Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「残念系隣人部★★☆ (星二つ半)」 (Zannen-kei Rinjinbu Hoshi Futatsu-han) by 友達つくり隊 (Tomodachi Tsukuritai)
Watch the OP!: Streaming ▼
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「僕達は友達が出来ない(´・ω・`)」 (Bokutachi wa Tomodachi ga Dekinai (´・ω・`))
“We Can’t Make Friends”
I think I may have found my new favorite show for this season that isn’t a sequel or prequel. The humor in this show is spot on and perfect for what they’re going for that it almost doesn’t even matter that the characters all remind me of Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko (which I also loved). With a great seiyuu lineup featuring the likes of Kimura Ryohei playing the male lead with Itou Kanae and Inoue Marina bringing up the rear (for now), there’s no way you could go wrong while watching Haganai.
Coming into this show, I was under the impression everyone joining the Rinjin-Bu or Neighbors Club was going to be some introvert who had difficulty making friends or were so socially awkward that they scared everyone away. Looking back at this strange impression, not only do I think I must be crazy crazy but I doubt that it would have been as funny. For the most part, it seems that everyone who’s bound to join the Neighbors Club is someone who has life working against them.
Enter, Hasegawa Kodaka, someone who managed to make the worst impression possible. Not only was he late on his first day transferring into Saint Chronica Academy but he has blonde hair, assaulted a teacher, and even extorted a textbook from his classmate — perfect way to blow your chances at having a normal high school life right? While most of that was blown out of proportion, it still doesn’t change the fact that he’s friendless because of things out of his control.
This makes the perfect setup for Mikazuki Yozora to sweep right in and start channeling her inner Haruhi. I love how she goes around and appears to be this selfish little girl even though she can’t hide the fact that she has a big heart. I’m willing to bet that throughout the series she’ll slowly reveal what occurred in her past. But until then, I’m excited to watch her battle with Kashiwazakai Sena, the perfect girl who’s perfection scares off everyone around her (except her stalkers). How can you not enjoy watching both Yozora and Sena’s obvious hate for each other cloud their vision, leading them into this never ending quarrel?
With half the full cast still missing, I can’t wait to see what kind of strange things are preventing them from making friends. If this first episode was just a taste of what’s to come, I’m extremely excited for what’s hopefully coming in the future. On a personal note, it’s never a bad thing to have more Inoue Marina and Itou Kanae. With the two playing roles that are constantly at odds with each other, it’s like a dream come true for me. Especially when I listen to Itou Kanae – instead of thinking about (or hearing) Elsie or Ohana, it’s really interesting for me to hear her in such a pompous role.
P.S. For those of you who didn’t follow the comments in the Fall Preview, the abbreviation Haganai comes from the show’s title. 僕は友達が少ない。Ha-Ga-Nai – nifty huh.
P.P.S. Girls who twirl/play with their hair, are really cute. <3
ED Sequence
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ED: 「私のキ・モ・チ」 (Watashi no Ki-Mo-Chi) by 三日月夜空 (井上麻里奈) (Mikazuki Yozora (Inoue Marina))
Watch the ED!: Streaming ▼
Preview
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Whenever I watch Yozora and Sena really start tearing into each other, I feel like its about five seconds from turning into the most amazing hate-sex ever.
The ED is not helping to disabuse me of this notion either.
The casting is interesting though, I think it would be more expected for Inoue to be voicing Sena, and Itou Yozora, but that may mostly because the number 1 character I still associate Itou Kanae with is Saten Ruiko.
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Anyways, this was actually a pretty good first episode. The comedy was spot on and Kodaka isn’t the completely one dimensional crony that most male protagonists are these days. I loved every minute of it.
This series comes from the studio that did Oreimo IIRC. I’ve been told it has a similar fanbase, so hopefully I’ll like it as well. So far the first ep is odd for me, but people have mentioned just the beginning may be like this.
Glad I wan’t the only one being reminded about Denpa Onna from the character designs. The lips were the give aways for me.
I thought it was pretty good, Takaii, but just a little bland – which surprised me, based on the buzz and “episode 0”. Things livened up when Sena arrived and I know most of the cast is still to be introduced, so I’m not too worried. But Chihayafuru still reigns supreme for me going into what could be a very good weekend, with NoitaminA still to come next week.
Feels like a much more down-to-earth version of Haruhi. I loved how everything just clicked. It seemed cliche and formulaic at first, but the way Yozora just provides on-screen charisma is great. Her arguments with Sena are practically screaming of a love-hate relationship as well.
And poor Kodaka, I can relate to him being such a loner as well.
A bit upset the character designs seem similar to Denpa Onna, I feel Haganai should have its own quality. Good pacing, didn’t expect to see forthcoming characters gave me some goosebumps.
I don’t know what else you’d expect, both had the original designs by Buriki (of course), but while Haganai’s animation character designs are by Watanabe Yoshihiro, DenpaOnna’s were Nishida Asako.
no wonder it looks so familiar yet i can’t put a finger on it
the sparkles are missing lol
Agreed. They seem too pretty. Denpa had few chars so it was okay. Currently everyone is pretty, can’t really differentiate standards now.
OP Song Pic 9, Red dress does not suit Yozora
It’s a swimsuit not a dress, but yeah it’s not very flattering on her ;(
Chihayafuru and now this beats the last season with only Usagi drop beeing watchable without blowing your brains out.
I’m a smaller breast man myself. Never really understood the fixation on large boobs. So, I’m gonna have to side with Yozara over Sena. Plus, you can’t go wrong with a girl who talks to an imaginary friend.
I guess this is my way of saying I found it enjoyable. Fate/Zero is still the show for me this season, and as someone who thought Stay/Night was about as good as eating dog poo, that’s an admission I have a hard time…admitting. :/ Do have high hopes for Last Exile, out of the shows that haven’t aired yet.
Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed this one. I didn’t find the manga adaptation interesting. Their episode 0 was disorienting, didn’t enjoy that at all. The premise about having trouble making friends seem more to be just misunderstanding what friendships are about. The word “friend” has a totally different meaning in this anime compared to common definitions XD.
What surprised me most in this first episode was how I found the two girls arguing wasn’t annoying. It was actually quite entertaining banter. Will probably watch this unless it gets annoying.
sigh… another harem
For now, this show is all about Sena and Yozora?
P.P.S. Girls who twirl/play with their hair, are really cute. <3
^Agree
I’ld like the say the irony of making friends. 😉
“the enemy of my enemy is my friend” –> “the enemy of my friend is also my friend”
Been waiting for this forever. This episode was pretty much just introducing the main trio. It’s only going to get better from this point on.
The main hook for me has to be the casting.
Kanae’s Amu/Ohana/Elsie voice really sounded like it would’ve fit on Yozora, while Marina would have worked well as Sena. (Marina is a bit more diverse, imo)
Yes a must watch! It was a good start for the series 🙂
the fact that this episode ended with a in-joke on itself was brilliant (before the ED that is)
…one problem, this show’s falling into “1 guy in a club with just girls”, so it might not worth pursuing overall.
I can tell you you’re wrong about the one guy. Here’s a hint: Most of the cast appears in the first minute of the episode.
Show Spoiler ▼
hahahaha
When i saw episode 0 I just about gave up on this show. Thank God I gave episode 1 a chance cuz it changed my mind completely. Im sticking with Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai till the end.
if it wasn’t my anime dieting limiting me to one show daily (…and THE thursday show is continued Mawaru Penguindrum) I’d love to watch this. The girls bickering makes me remember YuruYuri…
Great start to the series, forgetting episode 0 cause honestly that just hurt my head. Even though I’ve only read the first few chapters of the manga adaption a couple of weeks ago I have to agree with the voice casting sentiments. I imagined Yozora’s voice to be bit softer and higher pitched.
Really liked AIC adopting OreImo’s commentary style into their previews.
Great start to this series! I hope they continue to keep this up. Love the manga and hopefully the anime is the same!
AIC Build yet again seems to manage another light novel adaption pretty well, from the look of the first episode at least. Although I personal like the art style and character design of the light novel better, the anime isn’t too bad I suppose. I look forward to seeing all the “zannen” stuffs they will be doing being animated.
@Takaii: I don’t it is something to do with her past. She twirls her hair when nervous. And she twirled when she asked him to call her first name.
She likes him
1. She is nervous to ask him that
2. nick names are for friends, she is looking for more than friends
3. She rejects Sena cause she is afraid a popular girl will steal Kodaka away from her.
Assuming that she’s had friends before, I’m going off of the assumption that she has a reason for having an imaginary friend and that there’s something more involved here than just having feelings for Kodaka.
Yeah, while obviously she and Sena will end up interested in Kodaka, reducing everything down to “Yozora wants into Kodaka’s pants” is definitely missing the larger picture.
Honestly, I don’t think the thought has even crossed her mind yet.
I know anime likes to make every female on the planet fall for the male lead, but I’d say this is a little too soon.
1) Hair twirling in Yozora’s case appears to be both, a normal habit, and a nervous habit. Asking Kodoka to call her by her first name appears to be a nervous one here, because she probably has never asked anyone to do so for her.
2&3) Here, I think you’re just looking in to it a little too deeply. She just met Kodoka and doesn’t yet consider him a true friend, or she’s not saying enough and interprets nicknames as a sign of affection. She didn’t want Sena to join the club because she had the misconception that Sena could easily make friends due to her popularity, and was merely trying to mock her. As shown, that notion turned out to be false, when Sena stated she can’t make any girl friends due to her popularity with guys.
@Soi:
your 1 & 2 contradicts, In Japan, first name basis is considered intimate, but you said nicknames are for intimate relationship.
3. She never accepted Sena, it was Kodaka who let Sena in. And Sena and Yozora are still cat fighting. Yozora either dislikes the extra competition or does not like the “perfect” girl in front of her.
Not quite sure how my 1 and 2 contradict.
I interpreted Yozora’s hair twirling when asking Kodoka to call her by her name as a nervous habit and a sign that she’s never (if at all) asked anyone to call her by her first name. Calling each other by first names in Japan doesn’t necessarily need to be something intimate or an indicator that two people are a couple; it could just mean two people are long-time friends, or that two people acknowledge to sharing a mutual sentiment, which does not necessarily need to be affection, the later of which is probably the case in this anime at the moment.
By Japanese standards, I consider nicknames a step above first names, which again, does not necessarily need to involve affection. Kodoka clearly sees nicknames as a normal thing, while Yozora sees them as a step above being friends (again, not necessarily affection).
I’m really not sure what you’r arguing with your 3rd point, so I’ll leave it be.
Of course, just as a reminder, this is an anime. It doesn’t need to follow Japanese social standards or any Japanese standards in general. Even if anime followed those standards perfectly, they aren’t as set in stone as you’d think.
Again, we all know that eventually, every girl and their mother will fall for Kodoka. For the time being, Yozora’s attitude just doesn’t imply that she’s aware of any sort of affection for Kodoka.
I wasn’t quite sure what I thought after episode 0 but luckily this seemed much better so I’ll probably follow it. Yozora and Sena make a pretty good duo. I like how they have actual reasons to not have friends too.
After watching the short OVA just a couple of weeks back, I have an immediate liking of the characters and whatever direction the story will go.
So far:
– Fate Zero
– C3
– and This
….are the shows I” be following in a weekly basis. Will be trying a lot more.
Good man. I like your choices.
Phi-Brain is also pretty good, feels kinda like an action film but with puzzles haha.
I’m planning to watch as much first episodes as all the series that catches my attention in the previews then try to sort out what series I’ll really be craving to watch in a weekly basis and the once I’ll be watching once its ended.
I’ll also try that Phi-Brain.
Another one to add to the list; then again, I like watching many different genres.
Damn fall season, making me watch too much anime.
ahh Meat your so delicious
When I first heard Inoue Marina and Itou Kanae were chosen to do Yozora and Sena, I wondered whether AIC had got them both mixed up, considering Inoue is more used to doing “busty” girls and vice versa for Itou. Yet in the end it turned out quite well for me.
I very much enjoyed the very high production values AIC provided with OreImo, and hopefully I should expect them to do the same for Haganai.
(What is with series with long (OreImo) to very long names (AnoHana) that they need a catchy abbreviation these past few seasons? )
https://randomc.net/image/Boku%20wa%20Tomodachi%20ga%20Sukunai/Boku%20wa%20Tomodachi%20ga%20Sukunai%20-%2001%20-%20Large%20Preview%2003.jpg
Gotta lol at the preview parodying another more famous series with a similar setting (albeit more on the sci-fi side), with the silver-haired bespectacled girl in the screen aptly named “Nagato Yukiko”. Expect more parodies in future preview segments as well.
For some reason I thought the first episode of Haganai is quite similar to the first episode of Haruhi Suzumiya, girl and boy talks to each other, boy gave an idea to girl, girl formed a club, girl forces boy to join, search the school for people they can get to their club, etc.
First episode is nice as it fleshed out the what to expect for the rest of the series, already I like the character designs especially the lips (with lipstick) and the eyes.
Senaaaaaa! Thursdays <3 Thank ya Takaii for bloggin this~
You know why she twirls her hair like that? is because this is her mannerism to get through the confident to talking to people,
Also want to say, the trap in the OP looks inconspicuous enough to pass as the real thing. I hope these 12 eps get at least up to volume 3. *Fingers crossed* And *ahem* Senaaaaaaa!
I loved the Novel and the Manga. I hope this adaption can keep up.
The OVA was the Prologue, taken from the novel 1:1.
unexpected good start~
Ladies and gentlemen we have a winner
Thank you Chisame, for telling me what a rea-juu is.
Honestly, I wasn’t expecting this to be as good as it was.
Show Spoiler ▼
Agreed.
The point I am raising.
wasnt on my list before…. it is now 🙂
It’s hard to believe Yozora hasn’t got friends.. she is cute.. looks normal…
Pay attention to the following episodes. The appearance is not her problem.
Meat FTW! I see the Monster Hunter episode in the sequel already. Yah for Meat!
Sena has so much more appeal right now in the manga compared to Yozora. Yozora only has Show Spoiler ▼
The anime seems to favor Yozora though. Just look at the OP & ED Songs. Unless they change it.
I really am perverted for thinking of him actually assaulting the teacher for real, I mean damn, she is HOT! If my teacher was as hot as her, I would be attending lectures every day and hell even be her teacher’s pet!
https://randomc.net/image/Boku%20wa%20Tomodachi%20ga%20Sukunai/Boku%20wa%20Tomodachi%20ga%20Sukunai%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2021.jpg
Okay there I’ve been distracted, anyways the animation rocks! Character voices are awesome! Kodaka is voiced by the same melancholic crazy character Aki Kuga from Kamisama dolls! Just awesome! Plus Sena is voiced by Aoi from Ryokyoubu! Loving the animation design, plot, character voices, and everything else from this show, unless Mirai Nikki and Guilty Crown proves otherwise, this show might be the best this season for me. Persona and the rest so far has been a bit of disappointment for me.
The way Yozora and Sena acted towards each other initially seemed really autistic for me…then again all I really care about is their character design…can never have enough of “Meat” lol
reminds me a lot about denpa and a bit about toradora
is it me or the drawing seems like denpa onna XD
Like it so far. I liked the “Bamboo Blade” style previews, too.
Most misleading OP ever. Just seeing that would make you think this was an ecchi anime.
I’m loving the ending theme and Yozora is rocking the air guitar <3
Nice start. Yozora’s a winner with her barbs while Hinata er Kodaka is at it again. I don’t with Sena that Yozora is small chested. Its still visible after she folder her arms and thats not small
I quite enjoyed this episode! I think Sena’s hairpiece in the colour of her eyes looks very nice. I also liked the soundtrack which somehow reminded me a bit of nintendo games and gave the whole ep. a relaxed feeling.
this one will go either way for me. 1st episode really didn’t seem all that well put together. had it’s moments, but not enough of them. I will, however, give it the benefit of the doubt and watch the next episode just to see if it’ll really get any better. If not I’m going to have to drop this.
Heh, liked this more than I thought I would. Yozora’s voice was unexpected but very fitting nonetheless. I initially liked Yozora way more than Sena, but now I see Sena kind of like Toradora’s Ami: the girl who seems lovely to everyone but the main characters, turns out to have a terrible personality, and then turns out to care deeply for the main characters in the end, which is my favorite kind of bitchy personality. Of course, I may be wrong, but oh well.
I liked nether the OP nor the ED, but it’s more a taste thing than anything, and I was very taken by how different they are from the usual themes. I expected the OP to finish on the group shot, but it instead went on and ended on an empty room. The ED did the same sort of thing.
Also, at first I was confused why you would call a show about friends Haganai when that also means “has no teeth.” XD
Looking good so far. When I saw the trailer I thought the heroines would be so annoying. Typical self centered girls always whining and pushing the guy however they want to use him. It is sort of like that but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Yozora’s smile is really cute and she has a very adorable aspect to her. I laughed at Air-Friend and eating onigiri with 100 friends XD
I think I’ll see how this will go but liking it so far.
Never read the novel, but the manga has quite a few chapters involving boring video-game related stuff. Hope the anime doesn’t have too much of that.
For some reason I thought the anonymous girl right before the ED was talking about Blood-C (even though she said drama).
Liked the first episode. i just hope it doesnt turn into a harem.
Excellent ep01! All characters are cute and beautiful, so good they have made me ordered their Nendoroids^^!
https://randomc.net/image/Boku%20wa%20Tomodachi%20ga%20Sukunai/Boku%20wa%20Tomodachi%20ga%20Sukunai%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2019.jpg
Was anyone paying any attention to her lesson or was everyone too busy checking out her fine ass?
I’ve read the manga, and it is very funny. Its not going to be a harem immediateily, and when the story gets serious, it is very interesting. I hope applied don’t think this is just a typical harem.