Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai Ep 1: The Rinjinbu

Yozora, both you and I know too well that all the stuff about devotion and commitment was just a huge load of BS. Don’t lie to me.

Summary

Everyone is scared stiff of Hasegawa Kodaka, preferring to leave him alone because of his blond hair and delinquent-looking face. One day, Kodaka walks into his classmate Yozora talking to her “air friend”, Tomo-chan. When they both realize they don’t have any real friends, Yozora sets up the Rinjinbu, a club subtly advertising friend recruitment. Almost immediately, school idol Kashiwazaki Sena turns up, but Yozora isn’t very keen on letting her join.

Impression

In short, this is a show about people that don’t have friends, joining a club to make friends. Except the club is made up of one boy and <insert big number here> girls. If you’ve watched the OVA that aired a few weeks back, you’ll remember that all the girls (or at least some) are slightly insane at best, and that it ended with everyone puking over Kodaka. Anyway, while the concept sounds retarded, it’s pretty original, and quite direct with its intentions. They admit that yes, the cast do not have any friends, and yes, this show is about them making friends. And aside from that, it was a pretty good episode, and knowing what happens in the light novels, I have no complaints with the pacing at all. If you haven’t watched it, go watch it. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

The main guy is similar to Takasu Ryuuji off Toradora, except his delinquent-ism is so extreme that when girls see him in the hallway, they apologize and run off o.O But I can’t blame them really, when you make that kind of a first entrance looking like you’re constipated or something, even I’d think twice about talking to someone like that. In reality though, he’s harmless, docile and cooks for his little sister.

I couldn’t help but laugh at how earnest Yozora was trying to be when she talked about Tomo-chan, as well as her shitload of BS that she made up in order to get the Rinjinbu set up in the first place. Though she says she wants to make friends, you can tell that she’s slightly reluctant to – the first step is always the biggest after all. The really subtle hint in that poster she made was just…desperate xD I’m not sure anyone would go that far and understand the poster actually – after all she has Kodaka (: It’s pretty obvious Yozora is the main female lead of the harem, having already skipped the honorifics stage with Kodaka within 5 minutes of meeting him. And I’m pretty sure she’s tsundere too, which checks pretty much all the cliché boxes. There were a few hints throughout the ep about her past, as she sounded like she had friends at one point, then something happened that we’re not quite sure of yet.

Sena – the ojou-sama that’s popular, athletic, smart and good-looking. She has these huge boobies that AIC made sure to animate properly, but I’m sorry, Rika is still my favourite character. Yet she doesn’t have any friends. That doesn’t really make much sense, seeing as even Kirino had friends (and she was a bitch half the time). I wasn’t expecting her to be introduced this episode, but seeing as she was, she made extra care to get it off REALLY BAD with Yozora, and there’s no doubt those two are gonna clash over every single little thing xD

Overall, this show got off to a really good start, with all its genres fulfilled to quite high standards, especially comedy. Unlike some other recently debuting series. Yep, LOOKING AT YOU Kimi to Boku. I can already tell I’m going to have fun watching and covering this every week, and I shall be doing so religiously, no matter how inconvenient the timing is. Unfortunately we only had one Rika shot this week, but with this kind of pacing there’ll be loads more in no time xD So instead, here’s one from the OP.