Yomi HirasakaCritiques

I like this series so far, but I'm not a big fan of the tabletop RPG scenes. Too repetitive for my liking and they drag on and on. I find myself barely paying attention whenever those scenes pop up because I'm just not that interested.

I kinda hate Nayuta. She behaves like a literal child most of the time, so her oversexualisation and her being considered a genius writer is pretty weird.

Everything about her is defined by and subservient to her infatuation for Itsuki. Oh, I forgot to mention her big boobs and her being naked in 85% of the scenes she's in. Can't forget that.

Such a one-dimensional character.

A nice and relatively serious volume. As a refreshing change from the petty machinations, here the gang are focused on making a film together, and there's some nice bits of character development along the way - Rika and Kobato both get some nice scenes.

Entirely in keeping with the rest of the series so far. I must admit, it gets increasingly difficult to believe Kodaka's complete obliviousness in the face of the various girls not only being pretty platant about their attraction, but actually acknowledging it to themselves. But that's the genre.

Pretty much exactly like every other volume in the series, so use your judgement.

I was a bit sad about a certain revelation - sort of expected it, but nevertheless it seems a shame. The character was already interesting, I think perhaps more so than they now become.½

The series is beginning to shift in tone, with some a romance theme becoming more prominent - I don't know whether to call the hints in this and the previous volume romance or pre-romance, as they grow slowly and indistinctly from the general jealousy of earlier volumes. There's a bit of an unexpected twist at the end which, I hope, will not turn out to be shark-jumping.

More of the same, basically. The relationships between the characters continue to get more serious and important, but they still get up to all kinds of peculiar things.

Another installment of a strange, silly but likeable tale of awkward friendships. Although I could stand for Kodaka to be a little less central, giving more room to relationships between the other characters, I enjoy the development of tenuous and unnoticed friendships between these very awkward teenagers. They're very much larger than life, of course, and sometimes the urge to slap them is strong when they're being particularly unreasonable and brattish, but then that's precisely why this lot are the friendless losers seeking refuse in the club.

A long-awaited development comes to the fore in this book, which I found genuinely moving despite myself, and I hope the next can live up to it.

On a more general note, I do feel the series could do with some trimming down. It's obviously got a hard juggling act to do between slapstick comedy and (slightly) more serious story, and some characters are more suited to the former. I feel like Maria (10-year-old nun) could be dispensed with; although she sometimes showcases Kodaka's kind heart, she often seems like a distraction to me.

Similarly, Yukimura was very promising to begin with, a wimpish-seeming boy looking to Kodaka as a role model, and that seemed like a relationship that could be very interesting to explore, but he's rapidly turned into nothing but minor comic relief, a role not really necessary considering the rest of the cast - it feels like a wasted opportunity.½

Much like the last one in tone, and fairly enjoyable.½

Another fun read about a group of teenagers who don't have any real friends because they're all bizarre. It's daft, but I don't have a problem with this kind of daftness here.½

Haganai: I don’t have many friends is a newer manga written by Itachi and illustrated by Yomi Hirasaka.

What attracted me to this particular story was the unique quality of the characters: they’re marketed as being so very weird, awkward, and so strange that you just wouldn’t want to be friends with them.

The plot is based on the creation of an after school club whose sole purpose is to make friends for the members, all of whom are students who are too strange, or self-absorbed, or quirky to make friends on their own.

I really enjoyed the first volume and would love to get my hands on the second and third volumes! I also feel like Haganai would be a great addition to a library’s manga collection, because it tells the story of students who struggle with basic social activities and have trouble relating to their peers.

I will admit that I've read the scanlated version of this series, so I knew going into it that I'd like this series. My reason for reading the official release was to see whether or not that charm would translate into an official version. For the most part, it did.

As a whole, this is a very cute series and a decent start. The characters are all fairly endearing in their own ways, although I will say that at times they're your typical character tropes. What saves this from completely fading into the background is that the series tries to have fun with this idea as well as throwing some new stuff into the mix. One of the things that keeps Yozora from being unlikable is that her introduction comes from her talking to an "air friend" because she can't really manage to make them on her own. I rather liked that this was handled in a way that was neither a "totally sad" type of thing nor played up entirely for comedic value.

I will warn readers that the charm of the volume might wear with repeated readings, which is why this wasn't a perfect read for me. The artwork is really wonderful, so even if you tend to get a little bored with the story after the initial reading, there's lots to look at. The female characters are pretty lovingly drawn to appeal to the reader, but without it being too overly fanservice-y. The lead male character? Well, let's just say that unless you're a pretty boy or a cute girl, the artwork won't be as detailed at times. But hey, the artist knows that in the end the cute girls are what people are really here to see.

Overall this is a nice series and one that I'll probably end up keeping up with in the future. It's a bit slow at places, but it does pick up later in the volume and does get better as the series progresses.