Impressions of the anime 'Aharen-san wa Hakarenai Season 2' and 'Ninja to Koroshiya no Futarigurashi' (2025)

Well... posting them individually is a hassle, so I'm bundling these two works together.

I've done this before, too.

Aharen-san wa Hakarenai Season 2

4/15
Episode 1
Still as funny as ever! The new gal character (voiced by Nao Toyama) is also cute. It's a nice, unique take on the 'super nice girl' character that I haven't seen much before.

4/20 (Sun)
Episode 2
The first half was almost entirely a parody of Animal Crossing x Yakuza, and it was 3DCG animation. Aharen-san really goes all-in on comedy like this. I didn't know what I was watching, though... Aharen-san's younger sister and brother, I remember they existed now. I don't really remember the brother (voiced by Misaki Kuno). It's nice that Raidou-kun's sister and Aharen's sister get to know each other in middle school.

4/27 (Sun)
Episode 3
Sports festival episode. There's an exquisite balance between the brown-haired classmate (Ishikawa) and the other female characters (Oshiro-san, Sato-san, Tamanaha-san, etc.) where it feels like a heterosexual romance flag might or might not be raised.

5/6
Episode 4
As an 'anime about two crazy high schoolers,' I definitely like this much more than Shoshimin Series. Because it's a silly comedy. It's funny even when Raidou-kun and Aharen-san are being lovey-dovey. It's really kind of him to go along with the other person's interests and hobbies to the very end. He's a 'super darling,' but he doesn't stop there; his runaway behavior turns him into a gag character. They put effort into the 3DCG again, lol. It's a great work where not only the characters but also the staff go, 'They wouldn't go that far, would they?'

The way she was munching was so cute that I ended up taking screenshots.

I remember this tsundere elementary school girl. Is this her first appearance in Season 2?

Whoa, a hand-drawn live performance part! The camera work is also elaborate. The punchline where the 'heroine' gets overly prepared to become an 'idol,' only to end up on a one-day-only stage at the neighborhood association, is the best. I'm fine with them handling idols if it's on this small scale. In a sense, this episode is a comedy that uses the scale-expanding nature of idols to its advantage. (Raidou's sister in her idol outfit was the cutest.)

5/28
Episode 5
Remote island beach episode. I thought it was a deserted island, but it was super developed, lol. Ishikawa-kun, do you like Raidou...? A love triangle with his childhood friend Sato-san is inevitable.

Episode 6
Futaba & Aharen 3 siblings episode. Raidou-kun didn't have much screen time. Does the Aharen family not have parents?

Episode 7
School trip episode. It's funny and cute, but it's a shame that Aharen-san has become a completely normal girl. The eccentric elements are left entirely to Raidou-kun and Riku Tamanaha and the others. It really looks like Ishikawa was in love with Raidou... I thought it was a hetero rom-com, but now this. A heartbreak is almost certain, but I'm looking forward to seeing it fleshed out. I wonder if he'll end up dating Sato-san after he's heartbroken.

6/1 (Sun)
Episode 8
Double surprise birthday party. Raidou-kun is too crazy... But it's also a realization that there was still this pattern for a birthday episode in a rom-com youth series! Also, knowing that his birthday is the same as Raidou-kun's makes Aharen-san's request to 'have a birthday party' feel even warmer and nicer. What's with the life-sized dolls of themselves? What are they made of? Aharen-mama's first appearance!! And she's voiced by Inori Minase, playing both mother and daughter. The Aharen family is quite a collection. I really love how Raidou-kun keeps doing the exact opposite of your average light novel male protagonist.

6/9 (Mon)
Episode 9
They moved up to the 3rd year!!! The pace is fast. A new teacher!! The number of characters who faint from the 'yuri vibes' has increased... The B-part was the Oshiro-san arc. This episode was generally a 'what is this??' kind of episode. It's an episode where the focus is on supporting characters rather than Raidou-kun and the others.

It is also an anime where a multi-cornered relationship is quietly unfolding, with 'Oshiro-san → Aharen-san ⇔ Raidou ← Ishikawa ← Sato-san'. I especially like the love triangle of 'Raidou ← Ishikawa ← Sato-san'.

6/18 (Wed)
Episode 10
Musical / Game of Life episode
Oshiro-san is cute for doing the musical bit even while being shy.
Is an animator's salary of 100,000 yen... something we're allowed to laugh at??

！？！？ Whoa!!! Suddenly Sato-san confessed to Ishikawa!! And got rejected!!!
Having a gay person with a crush say '"Normal" is hard, isn't it' is really something...
After doing such an over-the-top comedy, I really love how they hint that Ishikawa-kun is a gay man who has feelings for Raidou, yetthey absolutely never make fun of the homosexual depiction itself, and never turn it into a 'comedy'I can feel the love for the characters. It is a work with the pride of a comedy.

I mean, although it's quite subdued in the second season, there were many depictions in the first season of Oshiro-san being extremely obsessed with Aharen-san. In other words, it can be said that female homosexuality has already been depicted more explicitly. In 'youth' hetero rom-com anime, the asymmetry of why female homosexuality is depicted cheerfully (as a joke) as 'yuri', while male homosexuality remains only as an implication, is a very interesting issue.
In the first place, since this work depicts the heterosexual relationship between Aharen-san and Raidou-kun quite comically, the fact that only Ishikawa-kun's male homosexuality does not become a comedy can be taken as respect, but it could also be taken as homophobic...? It's complicated.

6/24 (Tue)
Episode 11
School festival episode
That was a surprisingly? serious and moving episode... The development where the central figure of the school festival preparations doesn't come to school on the day and they go to pick them up reminds me of 'The Anthem of the Heart' (though that was a 'fureai exchange meeting', not a school festival).
It's amazing how they managed to pull off both the school festival and the trope of skipping school to go to the beach as a couple at the same time.
Aharen-san has such high specs to be able to make several personal sculptures (?) and videos in parallel with being the general director of the class exhibition. Raidou is also all-capable; these two are quite the perfect hetero couple. The fact that it still doesn't feel annoying is due to the high level of perfection of this work as a comedy.
The memory movie seems to be a grand foreshadowing payoff in the manga.

Ah~ so the black frames and black backgrounds that were usually used in flashback scenes were actually flashback footage.

6/30 (Mon)
Episode 12
Final episode
The end! I was surprised that they skipped all the way to graduation, a proposal, a wedding, and even to the point where they had grandchildren for the grand finale.
I was disappointed that Aharen-san, who had become a grandmother, hadn't changed at all. (Raidou-kun just grew a beard, too.)
I was also surprised that Ishikawa-kun married Sato-san. I see... until I realized Ishikawa liked Raidou, I was rooting for this hetero couple, so I'm happy in a way, but a sense of unease remains. This final episode, which depicts 'marriage' and becoming a couple as the grand finale, must be painful to watch for same-sex couples and homosexuals for whom 'marriage' is not legally permitted. The fact that Ishikawa-kun, who is gay, ultimately ends up with a person of the opposite sex who has always loved him and stayed by his side is...
It's Jump+, isn't it... or rather, I couldn't get on board with the fact that it was concluded in an extremely serious, positive, and self-help tone, as if aimed at middle and high school students and young readers, and also, I think the familism and heteronormativity that glorify 'marriage' are continuous.

So, I couldn't bring myself to like this final episode.
But since I also had a rejection reaction to the end of the first season (the part where they start dating), the result is that this second season didn't change much either.
Basically, it was incredibly fun as a big, silly school comedy!
I'm not good at rom-coms that only feature 'interesting women' (like Makeine), but I like 'Aharen-san' because it follows the spirit of 'if you have an "interesting woman," you have to throw an "even more interesting man" at her!' Thank you for your hard work over the two cours.

I will never forget that Ishikawa liked Raidou.

P.S. I really loved this ending song.

Impressions of Season 1

Ninja to Koroshiya no Futarigurashi

4/29/25 (Tue)
Episode 3
As a comedy full of satirical and edgy material about fantasy outsiders settling down and living in modern society, it has a 'Henjin no Salad Bowl' vibe. The leader is like that knight (Livia) from HenSara.

6/21 (Sat)
Episode 5
Robot episode
It was like one of those sci-fi shorts that makes you 'think'.
I think it's well-made, but the tone, like the psychopath jokes about Satoko, just doesn't click with me... I've even lost the desire to watch any of Shaft's sharp, edgy visuals.
There's a cynical attitude underlying it that insists on never making the relationship between Satoko and Konoha (yuri) anything special. That's more or less my preference, but...
So Konoha is human enough to develop feelings for Roboko. (Even if it's just for the sake of the plot.)

Episode 6
Big-breasted episode
I can't believe Konoha is still hung up on losing the robot.
Are you serious that Satoko's breast enlargement is carrying over too?

6/22 (Sun)
Episode 7
Depressing, unpleasant episode
I really hate this kind of stuff~~
Her chest went back to normal.

6/24 (Tue)
Episode 8
Horror episode
It's scary when a show with sharp, Shaft-like direction does genuine horror~~
The scene where a massive amount of books falls reminds me of Monogatari SeriesThe ghost at the end was cute.
In the C-part, all the ninjas who died so far appeared! If they can appear from the afterlife, doesn't that further diminish the weight of the irreversible act of killing, making it fail even as an over-the-top, bad-taste comedy? (Some might argue it was never that to begin with.)

6/26 (Thu)
Episode 9
Afterlife streaming & changing clothes & Satoko's experiment episode
I'm not attached to any of the characters and don't care about them, so I can't focus on the content.
It was good that they finally started experimenting with Satoko's ability to turn things into leaves. That's a scientist for you.

6/28 (Sat)
Episode 10
Infantile regression trope. How pointless.
I just keep thinking, I wish one of the two main characters would die soon, and the one left behind would either despair or not care at all~~
The scientist character is becoming part of the regular cast, but I don't particularly like them.

6/29 (Sun)
Episode 11
Oh, it's voiced by Shinya-san.
It's too late for them to try being heartwarming... I just want Konoha to be killed soon and for Satoko to either despair or not care at all.
I might actually like Roboko.

Episode 12

Oh~ It's that 'beyond political correctness' thing that liberal otaku have been criticizing. It really existed (of course, I'm on that side too).
The political leanings of the Nico Nico Douga viewers are being laid bare.
I like the bit where they do a comedy routine about having one eye modified by the mad scientist sisters.
Is the cardboard box from Shizuoka oranges because it's AOI Studio? The author's hometown... is apparently Fukuoka, though.
Maybe because it's the final episode, they packed in some action scenes.
I liked it even less when Konoha fell for Satoko in a yuri way. It's seriously pointless.

A comrade appears -> 'It would be perfect to turn them into a leaf here'

The end!!!
This was a genre of anime I couldn't like at all. I basically hate all the characters (of course, I also hate the ninja pursuers who die immediately).

Since this is something I shouldn't have been watching in the first place, and I just forced myself to watch one cour of it, I don't have anything to say now... (In that sense, it's fundamentally different for me from 'Zatsu Tabi', which dealt with a theme I like—travel—but which I ended up not liking at all. I'd be happy to talk trash about that one all day.)

Well, the visual quality is high, and if one wanted to critique it positively as a sharp, socially conscious comedy, I'm sure they could, but I'll leave that to other more motivated people...
I haven't read the original work, but I think this kind of thing is more enjoyable as a light gag manga than as a richly produced anime.