Truly regrettable.
I’ve been hyping Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai for more than half a year now. I like Haganai (as it’s called by fans) not because it’s particularly good. You know how everyone has their own shit series? Haganai is my shit.
Haganai might get a lot of flak for being another vapid and empty cookie-cutter light novel adaptation, which is somewhat true, but there are several unique features of Haganai that might just propel it above shit status. Two major buzzwords in the series are zannen and RJ (riajyuu). I wanted to talk a bit about both concepts.
Oh God, she's so lonely she's almost schizophrenic.
Za… ZANNEN DATTA NA!
Zannen, in the context of Haganai, means “regrettable.” It’s Haganai‘s major selling point— that although the main character Kodaka has an enviable (?) harem of girls by his side, they’re all awful people. This isn’t your everyday harem filled with Mary Janes and squeaky imoutos. The two main heroines of Haganai, Yozora and Sena, are bitches.
Yozora’s unattractive personality struck me immediately as an anomaly. One could interpret her coldness as the classic sign of a tsundere, but she quickly reveals to the audience that she’s batshit. Here we have a girl so lonely and so antisocial that she’d rather speak to an imaginary friend than make real ones. She’s also quick to anger and incredibly judgmental, having made up her mind about Sena before even meeting her. Truly regrettable.
I won’t go into detail about the other characters in Haganai, since they haven’t been introduced yet. Yozora alone represents a unique spin on the concept of tsundere. Tsunderes hide their affection underneath a mask of belligerence. Yozora simply has no affection for Kodaka. She’s just selfish, mean and rude. She’s not hiding anything, and that is refreshing.
Despite all the men that follow her around, she has no friends.
RIAJYUU BAKUHATSU SHIRO!
The second frequently-evoked concept in Haganai is the concept of RJ (riajyuu), an Internet slang phrase which literally means “fulfilled in real life.” It’s a hard concept to pin down, and its connotations are not necessarily positive. My specific fansub chose to translate it as “popular”, but this is only one aspect of the RJ lifestyle. The pinnacle of the RJ lifestyle is fulfillment, which can come in many forms. Most importantly, RJ shun any form of otakuism. They play sports, hang out with girls, interact normally with the rest of society and are content with their lives. They have no need to escape to the virtual refuges of the Internet or anime. They’ve “won” real life.
Kodaka is not an RJ, but he aspires to be one. When he accumulates his harem, most outside observers would look at him and think of him as an RJ, yet it’s clear that he’s not really an RJ. The great irony of his life is that he’s forced to spend time with two girls that he doesn’t even like— one’s haughty and obnoxious, the other’s mean and bitchy. When he goes home, he has to deal with a younger sister that’s perpetually in cosplay. He also has no other friends, since everyone in his school’s convinced he’s a delinquent. He derives absolutely no fulfillment from any part of his life.
Zannen + RJ = ???
Well, a shitshow. Kodaka’s life is a shitshow.
Haganai is innovative enough to poke fun at the established conventions of “school life” series. The protagonist gets what he wants— but not quite. His friend choices are regrettable, his school activities are regrettable. Though he may be living a life that anti-social perverts yearn for, he’s not happy about it. This highly ironic twist on the concept of RJ lies at the core of Haganai‘s humor.
In actuality, Haganai‘s set-up gives it the potential to say quite a few things about popularity and friendships in high school: that popularity doesn’t bring happiness, that being “fulfilled” in real life goes far beyond simply having friends, that looks aren’t everything when looking at girls. By creating genuinely detestable main heroines (Yozora’s so brilliant cast that even her voice is awful), Haganai attempts to turn viewers’ value systems upside-down. It asks us: is this what you want? Would you be happy in this situation? Would you deal with awful people’s bullshit all day in order to not be lonely?
I would say no… but I’d also bone Sena in a heartbeat. Life, why are you like this?
——-
Postscript: Haganai is one of my favorite light novel series. It’s irreverent, brash and stupid. It doesn’t stop to apologize for what it does, nor does it even claim to have a coherent narrative. The entire series is, for the most part, a series of loosely-connected vignettes. Hey, why not?
Disagree with my thoughts on Haganai? Write me a comment or hit me up @Akirascuro on Twitter. (By the way, you can now post comments on my blog using your twitter account, so go ahead and speak up!) If you liked it, re-tweet it. It means a lot to me. Thanks!
“Zannen datta ne” is one of my favorite Japanese phrases. It has a villainous quality like no other when a bad guy says it right after fucking someone over. But this is rather off-point…
The format of Haganai doesn’t work for me because I hate anime bitchfights possibly more than any other stupid trite anime dialog. Especially because it always ends up revolving around breast size, which is the stupidest thing ever.
The concept of a painful harem has been done in anime before: Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Each girl has her own severe personality disorder, all of them are batshit, and all of them flock to the teacher who wants nothing to do with any of them, too wrapped up in trying to kill himself.
Obviously the significant difference is that SZS is a ballistic, absurdist nightmare, whereas Haganai is, well, a light novel in the worst way. I can’t like Haganai, even if the concept might be interesting (and the designs might be fantastic and the seiyuu great), because the potential doesn’t come to anything but bad arguments and tit jokes.
Of course, that’s just the first episode snap judgement I’ve made, so we’ll see where it goes from there.
“Zannen datta ne!” is a phenomenal phrase. You hit the nail on the head.
I personally love the bitchfights in Haganai. It just somehow works for me. Zetsubou Sensei is a bit different from that, I think— it’s more poinant, like you said. Haganai is a “light novel in the worst way”, or perhaps it’s just not for you. I personally love it.
I’ve read a few dozen chapters of the manga, and I find Sena to be a fascinating character.
Granted, I didn’t think of Yozora as a terrible person, but I was applying light novel logic to her (look at Haruhi!). The anime portrays her in more repulsive light.
Rika is my favorite “friend”, for obvious reasons.
Sena is my favorite character. Obviously meat. Obviously. (lolz)
I didn’t know there was a “light novel logic” at work. That’s an interesting concept…
One might say that this is the impetus behind most anime clubs. And in a way, this show is like one big, awful off-kai come to hideous life.
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