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. ( )