Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai – 12 [End]

Merry Christmas from Rika!

Remember me, Haganai fan? I did first impressions for Haganai and really liked it, but Fosh has since done real good with covering the series. I’ve been really loving this show, so I’m glad he’s invited me for this finale episode.

Well here we are friends the final episode of this great series, it really came out of nowhere for me and I am really happy that I decided to picked it up and continue with it on Metanorn. While this series has plenty of hilarious moments between Sena, Yozora and Kodaka I found some of the serious moments towards making friends to speak the most to me. Well I got my good buddy Jrow to join me on this final review! So sit back and enjoy this wrap up review.Plot this week picks up right after Kodaka discovers Yozora’s big secret of being his childhood friend Sora. We sit through a bit of flashbacks as we watch everything up to this point through Yozora’s perspective, shortly after Kodaka finally gets to talk to Yozora as she explains a few things from the past! The episode wraps up after Yozora has a bit of fun with Maria, Rika and hits Sena with her signature fly swatter.

Yozora-“Haven’t we seen this already??”             Kodaka-“OH DAMN! Were stuck in a endless eight episode….”

Starting off! We take a time machine to visit the past; it seems Yozora automatically knew who Kodaka was ever since he joined her class. That and his signature “pudding” hair was the ultimate clue, but she could not figure out why he had zero memory of her! Sorry about that Yozora you will have to blame the whole main-character-has-no-memories-of-the-past virus that spreads around in these series. Shortly after Yozora takes the steps making the club, and we see how she “convinced” Maria for letting them use her room just ask Yozora’s magical hand.

Yes join Yozora’s magical girl army…its a good choice Maria!

After the flashback Yozora and Kodaka finally have a chat and he asks why she never showed up when they were children. For a long time Kodaka had no idea if Sora was a boy or a girl! But Yozora explains she wanted to show up to talk to him but was wearing a skirt at the time and she was too embarrassed to actually talk to him. After that they finally visit the club room but Rika suddenly jumps up mistaking Yozora as a guy! She tries to pinpoint who this mystery person is but it just annoys Yozora even more before she tells everyone who she is.

Yozora why so cute?

Rika-“I want to take you back to my lab….”               Yozora-“….I don’t want to play doctor with you…”

Science is so moe this week, I shall miss you Rika!

With Yozora’s identity out in the open Rika runs off and gets Yozora to dress up as a guy! This is just a cleaver way to confuse Maria and Kobato as Yozora says she wants to eat Maria. Which ends up with Sena getting a huge slap in the face after making comments about eating Kobato, as perverted as that comment was towards Kobato it was still the best scene ever! This episode comes to an end after Yozora removes the cosplay outfit and tells everyone to get ready for the club activities, could this be a shout to a possible second season? Stay tuned for future news on this.

Sena-“First I was like Rawrs and stuff.”

Sena-“And then I was totally like..”

Sena-“SON OF A B!!! I WAS TRYING TO TELL A STORY!”                         Yozora-“Bored now…”

Rika-“I present prince sora…”                                               Maria-“I offer you this slave…enjoy…”

Kobato-“That is it! LETS FINISH THIS…”                     Maria-“We have to wait for another season…”

Extra friends

Yozora-“Hey Maria, there is candy outside that window.”                     Maria-“OH BOY! I LOVE CANDY!”

Will we ever get to see that famous red bikini? I hope so! Bring on a special…

Easy there Rika! Lay off the science for one day.

Sena-“Hey! Hey! Can I finish my story? So there I was with Kobato and we started to…”

Sena-“Seriously…again…oww…my….face…”

End thoughts

How do you top an episode as amazing as 11? It’s tough, but I like most of how episode 12 closed out the series. (please be only first season!) Getting inside Yozora’s head when she first recognized Kodaka/Taka right away was a nice little extra montage of how the club had initially formed, but what was most good about the episode was how it handled the remembering part. It was a happy moment that predictably wasn’t going to conclude this episode with what is Haganai’s OTP, but at least Kodaka didn’t say anything stupid and Yozora didn’t slug him in the head. It hit the right amount of drama without going too deep, and I’ve always liked Kodaka’s level-headedness on the show. He’s nowhere near the level of Kyousuke (from that other AIC Build anime), but his role serves the series quite well. Also on the subject of 12, I did think that the two main comedic bits were overreaching, though the word liquid does lead almost immediately to semen, so I shouldn’t bash the show for that.

The soundtrack for Haganai was surprisingly good. I’m calling it one of the best OSTs of 2011, and while I think I might be met with differing opinions, watch eps 11 & 12 and listen. The piano piece of the everyday life of the Neighbour’s Club is very memorable and the use of music in episode 11 was, in my opinion, masterful. Episode 12 also had a nice insert song in the first half.

Overall, I really enjoyed Haganai. I couldn’t let a Thursday pass without watching it. I was initially concerned that it’d be typical school anime, and it does have the harem setup for Kodaka which kind of makes it a guy’s anime, but the little hint of drama helped it be more than I thought it would when we previewed it for Fall 11. It always provided a nice laugh, has many memorable characters & moments (UNIVERSE! being a favorite, also “ku ku ku”) and there seriously needs to be a season 2! I need more Rika! I need yet another episode of the girls getting in swimsuits because Yozora needs to not wear the horse suit!

What to say about this ending? I can only think of one word to say! Amazing just really amazing, sure the ten minutes of Yozora flashback was dull and boring. However I was happy to see it from her point of view rather than Kodaka’s that was interesting! It would be like watching Haruhi Suzumiya but from Itsuki’s perspective that might make the series completely different for some. I didn’t like how Yozora kept it one giant secret from Kodaka! WHY?! Well she did say she was too afraid to actually say anything to him. They still make a great couple, sure they are not “together” but that is some huge progress between them.

After all that serious stuffs! I enjoyed watching the other characters reactions to the new short hair Yozora. I think Rika had the best, but really? She didn’t know that was Yozora? She was wearing a skirt…ah well Rika still wins in the end for me. What did you think of her cosplay? I loved watching Maria get messed with and then she dragged Kobato into the mess! Poor girl, not that Yozora would mess with Kobato. Unlike Sena and her obsession over the little sister, thankfully Yozora is around to slap Sena around.

Overall I had a great time reviewing this series it has plenty of things going for it, sure it might be a bit harem-ish for some. I was shocked to see a male lead like Kodaka who was somewhat smart! Compared to some other mains characters *Cough* Infinite stratos *Cough* so that was a huge plus for me. But the other characters were equally funny for me! Like Rika’s insane personality and special interests? She always has so much energy to jump around. I can’t wait to see what happens next with this series, another season would be perfect! I guess we don’t know for sure.

Merry Christmas from Yozora and Sena.

And a little extra Christmas fan-service from Sena.

Thanks for reading! And leaving great comments over this series, and Merry Christmas! I hope you have a fantastic day filled with presents and holiday stuffs.