Aharen-san wa Hakarenai Season 2

Episode 3

More than most, comedy is a genre that relies pretty heavily on being fresh. So re-using a bit—even if it's a good and funny bit—can be a risky thing to do. On one hand, the audience already knows exactly what's going to happen. But on the other, if you play your cards right, you can use those expectations to your advantage. But then, on the third hand which has just sprouted fourth from my second, if the bit's funny enough or works well enough in context, it's still going to be just as funny as it was the first time even if you're just playing it the exact same way as you did before. And Aharen-san's re-use of the bit with Raido's pants this week, is one such example.

This is all to say it's a cute bit that I think is a perfect encapsulation of Aharen and Raido's dynamic with each other; even though I already knew exactly what was going to happen and the show never really did anything to subvert those expectations, I still thought it was fun. And it probably helps that it's been about three years since season 1 aired. In any case, it's cute, it's silly, and it was a fun way to kick the episode off.

And while, as mentioned, that was a nice way to start the episode, the bulk of this week was spent in the athletics festival. While I wouldn't put what's more colloquially referred to as sports festival episodes on-par with, say, culture festival or beach episodes, they're still something that's not rare to see in a high school life anime, and there's still plenty of good ones out there. And this, to me, was a good one—not a great one, but one that was entertaining enough all the same.

This show definitely has a lot of material to play with in a sports festival setting. You have the tall, and looks-like-he's-athletic-enough Raido, contrasted with the short and not athletic Aharen. The height difference between the two alone feels like it's begging to be used. But ultimately, the show instead went with a classic “someone else got injured, and now we have to learn a valuable lesson about teamwork” story. Admittedly, I think the show could've done more with this, but I wasn't too disappointed by the results. Still, to me, the funniest part of the episode was definitely Riku panicking over whether or not it was right for her—a new student who barely knew him—to visit Ishikawa in the hospital, and subsequently, how she doom spiraled about how he was going to make her life hell for the great sin of not visiting him. But of course, ultimately he didn't mind. Riku is emerging as such a relatable queen, and even though we haven't seen too much of her yet, I'm already falling in love with her in all her perpetually-socially-uncertain glory.

And finally, the dub premiered this week! Or to be more specific: the dub for season 2, which in addition to one new character (Riku) saw the season 1 cast returning, save for one notable exception: Dani Chambers as the titular Aharen. Taking over for her as Aharen in season 2 is Kelsey Cruz. And like Chambers before her and Ben Balmaceda's Raido, I think Cruz is doing a great job so far. It's rare for quiet or reserved characters to be the center of attention, and I can understand how difficult the balancing act of bringing just the right amount of energy to these introverted characters must be. It's way more difficult than a lot of people realize, and Cruz and Balmaceda are both doing a fantastic job. This isn't to say the rest of the cast is slouching—I particularly like Katelyn Barr's Tobaru, and we got a taste this week of Kara Edward's Riku which is nothing short of an absolute delight that I look forward to hearing more of.

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Aharen-san wa Hakarenai is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Mondays.