Anime Hajime Review: Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai (Haganai)

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, a.k.a. Haganai. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

For some, making friends is the easiest thing in the world. For others, it might as well be like trying to fly to the Moon. Sometimes, a person has no luck when it comes to saying hello.

For Kodaka Hasegawa (voiced by Ryohei Kimura), this could not be truer. Due to his natural blond hair and stern appearance, everyone is afraid of him. No is willing to give him the chance to show who he is. This becomes a big problem when he transfers schools.

Try as he may, Kodaka cannot make any new friends. As it turns out, he isn’t alone. There is another person in his class that is even more socially awkward than he is. The quiet and standoffish, Yozora Mikazuki (voiced by Marina Inoue).

By chance, Kodaka and Yozora end up having a small, uncomfortable chat. Except this give Yozora an idea. Since the two of them have trouble with people, why not study how people become popular?

This long shot idea actually catches the attention of others. Their first member is Sena Kashiwazaki (voiced by Kanae Ito). Though an idol to the boys, Sena’s arrogance makes it impossible for her to make female friends.

This trio goes on to form the Neighbors Club. While they may have no idea what they are doing, that may be exactly what they need.

Series Positives

From this point, we will refer to Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai by its abbreviated titled, Haganai. It makes things easier that way. Kind of a problem since that is the only thing easy about this series.

By no means did I hate this show. There were plenty of things this series did fine. There is a second season and it’s something I’m not dreading. But I don’t care either. I’m not sure why Haganai got a sequel. Nothing about this one justified it being a story worth continuing.

Regardless, Haganai was alright while it was happening. It even managed to play with the harem genre a tad. Nothing of real value came from it, except there was some semblance of uniqueness.

For instance, the first potential suitor wasn’t the obvious main route. While we’re at it, I would argue there wasn’t a traditional main route. Had this series capitalized on that, this could have been something fantastic. As it stands, the show did end on a glimmer of hope.

This next thing will be a spoiler. Except, it's the only thing a second season could pull from. That and it’s a detail we learn early on.

Kodaka and Yozora were childhood friends. Ten years passed and Yozora had grown so much, Kodaka didn’t recognize the reunion. This was Haganai’s most interesting feature. Too bad it didn’t have any real impact. I may not be that gung-ho about a follow up, but this is something I can get behind.

Other than that, Haganai wasted much of what it had going for it.

The Characters

The most unfortunate thing about this series was its characters. They were good. More so than this show had any right for them to be. For a harem anime, a strong cast is crucial. Haganai had what so many others have failed at providing. Why then would I say this was unfortunate? That is a discussion for later.

Our main group was big. Given that, this show did a commendable job of ensuring everyone had something to do. Did that mean everyone was important? Not in the slightest. The majority of them had little bearing on anything. What everyone did have was a role to play. There is nothing wrong with having a character be supporting and staying there. If that is where they belong, so be it.

Haganai didn’t over value or under value anyone. They all did the job they needed to do. This series never felt overcrowded nor did anyone come off as forgettable. An astonishing feat seeing how this show was able to pull this off.

Also, I’ve labeled Haganai as a harem series. While it no doubt looks like one, it is in a weird gray zone. The question becomes, how many people need be in a harem for it to be considered a harem?

Let’s start with the two most background characters. These were Yukimura Kusunoki (voiced by Nozomi Yamamoto) and Rika Shiguma (voiced by Misato Fukuen).

Yukimura was cute. His effeminate appearance being the joke, he was a good kid. As an airhead, he never realized when someone, Yozora, was toying with him. This was how the series found a reason to put him in a female bathing suit. But that’s not the point I want to make.

It’s hard to place Yukimura within this supposed harem. He did have strong feelings towards Kodaka. Except they weren’t romantic. He wasn’t trying to be a partner. Instead, he looked up to and respect Kodaka.

For Yukimura, he had found what he considered to be a role model of masculinity. His interpretation and misinformation about that led him all over the place. But that was what made him a fun character.

Rika was the pervert of the group. She had no qualms expressing, and sometimes attempting her fantasies. Her graphic mind let her be a decent comic relief. She was the only one immune to the often-volatile nature of her clubmates. There was nothing anyone could do or say that she couldn’t turn lewd.

Yet this is what took Rika out of the harem too. Like Yukimura, she didn’t have affectionate feelings towards Kodaka. She only wanted to have sex with him. Then again, she wanted to have sex with everything. Nothing made Kodaka special in this regard.

Moving on we had the two youngest characters, Kobato Hasegawa (voiced by Kana Hanazawa) and Maria Takayama (voiced by Yuka Iguchi). Haganai made one thing clear. These two were kids. This worked in the shows favor because they acted and behaved like kids. It made these two adorable. Particularly with their relationship towards Kodaka. They also weren’t part of any potential harem. And I cannot tell you how relieved this made me.

Kobato, at worse, had a bit of a brother complex. I’ve seen this taken to the extreme. That did not happen here. She was close to Kodaka and got jealous when others, like Maria, were friendly with him. Never once, though, was this anything more than a sibling relationship. Why have I gotten to the point where I have to make this distinction?

Kobato never tried seducing Kodaka. She never tried to be his lover. In turn, Kodaka only saw Kobato as his little sister, nothing more. The same goes for Index, I mean Maria. This series did not get uncomfortable in this respect. Let me emphasize “this respect”.

Plus, whenever Kobato and Maria bickered, they do so like children. Their insults were immature, they weren’t that clever. But why would they have been? They were their age in how they talked and acted.

So, of the six “members” of a Kodaka harem, four of them do not carry that label. That leaves us with Sena and Yozora. Finally, with these two did we get something we would expect out of this genre. Even still, they weren't your typical harem members. What made these two interesting had little to do with their relationship with Kodaka. Rather, the relationship they had with each other was a lot more engaging.

Sena and Yozora were vile to one another. I don’t remember a single instance when they didn’t exchange insults. There weren’t that nice to other people either. But they kept their most vicious attacks between themselves. Yet anyone can see what this series was trying to do.

While there was a lot of bad blood between them, there were many things Sena and Yozora had in common. They could get as nasty as they did because of how similar they were. Their denial to see that was something this show wasn’t subtle about.

Having said that, I like Sena much better than Yozora. Between the two, Sena was likable. Yozora, on the other hand, was flat out mean at points. That is a huge ding against Haganai. But this is not the moment for that.

This leaves us with Kodaka. There’s only one thing I have to say about him. He was an outstanding lead. I liked the guy. Of every annoying feature of a harem series main protagonist, he had none of them. He was the best thing to come out of this show.

As the series’ most stable, Kodaka was the much-needed anchor. He was friendly, calm, and respectful. He was much more believable as a character and as a person. When given the chance to be a pervert or a leech, he didn’t take it. The show never put him in a compromising position. On the contrary, he got a handful of opportunities to say and do some cool things.

Although Kodaka didn’t like how people judged him on his appearance, he knew it had some value. He was quick to stand up for his friends whenever they needed help. He was no pushover. He was the most reliable character of Haganai.

There was never a bad moment with Kodaka. He was reasonable and made sense. His actions and words weren’t moronic or counterproductive. He didn’t operate through misunderstandings or heresy. Had this show been a more expected harem story, he would have been a perfect center.

Series Negatives

Haganai was one of those shows that didn’t know how to use fan service. For most of the series, there was little sexuality. Sure, there were boob physics and plenty of bikinis, but nothing outrageous.

Then from out of nowhere, nudity. No setup, no warning, just that was what was happening.

I lost track of the amount of “F@#$ you show” moments. This had everything to do with the more ecchi scenarios involving Kobato and Maria. Remember how I said this series made them believable kid characters? It did this way too well. Making it that much creepier whenever they were walking around without clothes.

There was no reason for this. At first, Haganai impressed me on how reserved it was. I made the mistake of thinking this show would hold back. The fact that it could have and it would've changed nothing makes it that much more infuriating. 

Like I mention, Kodaka was not a perverted character. He was never the cause of these instances. He wasn't even unintentionally involved. Why bother then?

This was annoying, but not the biggest thing against this series. Yozora was more a problem. I talked about it earlier, she would go too far.

Poor Sena had to deal with an unrelenting barrage of insults. Most of them stung something fierce. Though she tried to get back at Yozora, there wasn’t much she could do. Except this wasn’t the thing that bothered me the most. No one standing up to Yozora was. If there was one thing Kodaka could’ve done better, it would’ve been telling Yozora to back off. Then again, no one gave him the same courtesy.

The rest of the students were nothing but jackasses. Had it only been rumors about Kodaka being a delinquent, that would’ve been enough. No, they got much worse. I’m not even going to lead up to it.

Through selective hearing, there was a rumor of Kodaka possibly raping a girl. Even though this did last longer than an eighth of an episode, no one came to Kodaka’s defense. Instead, the series used this as a quick throwaway joke. Piss off show, I’m not laughing.

These setbacks weren't enough to counteract the positives of this series. I can overlook the occasional, misguided decision. But I can’t ignore this.

I said the most unfortunate thing about Haganai was its characters. The reason is simple. This series had a great cast and it gave them nothing to do. This show was repetitive at best and boring at worst.

There were two going-into-video-game episodes. There were two failed excursion episodes. There were three swimsuit episodes. Nothing happened. Another point against this being a harem anime, that plotline was all but abandoned.

The characters had a lot of charm. Except there was little difference between who they were at the start and who they were at the end. No progression, sporadic development, and almost no improvement. Why have such a stellar cast and not use them?

Final Thoughts

What do I say here? There were things I liked about this series. There were things I loved about this series. Too bad this is the type of show that didn’t know how to use what it had.

The characters were great and a ton of fun. Everything else was bland and paint by numbers. This show had every opportunity to do something worth talking about. Yet it never came to be. And for some reason, that was good enough to get a sequel.

I’m not over this series because of the cast. They are the only reason why have any interest in season two. Because of that, I will, for now, recommend this one. I am hoping things get better. But by itself this show is skippable.

However, if Haganai Next is an improvement, then Haganai is bearable.

              Google+                         Facebook                         Twitter