Recap: The Neighbor’s Club decides to make a movie for the cultural festival, so Yozora asks Kodaka to go see a real movie for “research”. She later pens the script for their film but the rest of the club is unhappy with their roles.

Jel’s Thoughts: For all my skepticism about Haganai’s final destination, I will say I’m enjoying the ride quite a bit. This episode was arguably the most dramatic of the series, and I’ll give them credit for taking on the issues at hand in a much more direct manner than I was expecting.

I’ve always liked Yozora the most out of all the girls but honestly it’s been tough to say why beyond my affinity for short hair. So it’s good to be reminded of both her softer side and the pain she’s been carrying around since Kodaka left. Maybe I’m in the minority on that, but I thought her reactions to “c’est si bon!” and the cat cafe was pretty cute. With all the girls getting bolder and bolder, Yozora’s meek attempts at making her move (like the rushed text not to invite anyone else to the movie) have been my favorite part of the escalating Harem Arms Race. It was good to see the show’s trademark punch-in-the-teeth humor kick in as well, with the aforementioned movie and references to the brutal relay novel from the last OVA getting a laugh out of me.

The highlight of this episode though was the drama bomb hitting at the end, with Sena actually saying something mature for once and Yozora and Kodaka having something that resembled a normal human interaction. He may be super dense when it comes to the girls trying to get in his pants, but at least he’s smart enough to pick up that SOMETHING is up. They’ve really done a solid job of letting the tension escalate to the point where I’m very much expecting more boiling over like we got this week. Working on the movie gives everyone a reason to maintain the status quo for now, but I really hope we see some kind of progress or resolution once the story winds down. I know the likelihood of any romantic closure is very slim, but even if we can get everyone to admit they are friends I’ll settle for that. It would be a shame to let this great build up go to waste.