As someone who was once a former big fan of both Slice of Life and romcoms in anime either together or separately Ive been pretty jaded with the style most have been going for over the last decade. However Aharensan wa Hakarenai Season 1 somehow came out of nowhere and became the Slice of Life and romcom combo Id wanted for so long. It had the perfect mix of quirky unique comedy while still being wholesome and having relatable Slice of Life romance and friendship moments and most importantly led to a couple actually getting together by the end of Season 1something that for some reason is still really rare in anime. This led me to read the original manga and even though I knew just about everything that was going to happen when Season 2 was announced I was incredibly hyped regardless since this didnt seem like the type of show that would get a Season 2 based on its popularity relative to other Slice of Life shows that I thought would have gotten a Season 2 much earlier wheres the Bocchi the Rock Season 2?. With all that said how does Season 2 of Aharensan wa Hakarenai turn out? In my opinion it executed the things I loved about Season 1 but generally did them better and removed a few of the flaws I had. Right from the beginning the show makes it clear that its going to be more or less the same as Season 1 with a focus on quirky comedy centered on both the main couple and the many many side characters who appear and I would say for the most part this is one of my favorite Slice of Life character casts. None of them are necessarily among my top favorites except Reina Aharen whos now my favorite anime and manga girl but I think they all have good variety in terms of personalities and jokes. They contribute to the show while maintaining the fairly wholesome quirky vibe. Naturally the main stars are Raido and Reina Aharen. Every episode has them interacting in a wholesome and/or hilariously weird way. I think this is a couple that works great whether as best friends or as a romantic couple but to me they are essentially my personal idea of relationship goals: a couple that knows theyre both relatively unique but enjoys each others company so they can just talk about whatever they want and are communicative enough to share interests even if it means doing weird things like making lifesized visual versions of each other. Yet they still do surprisingly normal cute things like playing games together or sharing an exchange diary. These may not sound like exciting things even for a romance but as someone who specifically wants a more relaxed wholesome Slice of Life with romance this is exactly what Ive wanted in a romance anime forever. Seeing the two naturally and clearly enjoy each others company both in friendship and romantic moments is easily my favorite part of this show and Im glad this season gave some of the best development the couple had in terms of getting closer after Season 1 with the last few episodes that even gave Raido muchneeded development. And of course seeing Reina get easily embarrassed when Raido is nice and wholesome to her is always cute to watch. However I would say the side cast stepped up here too. The big one is the addition of Riku Reinas childhood friend and the focus of Episode 1 which sets the tone greatly for how the rest of the series will play outor rather shows the series aims to keep the same tone as Season 1 with similar if not better wholesomeness and quirkiness. Riku despite dressing like a gyaru is oddly relatable to me since she has social anxietyrelated thoughts about how she appears in public and wants to experience a normal high school youth which I think some people can relate to though obviously she can be a bit overthetop about it as expected of a comedy show. There is a bigger focus on the immediate friend group like Ooshiro Ishikawa and Satou with all the friend groups showing how much they clearly like being around each other. While theres no shortage of friend groups in anime and manga I would say this is one of my favorite friend groups of at least five people or more. They feel like they got together through shared interestsor rather through shared friendsand they just jive really well together. We still have many memorable side casts like the teachers who get really into shipping the main couple or the main characters little sisters and how they contrast the main couple and I think they all contribute to a really fun time in the show leading to consistent laughs and ultimately a surprisingly wholesome ending. Now as much as I love this show and wish I could just gush about it all day this adaptation isnt perfect. Season 2 skips a lot of content to get to the end of the manga making it feel like a best of compilation of scenes from the end of Season 1 to the mangas ending. If you dont read the manga I think for the most part youll be fine as long as you mostly care about watching the quirky main duo. However the anime adaptation either glossed over or outright skipped some development or quirks of other characters. This includes things like Rens crush on Riku more development for the kids Atsushi and Futaba more development for Ishikawa and Satou an arc teasing something more romantic between the little sisters of Raido and Aharen and of course more wholesome and funny interactions between the main couple. I think Season 2 still works without these subplots but a Season 3 including these would have been fine if things were stretched out enough even considering the handful of animeoriginal scenes in Season 2 like references to Yakuza and Animal Crossing. The only other issue is that humor is subjective. While I think the humor in this show is generally pretty funny it reuses certain jokes a lot whether its Raidos unrealistic imaginations of Reina though thankfully toned down from Season 1 the teachers getting mentally attacked by esteem whenever they see Raido and Reina physically close to each other or Rikus internal anxiety attacks. I thought all of these were funny but if seeing a bunch of these types of jokes in addition to Slice of Life stuff sounds too repetitive you probably shouldnt watch past Season 1 because things dont change much. Speaking of things not changing much while I like the wholesome interactions between the main couple I thought one thing that would have been developed better even in the manga was why Raido liked Aharen to begin with. While Im glad hes really nice to her despite how stoic he is he never really changes in that regard and while I can easily see why Reina fell in love with him I sometimes wonder why he fell in love with her beyond her being the first person he made friends with. I mean Im glad hes far from the typical lame simp type of protagonist who just openly lusts for the most popular girl in school but I just wish Raido had more character development in general besides just being thrown in at the end since Reina had plenty of excellent development in both seasons. But honestly anything I critiqued is just me nitpicking so I dont give this a literal perfect score because honestly this is now my favorite Slice of Life. It does everything I want in a wholesome romance wholesome friendship and unique quirky humor that fits my sense of humor perfectly and its an overall comfy anime to watch if I just want to feel good and laugh. This style of anime probably isnt for everyone and sadly doesnt seem to be very popular. But I will always appreciate series like this existing for my personal tastes and Im glad this season was able to adapt to the end of the mangasomething many manga and light novels fail to do these days.