Haganai NEXT is everything you loved about Haganai…minus everything you loved about Haganai. Rather than focusing on the Neighbor Club doing fun things like the first season did, this twelve episode fiasco decides that the club room is way more fun. So what we get is a slog of an anime with no redeeming qualities aside from the fact it ends.
If I were to rate the story, I’d give it a nonexistent out of five. The beginning of this season is nothing but episodic garbage where Sena likes Kodaka, Yozora likes Kodaka, Rikka likes Kodaka; so on and so forth. There’s some humor to be found, especially in the club’s one outing to an amusement park, but what little is there is not enough to sate even the biggest fans thirst. Later on there’s a minor plot about making a film for the cultural festival (a la Haruhi Suzumiya) but that only leads to an anticlimax and then segues to the worst ending I can possibly imagine a harem having.
I’ve bitched about bad harem main characters before. The idea of the character not picking a girl is tied to the whole “fantasy” thing where you as the viewer need to put yourself in his shoes and decide. That’s the essence of many visual novels and I don’t think the folks who make anime understand that story telling in a visual novel works because, in the end, you’ve picked a girl to go with after being ambiguous and deciding for a while. In an anime, you cannot stay at that ambiguous phase. It’s annoying to have a show that boils down to a guy needing to decide on the girl he wants to date and then the show says “Nope”. Then what’s the point? Is the point of having a harem to have a bunch of platonic relationships that go nowhere and mean nothing? As a viewer, it’s boring. I’ve put myself in his shoes and obviously he needs to be dating Sena! I decided that, like, the first episode.
What pisses me off even further is that Kodaka is betrothed to Sena. Yeah, they were childhood friends before he met Yozora. And Sena wants to marry him; she’s in love. And what does he do? He fucking runs away! This leads to Rika confronting him on the rooftop of the school in one of the most meta/stupid scenes I’ve ever seen. Rika is controlling metal balls with her mind and telling Kodaka what a pussy he is. It leads to a huge action scene that you’d think would end with Kodaka realizing that, while dating one of them would break up the club dynamic, who gives a shit when you’re hurting more people than you’re helping?
Nope, instead we end with Kodaka approaching Sena, possibly to decide to be with her, probably not. It doesn’t matter because we get a stupid goddam interruption by their phones. Did I mention this series likes to end scenes where we could see development by abruptly having a phone ring or a rush of air breeze by?
In the end, Yozora has run away after Sena’s confession and all I can say is good riddance. With her out of the way, why not FUCKING MARRY SENA?
Or don’t and instead wait for the third season…that never came thank God.
Characters
One of my biggest problems with NEXT comes from Kodaka and Rikka, both of whom have obviously changed a little between season one and two. Kodaka is more perverted now, while Rikka is kind of a yandere. It’s a minor thing but very noticeable when you watch both seasons back to back.
If you want to see more about the characters, read my review of the first season. What they boil down to is Yozora’s a bitch, Sena is awesome, Rika is funny but nuts, Kodaka is a pussy, Maria is an annoying loli, Kobato is just kinda there and Yukimura the he/she maid is actually a she but wants to be a he.
Also, I want to mention Kate, Maria’s big sister. She’s a nun who drinks a lot of cola and is ridiculously hot…until the first anime fart joke I’ve heard since Naruto. She walks away after ripping ass and says “Oh, that’s a wet one!”.
And the Lord said, let your boner recede into you and come out the other side like a tail. And it did.
There are also a couple new characters in the student council but they make such minor appearances and have so little character I won’t even worry about it.
Animation
On top of everything else being a downgrade, the animation has also taken a plunge. It’s not bad at all but the crispness and beauty of season one has given way to cheaper looking animation.
Sound
The opening and ending are pretty average. The English dub continued to be a decent substitution for the Japanese version, though Kodaka’s voice actor annoys me, and not just because of Kodaka. He sounds so dumb and the whole performance is phoned in. At least everyone else seems to be enjoying what little the script has to offer.
Entertainment
If forcing your way through something is entertaining for you, then go ahead and be my guest. But Haganai NEXT was nothing new or interesting, it was a painful downgrade from the first season. I think the most entertainment I had was watching my friend burst a fucking vein in his forehead at how pissed he was at Kodaka. Though I think I burst one as well.
Overall
If you watched Haganai and wanted to see the further adventures of the cute cast, then you’re going to be pissed with what is presented here. It’s a downgrade in every department, has no redeeming qualities aside from an occasional laugh, and fails on every front to provide you with a satisfactory romance, nor a satisfactory slice-of-life experience. It’s plainly obvious this was made to cash in on the success of the first season with no care given to anything about it.
It’s the worst sequel I’ve watched in a long time and one of the most disappointing anime of the past couple years. Do yourself a favor and neglect its existence.
