In this episode of Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro, viewers first see Nagatoro and her senpai in the art club clubroom as she awakes from a nap, and he works on a drawing. Nagatoro leaves to hang out with her friends. She leaves her phone sitting on the couch accidentally, and Senpai gazes at her phone, wondering what to do next.
He leaves the clubroom and explores the first floor, searching for Nagatoro to return her phone, but uncertain of what class she’s in. Another student directs him to class C, but Nagatoro isn’t there. As he waits for her outside the classroom, Senpai hears her friends approaching from every direction, and he dips into a nearby classroom to hide. To his misfortune, some of the girls head into that classroom, so he hides in a locker.
The Jig Is Up
Nagatoro shows up and joins her friends. They chat while Senpai listens from inside the locker, waiting for his chance to sneak out. The girls start discussing their ideal types. When they ask Nagatoro, she replies that her type is someone she likes hanging out with, which makes Senpai think about all the time they spend together, and his cheeks turn a rosy pink. Nagatoro suddenly realizes she doesn’t have her phone. They consider that it might be in the art clubroom, which reminds them that Nagatoro has been spending a lot of time in the clubroom lately. They wonder if it’s due to a guy, which she tries to shrug off before the group of girls is interrupted by a fairly loud bang from the locker in the classroom corner. They grow a little scared before Nagatoro goes over to check it out and finds her senpai awkwardly standing in the locker and avoiding her gaze.
She questions him and he hands her phone over. When the girls wonder if Nagatoro found anything, she distracts them and sneaks Senpai out. As he starts to depart, she asks if he heard what she said, at which point he does a horrible bluff that isn’t fooling anyone and books it down the hallway, both his and Nagatoro’s yells echoing as the scene transitions. On an evening sometime later, Senpai jogs to prepare for the school marathon the next day. As he’s distracted thinking about Nagatoro, his foot comes down at the wrong angle and the level of relatability can’t be overstated here. He looks up, stifling his pained yell while surely wondering what he did to deserve such torture. While his ankle twist was pretty extreme, certainly every viewer has stubbed their toe at least once in their life and the pain that follows is unreal.
The next day, the marathon begins. Senpai takes off when the run starts and decides to keep his own pace. As he commits to staying at his own pace, Nagatoro emerges, and she’s not alone. She challenges him to a race, along with her friends. As they casually jog and chat, the art club president shows up in a bunny girl outfit, which spurs the girls into a fierce competitive spirit. Senpai wishes them luck, but Nagatoro and the others band together in a locomotive train of sorts to rally behind Senpai and push him ahead.
After crossing the street, Nagatoro and Senpai get separated from the others. As they run, Nagatoro notices that Senpai’s stamina has improved from before and compliments him, although she teases him as well. Senpai feels a sharp, sudden pain in his ankle and stops to take a break. He lets Nagatoro know about hurting his ankle then. He decides to take it slow and suggests she go on without him, but she offers to help support his ankle and urges them to keep going. As they slowly make their way back, Nagatoro notes how the scene seems reminiscent of a war movie where one soldier helps the other to keep pushing forward in a time of low morale, and they make it home together. As they continue walking, Senpai considers how little he can understand Nagatoro’s mindset, teasing him one moment and being earnest the next. His ankle starts to hurt more and Nagatoro notices, so she urges him to hitch along for a piggy ride. He’s hesitant, but she convinces him to go along.
Lean on Me
As Nagatoro carries Senpai, he thinks about how embarrassing it is, but how amazing she is being able to carry him. Just then, she starts to look pretty rough and the strain of carrying him starts to show pretty clearly as her legs buckle from the additional weight. He urges her to let him down because he doesn’t want to risk her getting hurt. Nagatoro’s friends pop up and offer their assistance. They form a sort of human cavalry formation with Nagatoro at the front and Senpai in the center, supported from four different angles. Off they go, channeling their best Hero Academia’s Lida-Kun.
They catch up to the club president before she darts ahead even further, really becoming the hare she’s dressed as. Yoshi runs ahead of them and blocks the incoming air drag to take advantage of the slipstream effect, in true sports anime fashion. This pulls them ahead of the club president until a teacher disqualifies them and the president finishes ahead.
Senpai sits in the art clubroom, as he does, working on an art piece when he notices that Nagatoro hasn’t been to the clubroom in a couple of days. After he leaves the clubroom, he encounters Gamo-chan and Yoshi walking in the hall and unintentionally shocks them with a sudden, high-pitched yell. After Gamo-chan and Yoshi chop the awkward silence with a slap to Senpai’s chest, he starts to mutter about not seeing Nagatoro in a while, to which they respond that she’s home with a cold and should be back the next day. They give him some homework to drop off at her home.
Creeper Vibes
Senpai stands in front of Nagatoro’s home with the homework and a gift. After ringing the bell for a moment and getting no response, his imagination gets the worst of him, and he approaches a window to check that everything’s okay. As he peers in through the window, a phone camera shutter clicks, and he turns around to see a slightly older woman snapping pics. She casually threatens to report him, and he hurriedly apologizes before exclaiming he thought Nagatoro may have passed out. She doesn’t buy it and raises her phone to call the police, but Senpai tells her his purpose for visiting. After realizing who he is, she thanks him for coming to help Nagatoro, her little sister.
This episode of Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro surely won’t be one of the most popular ones, nor is it likely to stand out from the others. There was definitely some humor to be had and some somewhat endearing moments, but it’s a little lukewarm compared to the last two. It was an enjoyable episode that fans are sure to appreciate, but if it was missing from the series collection, no one would be mad. Not to mention, for any fans hoping to introduce other anime viewers to this series, this wouldn’t be the episode to start with.