Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT 01 – This Could Easily Be Taken the Wrong Way

I think if she just leaned back, the weight distribution would work out.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written on something episodically. Well, that was since Koichoco ended up being an absolute trainwreck. So I safely return to something that isn’t as adventurous as Haganai returns for a second season. This week was a two part episode. First, Sena had her hair styled by Yozora and Rika in one of the most terrifyingly awful ways possible. Then, Kodaka takes a trip to Sena’s house to study, only to discover far more than he ever wanted to know about the people living there.

Yukimura’s interesting moments as a character pop up in very mundane situations

So the first of the things I found interesting in this episode was actually Yukimura. Since the grand secret hadn’t yet been revealed to everyone else, Yukimura is still just a boy who wears the maid costume and serves tea to the rest of the club. So I found it rather interesting Yukimura was acting like a normal girl as Sena’s hair was being styled. While Kodaka stared off bored out of his skull, there was Yukimura trying to take a peek at the finely styled hair that the girls were all complimenting each other on. Curiosity continued to take a hold as Yukimura inched closer and closer to the mirror behind which the lovely hair was being prepared. So wanting to be a part of the process, yet being restrained by an assigned role within the group, all Yukimura could really do in the end is eagerly volunteer to pick up the supplies to put in Sena’s hair.

Excellent use of a minor character in this scene

All in all, it was a nice addition to an adapted scene. It’s good for people who know the story behind Yukimura, but it didn’t feel like it was distracting from the scene at all in a way that this very well could have. Perhaps that has a lot to do with the presence of the background dialogue going on between Rika, Yozora and Sena, but it was a nice touch for me personally.

Pure fanservice shot of Sena running down a hallway

The other thing I wanted to address in this post was the obvious perversion of the trio of Sena, Stella and Pegasus (it still feels wrong typing that as a proper name). What we got out of the second half of the episode was as follows:

• Sena is a masochistic stalker who masturbates to Yozora’s smell when she isn’t angry with her.
• Pegasus is a sadist who has seemingly planned out Sena’s future, but is completely oblivious as to what is going on with her life when it isn’t clearly visible.
• Stella just wants Kodaka and Sena to get down to that business and is at least the most aware of everyone’s true intentions. Unfortunately, this isn’t so meta as to have her realize that this is harem anime and therefore that condom will always go unused.

You’re kidding yourself if you think that ever gets used.

I think more than the episode from the first season, the second half of the episode provided more insight into how Sena’s life at home works. After Sena gets home, she’s probably quizzed about what Kodaka was up to, and Pegasus only cares because it is his only connection to Kodaka’s father. Apart from that, he doesn’t care what she is up to as long as she isn’t being harmed. Sena then spends the rest of the time either playing games or dreaming of getting revenge/masturbating to Yozora. Stella probably sees entrapping Kodaka in their lives as the only way Sena can live a normal life. Oddly, Kodaka sees this all as good parenting.

That is NOT the look of someone trying to get revenge

And for my minor talking points from this episode:

1. Some of the BGM in this series irritates me. I still don’t see the faux chiptunes at times working here.
2. Kobato singing along to her favorite anime OP was a nice touch. It definitely had some shades of Chiaki Kurihara in there.
3. There are 3 characters in the OP who have not yet been seen. Kodaka’s harem grows ever larger.
4. Sena’s outfit in the 2nd half of the episode: surprisingly exciting for having such dull colors
5. Kodaka should know that one thing worse than terrible sight gags is long drawn out boring stories that are never funny.
6. Last and most silly, the combo in the fighting game was absurdly long. I can’t imagine having the patience to sit through even ten rounds of that.

More Hanakana awkward singing in this episode.

Next week’s episode features a classic story of muscular boys becoming more than friends, and probably Rika taking on a new look if my memory serves me correctly. Feel free to chime in on this week’s episode in the comments below.