Boku Ha Tomodachi Ga Sukunai – OVA

[Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_05.37_[2012.10.02_15.06.42] [Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_06.45_[2012.10.02_15.07.49] [Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_22.32_[2012.10.02_15.25.13]

One strategy for OVAs is to try and make them as consistent with the TV episodes as possible, and that’s the tack AIC have clearly taken here.

[Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_00.38_[2012.10.02_15.01.43]Haganai is an interesting show for me – a test of whether you can like a series if you really dislike the main (or co-main) character.  The character in question is Yozora, and the answer for me is mostly yes – through one season and an OVA, anyway.  Yozora never grew on me in the slightest and I find her just as unlikeable in this OVA as she was in the first season, but there’s enough in the show that makes me laugh – and I like all the others characters well enough, especially Sena – that Yozora isn’t a deal-breaker for me.  There was never any question in my mind that the series would get a second season, and an announcement came soon after the first ended.  It’ll be interesting to see where Haganai goes with the revelations from the S1 finale.

[Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_00.44_[2012.10.02_15.01.49]As for the OVA, as mentioned, it’s pretty much a classic Haganai episode – all seven main cast members in the clubroom trying to figure out how to kill time until Kodaka suggests a relay novel.  Now you can’t tell me the first character that came to mind wasn’t Rika – it sure was for me – but everyone in the group gets a chance to inflict their weird sensibility on the effort, with Rika’s manic perversity wisely saved for last.  If anything we get to see things taken a little further than we might in a TV episode, though Haganai always danced pretty close to the edge of what was acceptable in a mainstream series anyway.

[Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_03.57_[2012.10.02_15.05.01]The stories here are mostly pretty funny, though a few things stand out.  I remain flummoxed by Yukimura, who my gut still tells me is the least convincing trap ever (Or is it most convincing?  Or is it reverse trap?) but everyone in the show still treats as if he’s a boy in a maid costume.  Yukimura certainly lays Yukimura’s feelings for Kodaka out more clearly than ever in Yukimura’s opening chapter of the relay novel (much to Rika’s delight), a samurai tale about Kodaka, my favorite line of which was “Went to town to rape as usual.”  Rape, in fact, is a major player in the this episode’s flights of fancy, mostly thanks to Yozora’s page of the novel.  I get that her attacks on Sena are supposed to be funny, but they almost never are – in addition to being unwarranted by anything Sena has done (except the grave offense of existing in the first place), they go so far past harmless teasing into downright savagery that I have a hard time understanding why they’re even intended to be funny.

[Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_04.14_[2012.10.02_15.05.19]Of course what follows Yozora’s ugly take of Sena as a pig-girl being raped by reptilian youkai is the usual pattern – Sena tries to respond, her attacks end up lacking the sophistication of Yozora’s, and she flees the room in a huff.  In fact it’s Kodaka’s page of the story (sandwiched in between) that’s by far the most normal, unsurprisingly, but Kobato and Maria are on-hand to make sure things get silly again (I found Maria’s poop-focused simplicity funnier, though I did love Sena’s “Kobato’s brocon is so kawaii!” reaction to Kobato’s chapter) before Rika takes center-stage to wrap things up with a hilariously raunchy red-hot BL mecha porn starring Kodaka and Yukimura.  Rika is one of the most fabulously twisted ecchi characters of the last few years – I dream of a crossover where she meets Oshiroi from Ben-To, and we get to here the two of them go head-to-head in an attempt to top the other for fujoshi points.  Universe!!!

[Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_05.21_[2012.10.02_15.06.26] [Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_06.21_[2012.10.02_15.07.25] [Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_07.32_[2012.10.02_15.09.33]
[Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_07.36_[2012.10.02_15.09.37] [Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_08.43_[2012.10.02_15.10.44] [Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_10.14_[2012.10.02_15.12.15]
[Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_10.53_[2012.10.02_15.12.54] [Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_12.08_[2012.10.02_15.14.09] [Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_13.01_[2012.10.02_15.15.02]
[Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_13.44_[2012.10.02_15.15.45] [Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_14.04_[2012.10.02_15.16.05] [Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_16.43_[2012.10.02_15.18.44]
[Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_17.00_[2012.10.02_15.19.01] [Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_19.14_[2012.10.02_15.21.30] [Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_19.39_[2012.10.02_15.21.56]
[Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_20.24_[2012.10.02_15.22.41] [Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_20.29_[2012.10.02_15.22.46] [Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_20.50_[2012.10.02_15.23.06]
[Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_20.56_[2012.10.02_15.23.12] [Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_21.35_[2012.10.02_15.24.16] [Mazui]_Boku_Ha_Tomodachi_Ga_Sukunai_-_13_[FF6E0982].mkv_snapshot_22.29_[2012.10.02_15.25.10]
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

12 comments

  1. F

    One day I'm actually going to write that post about Sena and Yozora's relationship and why Sena willingly, even at times gleefully, submits herself to so much humiliation.

    Anyway, this episode just about killed me, between this and InuXBoku, its a good time for episode 13 OVAs.

  2. S

    Haganai: making sure you never look at a Mecha series the same way again. It was a fun episode, but Yozora going that way should probably have been a given.

    And, yeah, I have no idea what Yukimura is supposed to be. I'd go with "reverse trap", but this is Haganai we're talkinga bout.

  3. C

    Honestly, Sena always irritates me. Not that Yozora is in any way justified in her abuse, but Sena is just… annoying.

  4. A

    Actually, at this point, it is well known what Yukimura is. You can check it out on the wikipedia page for Boku wa Tomodachi if you want to.

  5. Why would I want to spoil myself when the anime hasn't revealed that yet? If I wanted to read the LNs, I'd read them – but since I haven't, I'd rather let the anime reveal things at its own pace.

  6. S

    I think that Yozora is needed to counterbalance Sena's Mary-Sueness.
    Without Yozora around, Sena reverts to her "Queen of the school" attitude. She is beautiful, smart, rich and she thinks that every man should be happy to be trampled over by her.

    Sena also shows signs of a repressed masochist personality. When Yozora basically asked her to lick her shoes, for a moment Sena actually considered doing it! There are many other examples of this attitude in the series (i.e. the beach episode).

  7. If you think Sena is a Mary Sue, you really need to brush up on the definition of that word. Sena is a mess – she's insecure, she's often clueless, and she usually gets the worst of her dust-ups with Yozora. I think she's about as far from being a Mary Sue as you can get. I just happen to find her adorable.

  8. B

    I like Sena and usually agree that Yozora's treatment of her goes too far to really be funny. But one of the most memorable and funny scenes of the first season for me just so happens to be one of those "Yozora fucking with Sena" moments, the one where she's whispering to Kodaka about food but loudly pronouncing the word meat whenever she comes to it so all Sena hears is "psst psst psst MEAT psst psst MEAT psst psst psst MEAT". That scene made me lol for a good 5 minutes, it's so accurate to the way my social groups have traditionally worked.

    I… am surprised how much I am looking forward to the second season of this lol.

  9. A

    I agree with beckett

  10. D

    Hey, Enzo, will you be blogging this show called "Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!"? I have a feeling that the peculiar absurdness and going-all-out-without-shame humor is somewhere in the ballpark of your taste~~. Seriously I am embarrassed for the Mei Misaki girl, really (as she clearly can't feel such emotion herself, I might as well feel it for her).

  11. D

    wait, I take back "going-all-out-without-shame humor" line above. The show isn't THAT funny in the traditional sense (aka a gag show). It's just that the antics get absurd and keep going with straight face that it gets funny from time to time.

  12. Seen it. First impressions later tonight…

Leave a Comment