Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai OVA [First Impression]: My Harem Candidates Can’t be This Cute

Even though this was more of an introduction to BokuTomo than anything else, apparently AIC (who did Oreimo) found it perfectly acceptable to air this without giving new viewers any idea of what was going on before the anime starts in two weeks time, probably confusing the hell out of them. Given that I’m pretty much set on blogging this and quite familiar with the series, I’ll treat this as a first impression.

Basic Storyline

Both ending up loners at their school for different reasons, Hasegawa Kodaka and Mikazuki Yozora decide to start up a new club, the Rinjinbu (Neighbours Club) with the hidden agenda of making friends. Slowly, other isolated members start to join up, including the ojou-sama Sena and Kodaka’s sister, Kobato. Some slightly strange classmates join as well, like the trap Yukimura and the sex-obsessed mad scientist girl genius Rika. But with the only thing they have in common being that they have no friends, it won’t be as easy as it seems for them to get along.

Summary

Kodaka lies on a beach peacefully as the girls in his harem play around in the sand, not noticing at all that Yozora and Sena are suspiciously getting along, even being overly affectionate to him at a festival later on. He suddenly wakes up to realize that it was all a dream, and seeing Yozora and Sena fight it out in front of him as usual, comments on how unfortunate his everyday life is with the Rinjinbu.

Impression

I’d just like to say that it was a smart move for AIC to stuff two anime cliches into part of the 11 minutes of this OVA – the obligatory beach and festival episodes are now out of the way for good claps

Now, back to business. I bet you’re probably asking – why should I watch this? What makes this any different from all the other harem series that have aired in the past? To be blunt, err…pretty much nothing. I’m certain that with shows like this, there WILL be both lovers and haters of it, and if you don’t like harem in general it’s pretty unlikely you’ll enjoy this. So then this brings up another question: why would anyone bother blogging it? Well, aside from the fact I liked the manga, I think one of BokuTomo’s strong points will be its character cast.

It isn’t just the fact that literally everyone in the Rinjinbu is a social reject, its that half of them are actually slightly disturbing. Take Rika for example (though I doubt she’ll appear in the actual anime until around halfway through). On first glance she seems like a perfectly normal, if slightly nerdy girl. But when you find out her… unusual sexual preferences, you will DEFINITELY understand why no-one stuck around her before. Yozora and Sena, the two female leads clash over every single little thing – meaning that somewhere down the line, there’ll be this massive debate over which one is better, with the fags bashing the girl they hate.  Kodaka is probably the most normal out of them all, with his excuse being him looking like Ryuuji from Toradora a delinquent. With characters this messed up, the comedy has no reason to be sub-par either – they had the ENTIRE CAST puke and pass out in just an OVA xD

Anyway, not too much happened, so I’ll focus more on the tech details. The character cast has some strong names, including Itou Kanae and Inoue Marina, though I’m not too sure HanaKana is right for Kobato. Hearing Itou Kanae voice Sena the ojou-sama when she voiced Ohana two seasons ago will be quite awkward – I was half expecting her to say “bonboru~” or something xD We also had sneak peeks of what I’m guessing was the OP and ED, not too many problems to bitch about there – I love the ED, but the OP was kinda too Lucky Star-esque for my liking.

Overall: I have pretty high expectations of this, I really do. With a decent studio, strong cast and good enough premise, it should be a nice comedy to sit through that will not disappoint.

Possibility of Watching: Yes

Possibility of Blogging: Yes

PS. RIKAAAA~