Haganai Season 1 Review

I'm here today to review  Haganai or Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai ("I Don't Have Many Friends"), one of the new anime I started during my absence. I was going to do Okami-San & Her Seven Companions this week because I was following the order in which I watched them, but I lost a sheet of paper of unique quotes so I decided to do this one and then next week I'll do Okami-San.

This anime is really filled with humor, and it's rated TV-MA so I'm sure you know the kind of humor I mean (more evident in later episodes), it is also a herem. A quick heads up or SPOILER depending on how you look at it: there is some scenes of nudity later in the anime but only breasts and butts. 

From left to right: Sister Maria (back), Yozora (front), Kobato (back), Kodaka (front), Rika (back), Yukimura (back), Sena (front). 

The show is about a second-year high school student named Kodaka Hasegawa who doesn't know how to make friends and has only had one his whole life. It doesn't help that he has blond hair that looks like the dye is coming out (dyed hair has been associated with juvenile delinquency in Japan), but this is his natural hair color, or his naturally sinister looking expressions. It is later revealed that other things he unintentionally does also make it really hard for him to make friends. He is also voiced by my favorite voice actor of all time Jerry Jewell, who also voices Neko from Okami-San & Her Seven Companions which is another reason why I had intended on posting this next week, Lyon from Fairy Tail, a cop from Panty & Stocky with Garterbelt, Ko the Bat from Rosario + Vampire, a clown from Soul Eater, and Cliff Cleese from Tenchi Muyo! War On Geminar; I plan on writing reviews for all of these anime and this is the only time I will tell you what I have planed for you.

I can tell you that no matter how much I write about this anime it won't do it justice, but it is my duty to try my best none the less. First a quick intro to our main characters:

You already met Kodaka, but not his sister Kobato Hasegawa- a junior high student at St. Chronica's Academy; she is very close to her brother, who she calls "An-Chan" (Big Brother), and behaves in a jealous and clingy way whenever she feels that he is not giving her the attention she deserves. After having watched an anime show called Iron Necromancer, she begins to call herself "Reisys V. Felicity Sumeragi", a vampire who has lived over a thousand years; she wears a Gothic dress, wears a red contact lens as to appear to have heterochromia and drinks blood (tomato juice)
Yozora Mikazuki- A cruel and selfish black-haired girl who says she understands and respects bullying but resents being called a bully herself; her difficult personality drives away anyone who might wish to make friends with her before she meets Kodaka. She is physically abusive towards, and often argues with, Sena and manipulative towards Maria, whom she cons into giving up an empty room for the use of the Neighbor's Club, and Yukimura, who she fools into working for the club as a cross-dressing cosplay maid. The only person she can't insult is Rika, as Rika takes whatever insult she gives her and deflects it back with a dirty joke that leaves her tired – to the point where she just does what Rika says (like cross-dress for example) rather than argue. SPOILER: she is actually Kodaka's old childhood friend "Taka" (I had a feeling since Kodaka's flashback when he was trying to figure out his old childhood friend's name) and she created the Neighbors Club just to be with him again, he later finds out in the second to last episode of the season.
Sena Kashiwazaki- The wealthy blonde daughter of the school's headmaster, Sena shows a dislike of all things "ordinary". She is both attractive and academically successful, but her resulting arrogance excludes her from making friends with girls, and 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.
Yukimura Kusunoki- Yukimura is first introduced as a stalker of Kodaka. A gullible student with low self-esteem, Yukimura admiringly believes Kodaka to be a romantic and masculine outlaw who lives life the way he wants to, and eagerly pledges to become his "underling" to become manlier. Despite claiming to be a boy, Yukimura dresses in girls clothes, typically that of a French maid, or a bikini when at a water park or beach. SPOILER: In Volume 5, chapter 6 of the light novel (and most likely some where in the second season; I haven't gotten there yet), Kodaka discovers that Yukimura is actually a girl, even to Yukimura's surprise. I truly had a feeling Yukimura was a girl from the beginning and speculated that she was probably confused and unaware of her own gender.
Rika Shiguma- A first-year student who is a highly capable mad scientist that the school gives her a special room for her research, and excuses her from attending classes. Kodaka saves her when she falls unconscious during a disastrous lab experiment; she offers to repay Kodaka's kindness with sexual favors, and joins the Neighbor's Club just to get closer to him. Among the girls in the series, Rika is the most sexually forward member. In her first speaking appearance, she describes the attractions of rape to Kodaka in the middle of a stunned class. She has a habit of inserting any sexual innuendo possible in her sentences, to the point where she finds it normal to convert any innocent thought into something perverted. As a fujoshi (rotten girl, or naughty-minded girl), she is a passionate consumer of BL (boys love) self-published magazines, but is especially aroused by stories that involve intercourse between mecha. She uses her genius-scientist and glasses-wearing image to divert others from her perverted nature. To compound her eccentricity, she speaks in the third person.
Maria Takayama- is the supervising teacher of the Neighbors Club; she is a ten-year-old nun. While a child genius, she is also very rude and immature, and often uses a variety of expletives when annoyed. She develops a sibling-like relationship with Kodaka, who regularly makes her packed lunches, and is affectionate with him, much to Kobato's annoyance. She is easily manipulated by Yozora into doing things for her, usually when Yozora mentions that she gives her tasks an adult would do, or bribes her with a bag of potato chips.

Now with that out of the way I can begin to tell you about the story. Well I really shouldn't have to but I like to hear myself talk (I do know that I'm typing, shut up). The story is about a group of acquaintances who don't understand (that they are friends) how to make friends, so they join the Neighbors Club that Kodaka and Yozora start to make friends (after this post both you and me are going to hate the word: friends). These club mates go on an adventure of sorts in which they attempt to learn how to make friends by doing normal "friend things" with each other so that they can do it with others to make friends. For example they go on club field trips to the pool, to a karaoke lounge, and even an exercise retreat to Sena's family's beach home to learn how to do beachy things. Like i said earlier this is a herem anime so everyone has a crush on Kodaka, except Maria who thinks of him as a brother or more I don't know, I also believe Kobato has a brother complex of sorts or she is a very clinging little sister. Frequently Rika is trying to have sex with Kodaka, but fails (sadly), Sena wants to date him, Maria wants him to be her big brother, Yukimura wants to be his slave (in more ways than one it is led on to believe, and Yozora secretly loves him as well. unfortunately there isn't anymore i can really tell you except that the second to last episode is a retelling of the entire first season through Yozora's eyes (I would explain more about the episode but it would only take for ever to do so but it would also be a massive spoiler that if someone read by accident it would ruin the under lying plot) and that the last episode serves as a fan service of sorts (not really :[ ).

Well I feel this is my longest post so far, sorry about that. Well I'm going to rewatch this season tonight because writing this review reminded me why I liked it: "plot" and plot. So before I leave I ask you my readers to comment and follow and also tell your friends. Please comment I feel all of my page views are people who came here by accident and then leave, post a comment even if its just a "hi" or "why the hell did you write so much asshole make your reviews sorter!" I don't care what you say. Well see you next week!!! :[)

As you can tell this anime evolved into a heram tords the end, I enjoy herams XD and most of the anime that I will review will be this genre. I enjoyed all of the characters' personalities, mostly Rika's. I give this anime season an 8/10. I would have liked a slightly more coherent plot line through all of the episodes, and perhaps more of a relationship development between Kodaka and Yozora.