Title: Boku Ha Tomodachi Ga Sukunai
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Rating: 6.2/10
Summary: Hasegawa Kodaka 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 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.
Review: It is hard to say if I found this anime that amusing since every episode was basically the same. Until the the final two where things started to click into place. It was then I decided a second season wouldn’t be a bad idea. In fact, I might actually be looking forward to it. That was from the last two episodes though, the rest of the anime wasn’t all that satisfying. It had the same running gags and the characters were iffy at times. Boku ha Tomodachi ga Sukunai had the same cliché moments as any anime. The only thing that made the anime slightly above the rest was the protagonist. Kodaka Hasegawa is someone who was well deserving of our character of the month for his outstanding display of… calm.
The art for
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai was of my liking probably because it greatly resembled
Denpa’s art. Though they fixed a couple things I wasn’t too fond of like the characters having incorrect proportions when showing a full body shot. The backgrounds and character designs were wonderful. One thing that separates this anime from other’s is the display of lips. It is surprising has most anime show lips in attempts to exaggerate certain features of a character. Most of the time in jest (such as in
Kyoukai Senjoy no Horizon) or emphasize beauty in certain scenes (
Kimi ni Todoke).
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai did display lips in a way of beauty and I felt it was more subtle than most. The art wasn’t consistent and I noticed a decline in quality as the series went on. Also extra attention during specific scenes which I feel I don’t need to say as it is rather obvious when an art will take the time to make a girl look good.
The story for
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai was a hit or miss per episode. The biggest problem is the comedy wasn’t that great. And considering it is mostly a comedy anime that isn’t a good sign. The perverted Rika was only funny the first time. After that it was just creepy and weird. Talk about taking sexuality to a whole new level. I will never look at Gundam manga the same way again *shiver*. The rest of the crew wasn’t to special either. The whole thing that Sena and Yozora had was getting old fast. Every single episode it would end the same way. Yozora would start to bully Sena (often because she was talking to Kodaka) by calling her “meat” or other such insults. Next thing we know Sena is crying and runs off calling Yozora and idiot, moron, loser, etc. Only to then come back and say something to Kodaka to get under Yozora’s skin. The same thing happened over and over again. On a side note, it was also a reason I started like Yozora more than Sena. Because Sena, despite being the “ideal” big boobed, blonde hair girl who played video games, was completely helpless. She had no retorts and always looked elsewhere for help, and when she didn’t get it she left. However, there is often a shining character and for this series it was Kodaka. He never freaked out at the sexual advances of Rika or the childish bickering between Sena and Yozora. In fact, nothing seemed to phase him. The inevitable naked-girl-after-bath scene didn’t effect him. He acted cool and calm, telling a little white lie to help Sena become more comfortable. This happened twice and only with Sena. Pretty obvious who was the fan favorite. The story picked up once you found out about the little thing between Yozora and Kodaka. A sweet and simple tale that I’m a sucker for. The final two episodes that I enjoyed so much dived deeper into their story and the reason I enjoyed it so much is because it stayed true to the present day. Their past didn’t so much effect how they acted with each other in the present because it had been so many years. Still the new development made me want a second season to see what actually happens. The reason I have such high hopes in a second season is because Kodaka seems like a guy who wouldn’t just flail his arms around and hope things fall into place. He seems to have a good head capable of thinking which is more than I can say about most harem guys. To sum up everything I just said about the story: I wasn’t in it for the jokes I was in it for the tiny bit of back story between Yozora and Kodaka. Everything else for me was just filler.
The soundtrack for
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai wasn’t stellar either but it had its moments. The karaoke that Sena/Yozora sang was really good. The opening reminded me a lot of the opening to
Mitsudomoe. Fun and playful and still good. They had a lot of subtle background music. It added quite a bit to the touching moments of a comedy series. Of course not everything was soft and sweet. They did have their fun songs as well like Omocha ppoi fanky. Not something I plan to check out in the future though. It was good, but really only in the anime.
Final statements: Although the anime doesn’t have the best score I’m looking forward to a season two. It seems like it could pick up nicely. I’m hoping that they improve on their comedy a bit though. I’m tired of seeing the same gag every episode. A low priority watch only because of the last two episodes and Kodaka.
