Hello everyone,
Today we'll talk about the first episode of the anime series Boku wa Tomodachi ga Suku Nai (also called Haganai) that is positively impressing me and that can easily become the best comedy series of this fall season!
I was a bit sceptic on this adaptation chances to become something memorable as I was expecting Shaft to animate it in the first place...
...but the nice combination of fanservice/comedy they managed to fill up in this first episode was more than satisfying especially if combined with a style closely resembling the great visual style from the original light novel!
The first episode goes back compared to the OVA (while still following closely the progression of the manga and, I suppose, the light novel) and show us the first encounter between our protagonist and Yozora Mikazuki before the club get created.
It was incredibly funny to see again Yozora talk with her "air-friend" and Kodaka's reaction was priceless. It was adapted pretty much in the same identical way as the manga.
I also liked a lot how they portrayed the backstory of our protagonist that get late in class the first day ending up scaring the hell out of the poor (sexy) teacher. He sure is a bit unlucky and remind me of Ryuuji from Toradora in terms of personality.
The production staff (AIC Build) is trying hard to reproduce the same visual feelings given by the anime adaptation produced by Shaft of Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko!
I can see references to that production almost everywhere, starting from the close lips shots (typical of Denpa Onna) to the camera strangely focusing on the legs of the girls in many scenes.
I also loved both OP and ED animations, and I made a big laugh when I first saw Yozora in the ED playing an air guitar! :D
The only bad thing of this episode is that Sena's screen time was by far not enough for my standards, but hopefully we'll get more of her sooner or later. She is my favourite character after all!
As you can see from this quick video, the quality of the animation is pretty decent (nothing exceptional, but well...) and the style the characters are drawn is incredibly good, a lot more than I expected!
I was honestly about to fall in love with the teacher, but unfortunately they gave her so little screen time in this episode...(and she probably won't appear anymore :P)
Concluding, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Suku Nai is definitely my pick of this season in terms of fanservice/comedy and I suggest it to anyone who is in search for a funny way to spend 24 minutes every week!
I'm extremely looking forward the next two episodes, because if they follow the original material we'll get the dating sim "cooperative play" and the introduction of the lovely "vampire" queen Kobato!
See you soon,
feal87
P.S. Yes, I love Meat! :P