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What do you get when you cross TMHS (Haruhi Suzumiya), Kokoro Connect, Love, Chinbuyo, and other Delusions, and Bunny Girl Senpai? You get this very fun and enjoyable series, Haganai. Plus there’s bits and pieces of several other anime as well, but I’m not sure if I would be just nitpicking, especially considering some of them were released years after this anime was. However, it’s not simply just a knock off of many different animes, though the episode titles appear to be just that. This will be less of a “rigid review” then some others, since a few other people have already done extensive reviews.

I ... really loved the artwork, it had a very unique style, and it made the characters look awesome! Especially the faces, and even more so with the girls in the series, very kawaii! What? As they would say in anime, I am a guy after all! lol The setting was very interesting too, a private Christian Academy in Japan. I went to a Christian school myself for a good part of my primary school days, so I can relate to some of the stuff that I saw in the series. also, with the lead character living alone with his little sister, that was one of the reasons why I compared it to Bunny Girl Senpai. That and of course Rika being the Futaba of this series.

The story was at first not too substantive, but it got much more substantive as a story went on. And I don’t mean that in the usual way that stories develop either. This was supposed to be a slice of life romcom, but it turned out to be much more than that. I want this to be spoiler free, so I can’t give too much in the way of details. But you may want to get your tissues out for episode three, the one with the flashback of Kodaka as a kid, and that other kid who helped him. It’s definitely a bit heartbreaking, just as a heads up. And some really good back stories with the characters as well, I was really impressed by that. And speaking of which…

The characters themselves were much more interesting than I thought they were going to be. Yes with the backstories like I said, but even with the main girl Yozora, she goes from being weird, to being caring, to being very sinister and even depraved at times, to being caring and considerate again. And no, I don’t mean in a knee-jerk way like someone who has mental issues or anything, I mean the fact that despite some big flaws of hers, she is overall a very good, caring, and compassionate person. Sena, ugh, not a terrible person, but like I said in the episode 4 discussion thread, very stuck up, because she’s the spoiled little princess of the school president. And as the series went on, I understood more and more why Yozora really ripped into her at times, though that in itself went way too overboard sometimes as well. Kodaka, with his English mother’s blonde hair, and his scary looking eyes, you gotta feel for him for how he gets the wrong rap so often. But still, he actually takes that stuff really in stride, and only “uses it” like once or twice this season, and only to bail Sena out, with something that she herself started by clearly provoking those guys at the pool.

Kodaka’s little sister, Kobato, is the Rikka from Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions of this series, simply put. And I already told you about Rika being the Futaba of the series, though extremely perverted, and clearly a yaoi fangirl in addition to that. The little girl nun, Maria, has a serious attitude problem especially for someone who is supposed to be in the clergy. And no, her being a little girl doesn’t excuse some of the stuff that she says. And that finally brings us to the timid, effeminate boy, Yukimura. You know, I don’t know why both him and Maria are so damn gullible to Yozora’s words, but it shows up even more in Yukimura. I mean it gets to point to where she convinced him to even wear a girl’s swimsuit to a pool in one episode. I mean seriously? Yeah, and no way is him radiating a manly aura through that, supposed to make him any manlier. Yozora clearly played him as a fool.

I really, really love the music, especially the opening theme. It’s now one of my favorites, because that’s how good it is! It’s fun, upbeat, has excellent timing, and so much more!

Anyways, I suppose that this review has already gone on too long, so I’ll end it here. But I really, really enjoyed this series a whole lot! Not too many misunderstandings of pervertedness, (also with the many actual perverted scenes as it is! Lol) and even then it didn’t strain the relationships between the characters that much. Very heartwarming turns of events throughout the season, and just when it was really starting to get on my nerves, it kept making it up to me, time and time again. I’m really impressed with this series, and I can’t wait to see the OVA’s and for season two!

I just started reading the manga of this recently, and since I already saw the anime series, it motivate me to write this review. I was unsure as to whether or not to write a review for this anime, but like I said, I recently read the manga, which is quite frankly much better than the anime, so I figure I would write the review for the anime.

Now, this is a very rare breed of anime, where I don’t exactly give a good score for this, but I’m very defensive of the main aspects of it. And because I’m a big fan of the core ... aspects of animes like Shimoneta, High School DxD, and even Bunny Girl Senpai can be like this at times, I guess it makes sense why I would defend this anime as well. Though to be fair, I give it a 6 out of 10, for reasons I’ll explain below.

Story:

I have to admit, when I first read the description for the series, I was initially very quick to write it off, thinking that it would just be some juvenile trashy show. And while what a few parts of the show are indeed just that, I was impressed with the overall message of the show. Again, like Shimoneta, High School DxD, and even Bunny Girl Senpai at times can be very juvenile, but have a good overall messages, this one has it too.

Now this review is a spoiler free one, so I can’t really get into too many details, but the general overview about aliens coming down to earth, and they are trying to wipe out the human species. But instead of doing it through war, or other kinds of mass killing, they decide to try to take away peoples erotic feelings, so they won’t have any desire to reproduce and kill off the species that way. That’s very sophisticated actually. And as I saw in the series, it could lead to quite scary, and very sad circumstances for people in general. (just like the world of Shimoneta I might add) But, these “Hentai Hxeros”, five teenagers because that’s when apparently erotic energy is at it’s highest in a human being, are there to save the day by converting their ironic energy into a weapon against these alien bug monsters called the “Kiseichuu”. And after they’re done fighting these monsters, with each fight their clothing disappears and they’re all naked, therefore adding yet another ecchi aspect to the series.

But like I said, there were a few very juvenile points there that the story could’ve really done without. A couple of these would be spoiler so I can’t tell you, but I can give one or two examples at least. There was a big sea cucumber that got caught in the main guys pants, around his upper thigh. And then he was with a girl in kind of a ecchi situation, and then his pants started to rise. And then of course, it was revealed that was actually a sea cucumber that fell out of his pants. You know, stuff like that that there was no need for it really does take away from that very good core aspect and message that the show really has.

Characters:

Some really interesting characters here. Even know that the main girl, Hoshino was really quite annoying at times, I had to pull myself back and remind myself of why that was. And this part is in the first episode so it’s not much of a spoiler, it was revealed that she came across one of those bug monsters, and they try to take her erotic energy. But she had so much of it, that the bug got overwhelmed, and said that she was really perverted and some other really mean stuff. And it drove her to be the person she would become, again the first episode, very morally righteous and very uptight when it came to anything erotic. To the point to where she even wore gloves when she was around boys, which wow, that’s a first for me. But there would be some really good character development in, to what you would be able to see if you were to check out the series.

The other main girls in the series are very interesting group. One of them, Momoka, is very open to this perverted stuff, therefore accumulating a whole bunch of H-energy which she can obviously use to fight the Kiseichuu. And her motive for doing so it’s quite interesting, and quite common for a lot of us actually, but like I said no spoilers. Another girl, Maihime, is quite primed and proper, though not uptight and erophobic like Hoshino is. As Enjou, The main guy of the series says, she’s the only “normal” one there. And then there’s Sora, The girl that constantly goes into Enjo’s room instead of hers when she turns in for the night. (They all live in the same dormitory, because as the guy who leads this group says, they could be dispatched at a moment’s notice in an emergency situation that way) this obviously leads to some very interesting situation, including one with Enjo and Hoshino in a later episode, but I’ll leave it there.

And finally, there is the main guy, Enjo himself. Is a fairly reasonable character, who has a massive motivation in this crazy, effed up world that they’re in. as he says, he wants to make sure that what happened to Hoshino doesn’t happen to anyone else, in terms of having their romantic feelings robbed from them by the Kiseichuu. And of course, he still holding out hope for Hoshino, Who on the first episode, he’s showing a few signs that it may very well happen.

Now since this review is as long as it is right now, I’ll just read through the rest of it. The music was really good, I liked it. The artwork was also really good as well, had no problems with the character designs either. And they did a really good job, considering that they were going with such a blatantly ecchi series that was being broadcasted at least. I always wondered how cell artists felt about that, and not just with the ecchi stuff mind you. I saw the original broadcast version of the first episode, but then I switched to the uncensored version for the rest of the series, just as an FYI.

Overall, even though that the score says otherwise, I found a series to be enjoyable. Like I said, if it wasn’t for the several really juvenile, really over the top stuff that was not needed the story anyways, I would’ve enjoyed it a lot more than I have. But overall, like I said, the core message of the show with great, and a very interesting story concept too. I saw both of the OVA‘s, and I really do hope that they release a second season of this as well. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Due to that first review which gave it a 1 out a 10, as well as my own feelings regarding things like that, I feel inclined to write a review for this OVA. I wasn’t going to, but I felt that a couple of other people who gave it an eight, made very good points in this regard. But I will get into more of that after the review itself. Now since this is just a one episode OVA, I’m not gonna take too much time into making a long, detailed review of it. So it seems like I’m generalizing a lot this, that’s the ... reason why. I love this series and all, however, I just can’t bring myself to give it to much detail. And that’s a bit unusual for me. LOL.

Warning, some spoilers ahead:

Story: yes, the first part of this episode was way too fan servicey, and quite trashy to be quite honest. But then I so what some other people were saying on here who gave it an egg, about the fact that it was a parody of shonen Fanservice scenes, or whatever. And I’m not exactly an expert in that regard, well whatever, but either way, it was just a little excessive for those types of blatant fanservice scenes, in the abstract at least. However if it was mere commentary on a trend going on in a certain artform, and for that, it’s actually not too trashy in that context.

The second part of this episode, is where I believe the real comedy kicks in. Because you have Shirogane at first act all morally righteous when he comes across a porn mag in a parking lot with Ishigami. But then, as he talks about it further with Ishigami, his curiosity takes over, and he comes up with that BS excuse that he’s just reading the story. Sure Shirogane, SURE your were. 😂

And the third part to the episode, involved no fan service at all. Just a cooking contest with fried rice as the dish. And I especially loved that old cliché line, “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”. And as a man myself, let me tell you that there’s a lot of truth to that! lol And Fujisawa’s faux analyses wow taste testing the fried rice dishes, was another bit of comedy gold! so yeah, all in all, the episode got better as it went further along.

Art: I’m not sure if anyone else noticed, but I know that there was a little bit of a drop off in our quality in this episode. I mean I guess since it’s an OVA that’s not cannon, it’s not too big of a deal, but it is something that I didn’t notice. Nothing too serious, but still.
Music: The same very good, in fact outstanding music. No significant drop offs there.
Characters: other than the fact that Shirogane and Ishigami got a lot more perverted than usual during this OVA, no serious changes there. I was a bit disappointed in Iino eating most of the fried rice that Kaguya especially made for Shirogane, and for someone who describes to morally upright behavior, that certainly wasn’t a good example of that. But all in all, still quite good.

Now lastly, as promised, I will get into more of what I was talking about in the intro. To quote one of the people who gave it an eight out of 10, “i’ve noticed quite a bit of sensitivity regarding this ecchi”. It’s not just with this episode, I’ve noticed it with quite a lot of Anime as of late. And to be quite honest, it’s really starting to get tiresome. I won’t get too much into it, but I think you all understand what I’m talking about right? Even if you don’t agree, you know what I’m talking about. Anime by its very nature has quite a bit more sexuality in it, than any other western media really. So I’m a bit surprised to see said sensitivity regarding Ecchi because of that also.

Now I’ve been a fan of anime for like 21 years as of this writing, and I’ve seen it all throughout the years. If you’re new to it, then fine I understand having a really bad reaction to it. But if you’re a seasoned anime watcher, and you’re still reacting to it like it’s a big shock, then that’s what I don’t understand. But this review is already long enough as it is, so I’ll stop there. If you got this far, then I thank you for reading throughout, and I hope that you did find this review to be helpful.

*Warning, spoilers ahead*

I’ve only seen all the episodes that they have so far, which is the first five. So please keep that in mind, for future weeks as we often get more episodes.

Well yes, I definitely understand the big flaws in the series, and yes, it can be quite trashy at times. I acknowledge that. however, some part of the series, especially the open mindedness of most of the characters, is quite frankly very relieving. I say this, because I’ve seen a couple of reviews calling trashy, and even some of the people praising it acknowledge the trash and as of this series. And like ... I said I acknowledge that, but I want to make sure that we don’t get carried away and just focusing on that one aspect of the series. We’ve seen far too much of that with reviews in general, and I wanna make sure that we don’t go down the same path with this one.

So with all that said, here’s my review of the series thus far. The story is quite bizarre, and is quite poorly told to be quite frank. I like the very general premise of the series, like I said before, but some parts are just ludicrous even by harem standards. I mean, having the two girls in question move in with the main guy, and the parents are just perfectly OK with that? I call BS on that. Plus the main guy Naoya can be very annoying at times! He’s very melodramatic, and considering all the drama that we’ve seen in recent years in just our day-to-day lives, it’s not a very pleasant thing to see, to say the least. Remember, anime is supposed to be an escape, not a reminder. And that’s all the really bad things I can think of thus far, with the exception of a couple of gross scenes like trying to eat lunch in some of the restrooms? Blech, disgusting!

So now onto the good things. First, there’s the very general premise of the story. No matter how unrealistic it is, remember, this is a story so to be fair, it’s not supposed to be entirely realistic. A guy confessing to his childhood friend, and upon being confessed to another girl, being unable to turn her down, and actually asking the girl that he confessed to, with the second girl I might add, that he can’t reject her, but he still has feelings for her, and then he would like to date both of them. So yeah, at this point, it is genuinely absolutely ridiculous. Totally unrealistic, I get that. But we needed that set up, so we could get something really amazing afterwords.

And what that was, is a guy dating two girls at the same time, willingly and with the full knowledge from both girls about the situation. And yeah, I was thinking “this has disaster written all over it” too. However, I was quite shocked and impressed, that not only wasn’t it really, but the two girls genuinely have care for not just the guy, but for each other. Even going so far as to help out one or the other, when they get down regarding the situation. It actually shows quite a bit of maturity, which is shocking considering what the series is supposed to be about.

And speaking of mature, how about Saki Saki? Wow, not only is she a class act, but she’s very rational too. I think for the most part, she would do the same sort of things we would do if we were in her shoes. She may be my favorite character, but it’s still too soon to say. Like I said, Naoya he’s very annoying quite often, but he also has a very good heart, and shows genuine care and compassion, sometimes too much actually. And the girls themselves point that out, and try to direct him to do otherwise. And then there’s Nagisa. To put it simply, she has “innocence” written all over it. I guess that she is that type of character, there’s usually always one really innocent, wholesome character in the bunch, so I guess that in this case, it’s Nagisa. And finally, there’s this new girl, Rika, the “parody YouTube” boobstreamer. For those of you who don’t know what a boobstreamer is, it’s a girl who makes videos showing off her, curvaceous figure if you will. And in terms of commitment, she makes Naoya seem like a cool customer. I mean, camping out in the backyard of the main cast, just to try to impress the guy, even though that he said himself that’s not what he wanted? geez, chill out a bit.

And the music and sound effects are just outstanding! I think this is the best aspect of the series to be quite frank. I absolutely love the opening theme, and a lot of the music in between is great. And I especially love the sound effects too. The art isn’t too impressive, but then again, like I said about the nature of this type of series, it’s like, what do you expect? I mean some parts are good, don’t get me wrong.

So that’s it, at this point after five episodes, I’ll give it a 7/10.