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

[僕は友達が少ない]

Volume 17

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

Synopsis:
Kodaka learns about Yozora's past.

Story/Characters:
We start with a little episode from when Yozora and Hinata were kids, which leads us into Yozora opening up to Kodaka about stuff. It really illuminates a lot of her hangups. It turns out that Hinata was listening in and because Kodaka is so indecisive about his relationship with Yozora, Hinata wants him to keep his nose out of their business. That brings us to Kodaka bringing Rika in for counsel. (You can imagine how much she appreciates being roped into this mess.) A solution takes shape in the form of a game of Ultimate Werewolf. This is a fun exploration of the character dynamics and it ratchets down the tension. Once the trip is done, we find out that the apparently perfect Hinata does have a weakness, that her academic skills are terrible, and this manages to undercut Yozora's inferiority complex and opens the path to them patching things up.

With that out of the way, we now wind up for the Christmas arc. One of the main themes in this segment of the story is the characters making more of an active effort to change themselves so they can change their situation. One of the biggies is Sena's isolation from the people around her and Kodaka trying to help her prompts him to work on his own image. I really like how Rika pulls him along once he confided in her about what he wants to do. Their dynamic as confidants ever since they solidified their friendship is quite nice. We close on seeing the results of Kodaka's transformation.

Art:
The art is solid as ever. I like the styles used for the story young Yozora was reading and for the game of Ultimate Werewolf.

Other:
We get a color illustration of Yozora and Sena in yukata, a two-pager of the gang doing a shooter game, a thank you page with a black and white version of the volume cover, and the character commentary.

Conclusion:
We get some good insight into Yozora's past and character and the game of Ultimate Werewolf was really neat. (Itachi seems to have a passion for boardgames and such.) We're moving into the endgame of the series and all the assorted threads are coming together. It's definitely worth a read, so give it a shot.

Rating:
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