Haganai: I Don't Have Many Friends (2019)

[僕は友達が少ない]

Volume 18

Author: Yomi Hirasaka
Artist: Itachi
Publisher: Media Factory Comics

Synopsis:
A flashback to how Stella joined the Kashiwazaki household.

Story/Characters:
The flashback for Stella helps set up one of the main focal points of this volume, which is Sena's relationship with other people. Touching on Stella briefly, it reflects well on Pegasus' character that when she shows up on his doorstep, he welcomes her without question and they work together to give her a place in his home. It also reflects well on Stella how easily she accepts Sena and dedicates herself to her rather than feeling any inferiority complex or jealousy. We then transition into Sena being called in to help out the basketball club to help out in a practice match, a nice gesture of her being reached out to and her actually accepting. We also see Kodaka being more accepted after his makeover. When I first saw how he changed, I was a bit offended at first because I remembered how he talked about his hair being a memento of his mom and so for him to change that to fit in seemed to undermine the character. (Later we see it's just a wig, so it's not as big of a betrayal of his character.) For better or worse, though, Kodaka conforming is paying dividends. Not having the ground-level experience, I don't know if halfs actually have as much trouble as Kodaka has or if it's just either a relic of the past or a conceit in media. Anyway, back to Sena, her skill and competitiveness leads to her performing well in the match, to the point where she overpowers the team captain. This ticks off Aoi, who complains about Sena always doing stuff like this. I'll admit that Sena isn't always the most graceful winner and she has quite the ego, but her abilities fully justify it and people who can't measure up just nurse their resentment and backbite like cowards, which really saps any sympathy I have for them. Enter Yozora, one of the few people with the stones to face Sena head-on. Doing this takes some of the heat off Sena and the basketball captain manages to square herself away and get back into the game.

We then move on to the Christmas party. Maria and Kobato have their little play of "The Gift of the Magi" and we have some nice character moments with Sena proposing future options with Kodaka and Yozora taking more of an active role in school activities by being one of the main organizers of the Christmas party. And then there's Kodaka getting Rika to come out of her shell and actually make an appearance at the party. Everything seems to be going well until the drama sets in. A girl complains about Sena rejecting a boy she allegedly was leading on, which brings out the usual backbiting from the peanut gallery, but Sena is having none of it and brutally unloads on them. This paints a huge target on her, but before she can get dogpiled, Yozora sweeps in for the save. Of course, this just means it's two people versus almost all the other girls (and a fair number of the boys) there. That's when Kodaka decides to abandon his recent efforts and play the bad guy. I do like how Rika tries to hold him back at first but then decides to push him along when she sees his resolve. Now, while I can't condone Kodaka decking a guy and announcing the rape party is about to begin, the fact that he gets the stuffing beaten out of him and he's the only one to get punished is BS (though, I suppose, not entirely implausible). I guess I can give Kodaka props for taking the punishment without kicking up more of a fuss or taking advantage of his relationship with Pegasus to bail him out. We close with Sena and Yozora hashing things out and finally admitting their friendship for each other. As far as I'm concerned, this is the climax of their character arcs and the remainder of the series is mostly just epilogue.

Art:
There's a lot of dynamism to the basketball game, especially when it's Sena vs. Yozora. Everyone looks really nice for the Christmas part and Itachi goes all-out for the big blow-up. The friendship moment at the end is really nice, too.

Other:
We get a color illustration of Sena as a kid, a two-pager of the game at the Christmas party, a thank you note with a teaser for the final two volumes, and the character commentary.

Conclusion:
This is the big climax of the series and while it's rather overwrought, the payoff is still worth it. There's a fair bit to chew on and it's nice to see a solid throughline over the course of the series come to fruition. Be sure to add this one to your collection.

Rating:
Own It