Anime/Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai

He ends up leaving the Neighbours Club and joins the Student Council in order to more easily help other people (and because he feels like he doesn't fit in with the the rest at the Neighbour's Club). Life goes on.

edited 26th Jun '14 10:55:03 PM by Folt

I had to laugh at that, as it's exactly what happened, at least in part. See: http://www.thesosblogger.com/2014/07/haganai-novel-10.html

Basically Kodaka leaves the club, because he thinks he's a distraction to the girls, especially when he sees that Yozora and Sena are doing well. Yukimura confronts him after this, and through the course of the conversation Kodaka realizes that he loved Rika after all... Except he blew it away after that conversation on the roof, and now they're "just" friends. While Kodaka is a little stunned by this realization, Yukimura decides that this is the best time to confess, and Kodaka accepts.

So yeah, it should be an interesting lead-up to the next book, regardless of whether ot not it'll really be the last book. If it WILL be the last book, then that's a lot of bridges burned, as prior to this Sena also confessed to Kodaka a few books before, and also gave him a tearful kiss, plus all the teasing that the other girls had a chance, and you can see why many people are unhappy about the developments.

It feels like a rush job, really.

edited 29th Jul '14 6:34:12 PM by myssarei

Japan can't get ends right.

Wow, that sounds absolutely ridiculous. And yet I can't say it sounds surprising given how things have been handled to this point.

Confirmed with actual readers that the next book will apparently be an epilogue.

Now here's a food for thought: Kodoka never refers to himself as "boku", and uses "ore". There's only one member of the cast that uses that: Rika.

Also the lead-up to this snafu reads like a custerfsk that just exploded: writer not getting along with his editor, the LN illustrator getting sick, low volume and anime sales... It's no wonder the guy just wants it over with and move on to the next project.

No way the last volume won't have a curveball, epilogue or not. I strongly suspect this event with Yukimura is mostly bait and switch, because a whole volume of nothing but their relationship sailing smoothly? Come on.

After that little detail pointed out to me — that indeed, it's only Rika who REALLY uses "boku" — then I'm expecting the series to close with an older Rika just looking back at things, "And that's the story about why I have few friends".

Because all her old friends were jerks?

Our moral, ladies and gentlemen.

Then again, that's probably the same way the author feels about his team/crew right now, so...

Well the final volume of Haganai was released last week. I'm a bit conflicted on the ending. All the resolutions that do happen make sense in a vacuum, but the execution seems lacking.

What happened in the end?

(PM me the details!)

Basically as we saw, but with additions — Kodaka in the end turns down everyone, and we get a reset button: everyone is back to being friends, and the status quo is preserved. Because the point was getting friends, and not developing beyond that. The last book more or less ends with:

"I don't have many friends — but I DO have friends, and that's what's important."

Then we get a hilarious and sarcastic rant by the author on the flyleaf about how stupid things turned out, in hindsight. Remember, this series went through at least three editors before the final volume.

edited 7th Sep '15 4:43:50 PM by MyssaRei

Man, that's really meh to me for some reason.

That's kind of stupid. "Oh, in the end, Kodaka was right to ignore the needs of everyone else. Wheeee~"

The book literally ends where it sort of began: with a secret ingredient hotpot meeting, except this time Yukimura is no longer an "outsider", but a "friend".

Also it seems to allude that, while Kodaka himself might never truly go out of his way to escape his "comfort zone", everyone else is now fully capable of moving on with their lives outside of the club.

Well even if I change my opinion on the ending from "slightly underwhelming" to "bad", there's always Oregairu.

edited 7th Sep '15 5:26:42 PM by IceAnt573

Contests with no winner are so bleh.

After thinking about this ending some more, I decided it's for the better.

Yeah, technically most of the development of the cast was undone but the entire premise was supposed to be about "terrible people trying to make friends". In the end they made friends with each other, so no more story to tell.

Found this on another forum.

... so? It's still yet another ambiguous ending that outright states nothing conclusive and 'implies', 'leaves to the proccess of elimination', 'leaves things for the future', and all that. And the 'but the friendships are what matters!' argument would hold more water if the friendship motif had actually held better through the story, instead of getting diluted by all the pointless shiptease. Another case of an author wanting to have his cake and eat it, and ultimately achieving neither (artistically, at least. Fandom's got so used to crap endings like this they'll no doubt still buy whatever he does next).

edited 26th Sep '15 9:03:10 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

Not even close. Kodaka shot down everyone, even Yozora (who was the last to confess).

Not even the author's fault, if you believe the interviews. When his first editor quit, the second editor pushed the harem angle more. Then THAT editor quit after the volume where Sena confesses and her father reveals that she and Kodaka were supposed to be engaged as planned by him and Kodaka's father.

edited 26th Sep '15 9:23:01 PM by MyssaRei

Yeah, I figured it was just some guy getting hopeful.

I remember glancing through the trope page a while back and finding stuff mentioning Kodaka and Yukimura hooking up. What even brought that up? Did someone make up a plot leak of the final volume or something?

Yukimura confesses and asks Kodaka to be her boyfriend. He shoots her down anyway, because in the end he likes how things are right now (in the Neighbors Club) and doesn't want to shake the boat.

The takeaway in the final book, rather than the ships sunk, is the fact that everyone else in the club barring Kodaka could now interact "normally" with other people.

edited 28th Sep '15 2:40:27 AM by MyssaRei

Because as we all know, you can't have a couple and having both you and your couple being friends with the same circle of people. That would imply being actual mature people instead of just pretending you are.

In the end, Kodaka and the others don't really mature where it really matters, then. They're still about staying in the same comfort zone instead of growing into another comfort zone, the only real progress is admiting they are friends to each other, much like most romantic comedies are 'resolved' with a lukewarm "I don't hate you."

And once again, we've had our time preciously wasted!

edited 28th Sep '15 7:03:09 AM by NapoleonDeCheese