I Don't Have Many Friends/Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai

[greg]

Has anyone seen this short series? It doesn't seem to be known among my elementary students, but I've encountered a few junior high students who like this series. The name alone sounds intriguing, and it is interesting that it involves a bi-racial Japanese student (or unfortunately known as hafu or "half" in Japanese vernacular) who has a difficult time overcoming the prejudices of his classmates. According to Wikipedia, the TV series was only a dozen episodes, but it's moving to an OVA release this year.

[Heibi]

I've seen it. Quite good actually. Hilarious characters.

[Heero]

It's a harem show, and has it's "perverted" moments, but it's pretty funny. Your mileage may vary though, I don't want to recommend whole-heartedly since I'm a fan of (among other things) moe-blob style character designs and this is more in the "cute" vein. I'd say it really depends on what you want. If you're interested because of the "half-gaijin" lead, they don't really do a lot with the heritage aspect. It's more about the rivalries between the girl characters, which, if you're into that is done pretty well, but if you're not then it'll be a dud. (it DOES have an awesome sequence involving a public READING of a mecha doujinshi)

[Heibi]

It's a harem show, and has it's "perverted" moments, but it's pretty funny. Your mileage may vary though, I don't want to recommend whole-heartedly since I'm a fan of (among other things) moe-blob style character designs and this is more in the "cute" vein. I'd say it really depends on what you want. If you're interested because of the "half-gaijin" lead, they don't really do a lot with the heritage aspect. It's more about the rivalries between the girl characters, which, if you're into that is done pretty well, but if you're not then it'll be a dud. (it DOES have an awesome sequence involving a public READING of a mecha doujinshi)

True, the harem aspect is there - but not truly exploited like other harem anime do it. Especially because there is an actual plot, which you have to watch to figure it out. The banter back and forth between two of the characters is perfect. Great comedy. We loved it here.

[greg]

Well, it is worth a shot, at least. It sounds interesting. Thanks for the feedback!

[greg]

Well, a year later and I finally got around to seeing this. At least the first episode that's subbed on YouTube. When I first saw the title for this show on a student's pencil board, Immediately I had hopes for this show to be a rather cynical, counter-culture comedy and somewhat of an evaluation on prejudices in Japan. It will likely be different than that, but it focuses on lonely souls, which I can certainly appreciate. So I guess you can watch more episodes on Funimation's YT channel, but it's blocked here in J-land. They abbreviated the title to "Haganai," interestingly. Maybe my students have referred to it as such before, but I didn't catch on.

[PinkAppleJam]

Oh man, I got through Haganai (somehow) and it desperately wants to be Haruhi Suzumiya (exact same premise, just with less sci-fi), but ups the moe ecchi factor x 1000. Uncomfortable. See what you think of it? Very prettily drawn but very disturbing. And the characters are just vile to each other.

[Animusubi]

The premise sounded good, but I couldn't get past the first two episodes. Didn't care for the characters. And I liked the original art by Buriki more than the character designs of the anime, imo.

[greg]

Oh man, I got through Haganai (somehow) and it desperately wants to be Haruhi Suzumiya (exact same premise, just with less sci-fi), but ups the moe ecchi factor x 1000. Uncomfortable. See what you think of it? Very prettily drawn but very disturbing. And the characters are just vile to each other.

That's what I was afraid of. The first episode isn't much to judge by, but it made me hopeful that the characters would grow. About the ecchi factor, that was my fear. I've seen some some boys reading novels based off that show, and I saw some of the art inside and it looked rather risque. It's disappointing that the show is the same. Yeah, pervy stuff doesn't hold my attention much at all.

[usamimi]

I don't mind pervy stuff, myself, but I'm very picky about it. But most people who I've talked to that saw it agreed that it did just seem like a forgettable "Haruhi" sort of Knock-off, so I never bothered with it. I thought Haruhi was ok, so I figured I'd like a series like this even less so.