Takagi

Takagi is the female protagonist in Karakai Jōzu no Takagi-san. She is a middle school student who is in the same class as Nishikata, a boy she constantly teases and secretly has feelings for. She is sweet, intelligent, clever, carefree, and fearless, whether she is with or without Nishikata. Takagi is a young girl with a slender build and an average height. She has long, straight brown hair, which falls down to her upper back, with middle-parted bangs and two locks of hair framing her face on each side. She has large brown eyes, thin eyebrows, rosy cheeks, and a light complexion. She wears a spring/summer sailor uniform as her school outfit. During the autumn/winter, she wears a long-sleeve uniform with a red bow tie, blue skirt, black socks, and brown clogs. For P.E., she wears a shirt with red coloring around the cuffs and neck collar. The P.E. shirt also contains the reading 1-2 just like Nishikata's P.E. shirt. For swimming, she wears a blue leotard. She also wears casual clothing on weekends and on summer break. As an adult in the spin-off manga, she pulls her hair back into a ponytail and tends to wear a dark T-shirt and jeans. She has also grown taller, but stands significantly shorter than Nishikata. She retains her very slender build in her adulthood. Based on comments from Nishikata's PE students, Takagi's beauty is comparable to that of a professional model. In the further time of the spin-off series, Takagi's appearance never changed except from her side swept ponytail. Takagi is a kind-hearted and caring person. She is often seen teasing and acting mischievously towards her classmate Nishikata, but she greatly cares for him and truly enjoys her time with him. Takagi is seen to be very intelligent, consistently scoring higher grades on tests than her classmates. She wins most of her competitions against Nishikata, even though she doesn't seem to be a competitive person. Due to Nishikata's facial expressions and mannerisms, she is able to easily read his mind and follow-up on what he sees, does, and thinks. Moreover, she is not easily scared, as seen when Nishikata tries to scare her with frightening videos, and she barely reacts. Takagi is seen to be knowledgeable in myths, rumors, and romance stories, which she often uses to give hints to Nishikata. However, whether she actually believes in them is debatable. She can also be concerning at some times, as shown when she felt bad for Nishikata after he got hurt while trying to save her from stumbling. Although, Takagi is known to strike first and strike back fairly easily, she can fake her emotions and mask her problems, even faking the joy of laughing and insulting Nishikata's failures and mistakes. She also gives a positive outward appearance to her classmates, even if she is facing emotional problems on her own. While she is usually calm and level-headed, Takagi occasionally loses her cool, especially when she's around Nishikata. When Nishikata tells her that he would rather walk home with her instead of playing video games with his friends, Takagi gets starstruck and has to regain her composure. Also, when asked by Nishikata to accompany him to the summer festival, Takagi becomes emotional, trembling and blushing as soon as Nishikata rides off on his bike. As an adult, Takagi's personality changes very little. As a mother, she becomes more mature and responsible, while still retaining her love of teasing Nishikata. She still becomes flustered sometimes, such as when she overhears Nishikata call her "cute as a button," causing her to blush.