Haganai is a show about a group of people who simply just want to make friends. So to go along with that, they make a fake club that's sole purple is finding friends. However... That plan largely fails.
The characters somehow manage to be the last refuge and the biggest disaster of the show at the exact same time. It’s rare for that to be the case First and foremost is our main character Kadoka. Everyone in the school has an illogical fear of him due to his harsh voice and two toned hair. Everyone other than the girls who join the club the start. Literally none of them even hesitate to talk to him, despite the fact that the entire school seems to hate him. Assuming he steals, beats up, or even rapes other students.
The other main characters are Yozora, the obvious childhood friend that Kadoka has forgotten about, and Sena, the busty, beautiful, rich, arrogant, crybaby. These characters are the only ones that actually matter as the rest are so shallow it’s pointless to talk about them for any length of time.
Take Rika for example. Known as the perverted scientist because… Well she is, and that’s all she is. She has no past to speak of, she has no emotions other than being in a state of extreme and constant arousal, the entire time she is on screen she is being perverted and that is all she does. Maria is no better, the loli character who of course takes to calling Kadoka her big brother while constantly insulting all the other girls in the club using her favorite insult, “poop”. The others all fall in with this pattern.
Yozora and Sena on the other hand are actually fleshed out characters that have at least some depth to them. However, most of Yozora’s motivations and emotions aren’t really elaborated upon until the finale. These two are hard to talk about singularly because most of their screen time is spent arguing and competing with each other on anything under the sun.
The only thing they seem to have in common besides good looks is their obvious crush on our main character. Sena is arrogant and rude on the outside, but is actually very sweet. That sounds like a typical tsundere but she doesn’t really have many tsundere qualities. Whenever she’s with Yozora and her ego is shattered she often runs away crying. She, of course, has no real friends so she doesn’t know how to make any. It’s hinted but never elaborated upon, that her ego and rudeness is a shield of some kind to protect herself as she is a crybaby.
Yozora on the other hand… No matter how hard I try Yozora is a character that easily infuriates me. She’s never nice, she’s always insulting everyone, she manipulates Sena and Maria, the list goes on and on. While some of these instances were comical and could be laughed off the simple amount of times she did them, and their intensity was ridiculous. In the first or second episode she slams the door on Sena’s face then when they finally talk she insults her by saying something along the lines of, “[Sena] just a worthless piece of meat that will have to sell her body for money if she ever plans to support herself.”
Some of the things she said simply felt like they were going too far to be funny. Especially since Yozora herself claims to not be a bully. The only thing that saves Yozora from me outright hating her is her few moments of being cute and the finale when her past and motivations are explored. These rare moments are genuinely adorable, probably made even more so by her complete bitchiness outside of these few moments. If Yozora wasn’t so harsh and maybe calmed down a little, she would have been much better off. Hell, she probably would have even won out over Sena as my best girl, but that is not the case.
Despite my comments I actually did enjoy this show quite a bit. The comedy that wasn’t focused on Yozora being a bitch was genuinely funny. These moments shined in the first few episodes when Kadoka, Sena, and Yozora were playing video games and dating sims in an attempt to become more sociable. When the other characters were introduced that chemistry was ruined and disappeared (although Sena was always playing a game any time she was in the clubroom, it was just never the focus of the show anymore). The other characters, while being completely one-dimensional, were funny. Again though, that’s all they were. Shallow comic relief. While they accomplished their job, I feel they could have been even funnier if the characters had been fleshed out more.
Overall Haganai is an average show. I did enjoy it quite a bit, but this is far from a must see anime or something I would recommend.
