Haganai: I Don't Have Many Friends (2016)

[僕は友達が少ない]

Volume 14

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

Synopsis:
The building tensions within the Neighbors Club explode when Sena confesses her feelings to Kodaka in front of everyone.

Story/Characters:
We open on a flashback of Kodaka and Yozora as kids to introduce the idea of courage, something Kodaka completely lacks. When faced with Sena's confession, he runs off like a coward. Unwilling to deal with the fallout, his path crosses with Aoi and he helps her out with some errands, catching the attention of Hinata. Hinata takes a shine to him and even offers him a place on the student council, blowing a hole in a lot of his hangups on how people look at him. He ends up doing odd jobs for the student council to avoid the Neighbors Club until confronted by Yukimura. They have a good chat and she helps get him back on track, mainly as the club has fallen apart in his absence, the one thing he was trying to avoid. Next he goes to see Rika after she threatens to broadcast his reading of the the BL novel he did for her a few chapters back. What follows is a rooftop beatdown, both verbal and physical thanks to a little fantastical tech. I'd say she lets him have it with both barrels, but in this case two barrels isn't enough. Thing more along the lines of the quad shotgun from Phantasm II. She's been watching all this time, seeing everything that was going on and how Kodaka holding back was only delaying the inevitable instead of preserving what he had as he intended. For his part, Kodaka doesn't just take it lying down and calls her out as well. Once all the thrashing finally settles down, the two are able to come to terms and things looks square... until we see the cliffhanger. What should've been a happy conclusion wasn't so happy for everyone.

Art:
As this is quite the emotional roller coaster ride, the art steps up to that end. The brawl with Rika stands out in particular, but there's a lot of visual punch to be had throughout. Itachi is quite talented at making big panels filled with impact, but you should already know that by now.

Other:
We get a color page of Kodaka, Yozora and Sena as kids, a two-page spread of the clubroom with Yozora and Sena apparently doing the Fusion Dance, an afterword, and the character commentary.

Conclusion:
This volume lines up with the finale of the second season of the anime and as with the previous volume, MVP Rika comes in to knock it out of the park. Kodaka's character arc rounds the bend here and we've got some promise of him actually manning up to face the issues he's been running from all this time. There's some really good hard-hitting character drama and catharsis as well that makes this one for the collection.

Rating:
Own It