Aharen-san wa Hakarenai is a little late to the party. Similar titles like My Senpai is Annoying and Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out have already gotten their chance to shine in recent years. Can Aharen-san stand out in such a stack Spring season with titles like Spy x Family in the mix?
Aharen-san wa Hakarenai
Studios: Felix Film
Publishers: bilibili
Directors: Yasutaka Yamamoto, Tomoe Makino
Translation: Crunchyroll
Premiere: April 2, 2022
Aharen-san wa Hakarenai (Aharen-san is Indecipherable) brings back the short form humor we’ve come to expect from the romantic comedy in recent years; with jokes taking place over a short sketch rather than defining the plot of an entire episode.
While Aharen-san isn’t a 4koma manga, that’s the kind of feel the jokes and humor in the series go for. Anyone wanting any in-depth romance with their comedy should look elsewhere. Aharen-san is in it for laughs per minute, no actual interpersonal skills or emotional investment required.
The series follows the typical dynamic, a guy character and a quirky or outgoing female character. Calling it typical isn’t a condemnation of the dynamic by the way, I think it’s great, these sorts of series have literally been printing money for the past five years or so (and probably longer).
Aharen is quiet, clumsy, and awkward but she’s cute and tries her best. This usually drives her classmate Matsuboshi Raidou to worry about her due to how airheaded Aharen can be when she’s distracted or hyper-focused on something.
Getting into the animation, I know it’s become something of a cliche in my reviews but once again there’s brownie points for not using grotesquely obvious 3D a problem which marred last year’s Otherside Picnic from the same studio.
As far as the actual art and animation goes, Aharen-san wa Hakarenai makes full use of the show’s mellow tone and uses solid but soft colors in almost everything. There’s no action scenes to really compare it to and if you’re someone who’s a little too into judging a series by its fluid animation and action scenes… then you’re kind of in the wrong neighborhood, this is comfy town.
The background music is lackluster compared to other comedy series like Teasing Master Takagi-san and exists only to be serviceable in lieu of dead silence. In contrast, the ending theme Kyori-kan by HaKoniwalily is a good endcap to the first two episodes (the ending theme changed for the third one).
Aharen-san wa Hakarenai features the vocal talents of Minori Inase as Aharen and Takuma Terashima as Raidou. Inase is largely known for her roles as Hestia (DanMachi, Is It Wrong That I Want to Meet You in a Dungeon), Rem (RE:Zero), and Chino Kafuu (Is The Order a Rabbit?).
Terashima is an industry veteran whose first lead role was Apollo in Genesis of Aquarion (Sousei no Aquarion). He’s also had roles in titles like Kokoro Connect and also more recently as Kojirou Sasaki in Record of Ragnarok.
Ultimately, Aharen-san wa Hakarenai doesn’t broach any new territory but with Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! season 2 still in development, it scratches that same itch. Rather, Aharen-san will appeal to fans of the slice-of-life/romantic/comedy amalgamation of a genre that didn’t like Uzaki-chan. Viewers who found Uzaki-chan grating and its male lead too spineless won’t find the same complaints here.
Aharen as a character is a hapless heroine, but she’s the kind of female lead that’s meant to to be more cute and worthy of protection than characters like Uzaki who are annoying but are endearing to some people anyways.
If you don’t like the whacky antic of Spy x Family and prefer your comedy to be more grounded in a real-life setting, then you can’t go wrong with Aharen-san wa Hakarenai.
