Aharen-san wa Hakarenai Season 2

Ever since the quiet and timid Reina Aharen enrolled in high school, she has made new friends and even started dating her classmate Raidou. When the two begin their second year, everything seems to be going well, as they are seatmates once more.

Soon after, a transfer student named Riku Tamanaha joins their class. Unbeknownst to Reina, the outgoing and stylish girl is actually a childhood friend she separated from years ago. With Raidou's support, Reina is able to rekindle their friendship.

Although they have grown closer, Raidou and Reina still struggle to communicate due to his overactive imagination and her difficulty with expressing herself. Nevertheless, the eccentric couple continues to brighten up the lives of people around them as they enjoy each other's company to the fullest.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Aharen, Reina Main

Minase, Inori Japanese

Raidou Main

Terashima, Takuma Japanese

Toubaru-sensei Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Aharen, Ren Supporting

Kuno, Misaki Japanese

Aharen, Eru Supporting

Hidaka, Rina Japanese

Tamanaha, Riku Supporting

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Ooshiro, Mitsuki Supporting

Ichimichi, Mao Japanese

Raidou, Younger Sister Supporting

Nagae, Rika Japanese

Satou, Hanako Supporting

Kusunoki, Tomori Japanese

Ishikawa Supporting

Kakihara, Tetsuya Japanese

Aizawa, Ryou Producer

Yamamoto, Yasutaka Director

Makino, Tomoe Director

Abe, Nobuyuki Sound Director

Reviews

Jun 23, 2025

AngeVNs

Recommended

Well-written

As someone who was once a former big fan of both Slice of Life and rom-coms in anime, either together or separately, I've been pretty jaded with the style most have been going for over the last decade. However, Aharen-san wa Hakarenai Season 1 somehow came out of nowhere and became the Slice of Life and rom-com combo I'd wanted for so long. It had the perfect mix of quirky, unique comedy while still being wholesome and having relatable Slice of Life, romance, and friendship moments, and most importantly, led to a couple actually getting together by the end of Season 1—something that, for ... some reason, is still really rare in anime.

This led me to read the original manga, and even though I knew just about everything that was going to happen when Season 2 was announced, I was incredibly hyped regardless, since this didn't seem like the type of show that would get a Season 2 based on its popularity relative to other Slice of Life shows that I thought would have gotten a Season 2 much earlier (where's the Bocchi the Rock Season 2?).

With all that said, how does Season 2 of Aharen-san wa Hakarenai turn out? In my opinion, it executed the things I loved about Season 1 but generally did them better and removed a few of the flaws I had.

Right from the beginning, the show makes it clear that it's going to be more or less the same as Season 1, with a focus on quirky comedy centered on both the main couple and the many, many side characters who appear, and I would say, for the most part, this is one of my favorite Slice of Life character casts. None of them are necessarily among my top favorites (except Reina Aharen, who's now my favorite anime and manga girl), but I think they all have good variety in terms of personalities and jokes. They contribute to the show while maintaining the fairly wholesome, quirky vibe.

Naturally, the main stars are Raido and Reina Aharen. Every episode has them interacting in a wholesome and/or hilariously weird way. I think this is a couple that works great, whether as best friends or as a romantic couple, but to me, they are essentially my personal idea of "relationship goals": a couple that knows they're both relatively unique but enjoys each other's company, so they can just talk about whatever they want and are communicative enough to share interests, even if it means doing weird things like making life-sized visual versions of each other. Yet they still do surprisingly normal, cute things like playing games together or sharing an exchange diary.

These may not sound like exciting things, even for a romance, but as someone who specifically wants a more relaxed, wholesome Slice of Life with romance, this is exactly what I've wanted in a romance anime forever. Seeing the two naturally and clearly enjoy each other's company, both in friendship and romantic moments, is easily my favorite part of this show, and I'm glad this season gave some of the best development the couple had in terms of getting closer after Season 1, with the last few episodes that even gave Raido much-needed development. And, of course, seeing Reina get easily embarrassed when Raido is nice and wholesome to her is always cute to watch.

However, I would say the side cast stepped up here, too. The big one is the addition of Riku, Reina's childhood friend and the focus of Episode 1, which sets the tone greatly for how the rest of the series will play out—or rather, shows the series aims to keep the same tone as Season 1 with similar, if not better, wholesomeness and quirkiness. Riku, despite dressing like a gyaru, is oddly relatable to me since she has social anxiety-related thoughts about how she appears in public and wants to experience a normal high school youth, which I think some people can relate to, though, obviously, she can be a bit over-the-top about it, as expected of a comedy show.
There is a bigger focus on the immediate friend group, like Ooshiro, Ishikawa, and Satou, with all the friend groups showing how much they clearly like being around each other. While there's no shortage of friend groups in anime and manga, I would say this is one of my favorite friend groups of at least five people or more. They feel like they got together through shared interests—or rather, through shared friends—and they just jive really well together.

We still have many memorable side casts, like the teachers who get really into shipping the main couple or the main characters' little sisters and how they contrast the main couple, and I think they all contribute to a really fun time in the show, leading to consistent laughs and, ultimately, a surprisingly wholesome ending.

Now, as much as I love this show and wish I could just gush about it all day, this adaptation isn't perfect.
Season 2 skips a lot of content to get to the end of the manga, making it feel like a "best of" compilation of scenes from the end of Season 1 to the manga's ending. If you don't read the manga, I think, for the most part, you'll be fine as long as you mostly care about watching the quirky main duo.

However, the anime adaptation either glossed over or outright skipped some development or quirks of other characters. This includes things like Ren's crush on Riku, more development for the kids Atsushi and Futaba, more development for Ishikawa and Satou, an arc teasing something more romantic between the little sisters of Raido and Aharen, and, of course, more wholesome and funny interactions between the main couple. I think Season 2 still works without these subplots, but a Season 3 including these would have been fine if things were stretched out enough, even considering the handful of anime-original scenes in Season 2, like references to Yakuza and Animal Crossing.

The only other issue is that humor is subjective. While I think the humor in this show is generally pretty funny, it reuses certain jokes a lot, whether it's Raido's unrealistic imaginations of Reina (though thankfully toned down from Season 1), the teachers getting mentally attacked by “esteem” whenever they see Raido and Reina physically close to each other, or Riku's internal anxiety attacks. I thought all of these were funny, but if seeing a bunch of these types of jokes, in addition to Slice of Life stuff, sounds too repetitive, you probably shouldn't watch past Season 1 because things don't change much.

Speaking of things not changing much, while I like the wholesome interactions between the main couple, I thought one thing that would have been developed better, even in the manga, was why Raido liked Aharen to begin with. While I'm glad he's really nice to her despite how stoic he is, he never really changes in that regard, and while I can easily see why Reina fell in love with him, I sometimes wonder why he fell in love with her beyond her being the first person he made friends with. I mean, I'm glad he's far from the typical lame simp type of protagonist who just openly lusts for the most popular girl in school, but I just wish Raido had more character development in general, besides just being thrown in at the end, since Reina had plenty of excellent development in both seasons.

But honestly, anything I critiqued is just me nitpicking so I don't give this a literal perfect score, because, honestly, this is now my favorite Slice of Life. It does everything I want in a wholesome romance, wholesome friendship, and unique, quirky humor that fits my sense of humor perfectly, and it's an overall comfy anime to watch if I just want to feel good and laugh. This style of anime probably isn't for everyone and, sadly, doesn't seem to be very popular. But I will always appreciate series like this existing for my personal tastes, and I'm glad this season was able to adapt to the end of the manga—something many manga and light novels fail to do these days.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jun 23, 2025

ethasgrover

Mixed Feelings

wait ! hold up ! what was that ending? it skyrocketed into moon ! lol ! apart from the shocking ending, it was pretty alright! same as season 1 ! the romance was mild because the format of this plot is very much slice of life and gag comedy ! which were dialed up to the max ! atleast that's what i felt during my watch ! it was pretty chilling and forgettable plot for me ! not bad and not good ! just average ! the animation and art is okay for such a show ! nothing too impressive and not that bad ! ... just average like the story and the logic is optional !

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jul 29, 2025

ghostly6888

Not Recommended

You can't have your cake and eat it too; that's how I'd sum this up.

Compared to the first season, this one covers more "character" moments and story. Unfortunately, not a single one of them work. None of the characters' dialogue feels natural. None of the emotional moments felt earned (and because of that, everything just feels really forced). It's all just melodrama that would make your eyes roll. Not to mention, the complete lack of romantic tension between the main couple. It's literally just a bunch of tropes without any actual substance. This staleness applies to every other character too. The absurdist humour of the ... first season was what made this show strong, even if it didn't appeal to everyone and because there's less of that here, the show falls short.

However, I can't forget that the first season still suffered the same issues. I remember the first season suddenly ending with a romantic element even though I didn't get a hint of romantic tension between the main couple. But I brushed that off since the rest of the season was fine. Season 2 is just that, but amplify it by 10x. The first season was 90% gags and 10% shallow attempts at a story. The second season was 90% shallow attempts at a story and 10% gags. The way the characters acted were always played off for the gags rather than actual character flaws that they need to overcome (it's not like they even overcame them at all). And the thing is (for me at least), the humour worked! If this show really was all gags, and it leaned into that completely, then I'd definitely rate it higher.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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