time, Summer Days with Coo). The cast of voice actors includes Yuuki Kaji and Rie Takahashi. The third season of the series continues the journey with the same cast of characters.

Nishikata (Yuuki Kaji) faces new challenges as he advances to middle school. Now a middle school student with some of the same issues facing him in his ordinary day to day, Nishikata continues to see the troublesome girl Takagi-san (Rie Takahashi) in his classroom. The girl sits right next to him in class. Just like before, Takagi-san teases him and does what she can to annoy him all of the time. Yet is the real reason she teases him because she really actually likes him?

Nishikata was used to the teasing but now things are changing as he begins to wonder if his original annoyances are turning in to something more – something different. Nishikata wonders – does he have feelings for Takagi-san? It is almost as though Takagi-san has taken a grasp over his brain and his brain chemistry isn’t working the same way anymore. As the school year unfolds for Nishikata and Takagi-san, what was once just a teasing friendship might be something more.

Teasing Master Takagi-san 3 just wouldn’t be the same without the cast of characters. The two leads are the heart of the tale. Without the two main characters and their energy bouncing off each other, Teasing Master Takagi-san 3 wouldn’t be as successful as a program. Yuuki Kaji and Rie Takahashi provide excellent vocal performances as well. The voice acting certainly plays a good role in the charming nature of the production. The characters are fun and the sense of playfulness in the teasing is something that gives a heartfelt innocence to the production.

The character designs by Aya Takano (Polar Bear's Café, Himouto! Umaru-chan) are worthwhile and add to the experience, too. The designs by Takano capably provide the lead characters with the designs to make the storytelling excel. Without the worthwhile character designs, the characters wouldn’t be as interesting.

The animation is one of the main highlights of the series. The series features excellent animation direction by Kyōhei Ebata (Boruto: Naruto Next Generations). Teasing Master Takagi-san 3 is an enormously beautiful series. Teasing Master Takagi-san 3 has a wonderful aesthetic. The series manages to showcase wonderful colors and a radiant sense of style. These elements make the animation more rewarding. The line art is excellent. The animators do great work with the series, imbuing the characters and the landscape with the right ingredients for success.

The score composed by Hiroaki Tsutsumi (Dr. Stone, Jujutsu Kaisen) is a charming and delightful aspect of the series. The original score by Tsutsumi is light and airy. The laidback music adds a sense of fun to the production. The characters and their journey are more engaging as a result. Wonderful work from Tsutsumi.

Written by Aki Itami (The Comic Artist and His Assistants, Rainbow Days), Hiroko Fukuda (Hayate the Combat Butler, Amanchu! Advance), and Kanichi Katou (Those Snow White Notes, Black Clover), Teasing Master Takagi-san 3 is a compelling series that puts the characters at the forefront of the story. This is a primary reason for the series success. Teasing Master Takagi-san 3 emphasizes the characters with the scripting. A character-driven (not plot driven) series, fans of these types of anime series will enjoy the slice-of-life nature of the tale.  

Directed by Hiroaki Akagi (Combatants Will Be Dispatched!, A Couple of Cuckoos), Teasing Master Takagi-san 3 does a good job of following in the footsteps of the original seasons. Teasing Master Takagi-san 3 provides a continuation of the original while expanding on the concept and director Akagi certainly helps to bring the production to life with vibrant animation, good characterizations, and a sense of fun. Akagi keeps things charming and sweet-natured and this will make the third season a success with fans. Isn’t that the joy of slice of life anime productions? The emphasis is on simply providing audiences with an enchanting tale – something that doesn’t require endless action scenes and explosions to keep things entertaining. For the right audience, Teasing Master Takagi-san 3 might be exactly what viewers are looking for.

Teasing Master Takagi-san 3: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from Sentai Filmworks, Teasing Master Takagi-san 3 is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition in the original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.78:1 widescreen. An impressive high-definition encoding with excellent detail. The image is sharp and crystal clear looking. The color reproduction on the release is excellent. The imagery appears bright and vivid while showing the details inherent in the animation.

The encode quality from Sentai Filmworks is excellent as well. A good release and one that showcases one of the benefits of the Blu-ray format. Compared to streaming services, the Blu-ray presentation provides higher bit-rate encoding and a more consistent image than the sporadic nature of most streaming services (and the occasional unreliability some have with their wireless connections). Audiences seeking the absolute best presentation quality (alongside ownership) will find this an enormous advantage.

Teasing Master Takagi-san 3: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release includes a selection of audio options: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo and Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo (with English subtitles). The lossless audio encoding on the release is excellent sounding. Dialogue remains crisp, clear, and engaging. The score is well reproduced on the release and showcased with the stereo sound imaging.

The English subtitles (provided with the original language audio track) are excellent and are free from significant grammatical or spelling errors. A nice quality encode. One of the strengths of the Blu-ray format is the superior lossless encoding – this is an essential aspect of the release as video streaming services only offer lossy audio to date. By comparison, the lossless encoding is significantly better and with better bit-rates to boot. Audiophiles will appreciate the difference offered by the format.

Teasing Master Takagi-san 3: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray release has a underwhelming supplemental package. The set could have benefited from a more robust selection of extras. Teasing Master Takagi-san 3 could have used some behind the scenes featurettes or audio commentaries to round out the release. Even a photo gallery would have helped to make the set stand out more in the extras department. Despite the lack of a substantial extras package, on disc supplements include:

Clean Opening Animation (HD, 1:32)

Clean Closing Animations (HD, 19:07)

Japanese Promo (HD, 1:00)

The release also includes a selection of trailers promoting other releases available from distributor Sentai Filmworks: Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun (HD, 1:32), Kinmoza! The Movie – Thank You!! (HD, 00:31), Princess Principal Crown Handler: Chapter 2 (HD, 00:47), and Girls und Panzer das Finale Part 3 (HD, 00:34).

Teasing Master Takagi-san 3: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Teasing Master Takagi-san 3 is a charming and entertaining anime. The third season of the series picks up where the other seasons left off and continues the journey of the main cast of characters: the silly boy Nishikata (Yuuki Kaji) and teasing girl, Takagi-san (Rie Takahashi). The series has wonderful animation and some other worthwhile production merits.

The Blu-ray release includes an excellent presentation. The high-definition video is exceptional. The lossless audio on the release is noteworthy as well (and is provided in either English or Japanese). The only downside to the release is an average supplemental package. Despite the lack of a more meaningful extras package, fans of Teasing Master Takagi-san 3 may wish to indulge and add the complete set to their collection.

One thing that is somewhat disappointing about the release is that the second season is still unavailable on home media as of this writing. Season 1 was distributed by Funimation (now Crunchyroll) and the second season remains without a Blu-ray release in North America. One can only hope that this is rectified in the future. Recommended.