We’re back into recommendation mode, this time with Enzo’s pick: Yugami Doesn’t Have Any Friends by Jun Sakura. It’s a series that balances a lot of things: comedy, sports, romance, coming of age, rakugo, and more - but do we agree on how well it succeeds? Listen and find out.

Timestamps:

0:00 Introduction

4:32 Samu’s first impressions and expecting it to be set in college

6:50 Chihiro being a representative of a Japanese ideal vs Yugami standing out for the wrong reasons

10:53 Is Yugami coded as autistic or just meant to be the “nail that sticks out”?

16:16 Why did it never receive an anime - will it ever?

18:02 The balance of genres and topics: romance, baseball, rakugo

22:42 Spoiler discussion begins

22:59 A ‘romcom’ without a lot of romance - should there have been?

25:20 A series that speaks to introverts

28:44 Are we supposed to agree with Yugami’s perspective on life

30:33 Did Yugami soften as a character over time or did we just get used to him?

33:32 Yugami’s speech at the end - why it did/didn’t work for us

37:08 The epilogue scene with rakugo and how it ties to Yugami/Chihiro’s relationship

40:11 Speculating the reason why Sakura Jun never created another manga after this

44:07 Samu’s Recommendation: Sket Dance by Kenta Shinohara

46:29 Enzo’s Recommendation: My Little Monster by Robico

49:29 Overview and final scores