Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai - Episode 13

I'm really not sure that the world needs any more Haganai, but it appears that I'm in the minority on that one - as well as a second season arriving this winter, we also have this bonus episode from the first season to entertain us in the meantime.

With all of the members of the Neighbours Club present and correct (well, as correct as they can be), Kodaka suggests that they pass the time by writing a relay novel - that is, each member takes it in turn to write a single page of a story before the next person takes over and writes a page of their own, and so on.  Of course, the result of this activity probably goes without saying... they end up writing the plot to Guilty Crown.

Okay okay, they don't really - instead, things follow a decidedly predictable bent - Yukimura lifts a tale from the Sengoku period which depicts him as a slave of Kodaka; Yozora reminds us why she's one of the most loathsome characters ever to grace an anime and Sena does little better; Kobato's pretension is offset by Maria's obsession with poop; and then the whole thing ends with a good old session of robosexual shenanigans delivered by Rika.

Having enjoyed the initial episodes of this series, this bonus episode was a perfect reminder of what the series became as it went on - at best, a run-of-the-mill comedy that was struggling for material, and at worse a vehicle for Yozora (and occasionally Sena) to spit bile at one another, which is somehow supposed to count as being amusing.  Sadly, aside from Rika's crazed slice of mecha Boy's Love anime (which was genuinely funny), there was nothing here whatsoever to convince me that a second season of this series is worth the time and effort of being produced, let alone watched - and it's not very often that I give up on sequels, such is my completest philosophy.