Friday 21 October 2011

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai - Episode 3

After her dalliance with gaming and visual novels in the last episode, it seems that Sena has moved onto "the hard stuff", as this third instalment of Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai sees her trying her hand at eroge.

Despite her protestations that this is stuff of art and not mere titillation, her inability to read out loud some of the raunchier scenes from her game's obvious take on The Sacred Blacksmith somewhat proves Yozora's point that perhaps this isn't the most highbrow use of her time.


Still, all of this is an aside as Sena reveals something else to Kodaka - that she can't swim.  Thus, our protagonist gets to put any troubles with his otaku younger sister to one side as he attempts to teach Sena how to swim; something which proves ot be incredibly easy given her natural aptitude for learning new things, although her social skills still prove to be decidedly lacking as evidenced by her inability to properly handle a few pushy guys that corner her at the swimming pool, leaving Kodaka and his rather fierce looks to deal with the situation.  With his relationship with Sena moving in some interesting directions however, it's to some old memories of his that the closing segment of this episode turns, suggesting that Kodaka and Yozora have a history which goes back much further than simply the beginning of this series.

Come the end of this third episode, I genuinely find myself torn in my thoughts on Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai - on the one hand, it's a horribly exploitative piece of work that does everything that it can to coax anime fans into its world by catering to their desires as frequently and forcibly as possible.  On the other, there's some great dialogue on show once again in this week's instalment, while I can't help but get caught up in its characters and the situations they find themselves in - even the belligerent Sena  manages to hold my interest somehow or other.  This leaves me without much explicitly positive to say about this series - it looks nice and has amused me well enough - but I can't help but feel a little uncomfortable at the way it's playing me like the proverbial fiddle with its characters and setting.

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