Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai - Light Novel Discussion

[dragon213]

Spoiler for Confused, need answers:

Okay I'm confused now, I can get him confessing to Rika since she was so cute but I'm surprised she rejected him, and him rejecting Yozora was also a bit surprising, I don't understand what happened about hin and Sena, he asked her to give him time until the club was over, does she still wait for him or is it over with them?

And WHY did he end up with Yukimura? He never showed an interest in her as far as I could see so what happened? I read something about he had to chose between being friends or a couple or something like that, what was that about?

[Kuroageha]

Read the thread.

[dragon213]

Originally Posted by Kuroageha

Read the thread.

I did but with how people are talking it's so confusing, I just need someone to give me some straight answers, please?

[Flere821]

Originally Posted by dragon213

Spoiler for Confused, need answers:

Okay I'm confused now, I can get him confessing to Rika since she was so cute but I'm surprised she rejected him, and him rejecting Yozora was also a bit surprising, I don't understand what happened about hin and Sena, he asked her to give him time until the club was over, does she still wait for him or is it over with them?

And WHY did he end up with Yukimura? He never showed an interest in her as far as I could see so what happened? I read something about he had to chose between being friends or a couple or something like that, what was that about?

Spelling it out for you,

Spoiler for ending:

Rika rejected Kodaka because she values friendship over romance. Kodaka eventually got over that.

Sena's still waiting AFAIK, the LN ended with no clear 'winner' (the only 'definite' thing was Yozora is conclusively gone, even with 'but things can change in the future' IMO there's no coming back from Kodaka's "I never saw you as a woman that way" ) but as I've said above I'm personally thinking by process of elimination Sena's the 'last girl standing'. But by no means was anything conclusive, eg things could change later in life, as others immediately rebutted as soon as I declared someone a 'winner'

And no, Kodaka does not end up with Yukimura in the end. During the volume Yukimura went on the offense as both Sena and Yozora had interest in Kodaka but didn't want to change the status quo too much, so she took the plunge and left the club to be Kodaka's girlfriend. Things didn't work out as my previous posts said.

[dragon213]

Originally Posted by Flere821

Spelling it out for you,

Spoiler for ending:

Rika rejected Kodaka because she values friendship over romance. Kodaka eventually got over that.

Sena's still waiting AFAIK, the LN ended with no clear 'winner' (the only 'definite' thing was Yozora is conclusively gone, even with 'but things can change in the future' IMO there's no coming back from Kodaka's "I never saw you as a woman that way" ) but as I've said above I'm personally thinking by process of elimination Sena's the 'last girl standing'. But by no means was anything conclusive, eg things could change later in life, as others immediately rebutted as soon as I declared someone a 'winner'

And no, Kodaka does not end up with Yukimura in the end. During the volume Yukimura went on the offense as both Sena and Yozora had interest in Kodaka but didn't want to change the status quo too much, so she took the plunge and left the club to be Kodaka's girlfriend. Things didn't work out as my previous posts said.

ok thanks but also what do you mean by AFAIK? Also who does Kodaka like the most? Was his lovr for Sena just lust? Also like I asked before how ome he ended up with Yukimura since he never seemed to show her any real romantic interest earlier and did he really start loving her for real as they dated?

I really wish we could know what happened after they graduated, to see if Sena and kodaka really do end up or not, or if they chose other partners.

[Somethindarker]

Originally Posted by dragon213

ok thanks but also what do you mean by AFAIK? Also who does Kodaka like the most? Was his lovr for Sena just lust? Also like I asked before how ome he ended up with Yukimura since he never seemed to show her any real romantic interest earlier and did he really start loving her for real as they dated?

I really wish we could know what happened after they graduated, to see if Sena and kodaka really do end up or not, or if they chose other partners.

"AFAIK" means "as far as I know". Kodaka liked Rika the most but was cool with getting rejected and moving on. He probably liked her some but it was mostly lust yea. Yukimura was the one who confessed to him first and they were together for a little under a year, he never really loved her as much as she loved him. It's open ended so think what you want. What I personally think is since Kodaka literally explored all the other options Rika(rejected him), Yukimura(dated him for a while) and Yozora(btfo) then Sena, at the time the story is being told by future Kodaka, he either dated her for a while and moved on or is with her currently.

[dragon213]

Originally Posted by Somethindarker

"AFAIK" means "as far as I know". Kodaka liked Rika the most but was cool with getting rejected and moving on. He probably liked her some but it was mostly lust yea. Yukimura was the one who confessed to him first and they were together for a little under a year, he never really loved her as much as she loved him. It's open ended so think what you want. What I personally think is since Kodaka literally explored all the other options Rika(rejected him), Yukimura(dated him for a while) and Yozora(btfo) then Sena, at the time the story is being told by future Kodaka, he either dated her for a while and moved on or is with her currently.

ok thanks, now all questions I had has been answered

[Marcus H.]

Just read Chapter 7 and 8 of Volume 10 and it feels relieving to see steps forward between the main cast. Kodaka finally accepted that he had to deal with things without relying on a "mask", and both Sena and Yozora's relationship had developed into a better state than in the past when they spend most of the time bickering over the most trivial of things.

It's also quite appropriate to read these chapters as Christmas approaches. I hope the translation moves with a better pace so that all of the stories related to Christmas would be available before the big day comes.

[Hokoga]

It must have been difficult for the character Kodaka to fix his indecisiveness when the author herself was also being indecisive about who she wants him to be with in the end.

Seriously HIRASAKA Yomi shouldn't have added the whole Sena engagment and Kodaka's train wreck confessions if she was planing on ending thing in the Friend Rout for everyone.

[Marcus H.]

It must have been difficult for the character Kodaka to fix his indecisiveness when the author herself was also being indecisive about who she wants him to be with in the end.

Heh. I guess Hirasaka-sensei puts herself in Kodaka's shoes when it happens.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Hokoga

It must have been difficult for the character Kodaka to fix his indecisiveness when the author herself was also being indecisive about who she wants him to be with in the end.

Honestly, my guess is that the author actually never had indecision about this; the way the story actually ended was probably more-or-less what they always wanted. Most authors have the beginning and endings of their stories pretty clearly in mind. But the big problem you get with LNs is what happens in the middle. LN authors who suddenly get popular/go big may not have actually planned out their story to last so many volumes (they're mostly focused on just getting noticed with the pilot, with maybe some vague idea of what could happen after that if they're lucky), and combined with various pressures, they end up losing sight of the end-goal and diverging into all sorts of territory that can get hard to recover from.

In this case, I suspect the problem, such that it is, was that they got a bit too swayed by editorial (editorial in particular -- note how many editors this franchise went through) and the desires of the fanbase, and so decided to start fleshing out the characters in ways that had a bit too much implication and got people's hopes up. I think even the author realized this, as was pointed our previously in this thread. The whole thing created some plot threads that were left dangling beyond the stop point of the final novel, with the unwritten assumption that Kodaka's life would go on and some day those issues would be resolved... but not all readers will be satisfied by this, obviously.

All the blow-ups and denouement were basically there as a way of recovering from the expectations that had been built up so high, in order to lead the story back to the beginning and resolve on the "note" the author had originally envisioned: that Kodaka and the club would realize that what they had in each other wasn't that bad after all. If you just looked at the first few volumes, and then most of the last volume, it makes perfect sense. Just in the middle it meanders in all sorts of various ways with varying degrees of success. Writing a good middle that connects nicely to the ending is hard when you're under pressure to keep padding out the story even longer to keep the money flowing, and I think that's more or less what happened here. The negative result on the actual team itself are obvious, but I guess we'll never know the arguments that happened behind the scenes.


And, incidentally, I'm pretty sure the author's a "he".

[Hokoga]

Yeah it's more than likely exactly how you described, honestly if they had left out all of the nonsense that happened in the middle of the story then I wouldn't be so dissatisfied with the ending.


Mangaupdates has Hirasaka-sensei listed as a female so that why I said "she"

[Somethindarker]

Originally Posted by Hokoga

Yeah it's more than likely exactly how you described, honestly if they had left out all of the nonsense that happened in the middle of the story then I wouldn't be so dissatisfied with the ending.


Mangaupdates has Hirasaka-sensei listed as a female so that why I said "she"

The author is a dude. Mangaupdates at one point listed the mangaka for hajime no ippo as a woman too, MU is fan made so mistakes happen sometimes.

[Kadmos1]

OK, having not read the LN, if I were to tell the English dub voices how it ended, am I correct if I said something to the effect of, "While it was open ended, Kodaka likely would have picked Sena"?

[Somethindarker]

Originally Posted by Kadmos1

OK, having not read the LN, if I were to tell the English dub voices how it ended, am I correct if I said something to the effect of, "While it was open ended, Kodaka likely would have picked Sena"?

Wait what?

From a story standpoint no he wouldn't have since she jumped the gun and the story was about to focus on Yozora and her story, so probably not. Secondly, are you talking about the voice actors? Or the actual disembodied voices? If you mean the voice actors I doubt they'd care, for them their work is just a pay check and they probably don't even remember the names of the characters they've portrayed. If you ever meet any of them bring up a character they've portrayed other than the one they're currently advertising the look in their face speaks for itself. If you're talking about the disembodied voices then... I have no idea how to respond.

[Kadmos1]

What disembodied voices? I did mean the Funimation voice talent. Also, since it's open ended and for those that have read it, is there potentially evidence for my previous post? That is, that Kodaka likely would pick Sena?

I know there are cases where they have open-ended manga/light novel series and that one's preferred shipping may have not been shown to happen. However, I do find it comforting if there's enough evidence/character development that the said shipping likely would have happened if it wasn't open ended. That is, they showed/wrote that our desired shipping occurred.

[Somethindarker]

Originally Posted by Kadmos1

What disembodied voices? I did mean the Funimation voice talent. Also, since it's open ended and for those that have read it, is there potentially evidence for my previous post? That is, that Kodaka likely would pick Sena?

I know there are cases where they have open-ended manga/light novel series and that one's preferred shipping may have not been shown to happen. However, I do find it comforting if there's enough evidence/character development that the said shipping likely would have happened if it wasn't open ended. That is, they showed/wrote that our desired shipping occurred.

I don't understand what the voice actors have anything to do with it though I doubt they'd really care. Read the last few pages speculation on what happened after the LN's ended were discussed in length. But going on the ending of the second season of the anime a Sena ending was doubtful since the story was wrapping up at that point and when a situation like the plot shifting to Yozora usually means that a Kodaka and Yozora ending was most likely. Sena never had a chance if Yukimura hadn't ended up forcing herself on Kodaka then he would've chosen Rika since he was in love with her and if the author hadn't been pushed ruin his own story by shitty editors then LN first girl protocol means Yozora would've been end girl or friendship end.

[Blueknight78]

Originally Posted by Somethindarker

I don't understand what the voice actors have anything to do with it though I doubt they'd really care. Read the last few pages speculation on what happened after the LN's ended were discussed in length. But going on the ending of the second season of the anime a Sena ending was doubtful since the story was wrapping up at that point and when a situation like the plot shifting to Yozora usually means that a Kodaka and Yozora ending was most likely. Sena never had a chance if Yukimura hadn't ended up forcing herself on Kodaka then he would've chosen Rika since he was in love with her and if the author hadn't been pushed ruin his own story by shitty editors then LN first girl protocol means Yozora would've been end girl or friendship end.

actually for what i get the yozora route was the "last one" to be picked by romance, she was the one which less development in romance, the ones which get most was sena, yukimura and rika, and even with that rika was the one which less chances from the 3 then i really doubt could be happened as you described.

For me i would really prefer he end alone he don't diserver any girl in the end, he was just a coward with low to almost none improviment and a very peniless and boring mc, i already saw a lot of bad mcs but kodaka really reached epic levels when comes to bad mc.

[Somethindarker]

Originally Posted by Blueknight78

actually for what i get the yozora route was the "last one" to be picked by romance, she was the one which less development in romance, the ones which get most was sena, yukimura and rika, and even with that rika was the one which less chances from the 3 then i really doubt could be happened as you described.

That subject has been discussed to death and I don't feel like another conversation on it, I'm done with this story anyway.

[Kadmos1]

OK, it's open-ended, I get that. However, being a Kodaka/Sena shipper and not having read the LN (besides skimming/scrolling through it), is there enough shipping moments/reciprocated feelings for me to justify my view of the ending? That is, that he would pick Sena?