Aharen-san wa Hakarenai

Beginning his first year of high school, all Matsuboshi Raidou wants is to make friends—starting with the cute, tiny, and soft-spoken Reina Aharen, who sits right next to him in class. Unbeknownst to Raidou, Reina shares the same sentiment, but she has a problem. Awkward and timid, Reina is incapable of determining how chummy she has to be when approaching a person.

Due to Reina's complete inability to gauge personal space, the two struggle to spark their unlikely friendship, as even the simplest tasks like talking seem impossible for them. But despite the countless yet pointless challenges that hinder the pair, the overly imaginative Raidou will do whatever it takes to befriend the indecipherable Reina.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Aharen, Reina Main

Minase, Inori Japanese

Raidou, Matsuboshi Main

Terashima, Takuma Japanese

Toubaru-sensei Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Aharen, Ren Supporting

Kuno, Misaki Japanese

Aharen, Eru Supporting

Hidaka, Rina Japanese

Ooshiro, Mitsuki Supporting

Ichimichi, Mao Japanese

Satou, Hanako Supporting

Kusunoki, Tomori Japanese

Raidou, Younger Sister Supporting

Nagae, Rika Japanese

Miyahira-sensei Supporting

Kozakai, Yurie Japanese

Ishikawa Supporting

Kakihara, Tetsuya Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Kamei, Hiroshi Producer

Hayashi, Tatsurou Producer

Kikuchi, Yuuta Producer

Reviews

Jun 17, 2022

Gween_Gween

Recommended

I started watching the series because the main character looks like Kanna, I keep watching it because of Raidou’s antics, and I ended up witnessing an emotionally relatable ride through the personal growth of two characters that I could not but cheer for. During its 12 episodes, Aharen-san Is Indecipherable delivers an honest yet comical representation of awkward socialization, portraying how the flaws and abnormalities outlines the beauty of human relationships. The strength of its routine, the constant usage of popular references, the coherence of its foundation, the texture of the cognitive distortions, the weight of the self-love messages, each element fuses to create a ... healthy and positive experience that portrays an engaging journey of honest friendship and relatable small conflicts between a charismatic and unforgettable cast

Each episode of the series follows a similar structure, where the viewer assimilates the experiences of Raidou, a socially distant guy whose mission is to connect with someone in High School but overthinks any situation that he is in (Awfully accurate social anxiety btw), and his relationship with Aharen, a timid character that barely expresses herself as she is afraid of being too invasive because of her past experiences. While both are the predominant figures of the series, the anime also tends to switch from Raidou’s perspective to the point of view of different characters that embrace different stages of life or social cliches, like an intensively romantic teacher that gets heated by their relationship, an elementary schoolgirl called Futaba that sees Aharen as her rival, a nervous and awkward childhood friend who stalk Aharen, or apparently standard classmates who portray an ordinary read of their relationship.

The attachment to the structure brings one of the strengths of the anime, the story trusts the premise. Aharen as a character is permanently subject to the perspective of each one of the characters, bringing to life the idea of being truly indecipherable to them. Each perspective forms a new source of relatability, a new layer of human irrationality and incomprehension, delineating a diverse empathetic array of emotions and experiences. The dialogue, the behavior, the gestures, everything comes from observing the real-life extension of each character, portraying both the ugly and the desired, creating awkwardness, comfort, and concern, as it can transgress the own viewer experiences. The siblings act like siblings, the friends act like friends, the kids act like kids, Aharen is Aharen, Raidou is Raidou, it is as simple and powerful as that.

The outcome of this trust to the premise and the attachment to reality is an experience that has a unique sense of life and personality, a journey through the connection between Aharen and Raidou, where each perspective represents a clear and engaging identity, where the viewer is allowed to do interpretations about the relationships, reflect on the characters decisions and its roots, and even develop a better understanding of themselves. The anime delivers a human mystery that is carefully revealed as the story progresses, it allows surprising turns and healthy inferences, it delivers a human voice that is not trying to escape or excuse the flaws of each character but search the beauty on their core. The beauty of insecurity, the courage of a first step, the love of a let it go.

However, the main strength from the anime is how it portrays everything through comedy. One of the potential criticisms that could arise from this anime is that the gags are repetitive, as they follow a transparent pattern for each character. The wrongness of such idea is that it abstracts the details, as the formats are nothing but simple templates that allows the generation of a diverse set of jokes (Like any other comedy, by the way). Indeed, while the patterns are prevalent, the reiteration of them should not be an issue at all, because the comedic blueprints are constantly evolving for the purpose of surprising the viewer with a new form. The comedy never overstays its welcome, it is always striving for new elements that could bring diversity.


The main example of such evolution is Raidou’s overthinking. The overthinking normally follows the “Raidou see thing -> Raidou overthinks that thing -> Reality is disappointing” flow, but the content and the punchline of each inference vary enough to keep it completely fresh, creating a memorable gag that by just existing delivers something, be it frustration, be it amusement, be it tension.

How does the overthinking vary? The overthinking variations come from changing the placement of the joke itself. Sometimes the punch is the thought itself, a conclusion completely derailed from reality that just lead to believe that Raidou should seek a psychiatrist, sometimes the punch is the outcome of a delusion, the reaction of Raidou to the impending reality disappointment, sometimes the punch is a reference, how Raidou use popular fiction to parallelize his fantasies or create a social commentary on credit for apparently no reason, or sometimes the gag is not even a joke, it is just a honest representation of how Raidou cares about Aharen and his friends. The gag itself creates expectations, can Raidou be correct once? How wrong is Raidou in this one?

The diversity and similarity allow the comedy to be fantastic, it uses the gags to approach multiple concepts supported by a careful study of the comedic factor of each idea, a fantastic sense of how to build up elements on top of another to create hilarious outcomes and generate iconic gags. How to make a joke about Raidou carrying Aharen funny? Deliver a bunch of frames that represent an absurd extent of Raidou’s extrapolation and put an unexpected moustache on an elderly Aharen. How to make a joke about Raidou being bad at swimming funny? Deliver the most typical technical error of novice swimmers after a juxtaposition to Raidou’s relatable perception of motion. How to make fun of Raidou’s failed youtube channel? Just display a capture of the video statics of Raidou’s past venture to accompany Raidou’s concerns. The anime is overflowing with visual jokes that are both clever and carefully inputted, whether it is to stop a crescendo of absurdity or to play with the expectations of the viewers or illustrate the characters wild imagination. It is smart.

If the anime just had the comedy as its main strength, then it would be an excellent anime, but it goes beyond that. As the series progresses through each one of its gags, the characters quirks coherently evolve into their development, defining their own ambitions and insecurities, elaborating a rich characterization that allows both dramatic and hilarious moments to flow without friction. Raidou’s overthinking develops his genuine caring nature and his own anxieties, Aharen’s supposed indecipherability allows herself to express her insecurities naturally, Ooshiro’s protective anxiety develop into a wonderful read of self-esteem issues, Futaba’s childish perception of love and confrontative attitude develop into a character that you cheer for. The peculiarities of each character progressively evolve into an interesting and unique singular entity, it allows the audience to care for the characters beyond their own comedic personality as they are the same person whether it is light-hearted comedy or a serious matter.

The consequence of this consistency is that it allows piecing together meaningful messages and themes, themes that could be felt shoehorned if it were not because of its excellence on the characterization department. From helping each other to being able to receive help; from embracing with pride the uniqueness of each one to being able to accept the diversity; from the importance to be confident on our own abilities to the importance of being able to express our own sentiments and concerns. Each character is cleverly attached to the messages that it is trying to portray, it creates a natural path to organize romance, comedy, and a meaningful and positive purpose. There is no need to display bland or uninteresting scenes where they explicitly state the purpose of the situation, instead, it delivers weighty ideas with emotional subtlety by adopting its characteristic identity, and it makes you care for it. Engaging entertainment, the show delivers the relaxing and healing atmosphere while portraying impactful ideas.

As it creates meaningful messages and portrays interesting relationships, one of the issues that could emerge from the comedy is a lack of sensibility towards some subject matters. Fantastically enough, that does not happen. A character of this series uses the clothes from his sister, but the series goes out of its way to clarify that it is not an issue and that the joke was just Raidou’s interpretation by adding a cute after credits. Raidou’s get fat, but the joke is not his obesity, it is Aharen’s incapability of telling him that he looks fatter because she was the one who did the overthinking this time. It is sensible and aware of what it is trying to portray, and that is wonderful.

While one can criticize the quality of the adaptation, principally by its extensive usage of jarring CGI or its off-model characters, my argument is, who the fuck cares. The anime perfectly captures elements that some other adaptations with extravagant and bombastic animation just can’t, it captures the mutual care of Raidou and Aharen, the dramatic twists of Raidou overthinking, the enthusiasm of Aharen’s classmates, the awkwardness of the teachers. The comedic aspect works perfectly because the timing is polished, it is one second about to fall off the cliff and being unfunny, which is the downfall of plenty comedy adaptations, but it just performs spectacularly in that regard. The romantic aspect evokes a strong aura and sensibility, obviously attributable to the great characterization, but also to how it gives itself the time to fully capture the tension and importance of the moment, the gestures of the hands, the head movements, the voice pauses, they are just enough to convey the intended idea and capture the viewer.

Could it be better? Of course, but I honestly prefer having an extremely horrendous Pokemon-like battle that captures the point of the joke and develop the FEAR reference instead of having a full-blown action scene that just completely ignore the purpose of the scene and just ends up being praised by redditors and easily impressionable people. Aharen looks Futaba for 3 seconds, tilts her head to look Raidou for 3 seconds, then watches the floor for 3 seconds in dismay, to then get embarrassed by an elementary schoolgirl observation, that tells a fucking lot without any sort of ridiculous paraphernalia, get real people.

Aharen-san is then just a fantastic experience with a lovely and refreshing thematic approach to romance and friendship between flawed and socially awkward characters. The comedy works perfectly if you let yourself flow with it, as there is care of each meaningful detail, and the series follows strong necessity to display the facets of cognitive distortions. The anime doesn’t derail into fantasy and search the beauty on its own cores, and as such, is able to create meaningful relationships with characters that will grow on the viewer over time. It is extremely funny, convey relevant and captivating messages, it is a unique voice, it surprises you, the romance is cute, and it has a golden retriever that retrieve things, what else do you need?

“Even if we ended up in different classes, there are all kind of people. Not just in the school, but in the world. A lot of good people. People you can get to know. I’m sure of it”

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jun 17, 2022

SpRayquaza11

Mixed Feelings

Informative

Aharen san is a strange anime, When I talked to my friends many of who have seen more anime than me, half of them really hate this anime, and the other half love this anime.

As for me, I personally did enjoy watching this anime, it's nothing new, a semi-slice of life combined with a gag manga type of show full of pop culture references!

The anime has more references to other pop culture and JOJO (obviously.) than I have seen in a long time, they are hard to spot but always random and funny af if you can spot them we got Ooshiro spoderman , Aharen ... hairstyle of Shinobu, Jousuke, Katzosky kicks Aharen, Gojira, Beyblade, Aharen Arale from DB universe and many more!

The central part of the show is Straight face / absurd comedy, you know the chunnibyou kind, Raidou has the wildest of fantasies and sometimes they turn out to be true!
Aharen and Radiou do some wild shit and/or Radiou has the weirdest and the most insane premonitions. It will either make you cringe hard or do a Mutley laugh, there is no in between, the comedy is very very subjective and if it doesnt click for you, I’d suggest dropping it. Me, personally? I do Laugh out loud at fart sounds so well, I am pretty easy to please.

Review time *clap clap*

Story (6/10)
It's a gag manga, most of the plot is straight-up ripping off the most recent trends xD, Be it Beyblade, Fidget spinners, Rap battles, Demon slayer, JOJO, spiderman, etc. There isn't to find in terms of the story that can be found here and it isn't A CGDCT either. There are hints of romance and a bit of a serious arc towards the end (which wraps up rather quickly and is quite wholesome and realistic).

Characters (7/10)
Obviously the main part of any gag manga but in This case, it is a hard topic to elaborate on so ill just make it as simple as possible.
The characters will either be a 0 to 2 /10 or 8 to 10 /10 depending on the person and their sense of humor, this is very subjective, for me they are quite fun and a 7/10 but if you find yourself not being able to enjoy the characters this show is gonna be a hard sell.

Sound and VA (7/10)
The general OSt is standard and forgettable. The op and ED are pretty incredible however but the art in them is rather weak.

Art and animation (6/10)
Standard Loli with standard straight man is what it feels like at first, but there are some good scenes where you can see the animators clearly having fun with their characters. A bit of CG that looks awkward here and there.

Give the first few a shot! If you enjoy them it'll be a great ride, if not consider dropping the show because what follows is just more of the same.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 23, 2022

sirnothing

Not Recommended

I'll keep it brief. This anime is okay.

CHARACTERS = 5/10

The two MC's in this anime, Raidou-kun and Aharen-san, are somewhat likable. If you like small, quiet, cute girls, then Aharen-san is the character for you. The MC's pretty much stick to their initial characterizations and don't show a lot of variety in who they are. While I understand this anime is not to be taken too seriously, it leads to the MC's becoming somewhat boring/repetitive in their interactions with each other. There are other simplistic characters introduced who provide some additional comic relief to the show, but even then they pull the same joke over ... and over again.

STORY = 4/10

This series presents itself as a sort of romantic comedy, with more emphasis on the comedy. It also takes a more slice-of-life form in that there is no real plot pulling the series forward -- which is totally acceptable. This is all to say that what you're in for is a form of situational gag comedy in which the gags are almost always presented as Raidou-kun overthinking a situation -- it becomes very repetitive and old. Some situations repeat over and over again, such as playing the crane machine in the arcade. The story takes a turn towards the end, which feels rushed and almost random given how things had progressed before then, making it feel a bit forced.

SOUND = 5/10

The sound design in this anime is pretty basic. There was some nice background music variation here and there, and cute sound effects -- all very appropriate, which is great. The voice-acting seemed a little monotonous. Part of this is because of who the character of Aharen-san is, but even the gags of Raidou-kun overthinking a situation fell a little short in their delivery. The voiced-out anxieties of many of the characters didn't feel too evocative. The OP and ED songs were fine, very cutesy, a little like they didn't fit the comedic nature of the series.

ART = 6/10

It's hard to judge the art in a series that feels very intentionally simplistic. Don't expect much from it as far as the art and animation goes.

ENJOYMENT = 5/10

I'll admit, I get the wholesome, somewhat cute nature of this anime. The gags made me chuckle a few times. But -- and perhaps this is biased/controversial -- part of me felt uncomfortable with the idea of romance between the two MC's, sort of like this anime perpetuates the infantalization of women as small, quiet, helpless, cute things to look at who can cook for you.

CONCLUSION = 5/10

Would I recommend this anime to a friend? No. Was it an enjoyable watch? Kinda, yeah.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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	Which chapter should I start reading the manga after the anime? AlpaquinhaBR - Jul 19	5 replies	by Yotsugi_Ononoki »» 12 minutes ago
	Poll: Aharen-san wa Hakarenai Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Jun 3, 2022	145 replies	by sunakinho »» Nov 3, 4:16 PM
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