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NEWS: I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class TV Anime Reveals Cast, Staff, 2026 D

One of those series that has the worst title on the planet but is actually kind of emotionally intelligent.

Maki Maehara is always on his own at school. He has no friends or hobbies others share, and he doesn't expect the upcoming academic year to be any different, even surrounded by new faces.

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Maki Maehara is always on his own at school. He has no friends or hobbies others share, and he doesn't expect the upcoming academic year to be any different, even surrounded by new faces.

Ugh. Not another one. I so miss the 80s, 90s and 00s male shonen protagonists, most of whom were reasonably to very successful at life including socially, and even the ones who weren't had backstories to explain it or at the very least was friends with the other outcasts. Or the point of the show was "starts out as a loser but puts in the hard work required to improve himself" like Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple, and even there Kenichi was in the gardening club and there was a girl who liked him. When did the shonen audience go from " be cool, competent and accomplished like this guy" to "you can get a beautiful girlfriend by being a friendless loser, though you should fully expect her to exploit her strengths and take advantage of your weaknesses by bossing and bullying you."

kaiju3 wrote:

Quote: Maki Maehara is always on his own at school. He has no friends or hobbies others share, and he doesn't expect the upcoming academic year to be any different, even surrounded by new faces. Ugh. Not another one. I so miss the 80s, 90s and 00s male shonen protagonists, most of whom were reasonably to very successful at life including socially, and even the ones who weren't had backstories to explain it or at the very least was friends with the other outcasts. Or the point of the show was "starts out as a loser but puts in the hard work required to improve himself" like Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple, and even there Kenichi was in the gardening club and there was a girl who liked him. When did the shonen audience go from " be cool, competent and accomplished like this guy" to "you can get a beautiful girlfriend by being a friendless loser, though you should fully expect her to exploit her strengths and take advantage of your weaknesses by bossing and bullying you."

This isn't even a shonen series (atleast I dont think) so why compare it to shonen protagonists? The MC seems to be yet another self-insert thats typical of these kinds of series.

There are a lot of assumptions in this chat from people who have never read the source. It would be wrong to call the MC a self insert. He has his own issues that are related to his family that make him who he is. Same with the FMC. It’s actually a really well written romcom with realistic characters.