Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends BD/DVD Review

Title: Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends (Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukinai)
Genre: Comedy, Ecchi, Romance
Publisher: Media Factory (JP), Funimation (US)
Original Creator: Yomi Hirasaka
Director: Hisashi Saito
Script: Tatsuhiko Urahata
Music: Tom-H@ck
Original Release Date: August 6, 2013
(Post is NSFW)

I remember watching Haganai when it was streaming a few years ago, but I decided to put it on hold, as a few other anime kept my attention at the time. In re-watching it, I still feel it was justified in keeping it on hold because the first three episodes were at least interesting, and did make me laugh. Little did I know that it would manage to take what was supposed to be about some anti-social or socially inept high school students trying to make friends and flush it down the toilet for the remaining 9 episodes (not including the 13th episode, which I’ll consider a special). From its lackluster character designs and boring music to its actual attempts to advance the plot, there is no reason to actually watch this anime, unless you want to try and watch the sequel to find out if it’s better than the first.

Kodaka Hasegawa is considered a delinquent and a person you don’t associate with at St. Chronica Academy, with his blond hair and his yankee demeanor, except Kodaka isn’t what they think he is. He just screwed up by being late to his first day at school and announcing himself in the most intimidating way. He hasn’t been able to recover since then. One day however, in going back to the classroom to retrieve a book, he catches Yozora Mikazuki, a girl he considers kind of unsociable, talking to an imaginary friend. That is when after talking to each other, Yozora gets the idea of starting a club, known as the Neighbors Club, and she gets Kodaka to join as well.

Not long after they start the club and advertise it (obscurely), they get a member to join in Sena Kashiwazaki, a yellow haired academy student who is the daughter of the school’s President that wants to actually make real friends. While there are general arguments between the two main female leads that involve lots of slandering and name calling, this trio tries to actually do activities that encourage friendship. But during this time, Kodaka’s childhood memories start to resurface while teaching Sena how to swim, and after mentioning a line that an old friend of his said to him at the club house, Yozora reacts with genuine surprise. What is the situation between Yozora and Kodaka? Did they meet up with each other before? And how did it come to this?

On a concept level, the idea of Haganai is novel. It’s a story about how people who, for one reason or another, can’t find that one true friend — or any friends — with general ease, and how they somehow manage to come together. Throughout the series we see generally how these people react to each other, and then to how they react to the people outside of their circle. The reactions are pretty surprising, but at least I can see it as possible, especially if interacting with others is not a strong suit. It then mixes that a bit by throwing around some anime and game references at certain moments in Haganai, resulting in a few well timed jokes and all at the expense of some of the characters. If the show had focused on trying to make friends and jokes, or maybe just had kept it to the three main characters that appeared in the first three episodes, then Haganai probably would have been an interesting exploration into making friends, or at least made me laugh consistently.

Except it didn’t do that. Instead, it introduced their adviser (a 10 year old nun), a boy that’s not really a boy, and a science lab genius deep in the bowels of shipping characters and enjoying porn. It then made Kodaka’s little sister become a prominent fixture in a high school club. It never made an attempt to improve the friendship between Yozora and Sena, unless crapping on each other on an every meeting basis constitutes being funny. And maybe this all could have been acceptable if any of the events that took place to get everyone involved — from playing a prototype virtual RPG, to karaoke, to going to a summer festival — were remotely interesting enough to make up for the characters. They were mostly sleep inducing.

But I probably just need to accept that none of the characters really end up helping the anime. Well, Kodaka turned out to be fine enough, and his little sister by herself was tolerable. Everyone else managed to be annoyingly useless and awful. The relationship between Yozora and Sena is supposed to be funny, and early on I could live with it, but it managed to somehow get worse, with probably the breaking point occurring when Sena, for some dumb reason, let Yozora rub sunscreen on her back. The lasting memory is seeing a ton of lotion on Sena’s back, crude words out of Yozora’s mouth, her foot placed on Sena’s back so she couldn’t move, and Sena had to deal with that abuse until she finally got up and managed to expose her breasts for all to see. This was a supposed training camp episode. This happened in Episode 10. I guess they were both supposed to be unlikable — which makes their moments of vulnerability seem unnatural since their reasons for hating each other play within my mind constantly.

You then have Maria, the 10 year old nun. Let’s just say if any attempt to take the anime seriously was a possibility, it ended with her actions. I have no idea how she matters, but the anime makes sure she does. You then have Kusonoki, who apparently admired Kodoka enough to stalk him, except all that really happens is he turns into the maid of the clubroom. And then you have Rika, who obviously has some issues, but with the cast she has to work with, her random shipping and her constant usage of saying her name in a sentence is grounds for annoyance. I still fail to realize these characters’s exact usage in this anime, except for eye-candy.

And that’s kind of how I see Haganai — eye-candy. It’s not making an earnest attempt to discuss how difficult it can be to make a friend, it’s just going to make sure it focuses on all the girls in many different angles to replace actually having a plot. It can’t get away with that because its situations are boring or horribly paced. It’ll get a joke or two in an episode, and one part that made me laugh happened with Sena chasing after Kobato in the nude, and Kodaka seeing her naked. That timing was perfect since Sena’s infatuation with Kobato was obvious and it finally turned against her in this situation

The ming for other moments. was not, and so it can’t get away with that. Instead, all it can get away with watis being ok enough to get another season.  I wonder if any of the issues I had with Season 1 — from the characters, the situations, to the music — improve at all. I sincerely have my doubts. And while the dub is actually not as bad as I feared it’d be (though it’s hard to replace Kana Hanazawa as Kobato, Alison), with lackluster extras and the inclusion of a pretty poor unaired episode, well, I sincerely hope you find some other anime to take a look at than this.

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Kashiwazaki Sena Maid Cosplay by Miiko

Cosplayer Miiko dresses up as Tomodachi ga Sukunai‘s Sena in her maid outfit, rather passably recreating the conisderable cuteness of her 2D model, shown also.

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Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai

Overview

The series is written by Yomi Hirasaka, illustrated by Buriki, and published by Media Factory BunkoJ. The series has been adapted into a TV anime series and is currently airing in Japan. 

Aside from the light novel, there are currently two manga adaptions currently serializing : the similar title, with its title and basic plot unchanged, began serialization in 2010, written and illustrated by Itachi and published in Monthly Comic Alive. A second adaptation with a different story, written by Misaki Harukawa and illustrated by Shouichi Taguchi, was called Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai +and published in Jump Square. 

The anime adaptation for the show is animated by AIC Build and began airing in October 2011. With the anime character designs done by Yoshihiro Watanabe, and directed by Hisashi Saito. 

A game adaption of the same title is set to release in 2012. 

"Unfortunate Girls" (lit.) as the concept

One of the main concept of this novel is the inclusion of girls with disappointing personalities on most standards. While they might look like character with moe factors, their personalities are however the complete opposite and filled with vulgarities, which ironically follows the title of the story : they have little friends because of their attitude. 

Regardless, while the character settings may at first treated as an anti-thesis/put-off to the usual moe factor, the fans regard that vulgarity as one of the moe elements of the show, and thus boosted the popularity of the series. 

Synopsis

Kodaka Hasegawa is a recent transfer student to St. Chronica's Academy, a Catholic high school. As with every other school he has ever attended, he finds it difficult to make friends there because of his naturally-blond hair (inherited from his deceased English mother) and fierce-looking eyes, which make him look like a dangerous "yankee" to his prejudiced schoolmates. 
One day, Kodaka accidentally comes across the equally solitary and very abrasive Yozora Mikazuki while she converses with her imaginary friend Tomo. Realizing that neither of them have any social lives, they decide that the best way to improve their situation is to form a club – the Neighbor's Club – precisely intended to make friends and learn social skills. 

Five other members soon join the club, starting with the school's well-connected but arrogant idolSena Kashiwazaki, who has no female friends of her own because of their jealousy over her many male admirers. The next to join is Yukimura Kusunoki, a feminine underclassman of Kodaka's who rather idealizes him and follows him in the hope that it will teach him to become manlier. Maria Takayama is a 10-year-old genius teacher and nun at the academy whom Yozora recruits to become the club adviser. Rika Shiguma is an underclassman and well-known scientific genius with fujoshi tendencies who joins the club after Kodaka rescues her from a laboratory accident. Finally, Kodaka's younger sister Kobato is in St. Chronica's middle school division and is a fan of Gothic anime. 

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Sena Kashiwazaki

The wealthy blonde daughter of the school's headteacher, Sena shows a dislike of all things "ordinary." She is both attractive and academically successful, but her resulting arrogance leads her to be disliked by her female peers. Their admiration eludes her, much as she desires it; she treats her male classmates only as servants to be used, although many of them would like to be her boyfriend. Nonetheless, she holds Kodaka to a higher standard. Kodaka concludes that she is the weirdest member of the club, as she is able to warrant weird and disgusted looks not only from Yozora and Kobato, but also from Yukimura and Rika.

She enjoys playing video games—including dating sims and eroge—partially because they allow her to make female (if virtual) friends. Yozora calls her "Meat" (Niku) an insulting nickname which she secretly likes because it is the first she has ever received. Her father is a friend of Kodaka's father, and pulled strings so that Kodaka could attend St. Chronica's.

She really likes Kobato, since she always get really excited when she sees her. Usually, when Sena and Yozora fight, Sena usually runs from the room crying and shouting "Stupid Yozora! Go die!".

It is hinted that she has feelings for Kodaka.

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5 reasons why Kashiwazaki Sena SHOULD and WILL win Haganai.

Here’s 5 reasons of why I believe Sena will win Haganai and also why she’s the best girl IN Haganai.

Reason 1 – Family relations.

As little of a factor people may think this is, it’s actually a BIG factor. As shown in the recent episodes of Haganai having both their parents know each other can result in some pretty scary stuff. Those who have watched the recent episodes will know what I mean. As for those who haven’t to prevent spoiling you I won’t talk about it but just know it plays a huge role in the story and relation ship of Sena and Kodaka.

Reason 2 –  Interactions

This goes all the way back to season 1 where she went on a “date” with Kodaka to an indoor swimming area. Compared to all the girls in Haganai no one comes close to how much Sena has interacted with Kodaka. Sena has a load more 1 on 1 interactions with Kodaka than any of the other girls and this is a huge factor in the relationship they build.

Reason 3 – The ONLY “obstacle” in her way practically removed.

By the only “obstacle” I mean the only person who even comes close with the relationship she has with Kodaka is Yozora. That is ONLY because they met each other earlier and are “childhood” friends. However, in season 2, it reveals that Sena actually knew and hung out with Kodaka since they were babies. Not only is this strengthening the bond between Sena and Kodaka but it also weakends the bond between him and Yozora. As sad as Yozora’s past with Kodaka is, you need to remember that in the past, Yozora was saw as an male friend. There was no feelings of love at all whatsoever in the past.

Reason 4 –  Kobato-chan

People think that just because Sena is obsessed with Kobato it doesn’t mean anything, I’m here to say that it DOES mean something. The closer Sena gets to Kobato, the closer she gets to Kodaka. As an example, in the episode where the entire club goes to the amusement park, there is a scene where people mistaken’d Sena and Kodaka as an couple. Even if it was a misunderstanding the fact that there was even a scene like this already makes the competition lean in Sena’s favor and all of this is BECAUSE of Kobato. Like they all say, if you want to get close to someone a good way is to get close to people they’re close to.

Reason 5 – The direction of the story.

What do I mean by the direction of the story? In season 2 the story has definitely progressed a lot more than season 1. Not only has to progressed for Sena, it has for many of the other rinjin-bu members. This includes Rika, the Nun, Yozora, and Yukimura. Shoving most of the members aside, it’s obvious enough that only 2 out of them will be chosen and the 2 are Sena and Yozora. Both have progressed A LOT through out season 2 but I believe that Sena has progressed way more. Setting the fiance letter fiasco aside, it seems to me that Sena DOES like Kodaka and Kodaka DOES realize this along with the fact that Yozora and the other’s like him too. I’m only positive of that because of the conversation Kodaka had with Rika on the roof in episode 10, shows and proves a lot. A lot of season 2 seems to bring out the Kodaka x Sena especially when the characters in the show itself have a misconception of the 2 dating. (This referrers to the whole misunderstanding that Sena’s father created where he spreaded false information around the entire school saying that her daughter was dating Kodaka.)

In general I am a big Sena fan and I would never change sides no matter what happen’d(Well, for the most part lol). The confidence I have in her winning may come from the fact that I have read the light novel but part of me also just know’s that she’ll win Hagani. Many people like Yozora better just because they have a past and it’s “tragic” that the 2 were separated from each other when they were very young BUT, as I have stated before, the fact that Kodaka knew her as a male in the past kind of shows that’s he never thought of her that way and was only interested in becoming friends or even best friends. I also hate her because she has A LOT of jealousy and likes to say stuff to spite Sena. Really annoying to see her do stuff like that, it’s fucked up and just shows how much of a bitch she is. It’s almost as if she doesn’t care at all. Anyways, that’s the 5 reasons I could come up with 2:40 AM at night, I could probably write a lot more and come up with better reasons but /effort.

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