Volumes 1-6 / Season 1
Childhood memories.
Episode 1- As Nagatoro's exuberant reactions only make her first meeting with Senpai hilarious, it's easy to forget that he is still a boy with a borderline crippling social anxiety who is enduring a Humiliation Conga by a punkish girl he doesn't know (who is even his underclasswoman, with all that entails in the uptight Japanese culture). It's hardly surprising that when Nagatoro corners him against the bookshelves, Senpai starts shedding tears, showing that he is just about breaking down - and this only makes her tease him further, to worsen things. At the end of the sequence, he's left completely defeated, with her handkerchief as a taunting gift and unable to sleep that night.
- Senpai remembering all the bullying he suffered as a child, and how his only way to deal with it was closing his mind to it, and enduring till they got bored. This corresponds with Nagatoro's Jerkass Realization, realizing that her overt bullying approach to getting a reaction out of Senpai is wrong and toning her behavior down for the rest of the series.
Episode 3
- When Senpai is forced to have lunch in the clique's table, Yoshi asks Nagatoro jokingly if he is her boyfriend, and she cheekily plays along. However, when she clashes with Gamo over her treatment of Senpai, the latter gets up and reveals dramatically he's not her boyfriend in an attempt to defuse the situation. Even if the moment reveals Senpai has gotten more confident since he spends time with Nagatoro, as well as that he doesn't want her to get in fights for him, his words only leave Nagatoro with a heartbreakingly disappointed face.
- She's not even the only, as before Gamo and Yoshi laugh at him for his answer, they also get indignant that Senpai took that route instead of doing something cooler.
- Nagatoro's attempts to train Senpai into being more assertive backfire when she goes too far in her teasing about his hair, leaving him suddenly shaken and about to cry again. However, unlike their first meeting, when she actively enjoyed seeing him cry, this time the girl becomes so distraught with his reaction she looks about to cry herself. The moment also highlights how Nagatoro is actually not much better at conveying her feelings than Senpai, as her only answer to the situation is teasing him a bit more, hoping either he will finally react as intended or the moment will be lost among her usual shenanigans.
Episode 5
- While it's funny and revealed to merely be a nightmare, it is shown that Nagatoro's ultimate fear is Senpai giving her the cold shoulder and going to hang out with her friends instead, leaving her alone. Nagatoro might sometimes tease Senpai for being an insecure loner, but in reality she's not very different deep down, even although she has him and an entire gang of friends.
- The dream also reveals that, despite the fact that Gamo and Yoshi are her friends (and actually support her relationship with Senpai more than it looks), Nagatoro doesn't entirely trust them. She believes that the possibility of them stealing Senpai from her with their wordlier ways is right there.
Episode 6
- While a dream, and a funny one overall, you have to feel somewhat bad that Senpai was betrayed by Nagatoro and company in his dream, especially given that they were portraying his own partners up to that point. It almost suggests that because of her relentless bullying and taunting, he is at a loss on how she actually feels about him (and vice versa) and whether he actually trusts them as his friends.
- Nagatoro offers to put sunscreen on Senpai on the beach. However, Senpai becomes overly flustered as usual and insists that it would look odd for her to do so, because that's something couples do and they aren't one. Although Nagatoro, being her typical self, applies the sunscreen roughly on him anyway, for a brief moment she is so disappointed by his reaction that she looks the most serious she has been up to that point.
Episode 7
- When Nagatoro challenges Senpai to dare to go Holding Hands with her in the summer festival, he's shown to be really mustering the strength to do so, but before he can actually try, the start of the fireworks interrupts the moment. Briefly, before they go running to watch them, both Senpai and Nagatoro look disappointed, as if they both actually wanted him to do it. It's minor compared to other examples, but it still feels like a lost chance for them.
Episode 8
- After making Senpai carry her backpack as part of a game, Nagatoro decides to dial it up and makes him carry her, piggyback style. The scrawny Senpai cannot keep her from sliding off and ends up accidentally grabbing up her thigh while trying to reposition her, and Nagatoro is so uncharacteristically flustered that she jumps down and runs away without even making a token attempt to tease. Senpai, confused about this, wonders if he upset her, and the next scene has a nervous Senpai trying to study for his feared exams, yet constantly looking at his smartphone in the hopes that Nagatoro will say something. For the first time, Senpai is scared that he really damaged his relationship with Nagatoro.
- Even the instant in which she finally messages him, without even sounding resentful, Senpai is clearly still shaken by the thought that he did upset her.
Episode 10
- The Art Club Prez practically bullies Senpai by verbally tearing into him over not taking the club seriously. Granted, it wasn't an unfair assessment from her POV, based upon what she saw before the girls showed up and took responsibility - the couch and the girls' table full of snacks were dead giveaways, leaving Senpai to look like a liar - but it is still heartbreaking to see. Even the hilarious Nekotoro drawing he was doing moments earlier only serves for the President to reprimand him even harder, making her conclude that he's not taking art seriously and therefore she should just disband the club. Suddenly, all the fun and happiness of the series get turned on their head by crashing against the wall of reality.
Episode 11
- Senpai's wish not to get Nagatoro involved with the competition against the President, which he verbalizes after realizing he cannot use her as a model to its full potential, is unfortunately misunderstood by the girl, who believes he's being ungrateful with all her effort. Even worse is the detail that she was actually trying to comfort him before his words made her angrily storm out, shouting that, if the situation is really so personal for Senpai, he should just ask the President to model for him.
- Nagatoro's friends often serve to help the relationship between Nagatoro and Senpai, but this time even they turn on him before leaving.
- However, a much worse misunderstanding happens shortly after, when the President comes from a self-model session to visit Senpai in midst of his solo work. Nagatoro shows up too, clearly trying to make up after their previous argument, only to find Senpai with a President wearing the same modelling blanket Nagatoro herself was wearing for him before. Evidently assuming the worst, Nagatoro runs away, not listening to Senpai's frantic explanations. Her expression initially makes the moment seem funny, but soon it turns into a desperate race when Senpai runs after her fearing he might be about to lose Nagatoro, not only due to a monumental strike of rotten luck, but also due to his own misguided words.
- While trying to reach Nagatoro, they come by two female friends of her to whom Nagatoro spitefully claims Senpai is stalking her, and the last thing we hear of the two girls is that they should quickly tell a teacher. This luckily leads nowhere, as either the girls ultimately decided against it or the right explanations were later given offscreen, but given Senpai's dire situation, being chased as a stalker by teachers and students at that precise moment might have been fatal for his relationship with Nagatoro, his school career and ultimately his very life.
