Boku wa Tomodaichi Review

Synopsis:
Hasegawa Kodaka has transferred schools, and he's having a hard time making friends. It doesn't help that his blond hair tends to make people think he's a delinquent. One day, he runs into his bad-tempered solitary classmate Yozora while she's talking animatedly to her imaginary friend Tomo. Realizing that neither of them have any actual friends, they decide that the best way to alter this situation is to form a club and start recruiting.

Review:

This series garnered tons of haters over time, and while some of the dislike is justified Boku wa Tomodaichi is far from the worst. The artwork has some amazing detail especially when it comes to all of the plot pivotal characters. Boku wa Tomodaichi’s plot was a bit manic at points but never strayed too far into outrageousness. Musically it did the job never taking the viewer out of the scenario with crazy orchestral or rock scores like most series do nowadays. Just watching this group of misfits come together in a club to find friends was enjoyable in itself. More astounding is that the anime overextended past its manga predecessor, which rarely ever happens in this line of work.

Now comes the bad part and there are quite a few bad parts. Mainly the major plot points were so underwhelming to the point where they no longer mattered. A vast majority of the support characters were so poorly utilized that their presence served only to sadden me in their uselessness. While some of the episodes were hysterical especially the Monster Hunter parody a large majority of the others seemed to be pointless. This presents a major problem in a series that is less than 15 episodes long; almost every episode should serve to carry the plot forward. The series main character is probably the most idiotic and boring I have seen in quite some time. I found it very unrealistic that someone could truly be that dense and somehow make it too high school.

Overall this series was carried by the two lead romances Yozora and Sena. Watching them compete for Kodaka’s affection truly carried every episode considering how underwhelming the actual plot was. There were some hysterical moments and the constant Code Geass references from Kodaka’s sister made me not hate the entire premise of this series. If the story was written about them just forming a club because they all had no real friends it would have been extremely fulfilling. However the lack of use from the support characters, the looming stupidity of Kodaka and the ending reveal being so boring and emotionally detached almost destroy anything I truly felt about Boku wa Tomodaichi. Realistically this deserves about a 2 1/2 score, but I have never seen anything get merited on half measures.

2/5

Studio: AIC Build Genre: Romance/Drama Episodes: 12

Original Run: Oct 7, 2011 to Dec 23, 2011 Language: Japanese with Subs

Article by: Larry Harris