Characters / Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro - Hayase Nagatoro

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Hayase Nagatoro

Anime

^{Manga and original Pixiv set}

Voiced by: Tomoyo Kurosawa (Japanese, 2019 manga promo video), Sumire Uesaka (Japanese, 2021 anime), Kimberley Anne Campbell (English), Gabriela Gris (Latin American Spanish)

Will you keep running away from your weakness? Well, it's fun looking at someone as awful as you, but don't you want to get better? Do you want to stay awful like this? Awful Senpai ♥ Hey, hey; What will you do?

—Nagatoro, Ch. 4.5

Hayase Nagatoro, Nagatoro for short, or "Hayacchi" to her friends and classmates, is the titular character and a freshman high schooler ^(*)Later a second-year with a sadistic streak. Takes an interest in her upperclassman after seeing his artwork.

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A-E

• A-Cup Angst:
  • While her chest is neither small nor lacking, all her friends are more buxom than her, much to her chagrin. During the Beach Episode, she didn't appreciate that Senpai ogled at them, so she decided to show off her own swimsuit to grab his attention.
  • She doesn't appreciate when her friends compare her to the Arts Club President, especially because the latter has a bust that could cut through glass.
  • In a manga extra, she gets visibly distressed due to the fact that all the other members of the women's judo club are bustier than her.
• The Ace: As it turns out, she's a pretty damn good swimmer, even though her friends point out that she's using the wrong technique. Also, in spite of her procrastinating nature, Nagatoro is the best student out of her friends and Senpai, and used to be a champion judoka.
• Action Girl:
  • Shows off some impressive martial arts moves, is regularly shown to be able to overpower Senpai, and doesn't think twice about moving a sofa across the school by herself. She's also markedly athletic.
  • Later in the story, Senpai visits her home and notices that she has several awards and trophies, as it's implied that she did competitive martial arts (among them Judo) in middle school. This is later confirmed in Chapter 78.
  • She's a member of the fighting gym owned by Gamo-chan's family, where she spars with Gamo-chan herself.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Not herself, but her attire, which gets upgraded with beauty accessories in adaptations. The manga adds a signature ear cuff and dark red fingernail polish that she didn't have in the earlier webcomic.
• Adaptational Curves: Downplayed. The anime gives Nagatoro noticeably bigger breasts as part of her character design, although it is by little margin and still makes her less endowed than her friends. The manga does the same over time, so it's probably just more noticeable in the anime because the latter adapts a Beach Episode from the manga where this was yet to happen.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: In the original webcomic, she was genuinely abusive, both physically and emotionally, with her tormenting Senpai in numerous ways that stretch Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male so far it becomes borderline Domestic Abuse, since they're a couple there. In the manga and anime, Nagatoro never goes anywhere near that level, even in the beginning when she retained her emotionally abusing side, and following her going a bit far with the verbal abuse, she has a Jerkass Realization and drops even that, limiting her bullying to much tamer stuff.
• Adaptational Wimp: Played with. She does competitive martial arts in the original Pixiv sets. In the manga, she shows her chops, but it's implied that it's more of a hobby (she's also considerably less violent). However, later it's revealed that she did compete as a kid, even winning awards.
• Affectionate Nickname: Her friends and classmates refer to her as "Hayacchi". In a game 774 made, it's revealed that her given name is Hayase, and this is later confirmed in Chapter 62 of the manga. Sakura also calls her "Toro-chan".
• Aggressive Submissive: She utterly loves to tease her senpai with suggestions of lewd things up to a line. The moment that line is crossed (usually accidentally on her part) she becomes very nervous.
• All Women Are Lustful: She chides Senpai on his apparent perviness, notwithstanding that it's HER who puts the ideas in his head. One of the main ethos of the series is Nagatoro's slow realization that Senpai is actually in it mainly for the tender approach, and that she's not against it.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl:
  • Played with. Nagatoro behaves very differently whenever she talks with boys that are not Senpai, showing herself bored, more contrarian, and standoffish. Her coyness is for Senpai alone. It's shown that she's popular among her male classmates and has several unsuccessful suitors.
  • Later in the manga, her girl classmates describe her as an otherwise serious girl who had no interest in love.
• Ambiguously Brown: Subverted. She is noticeably darker than most other characters, but this is implied to be just a tan from her swim club activities, as evidenced by Tan Lines in the shape of her swimsuit. In the webcomic, she's a lighter shade in winter.
• Angry Cheek Puff: Nagaroto tends to puff her cheeks and groan when she's annoyed and doesn't want to show it, such as during the art club exhibit where she got jealous that some random girls were talking to Senpai.
• Animal Motifs:
  • Cats. She has Cute Little Fangs, often has a Playful Cat Smile or Cheshire Cat Grin, has a cat-themed cellphone case, uses cat emojis, and even has cat-themed outfits (such as her pajamas and ski gear). She also shows up as a Cat Girl in Senpai's dream during chapter 9. Later, he imagines she must have a pet cat, but she doesn't. Senpai later remarks that his relationship with Nagatoro and her friends is like jaguars in a mole's den. In the anime, scene transitions are done by a meowing sound effect and a bunch of cat faces, with hers in the middle.
  • To a lesser degree, penguins, which happen to be her favorite animal.
• Always a Bigger Fish: Nevermind her older siblings, even her own friends seem to have fun messing with Senpai just to get a reaction out of Nagatoro.
• Ascended Fanboy: She mentions Bruce Lee while showing off one of her kicks, and later, while demonstrating all the martial stances she knows, she strikes Lee's signature Jeet Kune Do stance while quoting him, implying her wide knowledge of martial arts comes from being quite a fan of him. This might be also the source of her judo background, as although Lee was mainly known for his kung fu kicks, he had also a less-known side where he trained with many famous judoka to learn their style.
• Ass Kicks You: In the first episode of the second season, Nagatoro gives the senpai a butt attack when he accidentally hugs (and gropes) her from behind.
• The Baby of the Bunch: In her family, Nagatoro is the youngest child out of 3. According to the fourth official comic anthology, her birthday is on April 1, which would make her the youngest among her group of friends, the absolute youngest person in her batch, and the youngest overall named character in the manga. This is because, in the Japanese school system, students born between April 2 of a certain year to April 1 of the following year are assigned to the same grade level. This was the case up until Chapter 82, where Sunomiya was introduced (a first-year and an underclassman).
• Bad Liar:
  • Nagatoro is awful at coming up with excuses for her friends not to interact with Senpai. What makes it even worse is that she's the one that gives them leeway to do so by bragging about Senpai.
  • It's also shown that she's bad at lying even when her defenses are high.
• Barefoot Loon: Downplayed. As part of her punkish, superficially delinquent-inspired image, as well as her own capricious personality (she has also proved willing to use every part of her body to tease Senpai, and her feet are not an exception), it's socks and stockings what she doesn't wear, only donning them in her winter school uniform or with running shoes. It also seems to extend to beauty care, as she wears nail polish in her hands yet not in her feet.
• Berserk Button:
  • She extremely dislikes when other people bully Senpai, but it's shown that what makes her even madder is when Senpai regresses to his self-deprecation, as she feels personally hurt from the fact that a person she cares so much about treats himself so badly.
    • She gets particularly angry whenever someone else calls him “gross”. She’s the only one allowed to use that word.
  • Aside from the aforementioned, she becomes livid when Senpai recoils whenever there's a situation where they may be confused about being an item together. Although they're not boyfriend and girlfriend, she loathes that he denies it, even when it's not vehemently. This is, of course, because there's nothing to be ashamed of from the mere suggestion.
• Better the Devil You Know: Although Senpai gripes a lot about Nagatoro, it's shown that he'd much rather be alone with her than around her friends, as he has absolutely no gauge for them. The few and scant defenses that he has for Nagatoro, he just doesn't have them for her friends.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: It's been hinted at that while Nagotoro is very talented in what she does and she does work hard to get results, she tends to let her natural talent do the work more often than not. This trait shows up during her first run in judo when despite winning multiple tournaments and defeating Orihara several times, her laziness brought her first (and technically only) loss against Orihara, and judo in general because the latter beat her by working hard to get stronger while Nagatoro relied on her own talent to win before.
• Brutal Honesty: Initially with Senpai, but later diminished as she becomes gradually more coy with him. It's later revealed that she retains her bluntness when she interacts with people in his absence, as she succinctly tears down some boys that one of her friends invited for a mixer; however, she's only coy with Senpai.
• Cannot Spit It Out: She never tells him she likes him with a straight face, so anytime she claims they're dating, or that he likes her, she's also often teasing him, causing him to assume she's just screwing with him and immediately deny it.
• Can't Hold Her Liquor: Manga chapter 48 has Nagatoro mixing fake "drinks" for Senpai at a makeshift "bar" she set up in the art club room. After making a "Bloody Mary" while stating that she had "sadly left out the vodka" and putting chocolates out for snacks, Senpai notices that she seems to be getting drunk... realizing that the chocolates she put out were whiskey-filled bon-bons she had been eating.
• Casual Kink: Obvious sadism aside, she seems fully on board with re-enacting a Kiss of the Vampire with Senpai, with the framing of the scene making it seem more sensual than it is. The only reason she didn't is because Senpai had been eating Yakisoba flavored with garlic and his breath smelled too horrible for her to continue.
• Catchphrase: "Kimo", teen slang short for "kimochi warui", in this case meaning something like "you creep me out" in Japanese.
• Character Development:
  • In the first chapter, while Nagatoro doesn't directly make fun of his manga, she also doesn't stop her friends from doing so. She then takes her "critique" of his manga so far she makes him cry, much to her delight. A few chapters later she shows concern about Senpai getting angry, and by chapter eleven, she's getting angry on his behalf when her friends insult him.
  • It's also shown that she tones down her taunts towards him, as she doesn't actually want to hurt him.
• Character Tic: She has a habit of using her index finger to scratch the side of her cheek when she is flustered.
• Clingy Jealous Girl:
  • She really doesn't appreciate anyone else bullying Senpai, getting downright angry whenever her friends try to join in.
  • She doesn't like when Senpai denies that they're an item... even when they're not.
  • Her eyes usually turn a bit murderous when she suspects another girl has been around him, such as when she saw him eating chocolate on Valentine's Day. When he tells her it was chocolate he bought himself, her mood immediately switches and she goes right back to teasing him.
  • In chapter 34 when Sakura is on a fake date with Senpai to thwart off a stalker, Gamo-chan jokingly suggests the fake date could lead to real romance between the two. Nagatoro rushes off and immediately apprehends the stalker and gets him to apologize to end the fake date.
• The Confidant: With her big sister, it's implied that they have no secrets between them... which places Senpai in a rather awkward position when the two first meet.
• Cruel to Be Kind: Nagatoro's first criticism of Senpai's fantasy-laden manga had an underlying message behind the harsh words: that she liked it enough to give him said criticism, but delivered in a non-constructive manner. As time goes by, she starts showing more and more admiration towards Senpai's artistry, but he remains somewhat none the wiser.
• Cute Bruiser: Much stronger than her stature and slim build would indicate, and a trained martial artist at it.
• Cute Little Fangs: Notable when she's teasing Senpai. They're the focus of Chapter 6 of the manga, where it's shown she naturally has them.
• The Cutie:
  • One of the main reasons Senpai likes her, and he has (unwittingly) manifested that showcasing this is one of the reasons he chose her as his muse for the cultural festival at school.
  • Upon meeting Nagatoro for the first time, Senpai's mom describes her as an "adorable girl".
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • It's implied by the initial chapters' extras that Nagatoro may have ended up bullying Senpai unintentionally to begin with, as she wonders whether she came off too strong and brusque against him from being overexcited. One of her Character Development traits consists of her precisely softening her interactions with him gradually, though she's still rather bad at it.
  • Later chapters reveal that she's something of a muscle-head (as she did martial arts competitively earlier in her life) who never quite had any interest in boys before she met Senpai, further explaining why she approached him so aggressively.
  • There are instances where her interactions with Senpai get too close for comfort, or when the President herself gets too daring for her to respond to the taunts. In those cases, she often employs the not-too-maligned Screw This, I'm Outta Here.
• Dismotivation: In Chapter 78, she tells Senpai that she lost motivation to engage in competitive judo because she reached a wall that she couldn't overcome, staunchly stating that she left competitive judo behind, and that it's more of a hobby for her now. There's a later exploration of the possibility that she may have been lacking on the right person rooting for her.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: A major part of Nagatoro's character is how the story portrays her abuse of Senpai:
  • In the original Pixiv webcomic it's somewhat played straight in that her being verbally and physically degrading to Senpai is treated as no big deal, but the major lack of male-on-female abuse and primarily existing out of fetishistic Author Appeal means it wasn't super notable.
  • Meanwhile in the manga version, while the story starts with portraying Nagatoro verbally abusing Senpai when he can't fight back as just teasing, as the story goes on it evolves from "female-on-male abuse is ok, male-on-female abuse is bad" to a more nuanced case of slapstick for all where Senpai actually fights back and it's portrayed just as humorously, and the idea of Nagatoro being abusive gets slightly deconstructed without being fully portrayed negatively, with Nagatoro showing that she only bullied Senpai due to No Social Skills in regards to love, and later on as they become closer she gets heavily regretful when her more friendly teasing accidentally hurts Senpai. She even starts putting in the effort to defy the double standard by defending Senpai whenever anybody, male OR female, tries to degrade him as a spineless wimp to walk all over, especially other girls due to her Clingy Jealous Girl and Violently Protective Girlfriend mentality.
• Dominatrix:
  • Short of the leather outfit and the whip, this is more or less how she treats Senpai initially. Later, she devolves into The Tease instead but can revert when Senpai is being extra wussy that it disgusts (and amuses) her.
  • Played straight on the Pixiv illustrations, where Nagatoro gives a leather choker to Senpai for Christmas.
• The Dreaded: Nagatoro's friends are absolutely terrified when they tick her off.
• Dude Magnet: Nagatoro has no shortage of male admirers at school, but shows no interest in any boy that is not Senpai.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: When she's jealous/angry, her eyes become less detailed and more cat-like.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Nagatoro has dark grey or bluish hair in the original Pixiv illustrations; in the manga, her hair is stark-black.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In the original Pixiv sets, she's violently abusive both physically and emotionally towards Senpai. She also mind-breaks him into an Anguished Declaration of Love (though even this early on, this flusters her as much as him). In the manga, she's considerably less malicious.
• Entertainingly Wrong: It's shown that she constantly misreads Senpai's desire towards her to the more perverted side, though she slowly starts realizing that what he wants with her is mutual tender affection; yes, he lusts after her, but he wants the sweeter stuff more than that.
• Everyone Can See It: Her friends can immediately tell how much she likes Senpai, so they tease both Nagatoro and Senpai to make them be genuinely closer.
• Everyone Has Standards: Initially, she bullies Senpai relentlessly, but as time passes and the bullying subsides, she is one to defend his dignity from her friends at the very least, as he's very self-deprecating to begin with. It's also all but stated that she felt genuinely bad for making him cry during their first encounter, so she toned down her antics from there on out.

F-L

• First Love: Played with and implied. In Chapter 58, it's revealed that she has never been one for romance or boys, implying that (in not so many words) Senpai is the first boy she's ever liked. The fourth official comic anthology (the "official fan book") mentions that she's never had a boyfriend before.
• First-Name Basis: Played with and subverted. Although Senpai and the reader mostly know her by her family name (Nagatoro), her classmates, friends, and acquaintances mostly refer to her by her nickname "Hayacchi", to the point that, when Senpai asks about her by her family name, her grade mates can't place her. It's later revealed that her name is Hayase.
• The Gadfly: Part of the reason she hangs out with and teases Senpai is because she finds his reactions entertaining.
• Genki Girl: Very energetic and prone to fast-talking and moving when around her Senpai. Around other boys she's much more cold and subdued.
• Girl of My Dreams: Senpai has a dream about being companions in a fantasy setting, where he's a "hero" and she's a Cat Girl.
• Given Name Reveal: Chapter 62 finally reveals her first name: Hayase.
• Good Is Not Nice: It's shown that Nagatoro is actively trying to make Senpai shed the cocoon built by his self-deprecation, but she disdains whenever he regresses into it, showing multiple times that she has no intention of respecting this side of him, so she attacks it with everything she's got.
• Green-Eyed Monster: In spite of being in the lead ahead of other girls by a nautical mile when it comes to Senpai, Nagatoro really dislikes Senpai interacting with other girls, especially because she's less personable than them.
• Handy Feet: While playing video games with Senpai, she can be seen using her foot to pull his controller cable in order to encumber his play.
• Has a Type: In Chapter 58, she states that her type of boy is one that "is fun to be with"; as Senpai is accidentally eavesdropping, he realizes that Nagatoro has fun with him, and that she tends to not have fun with other boys. Put two and two together and...
• Hellish Pupils: Her eyes get a concentric circle pattern whenever she starts bullying Senpai. A trait shared among her friend group.
• Heroic BSoD: Played for laughs when Nagatoro sees the Arts Club President's artwork intended for submission in their competition. It's so daring and sexy that she petrifies on the couch, as she's nowhere as curvy as her rival.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: One of the main reasons she doesn't want her friends to get close to Senpai is the fact that they have assets that she thinks she lacks herself. Gamo-chan has the capacity of being more patient and decent towards him, Yoshi can dispense physical affection to him, and Sakura can dispense sweeter words and appreciation towards him; they're also collectively more buxom than her. Unbeknownst to her, Senpai likes her more than he likes them by a mile, or at the very least, she doesn't trust him enough not to stray, or herself not to let him.
• Hidden Buxom: The way she's drawn shows her as having a slender build, but Chapter 10 shows that she's certainly not flat. They're more average-sized and hidden by her clothes.
• Hidden Depths:
  • There are hints that she's more socially conscious than she lets on or Senpai realizes. When his manga spills out of his bag, while her friends are outright laughing at him, she thinks it's cool that he drew it himself and only starts to mock him when they're alone, possibly to save Senpai being embarrassed in front of a crowd. There are a number of times when she tries to give him an out to her treatment of him, asking if her teasing makes him angry, or if he's doing this of his own volition, implying she would stop if he told her to.
  • It's implied that Nagatoro uses casual rudeness towards Senpai in order to deflect her real intentions, taking three steps in with her suggestions ("let's wear matching yukatas for next year's festival"), and two out with her teasing ("I'm joking, that would be gross"), inching herself gradually closer to him, thus defusing the situation for the moment while leaving a kernel of hope for Senpai. This requires Senpai to be passive, but every time he becomes active, it's either a plus for her or a rug pulled from under her feet.
  • Judging by her friends' reactions whenever they get caught teasing Senpai, it's not wise to make Nagatoro mad, implying that she has a temper warranting fear. It's later shown that even with her attitude towards Senpai, she's being subdued and she's not a stranger to kicking ass, meaning that given the circumstance, she can be as dangerous as she is threatening; in that respect, she's bark AND bite.
  • In chapter 10 she even seems to notice her teasing of Senpai during an attempted Boke and Tsukkomi Routine cut too deep and seems genuinely upset that she hurt his feelings.
  • It's also shown that Nagatoro is a sweeter and more empathetic person than she lets on, and that she's more susceptible to Senpai's kindness than he realizes, even tenderly hinting to him -when he gives her his LINE contact, all while telling her that he's not a person worth talking to- that his declarations of self-deprecation affect her too.
  • It's heavily implied that Nagatoro both likes and admires Senpai's artistry, especially when he doesn't use it as an excuse for unproductive escapism.
  • It's shown that Nagatoro is not particularly better at expressing her feelings for Senpai, this being the main reason her girlfriends prod her by playfully harassing Senpai.
  • She is given to show physical affection to Senpai, and this is one of the reasons she recognizes that she shouldn't allow Yoshi and Sakura to have the same kind of contact with Senpai and actively prevents her from getting close to him. It's also shown that she's markedly bad at receiving physical contact from Senpai herself.
  • Surprisingly, Nagatoro is rather competent academically for a girl who procrastinates as much as she does.
  • It's implied in the Volume 1 extras that Nagatoro approached Senpai in the first place with the intention of being coy and flirtatious, but she went overboard, and that she has liked him since the beginning of the story.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: There are numerous occasions where Nagatoro pushes the envelope a little too far, ending up just as embarrassed by the situation as Senpai is. The entire relationship between Senpai and her group of friends is also an example of this, as her friends treat Senpai pretty much exactly the way Nagatoro does, except that Nagatoro gets really jealous.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: She, and only she, is allowed to tease Senpai.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Even though Nagatoro likes to tease Senpai, it's shown that Nagatoro would be at a loss should Senpai actually respond to her taunts, and Senpai is slowly catching on to the possibility that romantically, Nagatoro is all bark, no bite, especially due to the fact that she can get as embarrassed as he does.
  • She occasionally teases Senpai about being a virgin, when it's obvious to the reader that, even if Nagatoro is much more comfortable with her own body than Senpai, she's just as inexperienced with physical intimacy with the opposite sex as he is. All in all, it's implied she is a virgin too and is just capitalizing on the double standard about male and female virginity to tease him about it.
• Idiot Hair: Used for a gag in Chapter 59, as part of her bed head. Otherwise, she's always neatly groomed.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: The longer the manga goes, the more she gets comfortable with the idea that she loves Senpai and that he loves her back.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Played with. Although it's shown that Nagatoro is aiming to have a deeper relationship with Senpai, it's also paramount to her that he realizes that she wants him to be her friend too and that it's not something that he should be "worthy" of, as he's not below her and shouldn't feel like so.
• In-Universe Nickname: Her friends call her "Hayacchi". Older material from 774 shows that her given name is Hayase, and it's later revealed to be that indeed.
• Inconsistent Coloring: Depending on the art, her eyes may range from amber to maroon◊.
• Innocently Insensitive: Played with. The extra jokes in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 show that her teasing of Senpai that drove him to tears was an unintendedly cruel effort on her part to flirt with him.
• Insecure Love Interest:
  • Implied Trope. Not unlike Senpai when it comes to her, Nagatoro doesn't see herself to be emotionally at the point where she'd even be able to have a serious, heartfelt conversation with him spite of having all the intention to do so. As such, her interactions and teasing with Senpai enable her to inch her way towards that point precisely, little by little. As a matter of fact, this is one of the reasons she doesn't like her friends to tease Senpai to "help" her, as she'd rather go by her own rhythm, and she herself doesn't trust them not to mess everything up, or Senpai not to be led astray by their intervention.
  • It's also implied that Nagatoro treats Senpai the way she does because she gets too nervous and overexcited. This is later revealed to be the product of him being the very first boy she's liked, so she herself is learning along the way with him.
• Insult of Endearment:
  • Almost everything she says to Senpai, but especially "kimo" (Japanese teen slang for "kimochi warui", in this case, translatable as "you creep") or "yarashii" ("lewd" or "pervert").
  • Due to the Torocat products released at the Cultural Festival, the Arts Club President pejoratively refers to her as "Cat Girl".
• Irony:
  • It's implied that, while she's very titillating and coy around Senpai, she's not very good at flirting seriously, and becomes self-conscious whenever a situation like that arises, making her either flustered or excessively aggressive.
  • While she decries Senpai's Author Avatar manga in the beginning, it's shown that she absolutely loves whenever Senpai behaves like "Siegfried". What makes this even funnier in hindsight is that Nagatoro is herself the "swordswoman who rejected her femininity", meaning, she wants Senpai to be her "Siegfried".
  • It's implied that she doesn't want Senpai to see her more vulnerable side, both because she doesn't want to be seen as "weak", and because she doesn't want to be judged. However, the longer the story goes on, the more Senpai shows himself willing to accept whatever flaws she shows him, with no pressure and no judgment, and accept her for what she is.
• It's Personal: She takes a personal offense whenever Senpai starts getting self-deprecating or comes up with lame excuses not to better himself, so she hammers on him with a vengeance. She finds it particularly insulting that a person she likes so much, and finds so full of virtues, doesn't like himself or sees said virtues on his own.
• Japanese Delinquents: Like the test of her clique, she has a few traits of this, like not wearing socks, sporting some jewelry, completely shattering senpai-kohai rules, and being generally mischievous.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Her initial criticism of Senpai is on point, as he projects an unrealistic romantic scenario that wouldn't play out in the real world. In spite of her Brutal Honesty, she took her time to find all the faults in his logic... and promptly threw them on his face like a handful of sawdust, which made her intentions considerably less graceful.
• Jerkass Realization: At the very beginning of the manga and anime, her taunting towards Senpai is incredibly aggressive and mean-spirited, to the point she laughs at seeing him cry. However, after accidentally sending him into a river, and after Senpai more or less tells her that he's endured worse bullying in the past to the point of being largely desensitized to it, she realizes that her approach is wrong and becomes tamer and more personable in her teasing.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: It's most prominent in the original webcomic, where she was outright sadistic and enjoyed tormenting Senpai, while also being fully in love with him and having a few standards, but it's still present in the main manga. Even when she actually bullied him near the beginning of the manga, she still cared about his well-being and had a lot more standards than her webcomic version, with her toning it down to teasing and a little physical pushing after accidentally going a bit too far. While she acts as a total Alpha Bitch to every other student outside her personal circle of friends, her relationship with her friends and Senpai show she has a heart underneath that.
• Joshikousei: She even refers to herself as such at one point.
  Nagatoro: Apples! Banana! You can draw them whenever you want!! There's a JK right here! A JK, you know! You don't understand the value, do you Senpai!?
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Nagatoro pretends to be more experienced in love and romance than Senpai is; however, as the story goes on, it's increasingly apparent that this isn't the case, and Senpai starts noticing it. She's certainly more daring than him in showing her attributes, but she's utterly unprepared for the feedback whenever it happens.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Her tormenting of Senpai occasionally backfires on her, such as when she coaxes him into fondling two bean buns under her top only for one to fall out, resulting in Senpai *actually* fondling her breast.
• Last-Name Basis: Given that Nagatoro is her family name, Senpai is on such terms with her, though she insisted on not making it mutual. Even after situations where she must have learned his family name, like her getting his home address and going over to visit, she insists on calling him Senpai. In contrast, it was mutual in the original image sets where Nagatoro herself reveals his name to the reader.
• Leg Focus: Her long, slender legs are very often focused on, to the point that Senpai even thinks it's one of the things he likes about her. Given even more focus than usual in Chapter 53, when Nagatoro makes Senpai put tights on her.
• Long Hair Is Feminine: In contrast with her otherwise tomboyish personality.
• Love at First Sight: It's implied from the Volume 1 extras that Nagatoro has liked Senpai from the moment they met, but her approach was atrocious.
• Loving Bully:
  • Her core personality trait, but only towards Senpai. By later chapters, however, she's barely bullying him; only teasing him harder than other flirty heroines.
  • It's later revealed that, since Senpai is implied to be her First Love, she is a complete newbie when it comes to romance and didn't know how to approach him in any other way than the aggressive method she's been using. As such, it has been an education for her too.
• Love Redeems: Implied. In Chapter 58, her classmates state that she became more jovial and approachable ever since she entered high school, and Sakura correctly deduces that said changes started when she met Senpai.

M-Y

• Mad Eye: When her teasing of Senpai reaches a fever pitch, she's drawn with one eye squinting and the other wide open.
• Magic Skirt: Regardless of how far she goes to provoke Senpai, she is somehow never fully up-skirted in the manga. The same also applies to the anime, except for one occasion.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Zig-Zagged. While she is not nice or sweet (most of the time) as the straight example, she surely came forward, turned Senpai's life upside down, and certainly improved it. She liked him, she approached him, and hilarity ensued.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Is confident, athletic, aggressive, and strong to Senpai's Shrinking Violet.
• Master of the Mixed Message: Played with. Although she guides Senpai toward what she wants from him, her attitude and tendency to lean on hyperbole make Senpai go on mental tangents and suggestions that she doesn't want. As such, she may say something but has to hurriedly backtrack because Senpai does an Entertainingly Wrong assumption as to what she stated to begin with. Still, the manga makes a point of showing that Senpai gets somewhat better at reading her cues.
• Meaningful Name: "Nagatoro" (長瀞), spelled with the exact same kanji, is a real-life town in Saitama Prefecture, Japan (just north of Tokyo), which is known for the rapids in a river running through it; the main attraction of the town is whitewater rafting and boating. Nagatoro's given name, "Hayase" (早瀬), literally means "rapids". So using Japanese (Eastern) name order, Nagatoro Hayase is literally named after the real-life rapids in Nagatoro, Japan. This becomes significant in the manga in Chapter 119, where Nagatoro, Senpai, their friends/fellow club members, and the Nagatoro siblings take an in-story trip to Nagatoro, Japan, on a joint training camp trip for their respective judo and art clubs. Gamo-chan actually suggests taking a trip down the stream, and Nagatoro then imagines doing that very thing with her Senpai.
• Menace Decay: In the manga and anime. Nagatoro is an absolute terror to Senpai in their earliest encounters, to the point of making him cry twice and giving him nightmares. It does not take long at all for this to change as Senpai gets more accustomed to Nagatoro, who in turn softens up with her teasing of him and lets her own socially awkward, emotionally conflicted side show more often.
• Miko: In Chapter 71, she takes up a temp job as a priestess at the temple during the New Year's in order to be able to tease Senpai during Hatsumode.
• Ms. Fanservice: Even outside of the examples brought about through her Shameless Fanservice Girl moments, the story is very open to showing just how much of a slender, well-built body she has. Senpai makes it quite obvious that he enjoys the sight of all of her, especially when she shows more skin. Even her small chest that she's self-conscious about does nothing to detract from how good she looks.
• The Muse: She starts becoming one for Senpai. She sometimes poses for Senpai's drawings, and those instances are shown to be the moments Nagatoro most enjoys when being around him. It also helps that Senpai finds her both gorgeous and captivating to begin with. In Chapter 41, Senpai intends to tell her that she became this for him, but ends up fumbling his words:
  Senpai: Because you're the most stimulating person for me!!
• My God, What Have I Done?: While she does so sheepishly, she genuinely ends multiple chapters in volume 1 wondering if she's overdone it in pushing Senpai's buttons. Sure enough, the next few chapters see her incrementally toning it down and asking him if she's making him mad.
• Mythology Gag: The reason why she's drawn as squiggly in visual gags? In Chapter 99, it's revealed that she has tremendously flexible joints, a feature that she used to employ in sparring before she had previously quit judo. As such, the cartoony "Noodletoro" has an in-universe basis.
  Shikki:^note (witnessing Nagatoro squeezing herself between a shower wall divider and the ceiling) Her joints are so flexible, it's like she's a mollusk...!
• Nightmare Face: She has a terrifying gaze whenever she's absolutely livid; if other people can proverbially throw daggers with a stare, she can throw poleaxes.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Enjoys horror movies, and tries to act one out with Senpai.
• "No. Just… No" Reaction: She gets one of these when her friends say that Senpai is not a man.
  • During a bonus chapter, Nagatoro attempts to prank Senpai again by blocking the club room exit with the couch and putting up a sign that reads "No one leaves until erotic stuff happens". Senpai isn't about to put the moves on Nagatoro so casually, and the President, who was in the equipment room self-modeling, is soon after forbidden by Nagatoro from approaching Senpai. President then remarks that the only other option is for a tryst between herself and Nagatoro, and as soon as President holds Nagatoro by the chin to bring her in for a kiss, Nagatoro immediately shoves the couch aside and seems to storm out of the room as if on all fours.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Senpai has increasingly started realizing that Nagatoro is just as inexperienced with love as he is. As stated in Loving Bully, it's implied that this is one of the reasons she approached him so aggressively in the first place, as she may not know any other way that's more subtle.
• Not So Stoic:
  • In the extras of Volume 1, immediately after Chapters 1 and 2, having driven Senpai to tears and left the classroom, and had tricked him into expecting a kiss from her respectively, Nagatoro is shown in both instances flustered and dubious, wondering whether she had overdone it. This implies that she did not originally want to hammer on Senpai like she ended up doing.
    • In Chapter 8, this also happens after Senpai's second drawing with her as the subject, but this time she's flustered after kissing him on the cheek, which is a more tender gesture than what she had done before.
  • Although she is already a Genki Girl, she's ecstatic when she sees Senpai's drawings of her like a Cat Girl and chases after him brimming with joy. Of course, Senpai immediately recoils, as he thinks that she's gonna make fun of him as usual.
  • Nagatoro once has a nightmare of Senpai just getting fed up with her and leaving her behind to be with Gamo-chan and Yoshi, showing that she cannot bear the thought. She wakes up in horror only to find that Senpai put a blanket on her.
• Nuclear Family:
  • In the Pixiv sets, Nagatoro comes from one, living with her parents and her older brother in a suburban house.
  • In the manga, she's revealed to have an older sister as well.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Invoked in-universe. Nagatoro is initially only known by her nickname "Hayacchi" within the first years. No one but Senpai and the reader refers to her as "Nagatoro", and only Gamo-chan, Yoshi, and Sakura know that "Nagatoro" refers to "Hayacchi", even though Nagatoro is popular enough that girls of other classes know of her. In Chapter 62, it's revealed that her name is Hayase.
• Paper Tiger: It's shown that while Nagatoro is the "active" party in the relationship, she's mostly bark and no bite. Should Senpai actually be more proactive (as he's increasingly becoming), she'd crumble like a house of cards, and there have been some instances where she was markedly close to spilling out from her brim.
• Passionate Sports Girl: Played with:
  • Although she's a member of the swimming club, she's there as a helper and doesn't engage in competition. However, she's markedly versed in fitness and exercising and enjoys martial arts as a hobby. She gives pointers to Senpai in order for him to tolerate the school's marathon, as he's a largely sedentary person otherwise.
  • In later chapters, it's revealed that she used to do competitive martial arts earlier in her life, but she quit because she hit a plateau and couldn't get better.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The most physically active character in the manga, strong for her size, as well as the shortest.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Uses these when trying to convince Senpai to let her model for him, or during a fake confession.
• Red Baron: She was known and even feared as the "Tororoimo" of Kazehaya Junior High. It means... a kind of yam and it's a pun on her name apparently, and it persists in high school.
• Respected by the Respected: Orihara is delighted at the possibility of wrestling Nagatoro regardless of the fact that she surpassed Nagatoro in judo long ago. As such, Orihara is shown to not have lost any respect and admiration towards Nagatoro as a fellow judoka regardless of her dropping from competition.
• Romantic Spoonfeeding: She gives Senpai a taste of her pudding, and is embarrassed when her older sister barges in.
• Rubber-Hose Limbs: She's sometimes drawn with noodly arms whenever she gets playful with Senpai, turning into what fans call "Noodletoro".
• Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful!: Nagatoro is a markedly beautiful girl, and she gets away with a lot of crap that she pulls on Senpai on account of his obvious attraction to her and his unwillingness to assert himself either romantically or in his own defense. This is one of the reasons he's unable to ignore her as he has done with the rest of the people that bully him, as she's that captivating and appealing to him.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Played with. Nagatoro is very open about using her body to get a rise out of Senpai. Only to a point though, as she only lets it go as far as she wants it to, and she will get legitimately embarrassed if the fanservice is unintentional.
• Shipper on Deck: When Gamo-chan insinuated that Nagatoro's brother fits all of her check marks for a partner and shows clear fluster when it's pointed out, Nagatoro can only tease her for it, but it's implied she is fully supportive of the idea.
• Significant Birth Date: According to the fourth official comic anthology, she was born on April 1st (April Fools' Day).
• Single-Target Sexuality: Although Senpai seems to believe the bullying is just part of her personality, it's readily apparent she only does this to Senpai, as she's repeatedly shown to be somewhat cold and indifferent to other guys.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Senpai's kind and gentle nature is part of what draws her to him. She is shown being uncomfortable around pushy guys but is comfortable enough with Senpai to fall asleep in the club room. The anime's theme basically says she wants to snatch him up because of his kind heart.
• Situational Sociability:
  • Nagatoro tends to treat Senpai better whenever they're alone together.
  • Generally, she becomes more jovial whenever Senpai is present, even in the presence of her friends who are quick to notice her change in attitude. She is a more serious and snappy person otherwise. This joviality, however, is not positive, as it makes her more rowdy at Senpai's expense. It's implied that she becomes rather manic around Senpai because she's more nervous around him than she shows.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: It's implied that Nagatoro's aggressive and brusque approach towards Senpai is due to her not knowing any better than that. She's too much of a tomboy musclehead to be delicate about it, though she has learned to tone it down and be more tender towards him.
• Smitten Teenage Girl:
  • To the point that she behaves completely differently whenever she's around Senpai. She's The Tease for his eyes only.
  • As previously stated in the Irony entry, Nagatoro loves whenever Senpai behaves in a manly fashion towards her like the "Siegfried" he penned on his comic, particularly whenever he's sincere about it.
• Smug Smiler: Whenever she's around Senpai, except when she's genuinely surprised.
• So Proud of You:
  • She looks at Senpai◊ with a very tender expression whenever he does something "manly" like standing up for himself, for her, or when he concentrates on drawing.
  • She's shown to be both excited and flattered when Senpai draws her as a Cat Girl.
• Sore Loser: She really doesn't like to lose, even in games she forced Senpai in. Though when she wins she will gleefully rub it in his face. Ultimately it's revealed that she once quit her sport because of a single loss, apparently. While she has yet to truly grow beyond it, she's improved with Senpai's help, as she took another loss as her motivation to do better, even if she did frame it as "revenge".
• Sprouting Ears: Her hair spikes into cat ears with a tail to go with it whenever she becomes exasperated or loses control of a situation, typically as a result of shenanigans from her friends or siblings. Her hunched-over posture and Death Glares during these spots make her resemble a screeching cat mid-yowl.
• Stalker with a Crush: She hounds Senpai from every angle she can attack just for a greater purpose: to have his undivided attention, and for him to be at his very best while giving said attention to her.
• Stating the Simple Solution: During the town festival, and after her friends have spent a considerable time toying with Senpai in order to drag her out of her club duties to spend time with him, Nagatoro tells him in not so many words that she understands what happened, and that he should feel free to just ask her out himself. After she "wins" Senpai from her friends, they remove the collar they put on him and leave the two to spend the rest of the festival together.
• The Starscream: Played with and downplayed. Being a helper at her club is the main reason Nagatoro is able to spend so much after-school time with Senpai, implying that she's not in the club to engage in competition, and doesn't have to attend as often as a regular member.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial:
  • Nagatoro tends to shoot down her friends' ideas involving Senpai that would get them closer to him or would put him in a position that she doesn't want him to be, like trying combat styles on him or dressing him in a maid outfit. She likes him just how he is and just where she wants him to be.
  • In the Official Fanbook, she denies having been interested in Senpai from day one, to which the interviewer asks her "So when are you getting married?"
• Sweet Tooth: Her sister reveals to Senpai that Nagatoro is very partial to pudding, enough to make her little sister malleable to her hands.
• The Tease: She likes to taunt Senpai and to be overwhelmingly coy around him.
• Through His Stomach:
  • She teases Senpai about his bento lunch which he made himself and made herself a nice lunch the next day with the intent of teasing him again and giving him a taste of her food. However, she didn't expect him to upstage her by making a foodgasmic lunch of his own due to her teasing and giving the other girls a taste too.
  • Much later and more seriously, she and Senpai decide to make each other bento on alternating days from now on, which makes her tease him that they're like newlyweds.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Nagatoro is very active, athletic, rowdy, and unrefined, but she's markedly pretty and knows her own attributes. However, her tomboyish side may have had a role in her markedly aggressive initial approach toward Senpai.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Mainly tomato juice and pudding; the Official Fanbook expands this to curry and ramen.
• Trickster Girlfriend: Still working on the girlfriend part (at least in the manga and anime) but once she really mellows out, she is this, because her toying with Senpai is mixed with encouragement to defend himself from being toyed with.
• Tsundere: Played with. Nagatoro is in the middle point between this and a Yandere with Senpai, as she is considerably more intimidating than a Tsundere, but not nearly as violent as a Yandere. The anime's opening theme spells out how much she likes him and how she enjoys toying with him.
• Tsurime Eyes: As expected given her teasing nature.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: When her friends go too far in bullying Senpai, she will get legitimately upset with them (even though she does the exact same thing). Even in better circumstances, she dislikes when they get too touchy with him.
• Virgin in a White Dress: A lot of her casual wear is white, like her sundress and her bikini, presumably because it goes nicely with her tan skin. However, it also goes along with her secret inexperience in love and sex affairs.
• What You Are in the Dark:
  • Nagatoro has kept her liaison with Senpai largely away from her classmates, and it's implied that her clique of friends doesn't really discuss him with their classmates either. This further implies that her classmates are completely unaware of the side she shows to Senpai when they're alone, though some of them have begun to notice that she's become markedly more jovial than how she was before.
  • It's later revealed in the comic that Nagatoro's sister is her closest confidant when it comes to Senpai, but it's not quite a productive liaison because it's implied that her sister teases her for it.
  • During a bout of fever where he calls her by her name, and completely unimpeded since he falls asleep from the fever, Nagatoro almost kisses Senpai in the most tender showing she could muster but has to back off when Senpai's mom arrives home.
• Xanatos Gambit: Her initial plan to hang out with Senpai is one of these. She wants him to learn how to stand up for himself, and she gets to have fun toying with him until that happens. The anime's theme song (at least one translation of it) includes this line, "It's always my victory."
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: Played with. She has stark amber eyes highlighted by her dark complexion and hair, which denote the unscrupulous manner in which she conducts herself. However, she's markedly more susceptible to kindness than what the trope suggests, and her "conniving" often backfires on her.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: In spite of her jealousy against her friends and the President because of them being buxomer than her, it's shown that for Senpai, Nagatoro is second to none.
• You Keep Telling Yourself That:
  • Fittingly, Nagatoro's friends prod her (Gamo-chan in particular) because she won't admit that she likes Senpai.
  • Most of her teasing of Senpai comes from the notion that he's a perv; the thing is, he's not more of a perv than any other boy his age, and he's more of a gentleman than she cares to admit.
  • Although Nagatoro doesn't want to admit it, Senpai has a bigger influence on her than she thinks, and his approval, encouragement, and companionship are aspects that she craves from him.

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