"Huh? What was that?", Hasegawa Kodaka of Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai seems to think this is a cleaver way to avoiding complicated issues between the females in The Neighbor's Club. It has succeeded many of times, until Shiguma Rika caught on.
Because Kodaka puts out this facade that he is ignorant of how people, in the club, feel about him, you can consider him one step ahead of most of the male protagonists starring in a harem romance. Because of his advancement over other males, the series is able to make fun of other harem anime, but still make the series stand out more, compared to others in the genre, that are far more generic.
There is a prolific amount of non-endings for harem, where the male never really picks a girl and keeps every one of them at arms length, when most of the females want to be closer. Even with Haganai being set it a high school with romantic elements, it can seriously make criticism of its own genre while being apart of it, and still looking like the better of them. I want to touch on two subjects that expose the weakness of the harem genre, that Haganai sidestepped and made into something great.
When Nice Doesn't Cut It
I've said this before about nice guys in anime, but having one attribute that make women flock to you, establishes this cardboard cutout male that anyone could fill, making for a less interesting male character. Kodaka takes that "nice guy" template, but expands on it; instead of being a decent looking, all around nice guy, he is a misunderstood guy that is trying to fit in. And because of him being unable to, at times, he lacks confidence in himself and can get scared pretty easily, even with his perpetually angry face.
We have many layers to our main male character, which makes him more relatable rather than the replaceable non-characters that are indistinguishable from the next male protagonists, in harems. Despite all of Kodaka's problems, he managed to get five or more girls to fall for him, but since Haganai actually shies away from being a common thread inside the blank of a no result harem, we do see the consequences of Kodaka's actions.
Some People Get Hurt
This may surprise some people, but stringing along people in an ultimate quest for a harem, can hurt the people involve in this quest. As a result, we see harems end before the serious stuff even begins to happen. And never having these kinds of conflicts, may seem like the harem ending is a good thing to aim for, but just because ignorance is bliss doesn't mean these things don't exist.
With the two main girls, Kashiwazaki Sena and Mikazuki Yozura, and Rika being the only one calling Kodaka out on his bullshit, we get to see the conflict loud and clear.
However, with this more complex view on the interminglings of people in harem, the conflict isn't always going to be one-sided; in Kodaka's case, he is in a struggle with himself. He doesn't want to ruin the atmosphere of the club he looks forward to coming to everyday, so he has his reasons for acting oblivious. And that is the complexity of conflict between multiple characters, making for a far more interesting romantic comedy.
Listening In
Since Haganai NEXT just ended recently, I don't know where it will be taken, but right now I'm pretty eager to see the development of Kodaka, along side the others of The Neighbor Club. For now we have our first progression between Rika and Kodaka, all though it is only friendship, we have a foundation for whats to come.