Boku no Tonari ni Ankoku Hakaishin ga Imasu.

Definitely a hidden gem. I actually almost missed this show because it had so little popularity within the currently airing anime. Boku no Tonari ni Ankoku Hakaishin ga Imasu is a great comedy show. The plot of the anime is nothing special: MC gets dragged along with a chuunibyou friend. This type of show has been done a bunch of times. But, why is it that something like Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai or Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy average or even below average, and this show, very good in my eyes? Well, I'd say that there are a lot of elements that make this show as goodas it is, but let's first talk about one of the most important things about a comedy show: the characters. The main character is not your white bread japanese MC with their only personality trait being "kind." He definitely has a depth of personality that you wouldn't normally see in a comedy anime. He's childish, dumb, selfish, easily tricked, and maybe doesn't appreciate his friends enough. All of this shows through in his monologue. There's definitely a lot of shows with monologuing like Bakemonogatari or Suzimiyah Haruhi. And definitely a few comedies that do the same, like Saiki K. However, Seri's monologue showcases his personality very well, and creates a great comedic effect off of it. His reactions and comments truly makes this show a lot more fun and interesting, and the show isn't shy to showcase it a lot. Seri's monologue is one of the defining factors of this show, and also one of the funniest. However, lets move onto the other main character: Hanadori. It's true that he starts off by being one of the most overused chuunibyou archetypes of all time but after he starts to interact with Seri and Tsukimiya, that archetype becomes secondary to his personality, and this is true with all of the characters in this show. While a lot of them seem to be very boring and only have a quirk/gimmick to them, they usually get explored a lot more than just that. This is something Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai or Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy fail to do. They just muddle about with their given quirks in uninteresting slice of life scenarios with predictable dialogue and reactions, thus making them extremely boring. Boku no Tonari has great characters, comedy, and a unique MC. Hanadori is shown to be extremely affectionate towards Seri, and you get to see him grow as a person, or at least, see him become something more than just "a guy with chuunibyou." Tsukuyima is actually one of the most unique characters right off the bat, and a necessary character for the story. He's shown to actually have mysterious powers of that like a God, and harasses Seri for no other reason than for his amusement. While he doesn't really progress as a character, you never find him boring. As for the side characters, I'll go over them real quick. Just like Hanadori, archetypal characters are generally given enough love to evolve beyond their single trait that they were given when introduced. However, I will admit. Some characters really are just what they look to be when they were introduced. It was probably the 12 episode time frame that this show was given that this had to be the case. I find that especially Mogami really got no screen time or dialogue beyond his typical lines that he always goes for. However, there is no real annoying characters, and Helius, Sumiso, etc, are all pretty good. They're also not overused that much, so the jokes about them don't get oversaturated. The author tries to keep things fresh. Anyways, lets move on to the story. Some comedies sometimes shift their focus to more serious character development arcs, such as "why am I even hanging out with these guys," etc etc. Boku no Tonari is no different, but it's executed well. A lot of comedies fail to pass this hurdle. Boku no Tonari maintains a serious tone when needed, but also knows that it shouldn't be a show that should be taken that seriously. In the end you have well balanced character arcs where you get to know the character much more in a genuine fashion than a typical comedy show could offer without it being forced. The only other thing I wanted to comment about the story is that it focuses on comedy for the most part, while some shows love to focus heavily on the "slice of life" part for some reason. It's not even good when they do that. Boku no Tonari focuses on the comedy aspect, and thus, is not a half baked product that tries to execute both a slice of life and comedy. Art...honestly, looking at the art objectively, it's very average, or even below average. That is, if you don't include the comedic aspects of it. What I mean are the facial expression of characters during scenes. As a comedy, having your animation blend in is very important, and Boku no Tonari gets a 10/10 on that aspect. Simple, yet effective and cute chibi figures, everything about the cat aesthetic that Seri has, and the other facial expressions and reactions are very reminiscent of a 4-koma comedy (which it obviously adapted off of), is amazing. While it may be something that you may brush off, the art and animation of these scenes definitely multiply the execution of dialogue and scenes. All in all, It's a very good series with little to critique. I was honestly very surprised that it was at the bottom of the barrel of new airing shows, since it's probably going to be one of my favorites of the year. I hope this review makes you think about giving it a try.

This is my first time making a review and It’s because I don’t want people to think this anime is bad. I personally don’t understand why this is rated so low. This was one of the most wholesome and cute animes I’ve watched. The characters are not unique but they are still super cute in their own way! This anime made me laugh so hard and it gave me hardcore secondhand embarrassment. It was definitely a fun watch! I had my doubts because the first episode was not that nice, but this is the type of anime that grows on you. I felt like Koyukiwas mean at first and I didn’t like the way he treated Hidenori who was a precious little bean, but eventually you realize that Koyuki is just a sweatheart that’s tsundere! This a beautiful anime about friendship and I hope people would see that :) it’s also super funny and its a great anime to watch when you want to pass time.

When I first started Bokuhaka, I found it unexpectedly charming because Hanadori the hopeless chuuni wasn’t the one being ridiculed, it was his “normal” classmate Seri who tried his best to not go along with his ridiculous roleplaying. By virtue of not being a cruel comedy when it easily could have been, I figured I could add it to the pathetic single piece of paper that comprises my Anime Comedy Good Book. 12 episodes later, I’m not so confident. While the series does hand Seri the L in every situation, I find that by relentlessly doing so it actually loses the touch of kindness aseries like this could benefit from. Seri’s assumptions, even the wholesome ones – like his worries about Hanadori’s wellbeing, social or otherwise – are uno-reversed the same way his negative assumptions are. You could argue his self-sacrificing assumptions are driven by a sense of self-importance he shouldn’t have and him getting unwittingly checked by Hanadori or Tsukimiya is satisfying, but after the first time it just started to feel a little malicious. Even if Hanadori never means to insult Seri by rejecting his rare offerings of kindness or concern, it left me waiting for a pay off when he would accept and there would be some normal bonding moment uninterrupted by cynical comedy, but that moment never came. I get that it’s funny that the times when Seri gives in and tries to be nice to his wildly annoying friends who are obsessed with him, that it backfires because haha, he thinks they’re obsessed with him! Except, they actually are...? And so the usual episode format goes one of two ways: 1. Seri gets wrecked by his annoying friends who can’t leave him alone and he eventually snaps and yells at them for embarrassing him. 2. Seri gets wrecked by his annoying friends but something happens that makes him feel guilty about how he reacts, or causes him to worry about their well-being, and when he expresses these things it is revealed that he shouldn’t have, and he snaps and yells at them again for embarrassing him. It does get tiresome to see the same formula again and again and again, and by the end of it, I was there in despair with Seri and wondering if he would ever escape his friends' tormenting. When Seri becomes more soft, it just backfires on him and the universe proves that he should stay cynical. When Hanadori reveals any other aspect of his character other than just being a chuuni, it’s backpedalled into him just being a chuuni actually. When Tsukimiya actually says something with an ounce of truth to it, he then twists it to be another part of his game of 4D chess he’s playing to make Seri suffer. And so it turns out there are consequences to making literally every scene a joke: nothing happens and no one changes. It made for a rather insincere final impression, even if Hanadori and Seri are endearing… their endearing traits go nowhere because it wouldn’t be funny if they did. But it would be better. Oh, and the side characters are either useless (Hibiki) or annoying (Tsukimiya and Mogami). Hibiki’s entire thing was just being unlucky and getting ignored by Hanadori and I found him easy to ignore as well. He really has no presence whatsoever after his introductory episode. I don’t care about Tsukimiya and him “being a God “ with literally supernatural abilities like being able to read Seri’s mind and always knowing where he is -- it just felt like Godmodding. I don’t get what’s “cool” about the kid that ruins a D&D session by rambling about how unexpectedly invincible his character is against the boss that should wreck him. And Mogami is just… a masochistic teen boy… really don’t care about a teen larper begging to be stepped on. So considering we have an ensemble cast where only 2 characters have anything resembling development, and that development is caught in a perpetual state of Take-Backsies, I would say Bokuhaka deserves its middling score and rather poor reception, even if I enjoyed it more than the average critic. I didn’t find it cringeworthy, and I did find it funny enough, but there really is no substance. And I am not of the belief that comedy is magically exempt from expectation.

Merchandise

Links may contain affiliate references

Studio

Producers

Themes