Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai - Light Novel Discussion

[taurosground]

It seems hard for Kodaka to play dumb with Sena anymore. Now, he has to either say yes and end the story or say no and ruin the Neighbor's Club. Since both would pretty much either end the story or kick Sena out of it, I'm assuming Yozora will do something that allows a compromise, unless the Neighbor's Club is now finished--- which could happen, since this was all a "prologue". If this turns into a full on drama, I wonder how long the girls will last before they realize that their friendship with Kodaka and each other are the real thing to be valued.

[Chaos2Frozen]

^
Question- why would saying yes ends the story? Why would saying no ruin the Neighbor Club?

[taurosground]

Originally Posted by Chaos2Frozen

^
Question- why would saying yes ends the story? Why would saying no ruin the Neighbor Club?

I'm assuming the story will end when/if Kodaka chooses a girl? Oh, there might be another volume where the other girls become friends, and maybe a "ten years later" cliche (I hope I'm not wrong in assuming this).

I exaggerated the ending of the Neighbor's Club. If Kodaka says no, either he or Sena will have to leave (because Kodaka, the way he is, will not be able to face Sena anymore, and vice versa) and although the other members will still be there, the club without Sena or Kodaka will be completely different.

These are my assumptions anyhow, I'm not citing the author or anything. I'll be more than willing to concede my assumptions are completely off if somebody provides something I missed.

[potchip]

Sounds like assumptions about romance in general to me. Whilst marriage is certainly an end of sorts , accept a confession = the end? Don't think so.

[l.kostas]

This spoiler was posted by Flere821 many pages before. In case someone wants to take a look now the translation got to this point.
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthre...20#post4251220

From that spoiler posted by Flere821:
Yukimura and Kodaka had a talk, and Kodaka realized even if the club isn't really beneficial for them in making friends anymore, and they can leave and cope with life, they still want to be in it. Just because something isn't necessary doesn't mean it's bad.

Kodaka got beaten up by Rika's tech for running away. Rika's not pi$$ed that Kodaka ran away - she's pi$$ed that he ran off and started raising flags with the student council instead.

[cyberdemon]

Originally Posted by Chaos2Frozen

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Question- why would saying yes ends the story? Why would saying no ruin the Neighbor Club?

That's not really true. I can see several possible future paths for many types of answers.

1. He could say yes and posibly the story would revolve around Yozora's reaction to it and focus more on her ties with the other club members from that point on. This is a story that is more about friendship and Yozora cares more about her past with Kodaka than the club most of the time.

2. He could keep asking for time and things would progress more at their current slow pace with some tension between him and Sena. This would be more of a harem route.

3. He could turn Sena down and the story could mostly deal with the tension that comes as a result. It would likely be the Yozora route

I'd say 1 would give a lot more focus to Yozora's development than if she was to be the chosen one. 3 would likely be Yozora's route but she wouldn't be as likely to get the same kind of development.

[potchip]

1 is not possible since the story is told from Kodaka's perspective rather than 3rd person - it cannot be a story without him being involved.

[novalysis]

Originally Posted by cyberdemon

That's not really true. I can see several possible future paths for many types of answers.

1. He could say yes and posibly the story would revolve around Yozora's reaction to it and focus more on her ties with the other club members from that point on. This is a story that is more about friendship and Yozora cares more about her past with Kodaka than the club most of the time.

2. He could keep asking for time and things would progress more at their current slow pace with some tension between him and Sena. This would be more of a harem route.

3. He could turn Sena down and the story could mostly deal with the tension that comes as a result. It would likely be the Yozora route

I'd say 1 would give a lot more focus to Yozora's development than if she was to be the chosen one. 3 would likely be Yozora's route but she wouldn't be as likely to get the same kind of development.

In Scenario 3, I'd say that Rika has a VERY high chance of Ninjaing the win. That, or no Romantic resolution. (Ie: Everyone get's friendzoned- which, apparently seems to be Kodaka's ideal outcome, since.... well, the Friend zone itself is quite a feat in his eyes, given the whole premise of his character.

In Scenario 1, I'd suspect that the Author might be borrowing from those Shoujou Romances where the relationship is actually explored - NOT the road to the confession. In that case, Genre conventions may be a poor guide to where the story is going. Of course, if the readership revolts against any divergence from genre conventions, then Hagani will probably screech to a rapid end. Which is a shame, because I'd think Harem does need a shake-up. Exploring a Sena-Kodaka relationship, in the light of the fact that Kodaka's narrow friendship circle are all girls and contenders that lost might be interesting.

Scenario 2 is probably the status quo scenario. If Kodaka can manage to put Sena's confession on hold, this is probably the safest route. But, there'll be quite alot of awkwardness between Sena and him, I think. Then again, the way Sena is set up is such that I think the author could plausibly make her "understand" and accept that Kodaka is not ready... yet. It could still be a Sena victory, mind you.

There's actually a scenario 4: The story cast breaks out further beyond the Neighbor's Club. It already shows signs of doing so, but I wonder whether the author would actually take a step back from harem, and explore same gender (no, I don't mean it THAT way) instead. Yukimura was trolling on that front.

Now, if Kodaka had a wingman, like traditional Harems, I think Sena's confession would have been "Good Game" to the whole Harem.

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by cyberdemon

That's not really true. I can see several possible future paths for many types of answers.

1. He could say yes and posibly the story would revolve around Yozora's reaction to it and focus more on her ties with the other club members from that point on. This is a story that is more about friendship and Yozora cares more about her past with Kodaka than the club most of the time.

2. He could keep asking for time and things would progress more at their current slow pace with some tension between him and Sena. This would be more of a harem route.

3. He could turn Sena down and the story could mostly deal with the tension that comes as a result. It would likely be the Yozora route

I'd say 1 would give a lot more focus to Yozora's development than if she was to be the chosen one. 3 would likely be Yozora's route but she wouldn't be as likely to get the same kind of development.

4.) He rejects her and they end up together anyway.


@potchip
1 is very posisble; Just becaue someone is the main character it doesn't mean that the focus is on them the entire time.
Take Lord of the Rings as an example - the Maincharacter is either Aragon or Frodo (you can argue about that imho)
Yet none of them has the focus on them the entire time, there are always subparts where they are not even mentioned for a while until the focus is set back to them.

[JamJackEvo]

It makes me wonder how the author will do that. Switch to Yozora's point of view while retaining the first-person narrative or switch to Yozora's point of view and narrate it in third-person.

Did he write Connect in first-person or third-person? Can anyone answer that please?

[cyberdemon]

Originally Posted by JamJackEvo

It makes me wonder how the author will do that. Switch to Yozora's point of view while retaining the first-person narrative or switch to Yozora's point of view and narrate it in third-person.

Did he write Connect in first-person or third-person? Can anyone answer that please?

It could be through Kodaka watching Yozora. Like maybe she shuts herself off heavily from the club after he possibly starts going out with Sena in my scenario 1 and we see him doing what he can to help her with the other club members. This way could focus more heavily on the friendship aspects of the series which is what it is more about. Whether it's the changes that inevitably come when someone gets into a relationship. Or possible trying to reaffirm a friendship that has changed over the years. There could also be POV changes though likely not for long periods.

[Johnny]

Just read the newest chapter. Hmm, I think Kodaka would rather say instead of him running away he's making more of a tactical retreat...

[taurosground]

Originally Posted by novalysis

In Scenario 3, I'd say that Rika has a VERY high chance of Ninjaing the win. That, or no Romantic resolution. (Ie: Everyone get's friendzoned- which, apparently seems to be Kodaka's ideal outcome, since.... well, the Friend zone itself is quite a feat in his eyes, given the whole premise of his character.

In Scenario 1, I'd suspect that the Author might be borrowing from those Shoujou Romances where the relationship is actually explored - NOT the road to the confession. In that case, Genre conventions may be a poor guide to where the story is going. Of course, if the readership revolts against any divergence from genre conventions, then Hagani will probably screech to a rapid end. Which is a shame, because I'd think Harem does need a shake-up. Exploring a Sena-Kodaka relationship, in the light of the fact that Kodaka's narrow friendship circle are all girls and contenders that lost might be interesting.

Scenario 2 is probably the status quo scenario. If Kodaka can manage to put Sena's confession on hold, this is probably the safest route. But, there'll be quite alot of awkwardness between Sena and him, I think. Then again, the way Sena is set up is such that I think the author could plausibly make her "understand" and accept that Kodaka is not ready... yet. It could still be a Sena victory, mind you.

There's actually a scenario 4: The story cast breaks out further beyond the Neighbor's Club. It already shows signs of doing so, but I wonder whether the author would actually take a step back from harem, and explore same gender (no, I don't mean it THAT way) instead. Yukimura was trolling on that front.

Now, if Kodaka had a wingman, like traditional Harems, I think Sena's confession would have been "Good Game" to the whole Harem.

You're quite right. The author did mention everything up to now was a prologue, so the story could completely change with the next volume. That said, I think it is almost impossible for the story to continue as it is.

Honestly, the best thing for the author to do is to make Kodaka stall. With his personality, that's the only thing he can do. The other option, of course, is to make Kodaka mature enough so that he can come to a decision, but, to be honest, I can't imagine him saying yes to her yet. He still thinks of her as a spoiled rich girl, no matter how nice she is on the inside or how cute she is.

The other points about the author completely changing the story are all completely valid.

I just really hope that he doesn't decide to end it with the next volume.

[AC-Phoenix]

Honestly I'd prefer if he just said yes or at least starts dating her.
Her personality problems are tbh easy to solve while Yozora is just... Evil? Sorry but thats the best description I can find for her :/

[Lexxus]

I really hope he doesn't date Sena

[LCSeixas]

That "confession" sure was unexpected. I believe Rinjinbu just got to the "no-turning point", as Kodaka feared.

Maybe Yozora will "win".

[Miraluka]

Out of pity?
Yeah, it usually happens with this kind of developments... e.e

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Wilfriback

Out of pity?
Yeah, it usually happens with this kind of developments... e.e

Evil must never win... lol

[Flere821]

Just saying, I think the story is still possible to go on even if Kodaka chose Sena. I've seen at least one other series out there that continued after the guy chose a girl, and several volumes were dedicated after that to see how they coped with life afterwards, not everything is now 'happily ever after' as soon as the guy chose a girl.

If Kodaka does indeed 'choose' Sena and started dating, I can see the story being shifted into him trying to cope being 'riajuu', instead of trying to get friends it's now trying to juggle relationships between his friends + girlfriend. Shows him the other side of the coin, that the goal of 'riajuu' isn't a happy end once you get there, you still have to work to earn that end by that point constantly.

[AC-Phoenix]

And thats the problem, since they didn't even understand the friend making game(not even the reviewers did)
It wasn't unecessarily hard or impossible with all its negative fields, but meant as a teamplay game from the very beginning.
They realized this too late and none of them could reach the goal.