My second intro of Spring 2022 is a series I was considerably more interested in than Ya Boy Kongming!, though largely on a hunch. Aharen-san wa Hakarenai was one of only a couple of shows this season giving me a bit of a sleeper vibe.  And those are hunch bets most of the time.  I don’t know the manga and the series doesn’t come from a well-known studio (Felix Film), plus the premise is a bit recycled and silly. But it has a very solid core staff and there was an air of something quirky and sweet about it that intrigued me a little.

So far, so good.  I quite enjoyed this premiere in an ‘it grows on you” sort of way.  I’m not sure the last ten minutes were any funnier than the first ten on their own merits, but Aharen strikes me as kind of a mood piece.  You have to let your skepticism slough away and fall under its sway.  If that happens you start to “get” the humor – whether it ever does probably depends on the person.  And as is usually the case with comedy, it’s rather difficult to quantify why it works for you (or doesn’t).

I’ll admit this whole shtick of high school girls with weird speech patterns (or outright disorders) is getting a bit tired.  The girl in question here is the titular Aharen Reina (Minase Inori, who doesn’t really have that much to do here but makes the most of it).  She’s the tiny girl sitting next to Raidou (Terashima Takuma) on their first day of high school.  If he has a first name (I assume Raidou is his surname) we never hear it.  He’s determined to reverse course after a socially disastrous middle school life by conversing with his seatmate on the first day, but fate has something more interesting planned for Raidou.

So…  Aharen supposedly has difficulty judging the correct social distance from people, which has always plagued her social dexterity.  She also speaks so quietly that Raidou doesn’t even know she’s speaking – except when she doesn’t. As  a result once she opens up to him Raidou basically wears her as a second skin, which is not played for ecchi comedy as much as you’d expect.  It all comes off as pretty silly, but for me at least once I got past that stage I enjoyed the absurdity of the situation.  And the fact that they’re both genuinely kind kids doesn’t hurt.

Among the highlights (which play out in almost 4-koma fashion) is a trip to karaoke (because why not), and a session at the arcade where Aharen wins repeatedly at the crane game where Raidou has failed (each assuming the other wanted the doll in question).  We also see Aharen making a bento for Raidou when he shows up with school bread, explaining that his mom is out of town. All through this the veteran Terashima delivers a very stilted, deadpan vocal performance that takes a bit of getting used to but grows on you (much like the show itself).

The test of course is going to be whether this has legs, both comedically and otherwise.  How about these two weirdos fitting in at school, for example – how will that play out?  I’m assuming the romantic angle is going to present quickly enough, as it’s all but acknowledged even in the premiere itself.  But for now I’m fairly engaged – the two leads are likeable and their odd chemistry clicks, and while mostly on a slapstick level so far the humor connects often enough for the series to succeed.  I don’t know if Aharen-san wa Hakarenai is just a gag comedy or something more (I kind of hope it’s the latter), but if it works, it works.