Miss Nagatoro!: What Does Naoto's Isekai Dream Mean? | CBR

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 6 of Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro!, now streaming on Crunchyroll.

Hayase Nagatoro, a rambunctious first-year student, seems determined to pester second-year Naoto Hachioji and wear down his patience with her teasing antics in Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro!. Already, she's teased him for his amateur fantasy manga series and his supposedly pervy ways. Still, Hayase admires the earnest Naoto and his artistic creativity, which makes her loyal to him.

Naoto still isn't entirely sure what his relationship with Hayase Nagatoro is. From her genuine interest in his art to her antics and how she defends him from her two friends, Gamo and Yoshi, he's getting mixed signals. In Episode 6, Naoto's subconscious is thinking it over in dreamland, and the results are terrifying.

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Now set against an isekai style backdrop, Naoto finds himself the underdog in a surprising fantasy realm. Sakura, one of Hayase Nagatoro's friends, gives Naoto a proper "hero in a new world" welcome, citing his potential to be a great mage and target of defeating the demon king before sending him off. Naoto is flung down to the mortal realm below, and he hardly stands a chance against the monsters there until a certain cat girl arrives to help. It's "Nekotoro," who can shred giant lizards and beasts with her oversized cat claws and remarkable agility.

Naoto and Nekotoro make a good team, and when they take down a fearsome dragon, the creature shrinks down to its human form: Gamo. A minute later, a large egg hatches into Yoshi, and the four of them are ready to take on the demon king in his castle. However, when the party arrives, the demon king's throne is empty -- but that's the least of Naoto's surprises.

Surprise: Nekotoro is the demon king, and she morphs into her true form, and Gamo and Yoshi do the same. The three demon queens surround the hapless adventurer Naoto, taunting him about his foolish naivete. That's when Naoto wakes up in a family restaurant, just as the real Hayase Nagatoro and her friends show up and spot him. Hayase chases Naoto out, teasing him about the Nekotoro drawings in his sketchbook. Still, while Naoto's illustration may have influenced the world he dreamt of, his subconscious anxieties are sending him a message.

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Naoto, being a creative person, might be concerned about the contents of his isekai-style dream back at the restaurant. He has a mixed relationship with Hayse and her friends Gamo and Yoshi, and his subconscious may be trying to warn him about his dire situation. In a way, Hayase could be compared to a cartoony demon queen, a trickster who pretends to be Naoto's friend to lower his guard, then torment him for all time. So suppose Hayase's good side is just a ruse, and Naoto is like a fish on her line.

No doubt Naoto has conflicting feelings for Hayase, since she is his #1 tormentor but also his friend, as recent events suggested, and she even defends him from her wild friends Gamo and Yoshi. So now Naoto must decide: will he take a gamble and accept Hayase's offer of friendship, or run screaming and let Hayase find some other poor sucker to torment? If Hayase's friendship is too good to be true, then Naoto had better listen to his isekai dreams and flee, but if he's wrong, then he might miss out on the most exciting and memorable friendship of his adolescence.

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