Hey everyone! How are all of you doing today? I'm doing pretty well. So I finished watching Haganai NEXT AND finished reading Q-Squared before bed last night, so it looks like you're getting two blog posts from me for today. First up is my review of Haganai NEXT. There will be spoilers for both seasons in this review so if you haven't watched this anime yet, please do so before reading my review. With that out of the way let's get right into it.
I honestly didn't remember most of what happened in this series after about episode 4 or episode 5. Just because it'd been so long since I watched it last. There was so much more drama in Haganai NEXT than there was in the first season, which was more comedic than this one was. Though trust me there's alot of comedy in this season as well. I think there's less of it here because all of the characters are more or less more comfortable with each other so there isn't that awkwardness that was the primary source of the comedy in the first season. I feel like it was that way with both Community and The Goldbergs too. It was really good though.
As you know I don't really like to give spoilers for a show or movie unless I absolutely have to. When I reviewed Haganai I avoided talking about the big spoiler at the end of the season. This time around though I really do need to talk about spoilers here in order to talk about the themes of the show. At the end of last season it was revealed that Yozora is actually Kodaka's childhood friend, Sora but they decide to keep it a secret from the rest of the club. At the same time though, their secret shakes up the club because, while Kodaka understands that his and Yozora's friendship is in the past, Yozora does everything she can to reignite their old friendship.
That's not the only drama that's brewing this season though. While all of this is going on it's discovered that Kodaka and Sena were also childhood friends, since their fathers were friends previously, and that they're in an arranged marriage. Naturally this upsets Yozora when Maria inadvertently reveals it to the entire club. Mind you both Rika and Yukimura are also upset, but for different reasons.
This plot is unresolved though as the final episode ends on a cliffhanger, without an OVA to wrap things up. I don't normally do this because comic book adaptations, be it manga, light novels, or North American comic books, should stand on their own whether they're movies or TV shows. But this time I did a little research into how the light novels ended, because I figured they went on a little longer than the anime did, and I was right. I also tried to see how the manga ended, but it turns out that it's still going, though it's almost finished. Anyway, the light novel series, which I've never read, does reveal what Kodaka wanted to say to Sena at the end of the anime, which remains unrevealed in the anime due to it not getting another season. Probably because the other volumes weren't finished yet, so there was no material to draw from and they didn't want to go the way Sailor Moon did with the first twelve episodes of it's second season and make anime exclusive material for the opening of the third season.
I was hit harder with this season than I did with the first season. Mainly because the first season was more comedic in nature with very little of the drama coming through. But with the drama coming to the forefront in this season, the nature of the Neighbor's Club really hit home for me as it reminded me of what my group of friends were for each other when we were in high school. Like the characters in the show, it didn't matter how weird we acted, we all accepted each other for who we were, while helping each other curb our more destructive tendencies. Or tried to anyway as it didn't always work. Anyway, watching Kodaka interact with the girls definitely reminded me of how I interacted with the girls in the group when I was in high school. Right down to everyone thinking that Kodaka and Sena are dating reminding me that everyone at school thought Keira and I were dating in grade ten.
I think my favourite part was Kodaka and Rika's conversations in the last three episodes. Especially the final one where Rika chews him out for abandoning the club simply because Sena revealed her feelings towards him out in the open, embarrassing him. Or at least shocking him into some startling realizations. I guess I just feel that, outside of Kodaka and Kobato's brother/sister relationship, Kodaka's least toxic non-romantic relationship is with Rika. It's the most pure and it does remind me of certain friendships that I had in high school. Particularly one that continues to this day.
Once again Yozora being there is almost pointless, because she seems to do even less than she did in the first season. Even with the revelation of her and Kodaka being childhood friends, not a whole lot was done with her. While I'm glad they didn't drag it out the way many North American shows would've, I still wish Yozora had more to do. But I think that's just because she has a storyline in the light novels that isn't present in the anime or the manga (I haven't read the manga either so I don't know for sure).
As I said in the previous review, I think Kodaka, Sena and Kobato are the central main characters, with Yozora, Rika, and Yukimura taking on supporting roles. Speaking of Sena, I actually like her alot more this season. And I think that's because she's actually grown as a character, leaving behind her rich girl persona that she had in the first season. At least when she's around the Neighbor's Club, particularly Kodaka.
If I had to pick a favourite character I think it would definitely have to be Rika. There's just something so genuine about her that is actually lacking in pretty much every other character in the show. In both seasons. It just made me like her more as the show progressed.
I guess if I had to pick stuff to dislike about this season is that the season feels very compact. I thought Aoi's attempted take down of the club was something that happened the entire season, but it's in a single episode. Same with the club making their movie. I thought it was a full season thing, but it's really only episodes 9 and 10 where it happens. I mean Aoi and the student council president, Hinata, only show up for the final four episodes, but they're in the opening credits for the entire season. I think I prefer the opening title sequence style that the original Sailor Moon anime had, where a character only appears in the title sequence when they've actually debuted in the show itself. It was the same problem with the opening title sequence for the first season. Rika, Yukimura and Maria weren't introduced until episode 4, but they appeared in the opening sequence in the first three episodes.
This is a great anime. It has it's flaws, but what piece of entertainment doesn't? I definitely recommend it. I first watched it on DVD back in 2014 when Brad lent me the Blu-ray/DVD combo set, along with the first season. Of course I own that set and watched it on Blu-ray this time around since I actually have a Blu-ray player, which I didn't have seven years ago. It's also on the Funimation website.
That's it for my review of Haganai NEXT. I'll be back shortly with my review of Q-Squared. Later.
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