Manga / Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro

"You're so gross, Senpai!♥"

Nagatoro: I'll give you a reward if the drawing looks good~
Senpai: It's fine, you don't have to...
Nagatoro: If you could ask me to do anything, wouldn't you be more motivated?
Senpai: For you, a present is probably more like a punishment game or something...
Nagatoro: That's because you lack spirit, Senpai.

Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro (Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san, a.k.a. Please Don't Bully Me, Nagatoro-san) is an ecchi romantic comedy manga by 774 (Nanashi).

Energetic high school freshman girl Nagatoro happens upon a timid Senpai who can barely speak to her when she discovers the manga he'd been working on. She takes an interest in him despite his complete lack of social acumen, and she begins teasing, flirting with, and bullying him every chance she gets. Senpai puts up with it and starts to fall in love, and he's probably not the only one.

Originally a series of Pixiv webcomics starting in 2011, Nagatoro-san is 774's first non-pornographic published work, beginning in 2017. Nagatoro is a prime example of what 774 calls "Sadoderes." Like a Tsundere, Sadoderes flip-flop between acting loving towards their love interest, but instead of acting angry or embarrassed, Sadoderes will tease, insult, or otherwise toy with their love interest's emotions.

The series is currently being published by Kodansha as part of their Magazine Pocket line with chapters being released every two weeks. Kodansha has also released five Nagatoro-related anthologies from 2018 onward including short chapters by other mangaka like Wakame Konbu, Sōichirō Yamamoto, and Cool-Kyou Shinsha. And an Official Fanbook by 774 in 2020 for the 8th volume of the manga. The manga has been licensed in English by publisher Vertical. An anime adaptation was announced in July 2020, and began airing in April 2021, having been licensed by Crunchyroll for English streaming, and it's available here. A second season was announced in October 2021 and began airing in January 2023.

---

Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro provides examples of:

• Accidental Hand-Hold: On the way to school Nagatoro tries to get Senpai flustered by holding his sleeve. He gets annoyed as she keeps trying to grab it and tries to move to intercept and grab her sleeve instead. Instead he misses and ends up locking hands with her, to both parties' immediate embarrassment.
  • Reversed much later when Senpai deliberately tries to hold hands with her, but he fumbles and misses, only hooking up their pinkies to his embarrassment. But then Nagatoro locks hands with him entirely.
• Adaptation Distillation: The first season of the anime adapts the first six volumes of the manga, managing to fit most of it into 12 episodes, including several bonus chapters and even bonus single-pages, sketches and back cover gags from the volumes.
• Adaptation Expansion: Some parts of the anime still qualify, like:
  • Sakura is inserted into Senpai's fantasy dream as a goddess who drops him into the fantasy world, while at this point in the manga, she was absent (having disappeared after the first chapter). This also comes affer she had been given more substantial screentime early on by taking over the role of a girl later revealed to be Yoshi.
  • The matter of the Art Club President's painting for the school festival is played way more for drama with Senpai and even the girls speaking up in her defense before student officials.
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole:
  • Season 1 of the anime adds a scene where Nagatoro tries to entice Senpai into drawing her while apparently wearing nothing but a sheet, to the amusement of the other girls. In the manga at this point, she doesn't dare to go that far, to be almost or actually nude in his presence on purpose, no matter how she teases him. And it takes many more chapters for more development and stuff before something close enough happens after everyone moves up a year - in the school showers, and later even more pertinently, in the clubroom itself like in the anime-only scene.
  • In Season 2, the order of events is rearranged so that the school marathon takes place in between Senpai going to Nagatoro's classroom and him going to her house again after she's absent from school one day, while in the manga the marathon happened before the rest. He still wonders if she's avoiding him after she caught him hiding in their locker, despite the marathon clearly showing she's not mad at him.
  • Later in this season, at the very end, the post-credits scene shows him purposely hugging her "for real" after school, since their first attempt during their first "real" date was spoiled. This contradicts the manga's gradual oddball development of their physical relationship, since he's not capable of that kind of intimacy yet at this point - as they weren't shown hugging on purpose until some arcs later, with the hugs until then being accidental, and in the meantime Senpai has to be needled and instructed by Sunomiya into holding Nagatoro's hand couple-style, while they paradoxically grow more and more comfortable with being naked around each other.
• All for Nothing: Senpai and Nagatoro's efforts to compete with the Arts Club President over who has the more popular art exhibit amount to a hill of beans due to Prez herself, as her artwork is removed from display at the Cultural Festival due to it being way, way too sexy for school - even more than a previous piece which was allowed last year. However, this is downplayed since they ultimately achieve their goal, as the President had challenged Senpai to beat her, or else she would go through with requesting the club's dissolution to the Student Council. Since she's sufficiently impressed by Senpai's work and acknowledges her loss, the club can stay.
• All Just a Dream:
  • Nagatoro has a brief nightmare where Senpai starts giving her the silent treatment and decides to hang out with Gamo and Yoshi instead of her.
  • Chapter 9 follows Senpai through a fantasy adventure dream, with Nagatoro as his companion. She turns out to be the villain he's looking for, and beats him into submission, laughing that he thought they were friends.
  • In Chapter 65, under a feverish bout, Senpai dreams of being happily married with Nagatoro as she nurses him to health. Still loopy from the fever, he addresses her as "Hayase", to much of her flustered delight.
• Almost Kiss: In Chapter 66, after Senpai unintendedly calls her by her name while being feverish, Nagatoro is so touched that she tries to kiss him in his sleep, only to be interrupted by Senpai's mom arriving home.
• And You Were There: Early on, Senpai dreams of a fantasy adventure with him as the hero and Nagatoro as his catgirl (actually demon lord) companion. In the anime, the dream is set later chronologically and so her friends also appear in the dream in similar roles.
• Art Imitates Life: Has some in-universe examples:
  • When Senpai is working on his manga during Chapter 6 the main heroine's hairstyle has changed, being pulled back on the right side, just like Nagatoro's.
  • Senpai absentmindedly starts drawing Nagatoro as a Cat Girl on Chapter 13, and when she finds the drawings, she's both excited and flattered.
  • Invoked by Nagatoro. As she mercilessly tells Senpai, a story based on wrong assumptions will never be as compelling or remotely as believable and involving as one based on experience. One's characters' interactions will fall flat if one doesn't have real-world interactions, as this is what makes Mary Sues so unrealistic.
• Athletically Challenged: Naoto is very good at art, but as his social akwardness suggests, he isn't good at sports. Nagatoro makes a point to help him get in shape, because it's "embarrassing" that his underclassmen are fitter than him.
• Author Avatar: Nagatoro points out that this is the case for Senpai's manga character Siegfried and mocks him for it.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Typical of the genre, Senpai and Nagatoro have this dynamic.
• The Big Damn Kiss: As fans have been waiting for this for 7 years and 148 chapters, Senpai and Nagatoro have finally shared their first kiss. It was quite a build-up too as there are several panels where they were inching closer and closer and the possibilities of them getting interrupted were pretty high. Instead, no interruptions happen and the two simply share their first kiss in the Arts club room.
• Big Sister Bully: Nagatoro's big sister delights in teasing her little sister and coming up with ways of humiliating her in front of Senpai (such as showing him Nagatoro's baby photos and telling him stories about how she used to wet the bed). However, it's implied that, similar to Nagatoro's teasing of Senpai, this is just her way of showing affection and scoping out if Senpai is a good fit for her little sister at the same time.
  • Later her big brother also messes with her by misleading Senpai into thinking he's her boyfriend with his Exact Words statements about the two of them, but this provokes her into throwing hands, which he effortlessly catches and deflects while taunting her, and ultimately he's also just scoping out Senpai.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: "Miss Nagatoro" in the official English title is an overly literal translation of "Nagatoro-san" which comes across as stiff and makes her sound a lot older than she is, particularly in regards to Senpai.
• Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Discussed as part of Chapter 10. Nagatoro wants to act this out with Senpai. Notably she puts herself in the Boke role, subtly showing that she mostly means her teasing and bullying of him as joke, and wants him to stand up for himself and give retorts back. Goes horribly wrong at first, though Nagatoro manages to salvage it.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Comes up when the Arts Club President threatens to disband the club for improper activities and a general lack of seriousness. On one hand, Senpai, to whom she entrusted the club in her absence, has just been letting some outsider girls goof off in the club premises, and it doesn't help that his last artwork was of Nagatoro as a cat girl, more fitting for a manga club than a fine arts one. On the other hand, Nagatoro butts in to protest how the President can talk about disbanding the club despite being an inactive member, and she asserts that Senpai really is hardworking. The President acknowledges her point, but maintains that she can't just let things slide, as the school's student council itself is concerned about the misuse of the club.
• Bowdlerize:
  • In a general sense, the manga and anime are very toned-down versions of the webcomics.
  • The anime tones down some of the manga's ecchi stuff, like nudity getting various forms of censorship (like more steam for a bath scene, or other scenes being cut altogether), and also downplays or obfuscates the author's occasional nods to his previous adult works (a cameoing vampire character was completely redesigned, and Nagatoro's outfits mirroring another previous beret-wearing character are colored differently). Then there's stuff like Senpai's subtly visible boner not being visible, despite dialogue referring to it.
• Boyfriend Bluff: Sakura asks Senpai to pretend to be her boyfriend after one of the boys from the video game club she was trying to break up starts stalking her. The date barely begins before Nagatoro finds the stalker and makes him swear to leave her alone.
• Break the Cutie: Senpai is bullied so much that the only way he can cope is by blocking out their faces. Before meeting Nagatoro, his ability to talk to girls was nonexistent.
• Breast Attack: Happens accidentally during Nagatoro & Senpai's impromptu Boke and Tsukkomi Routine.
• Call-Back: In the volume 1 promo comic, Nagatoro is shown kicking Senpai in the butt after accusing him of being a pervert. The way she kicks him and his positioning is near identical to how she does the same in 774's Pixiv set "Nagatoro-san's Punching Bag", though in the original, she's much more violent.
• The Cameo: The vampire chapter has Lady Yupiel (from 774's Yupiel-sama H-comic series) appear in the background while Senpai is imagining vampires, as she is apparently a fictional movie character in-universe. At the same time, Nagatoro is sipping a carton of "Kameo" brand tomato juice.
• Cat Girl:
  • During Chapter 9, Nagatoro appears in Senpai's dream as "Nekotoro."
  • Senpai later incorporates her and the design into his drawings, much to Nagatoro's delight.
  • In Chapter 36, Senpai is in need of a model for reference, and Nagatoro offers herself. In order to get her off his case, Senpai dares her to model as the Cat Girl from his designs, and is floored when she actually complies and shows up in a costume made by the sewing club.
• Catapult Nightmare: Nagatoro has one where Senpai runs of to have fun with Nagatoro's friends.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Nagatoro, to the point where Senpai's Isekai dream during Chapter 9 features her as a Cat Girl. At least until she reveals that she's actually a Succubus.
• Circling Monologue: In the first chapter, Nagatoro walks a full circle around Senpai, wondering why he's averting his eye contact. Truly, Nagatoro at that moment resembles a jungle cat cornering her prey.
• Compressed Adaptation: The second season of the anime compared to the first. While the promo material shows it's covering volumes 7 to 11 and at least much of the 12th, compared to the first season doing the first six volumes, it takes place within a longer span of in-universe time but still within 12 episodes as it goes beyond the current schoolyear and into the next. This has the effect of leaving out more material by half of the season already, both one-off stories akin to the first season and more continuity-oriented stories that were all set within the first schoolyear, thus missing out on more characterization and worldbuilding for the characters. Furthermore, when one looks at the material comprising the first schoolyear in the manga vs. the anime, some content from the earlier volumes that was set after the first season hasn't made it into the second season, the anime going past the time such content could have been shown.
• Continuity Reboot: The manga to the webcomic, given that Nagatoro and Senpai started dating after the first Pixiv log in the original concept, and the manga starts off with them only beginning to get to know each other. Plus since Nagatoro treats Senpai way better in the manga than in the original webcomic, this makes it rather unlikely to be a Prequel.
• Date Peepers:
  • Nagatoro, Gamo, and Yoshi all tail Sakura and Senpai in chapter 34 while they're on a fake date to thwart a stalker who was going after Sakura. Gamo jokingly suggests said fake date might end up leading to real feelings between the two. Nagatoro immediately apprehends the stalker and forces him to apologize in order to end the fake date.
  • Senpai and Nagatoro are tailed on their first "real" date by both Gamo and Yoshi and by the President and her cousin Hana.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?:
  • Senpai slips out that he wouldn't mind repeating a year because he wouldn't be bored with Nagatoro being there. A second passes before he realizes what he said, and albeit Nagatoro is mad at him for the suggestion, she also gets mad when he gets good grades, and she surmises from his scores that he didn't like the notion of being with her.
  • In Chapter 42, Senpai absentmindedly tells Nagatoro that one of the reasons he chose her as the subject matter, and wants to paint a slice-of-life scene with her is to show how cute she is. It takes them both a second to realize the impact of those words, as it's the first time that Senpai has said something of the sort to Nagatoro in such a direct manner.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Season 2 Episode 11 has Nagatoro humming that season's opening theme, "LOVE CRAZY".
• Disqualification-Induced Victory: This is how Nagatoro and Senpai win against the Art Club President, as the Public Morals Committee judges her submission to be too risqué and removes it. Regardless, Nagatoro and her friends can't resist rubbing it in the President's face that they beat her.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • Nagatoro purposefully puts herself and Senpai into these kinds of situations, at one point even straddling him in a cowgirl position.
  • The entirety of Chapter 55 consists of this, as Nagatoro convinces Senpai to buy soft-serve ice cream in winter, and proceeds to lick hers suggestively in front of him, offering from it to Senpai, who wants to avoid an indirect kiss... and then she stumbles and the tips of their ice creams end up touching. They might as well be dating already at this point.
  • The storyline with Nagatoro posing for a nude portrait for Senpai for the first time is framed as akin to Their First Time having sex, with both of them getting prodded to do it by their peers, especially focusing on Nagatoro working up the nerve, getting an extra long chapter for the intimate act, and her being shy and nervous to approach him the next day, and later Senpai thinks about "not having done anything wrong" with her when being teased by her siblings, but then immediately remembers the session to his discomfort.
• Domestic Abuse: Nagatoro to Senpai, if mainly in the webcomic. She gets better though, as her bullying becomes more playful teasing as time goes by.
• Double Entendre: Sometimes comes up, with the characters consciously aware or not.
  • In chapter 29, Sakura starts out seeming totally innocent as Senpai helps her carry some equipment. But when he gets a splinter from the roughness of the wooden crate he's carrying, she takes his hand and bluntly asks "Should I jerk it off for you?" when talking about removing the splinter. Then she and Nagatoro's other friends all fawn over him to pull it out, and Nagatoro overhears them and gets the wrong idea.
  • The Arts Club President tells Senpai to take Nagatoro to the zoo where they can do some sketching (shasei). Nagatoro overhears part of the conversation and mistakes shasei (写生) = sketching from nature/life for an identical-sounding term, shasei (射精) = male ejaculation. (This is illustrated by fish sperm sushi from the previous chapter, in place of the actual thing. The two terms are usually spelled with different Japanese characters.) Shocked, she wonders if the President was telling Senpai to make moves on her, and thus she mistakes his invitation for basically a date, and is annoyed when she figures out what was really meant.
  • The President uses an idiom meaning "to lend a hand", which literally translates as "to take off a layer", i.e. taking off clothes for physical work. But she says this while wearing only a Modesty Towel and motions as if to strip. Later, her similarly-minded cousin also offers "to take off a layer" and Senpai tells her not to strip. Still later, both of them are with Senpai and the President again uses the phrase while literally taking off her clothes for dramatic effect, and her cousin joins in.
  • Gamo teases Nagatoro about the President "working Senpai hard", as she's giving him some judo training. But the expression used for "working someone hard" can also mean "to stroke or caress something", and thus in other contexts it's often used to mean masturbation. Similarly, when the President later offers to help Senpai prepare for a mock college entrance exam, she says she will "drain him dry" while she's naked, after literally "taking off a layer".
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male:
  • Played with. Nagatoro's behavior towards Senpai edges into this, especially early on, both emotionally (Calling him disgusting, worthless, saying a girl would never confess to him) and physically (flicking him in the nose, holding him down, and hitting him) but both Senpai and Nagatoro acknowledge it as bullying, and when Senpai admits it makes him angry, Nagatoro scales it back and becomes more playful.
  • Played straight in the webcomic, where Nagatoro is an all-out sadist, complete with a literal Kick the Dog moment.
• Doujinshi: The original webcomics on Pixiv could be considered this though they never went to print. There's also a Doujin Soft game by the author also on Pixiv, Escape From The Room With My Kouhai, which the anime subsequently referenced in one of its end credit sequences.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole: A number of the anime's dubs including the English one have Nagatoro's friends call her by her given name in Senpai's presence, while in the original audio and in the manga only her nickname is said, and later in the manga a whole storyline is about Senpai learning her given name.
  • As this storyline comes up in the second season, at least the English dub doubles down and changes the whole import of the storyline by having him already know her given name, but he feels it's not the right time for him to use it, instead of knowing it. Since in the original her sister butts in and says her name out loud several times, likely in response to his wishy-washiness, here she simply doesn't say Nagatoro's given name at all and the gag is entirely about her butting in.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness:
  • When Nagatoro is forced to put up with two guys flirting with her, she has these.
  • She shifts between these and her Mad Eye seemingly out of jealousy when her friends try to bully Senpai.
• Faceless Masses: Everyone besides Nagatoro and Senpai lack facial features, usually only getting mouths and sometimes eyebrows. Eventually other characters, like Nagatoro's friends, gain facial features as they rise in prominence.
• Festival Episode: Episode 7 of the anime has Senpai wait for Nagatoro to invite him to the festival, before eventually going on his own and running into Yoshi and Gamo. They send Nagatoro a picture of him with a dog collar on, prompting her to run over and defend her claim on him. The two of them end up watching the fireworks together, but are too embarrassed by all the other couples making out to get close to each other.
• First-Name Basis: Played with. Senpai struggles to decide whether he should address Nagatoro by her name (Hayase) once he learns it, but later, under a strong fever, he unintendedly calls her "Hayase" and she's so overcome with emotions that she almost kisses him in his sleep.
• Fun with Homophones:
  • Shasei (写生) vs. shasei (射精) in the zoo chapters, exceedingly hard if not impossible to preserve in English. Especially since the Double Entendre pun is illustrated with a specific kind of food, itself a play on one meaning.
  • The opening song for the anime is titled "Easy Love" in English, and it includes the phrase "Easy Love Night Date". Seems like Word Salad Lyrics until one realizes it's an Accent Depundent play on ijiranaide.
• Given Name Reveal: Much later in the series, the readers are drip-fed the possible real names of our main characters. Nagatoro's friends call her "Hayacchi," hinting at what her first name might be; and likewise Senpai's friends call him "Nao-kun."
• Grew a Spine: It seems like Nagatoro teases Senpai to invoke this trope. Trying to make him stand up for himself and be more assertive. She becomes proud when she sees him do better as well as is genuinely sorry if she realizes she went too far.
• Head-Tiltingly Kinky: In Chapter 36, Nagatoro models a Cat Girl suit for Senpai at his request in order to draw a portrait (though he never thought she'd comply, as he wasn't serious about it when he asked), and both Yoshi and Gamo "catch" them in their "play" and watch from outside the arts club room, aghast and basically deeming that those two's flirting got an awful lot kinkier than before.
• History Repeats: In an occasion where Nagatoro catches a cold, Gamo and Yoshi send Senpai to her house to give her the school's printouts. He rings the bell to her house, and when no one answers, he fears the worst and goes to the sliding door to the patio to see if maybe Nagatoro fainted, but he's stopped by her sister. Some time later, Senpai catches a cold and Nagatoro goes to visit him, ringing the door first, but since Senpai is sore from the cold, he doesn't answer quickly and she rushes to his slide door because she feared that he may have fainted. In hindsight, Senpai realizes that he shouldn't chide her for exaggerating, as he had done exactly the same when she had the cold.
• Hotter and Sexier:
  • The serialization is more ecchi compared to the image-sets, which could be described as always work-safe unlike the later version.
  • While the main chapters can get racy, omake chapters (some by different artists) in the collected editions can be more so than usual. For instance, one main chapter had Gamo forcing Senpai to grope her chest, which turned out to be enhanced by bread buns so he only felt up the bread. In an omake, Nagatoro tries the same trick, but one bun slips and Senpai actually gropes her chest directly, only realizing it too late. Another omake had Nagatoro sending a video call to Senpai in the bath.
• Humiliating Wager: The girls have the Art Club President dress up as a Playboy Bunny and help them sell Nagatoro Charms when she lost the bet. Though due to her asexuality, it didn't appear to bother her.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: Nagatoro may bully and poke fun at Senpai, but when other people do it, even if they're her friends, she'll get pissed to all hell.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: In chapter 11, Senpai is called Nagatoro's boyfriend, pet, and slave and is even accused by one of Nagatoro's friends as not being a "real man". The only thing he strongly asserts against is that she isn't his girlfriend.
• I Was Beaten by a Girl: Nagatoro is considerably stronger than Senpai, and easily overpowers him on several occasions. This is due to the fact that she's athletic, while he's idle and lazy. She is also more domineering psychologically.
• Imagine Spot: When he and Nagatoro have to scamper to her house due to heavy rains, he is so wary of her that he imagines her mom, her dad, and even her cat making fun of him in the same manner as she does.
• Impossible Task: After Nagatoro convinces Senpai to use her as his model for the cultural festival, he states his condition is she must bring her own outfit and it must be the Nekotoro costume in his drawing. He expected this request to be this trope to get her out of his hair, so he was completely shocked when she actually did it.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Nagatoro brings Senpai to tears in the first two chapters of the series.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: A "collab work" with Azu's Tejina-senpai, also published in Magazine Pocket. 774 and Azu draw their own characters on each page. The digital and print versions have a variant page alternately focusing on Nagatoro or Tejina-senpai.
• Intimate Lotion Application: When the cast first goes to the beach, Nagaroto sees Senpai is reluctant to be out in the sun and genuinely offers to "gently" apply sunscreen on his back, but he refuses because that's a thing that couples do and they're not dating. She gets offended at this remark and punishes him by kicking him to the floor, squirting him with the sunscreen, and then stepping on his back and rubbing it on him with her foot. Then Gamo and Yoshi also end up joining her, much to Sentai's chagrin and Nagatoro's envy. They end up emptying the entire flask on him and he ends up entirely covered in sunscreen.
• Ironic Echo: Senpai's manga showed a sword-bound heroine claiming that she shed her femininity for the sake of her sword, with Senpai's Author Avatar protagonist telling her that she is indeed a beautiful woman, making her flustered. Nagatoro points out that this scenario wouldn't play like that in real life; however, the longer the story goes, the more it's shown that Nagatoro is the "swordswoman who rejected her femininity"... and she wants Senpai to be able to indeed say the words his protagonist says to her, sincerely and unencumbered.
• It's Not Porn, It's Art:
  • Nagatoro teases Senpai by calling his manga drawings porn, which he denies (just a medieval fantasy story with sexy girls).
  • More directly, when Nagatoro finds Senpai's highly ecchi manga (which seems to be alluding to Parallel Paradise), he says he just appreciates the artwork.
  • Senpai later defends the Arts Club President's award-winning nude self-portrait as an excellent work of art allowed by the school management. Though the painting got a lot of students Eating the Eye Candy and ranked high in a school competition as well as getting an award at a famous exhibition elsewhere, Senpai insists the President didn't intend it to be seen in a salacious way, nor did it to get attention and votes, but simply did it as another piece of art.
  • When the President does another nude self-portrait, it's finally too much for the student council who order it removed over her protests. The previous one was from the back, while this one is from the front, though neither show nipples or genitals. Before this happens, the President asserts that artists should use their own bodies as subjects, since the human form is an eternal theme to be pursued.
• Japanese School Club:
  • Most of the story takes place at the Arts Club room where Senpai is the only active member. Senpai doesn't have any club bureaucracy duties (president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary, etc.), so it's implied that he's not the only member of the club, and it's later explained that all the other club members are third-years busy with cram school (preparing for college entrance exams).
  • Nagatoro is a helper of the Swimming Club and only has sporadic club duties, as she's not a formal member. She later joins the Judo Club.
  • Yoshi and Gamo are not in any clubs, though Gamo later joins the Judo Club with Nagatoro.
  • Sakura has an after-school part-time job, so it's unlikely that she belongs to any. Later she starts hanging out with the Videogames Club (after her attempt to break them up as a Honey Trap backfired).
• Jerkass Realization: The girls are NOT happy when the President starts to scold Senpai about letting people into the club. They are not happy about getting him into real troubles, with a serious chance of being expelled from the club.
• Kiss of the Vampire: Discussed. Nagatoro and Senpai talk about a vampire movie they watched, and Nagatoro decides to act this trope out, but with her as the vampire.
• Lighter and Softer: The manga, compared to the webcomics, where Nagatoro was much more "Sado" than "Dere". Justified, as that version of Nagatoro, while in an actual relationship with him, regularly took her treatment of Senpai too far to be palatable for a wider audience. Unless of course you're into that sort of thing, which is precisely how the webcomics built up a cult following.
• Lightning Glare: Nagatoro and Gamo do this when Gamo is teasing her about her attraction to Senpai.
• Location Theme Naming: Character surnames are primarily taken from Japanese railway stations. However, some instances are ambiguous due to characters being Only Known by Their Nickname.
  • Nagatoro, her friends and Judo Club members are named after Saitama Prefecture stations: Nagatoro, Gamō, Orihara, Shiki, Asaka.
  • Senpai and his friends are named after Tokyo stations: Hachiōji, Takao, Hino.
• Love Confession:
  • Nagatoro delivers one to Senpai at the start of Chapter 3. It turns out to be fake.
  • In the first installment of the webcomic, Senpai gives one to Nagatoro under heavy duress.
  • Discussed in Chapter 110, comparing the traditional way to how a manga and "adults" might handle it. The "adult" way is to express it without the need for words, which Senpai does through handholding, but Nagatoro calls it a "dry run".
  • By Chapter 144, the cumulative buildup of several successive arcs culminates in Senpai finally delivering a "proper" traditional verbal one to Nagatoro, and they finally drop the pretense of not being an Official Couple from this point onward, akin to a Lighter and Softer version of the very first webcomic.
• Love Epiphany: In Chapter 107, after considering the possibility of Nagatoro drifting away from him in the future, Senpai recognizes that he loves Nagatoro and wants to be an item with her.
• Loving Bully: Nagatoro seems to be this, and it's the main draw of the series.
• Luminescent Blush: Both Senpai and Nagatoro have this when around each other.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Played with. Nagatoro's confident, strong, and rarely shows emotions other than smugness, while Senpai is a bullied, shy artist prone to strong emotions. However, in time, they start peeling each other's layers, realizing that he is manlier than she thinks, and she is girlier than she cares to admit.
• Magic Skirt:
  • Played With in the manga. Nagatoro lifts her skirt to reveal more skin on occasion, but anytime it might show her panties, such as during her massive karate kicks, this comes into effect. In the webcomic, she wears Modesty Shorts instead.
  • The anime keeps this as well, except for one instance where it was impossible not to see her panties (Nagatoro invited Senpai to join her while she was hula-hooping, and he does so while crouching down, only for them both to realize mid-way through...)
• Market-Based Title: The localized English title was first reported as Don't Mess With Me, Nagatoro! but apparently it was later changed to Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro! It seems someone thought it was necessary to point out Nagatoro is a girl.
• Memetic Mutation: In-Universe, Nagatoro's friends make a music video of her dancing in a Cat Girl costume which goes viral among the students, all to boost the recognition and popularity factors of Senpai's paintings of her.
• Minimalist Cast:
  • Nagatoro and Senpai are initially the only two prominent characters at first. Nagatoro's friends gradually become more prominent as time goes by.
  • Senpai belongs to the Arts club and spends most of his afternoons at the club room, but there was no appearances whatsoever from any of his clubmates until Chapter 37.
• Modesty Shorts: Nagatoro wears these in the webcomic, but trades it out for a Magic Skirt in the manga.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Happens at the end of one of the webcomics. Nagatoro takes one of her jokes too far when she passes off her older brother as her boyfriend, despite Senpai being her boyfriend at this point. Nagatoro's face visibly has this reaction when she realizes how furious Senpai is.
• Mythology Gag: Some elements from the original, more hardcore (yet work-safe) image sets show up or are referenced now and then, such as the collar Nagatoro's friends make Senpai wear, mentions of Nagatoro's yet unseen older brother, and Nagatoro kicking Senpai in an omake (which is also an acknowleged Call-Back).
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: During Senpai and Nagatoro's first date, they are stalked by both Nagatoro's friends and the Sunomiya girls. Hana and the President are there to "protect Senpai's romance" and stop Gamo and Yoshi from "protecting Senpai's virginity", under the belief that the "delinquents" want to ruin the date. Gamo and Yoshi are actually there to take embarrassing photos so that they can needle Senpai and Nagatoro later, but the Sunomiyas confront them and start chasing them around while the date happens. Later, when the coast seems to be clear, Yoshi stops Gamo from running up to Senpai and Nagatoro, since going any further would actually be ruining their date. Cue the Sunomiyas who start chasing them again, all four of them accidentally interrupting Senpai and Nagatoro as they're about to have a hug and the chapter ends with all of them standing around awkwardly. As such, the Sunomiyas brought about what they tried to prevent; had they not followed and chased Nagatoro's friends around, the date ultimately wouldn't have been ruined.
• No Name Given:
  • Senpai's name is initially not given. Nagatoro is only known by her last name, while Senpai doesn't even get that much. A game 774 made starring the pair reveals them to be "Hayase Nagatoro" and "Naoto Hachiouji". Senpai's last name had been given previously in other works, but his first name was shown here. The manga seems to confirm these names as canon, as we learn Hayase is Nagatoro's first name in Chapter 62, and Senpai's family name as Hachiouji in Chapter 82.
  • Subverted in the case of Nagatoro's friends, who are named/nicknamed Yoshi (twin-tails), Gamo (long hair) and Sakura (tan friend), after spending a considerable amount of time with no names mentioned.
• "No Peeking!" Request
  • A Running Gag has Nagatoro asking Senpai to close his eyes so she can "give him a reward", with him usually assuming it's a kiss only for her to do something else to prank him. When he got used to it and didn't expect a kiss was the time she actually kissed him on the cheek.
  • After Nagatoro and Senpai get Caught in the Rain she teasingly asks him not to turn and look at her since her soaked shirt is see-through. But he thinks she's just bluffing and is wearing her School Swimsuit underneath it (as she did previously) and turns... only to see she wasn't bluffing, causing both great embarrassment.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Nagatoro loves getting in Senpai's face, as it's one of the fastest ways to get him flustered.
• Not What It Looks Like: Senpai worries about this when Nagatoro ends up on top of him in Chapter 5. Nagatoro doesn't seem to care.
  Senpai: I-If someone sees this, it'll cause a misunderstanding! A-A-Are you okay with that?
  Nagatoro: Eh? A misunderstanding? About what?
  Senpai: That's... Many things...
  • Nagatoro does get mortified when a couple of schoolmates spot her riding Senpai like a horse.
• Official Couple: Senpai and Nagatoro have officially hooked up by Chapter 144 (though they have been doing couple things before this even when they're not dating).
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: During a judo bout with Nagatoro where she's pinning him to the floor, Senpai unwittingly calls her "heavy", provoking her ire; what he meant to say is that Nagatoro's posturing made it impossible for him to wrest himself out of being pinned by her.
• Playful Cat Smile: When teasing Senpai, Nagatoro alternates between this, a Cheshire Cat Grin, and a Smug Smirk.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: While the first season of the anime manages to fit most of the content of the first six volumes into its 12 episodes, the earlier events are often rearranged and combined to tighten the narrative and continuity a bit, since the school festival arc was the first arc that took more than a couple of chapters to resolve and so it got 2 and a half episodes devoted to it. Still, some things didn't make it in or were changed for various reasons, including:
  • Senpai imagining Nagatoro and friends as demonesses in the cafeteria doesn't happen, though the poses are copied, because he has yet to have the dream that introduced the demoness visual. It happens later with the friends as part of his dream.
  • An early scene with Yoshi trying to set up Nagatoro with boys is changed to have Sakura in Yoshi's role, averting the Early-Installment Weirdness.
  • The ecchi manga featuring busty girls which Senpai reads and the vampire movie that Nagatoro watches are combined into a busty vampire manga. This means that the author's previous vampire character doesn't make it in.
  • Very early in the manga, at the end of volume 1, Nagatoro kisses Senpai on the cheek while his eyes are closed. But in the anime, it's a fakeout using a small toy. This was probably done because them actually going that far that early doesn't feel wholly consistent with later manga chapters where Indirect Kisses and the prospect of actual kisses are factors. The scene's placement in volume 1 may also mean that it was a sort of failsafe to have a conclusive moment in case the manga ended early, but since this didn't happen, it feels kind of off compared to later storylines. But then a post-credits scene in episode 12 redid this sequence with the kiss happening for real.
  • The Valentine's Day and White Day omakes from the first and second volumes weren't animated since they would require a huge Time Skip to February and March, which should put them around or even past volume 10.
  • Senpai's dream of Nekotoro is placed after he and Nagatoro play a fighting game with a catgirl character, giving the impression that Nekotoro was partly inspired by the game.
  • The second season rearranges the order a bit again by opening with the Show Within a Show manga chapter to serve as a Cold Open.
• Pretty Freeloaders: Overlapping with The Thing That Would Not Leave, Nagatoro, Gamo, Yoshi and Sakura are all this in terms of abusing the Arts Club room's space to pester Senpai. All very pretty and very obtrusive.
• Production Throwback:
  • A omake anthology story by a guest artist (the author of Please Tell Me! Galko-chan) homages one of 774's ero-doujins which had gunmen breaking into a school and making the girls strip, with a few almost identical panels. (Nagatoro knocks them out and takes the opportunity to harass Senpai, who refuses to look, even more than usual. Unfortunately for her, it's just a dream.)
  • The Really 700 Years Old naked vampire girl in the movie that Nagatoro brings up in chapter 5 is recognizable as Yupiel, from Nanashi's Lady Yupiel hentai series.
  • Nagatoro wears a beret when she and Senpai go to the zoo. Her hat and the venue call to mind another of Nanashi's older H-characters, Honoka.
• Quiet Cry for Help: In Chapter 27, when Nagatoro and her group are about to get roped into a mixer by two boys they don't particularly care for, Yoshi's face tells Senpai to please get them out of there. After he's able to scamper them out, they are elated with Senpai's courage.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Nagatoro delivers a minor one to the "musician" flirting with her in chapter 6, causing him to sulk off to the bathroom:
  "Musician:" Haha... Well it is a bit abstract.
  Nagatoro: Abstract? I just didn't feel anything. All I feel is that you didn't actually try... Am I wrong?
• Romantic Ribbing: One of the goals of the story, ultimately to be accomplished by Nagatoro toning down on the teasing, and Senpai recognizing said teasing for what it actually is and taking it in stride.
• Refuge in Audacity: In Chapter 34, Nagatoro teases Senpai and tells him that it's to soon for him to start dating, and he agrees in stride, implying that it's to soon to start dating her. Nagatoro is taken aback, but cannot help but crack a smile at his boldness.
• Running Gag:
  • When Senpai attempts to move past something, he moves his arms as if he's setting something aside, with Nagatoro mimicking his arm movements. He also tends to say "(putting) that aside..." or words to that effect while doing this, which she also copies. It's later remarked that this is Senpai's way of saying "yes" without saying it.
  • The President suddenly undressing, or showing up naked.
• Say It with Hearts: How Nagatoro speaks, but only to Senpai.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Senpai's glasses glow ominously when he calls Nagatoro's bluff and asks her exactly what "perverted things" she thinks he would do.
• Secret Test of Character:
  • It turns out that Nagatoro's friends were grilling Senpai as much as they did because they wanted him to step up and defend himself, given that they think he's Nagatoro's boyfriend. When he strongly, but meekly asserts that he's not, they finally ease up and apologize for getting the pair worked up.
  • It's implied that in Chapter 34, Senpai agreed to go on a pretend-date with Sakura to make Nagatoro a little jealous because he got mad at the fact that she compared him to the stalker that was tailing Sakura.
• Self-Deprecation: The volume 19 extra story opens up with Nagatoro chastising Shikki and 774's blob-like avatar about the recent extras being nothing but "hentai manga".
• Self-Insert Fic: The first chapter consists of Nagatoro calling Senpai out for this and she takes it too far.
• Sexy Coat Flashing: Nagatoro does this in Chapter 4.5, but with a sheet and a one-piece swimsuit.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Nagatoro has no problems wearing tight clothing, pulling up her skirt, or posing seductively for Senpai. In fact, she seems to enjoy it. There are instances where it shows that 774 used to draw hentai. The dude knows how to draw titillating girls.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: In Chapter 11, sick of her friends teasing him about it, Senpai stands up and makes a loud public statement to the whole cafeteria that he's NOT Nagatoro's boyfriend...and then can't think of anything else to say, so he just sits down thoroughly embarrassed.
• Shipper on Deck: Gamo is constantly teasing Nagatoro about Senpai, to the point that she simply starts telling people that he is her boyfriend for shits and giggles. Everybody gets instantly excited when they hear that. On Senpai's side, the President of the arts club recognises that Nagatoro's presence has added passion to Senpai's art. After she graduates, we get her cousin who knew Senpai from middle school and instantly notices the same thing, even calling Nagatoro a "goddess."
• Shout-Out:
  • Senpai lends Nagatoro the boxing manga Hajime no Ippo for her to read. As a fellow combat sportswoman herself, she becomes a fan.
  • When stretching together after jogging, Senpai and Nagatoro are caught by their friend Yoshi, who is walking her dog; their posture makes Yoshi think that they're performing a fusion dance from Dragon Ball and she mentions it much to their mutual embarrassment.
  • Senpai mentions his intentions to finish a videogame by the name of "BQ"; this is a reference to Dragon Quest, which is commonly abbreviated to "DQ".
  • The fighting videogame Senpai plays with Nagatoro is named Jas Gear, a parody of Guilty Gear, while its gameplay also resembles Rival Schools. The Cat Girl character Nagatoro chooses also resembles Cham Cham from Samurai Shodown.
  • Nagatoro calls Senpai "Eromanga Sensei" when claiming he draws pervy manga.
  • Hana Sunomiya's choice of outfit while watching over Senpai's date seems directly inspired by the school uniforms used in 11eyes.
  • Apparently, Senpai's cooking is so good (when he makes an effort) that those tasting it get foodgasms.
  • The "Lewd Book" of Senpai's^note  He reads it for the story and the art that Nagatoro and co. find in chapter 32 has a name and cover suspiciously similar to Parallel Paradise.
  • In chapter 35, Senpai imagined Nagatoro and her friends as titans, complete with colossal Nagatoro looking over the wall, after they joked about how he'd fail his tests and be held back twice, causing them to be his senpais.
  • In episode 6 of the fantasy segment, Yoshi hatches out of an egg with a green dragon head, imitating Yoshi from Super Mario Bros..
• Show, Don't Tell: In Chapter 110, Sunomiya encourages Senpai to attempt hand-holding Nagatoro in lieu of a traditional verbal Love Confession. The attempt is made by him on their way home to gauge whether he and Nagatoro are in the same page and their feelings are mutual. Nagatoro ends up responding to his advance and they hold hands while walking with not a word exchanged between them, even after another person passes by. After a while, Nagatoro breaks the hold to coyly admonish Senpai for being so nervous about it and say her goodbyes, and she ends up heading home ecstatic for what just happened.
• Shower of Love: The scenario of sexy intimate fun times in the bath is clearly played with but has yet to happen for real. In an early omake, Nagatoro calls him while she's in the bath just to rile him up, but accidentally puts the video call on. In later chapters Nagatoro and Senpai shower in school together in directly opposite stalls with only a thin wall between them, and they have an intimate chat with the paneling making it look like they might as well be skin to skin. Then later, they accidentally find themselves naked in a hot spring bath alone together, but while Nagatoro comes dangerously close to ravishing him right then and there and prods him to go further too, he insists on sticking to their prior mutual Self-Imposed Challenges before kissing or going anywhere further so that they can improve themselves all the more. Then still later, the same evening after they've finally become an out and out Official Couple, she initiates a mutual video call with him while both are in the bath with similar paneling to the school shower stuff. They discuss how they've already been naked with or for each other several times by now, and that since they're officially a couple now, this kind of thing should be normal for them. It's not even clear if Nagatoro is bothering to cover up by this point, but she freaks out and says she's not yet ready when Senpai accidentally gives her a view of his crotch.
• Shrines and Temples: In Chapter 71, Nagatoro takes up a temp job as a Miko in order to mess with Senpai during Hatsumode.
• Single-Target Sexuality:
  • Nagatoro towards Senpai. She finds other boys boring, and only teases Senpai the way she does.
  • Albeit Senpai is teased by all of Nagatoro's friends, he prefers to be with Nagatoro alone, and it's shown that he harbors feelings for her only.
• Situational Sexuality: Played for Laughs when Nagatoro puts up a "nobody leaves until lewd things happen" sign in the clubroom to tease Senpai (who refuses to do such things with her so casually, which she appreciates). But then the President walks out of the inner room (wearing only a sheet), sees the sign and plays along by hitting on them both in turn, to Nagatoro's shock.
• Smoking Is Glamorous: The anime's official poster (see above) features Nagatoro holding a painting pallette in a way evoking a stylish kiseru pipe.
• Suggestive Collision: Inverted in Chapter 4, with Nagatoro falling onto Senpai's crotch immediately after teasing him for wanting to act out this trope. Tellingly, this is the first time we see Nagatoro get genuinely flustered and lose her smirk.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • By Chapter 38, the fact that Nagatoro and her gal pals keep hanging out in the Arts Club room draws the attention of the student council, and Senpai's senior, the Arts Club President, comes to chew him out over improper activities and his apparent lack of seriousness about the club, after she herself was warned by the council.
  • Nude art can be tastefully done, and has artistic merit, but if you try and display nude art in a high school, you're going to get in trouble for it, as the Arts Club President discovers.
  • Nagatoro and Senpai inspire each other to join the school judo tournament, but despite their vast difference in skills and experience, and despite both performing better than anyone including themselves expected, they are still eliminated early on since their respective opponents are still stronger and/or more skilled, and/or have had more constant training. All things considered, Senpai is still a beanpole who is made to face a bigger jock and he's eliminated in his first round, and while Nagatoro passes her first round she's then matched against a candidate for the Olympic Judo Team. At least they only lose by points and not outright "knockouts".
• The Tease: Nagatoro, so much so. Regularly will roll up her skirt or unbutton her shirt just because she knows it will get a rise out of Senpai. Inverted often. Whenever Senpai calls her out on her more sexual teasing, or when she realizes she's exposed herself more than she meant to, Nagatoro will near-instantly go full Luminescent Blush. Notably, when Senpai turned the tables and asked her to give an example of "something naughty" the best she could do was deflect and stammer out 'hugging and kissing' as examples.
• That Came Out Wrong: In Chapter 41, Senpai means to tell Nagatoro that she's his muse, but ends up blurting this instead:
  Senpai: Because you're the most stimulating person for me!!
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: How Senpai views Nagatoro and her friends using his Art Club Room as their hang-out spot.
• Tongue-Out Insult: On Episode 11, there is a misunderstanding that hurts Nagatoro's feelings. Naoto chases after her in an attempt to make amends. When a group of girls see them together, she brushes him off as a "creepy stalker", adding insult to injury by sticking her tongue out at him.
• Unreliable Narrator:
  • Played With. Early on, during some of the more severe instances of Nagatoro's bullying her dialogue is rendered in the same style as Senpai's thoughts, calling into question whether she actually said it or if he's projecting a worse meaning onto what she said. Nagatoro's facial expressions are also ridiculously sinister even when saying relatively mundane things. Could just be Early-Installment Weirdness on the part of 774's relative newness to the publishing world.
  • Taken even further in the Pixiv comics, where these moments are also accompanied by a red static Interface Screw.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • In the anime, the first time the gaming club is shown onscreen, it is composed by five members. When Sakura approaches them, and in all their other appearances, they are four, with the tall boy with a buzzcut being absent.
  • In the anime, an angry Nagatoro tells two faceless girls that Senpai, who's following her at the moment, is a gross stalker. This understandably causes the girls to worry and wonder if they should tell a teacher. The corresponding chapter in the manga later showed the girls witnessing the two of them back to their usual antics, thus understanding what was up, while the anime just drops this point.
• Wheel o' Feet: This often appears on Nagatoro or her friends when they're chasing Senpai.

---

"I'm a first year. You a second year?"
"Y-Yeah..."
"Aha! Got it. So I should call you Senpai, right?"

---