Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai - 02

I can certainly say that I enjoyed the second episode of Haganai much more than the first. This was more in line with what I was expecting – a lot of sass, a little sex, and some very funny dialogue.

I actually don’t have much to say about this one, because while it was at times wildly entertaining there’s not a lot of specific moments I can pick out as genius. Rather, the overall experience of watching the episode worked because the dialogue was really sharp. When dialogue is good it develops a rhythm that almost seems to be self-propelling – rather than individual lines you remember it as one long stream of consciousness that speaks of a certain mood and attitude. Steins;Gate is a great recent example, of course, and another one is a series that seems much closer to this one at heart – Oreimo. I would have been happy listening to Sena and Yozora sniping at each other all day long.

I don’t know if this is one of those shows where you simply have to pick one girl or the other, but if it’s either/or for me, I’m definitely in Sena’s camp. I love her combination of denseness and cleverness, how cocky she acts to hide her insecurity. It makes perfect sense to me that this girl would totally become an RPG addict – you was factory-built for it. As for Yozora, Inoue Marina is doing her usual fantastic job with the character, but I’m not as much a fan of her passive-aggressive posing as I am of Sena’s earnest cluelessness. Of course we still have many more cast members to meet – the OP and ED would have told me that even if I didn’t know it already – but apart from the stalker hiding behind the pillar, we were totally focused on the big three again this week.

Speaking of the big three, one thing that would make the series better for me is if Kodaka starts to dish out a little abuse in addition to receiving it. He’s a hit of a sad sack at the moment (ironic given his reputation) and especially with two very strong girls as co-leads, he needs to start being more of an equal player. That aside, the only other nit I’d pick with the ep was that the “Monster Hunter” gag went on a bit too long – it was hilarious for a couple of minutes, but the joke ended up repeating itself a couple times too many. But I was intrigued with the notion of seeing the PSP and RPG scenarios play out – the latter was especially funny – and the reactions of the two girls.

If Chihayafuru showed us the way schoolboys can be cruel to each other this week, watching these two play “Kirameki School Life 7”. I especially enjoyed Yozora’s comment that “They’re saying on the internet that high school girls these days are slutty bitches”. It’s hard to see how this kind of activity is bringing anyone in the Make Friends Club any closer to making actual friends – unless calling each other “Meat” and “Witch” counts as making friends – but it was fun to watch from a slightly voyeuristic perspective, and the subtly yet most erotically executed fanservice adds to that impression. If theirs a series this year that’s better at zettai ryouiki, I haven’t seen it.

One final note – is Yozora wearing panties at 13:22? Sure doesn’t look like it…

12 comments

Fencedude

October 14, 2011 at 3:47 am

Oh god my goggles. Sena and Yozora pretty much overloaded them this episode.

The entire galge portion was absolute gold for me, and I'm already heavily predisposed into reading way too much into subtext, but this was just blatant.

And yes, Yozora was definitely pulling a Saki and going commando.

belatkuro

October 14, 2011 at 8:51 am

Dat Meat.
And dat no-pan Yozora.
I kid of course, there's no way she isn't wearing one. Or is she? XD

Anyways, I enjoyed it quite a bit more than I expected, given that I don't quite like the voice cast. But that's just my syndrome with every first few episodes of each show I guess, complaining about the voice cast.
They're really ramping up the closeups at different angles. Dunno if that's good or not but I like it.
As for the references, there will be more prominent ones coming later but these ones are enjoyable.

Though the pool chapter next episode? Way too early for that. It should have been for later, at least 2 more episodes.
An excuse to rake in more viewers by animating Meat in swimsuit this early? Oh well.
More Meat is welcome for me 😀

Oh and no more Kodaka in girl's uniform please…

marinasauce

October 14, 2011 at 10:03 am

Well, maybe the Monster Hunter bit is funnier for people who play the game? I'm not sure if you do or not. I was pretty entertained through the whole thing 🙂

As for Sena's shot, who knows, she could be wearing a thong.

Seishun Otoko

October 14, 2011 at 10:21 am

Great, more Yozora for me then ;D
I'm loving Haganai and it has the potential to topple Denpa Onna as my favorite comedy/slice-of-life this year. Sharp dialogues indeed and I can't have enough of Yozora and Senna. Kodaka’s turning out to be a very good male lead too and his internal monologues are hilarious. Do I sense a bit of Kirino in Senna? The final scene where she tried to shove some Galge down Kodaka’s throat was pretty much a blatant shout out to Oreimo.

Kamion

October 14, 2011 at 11:02 am

Being someone who has read (at least part of) the novel I can say that this anime will get even better. Hell, even the manga is far enough to give you a lot of laughs!

They did a good job bringing Senoponume's story to life. It was a bit funnier in the novel, but the author just had more time to concentrate on the stupid name there.

I will name my first kid Senoponume. (Hopefully I'll never have kids.)

deafvader

October 14, 2011 at 12:11 pm

Just to point out this series does a few parodies. This episode shows Monster Hunter and Tokimeki- Kirameki. Tokimeki is a long going series which explains the Kirameki 7. How many series goes up to 7? FF not withstanding.
Next ep would see another parody, most like during the "sena fun time"

admin

October 14, 2011 at 4:59 pm

Senopunume!

Seishun, I definitely got Kirino vibes from Sena, in a good way. This is a real stretch performance from Itou Kanae, and I like it. I'm not sold on Kodaka yet, though. He's being trampled a bit so far.

belatkuro, indeed – that last thing in the world you want in this series is a boy in girls clothes, right? I'm sure that'll never happen.

belatkuro

October 14, 2011 at 6:15 pm

Let's just say you just activated a trap card 😉
Which isnt for next episode due to them changing the order events.

As for Kodaka, just…no.
I like my schoolgirls with zettai ryouikis and butterfly ornaments 🙂

Kamion

October 14, 2011 at 9:36 pm

They put two chapters into this episode. They might just do Sena's Swimming Pool chapter as well as Stalker-chapter 1. Who knows.

I'm actually glad they pulled the Sena chapter in front. It's really quite cute. Especially because of the way Kodaka and Sena can interact when Yozora's not around.

I'm really wonder how far they will get… Volume 3-4 hopefully but probably not.

Murkel

October 14, 2011 at 11:30 pm

If the preview is to be trusted, next week we will be getting a romance heavier episode (for both girls – swimming pool & childhood friend).

As far as this adaptation goes, I still feel the jokes' timing is a bit off. The same scenes in the manga strike me as more random and over the top, which portrays the girls' craziness better.

Otherwise, it seems to remain faithful and it's still fun.

deafvader

October 15, 2011 at 6:40 am

@belatkuro: no spoiling now 🙂
But I agree, sena's ep on pool would probably show more bg on both females. And it seems that the *blacksmith* is gonna be the first part of the ep.

Anonymous

January 6, 2012 at 5:11 am

maybe yozara should be have her own episode with only the girls going to the beach this time yozara wears a red one piece swimsuit or the zebra suit expect torn off to reveal more of her flesh . Her real swimsuit is underneath her zebra suit which are just 3 bandages on her huge breasts and one huge bandage on the bottom.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai – 02

Guardian Enzo

12 comments

Fencedude

belatkuro

marinasauce

Seishun Otoko

Kamion

deafvader

admin

belatkuro

Kamion

Murkel

deafvader

Anonymous

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Lost in Anime

Guardian Enzo

Related posts

12 comments

Fencedude

belatkuro

marinasauce

Seishun Otoko

Kamion

deafvader

admin

belatkuro

Kamion

Murkel

deafvader

Anonymous

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply