Aharen-san wa Hakarenai, Ep. 5 review – Aharen is more useful to Raido than she thinks
Michelle Topham 
Aharen-san wa Hakarenai, Episode 5 starts off with Aharen-san discovering a popular monster battle game. About 5 years after everybody else.
Leaving Raido to wonder “maybe she has no sense of distance with trends either”.
No, Aharen will never be normal and, as we are learning several episodes into this funny anime, we apparently like her that way.
Aharen-san wa Hakarenai, Episode 5, however, is more about how the pair are becoming closer the longer they spend in each other’s company, than it is about Aharen’s uniqueness.
As well as about how much they are starting to depend on each other.
To the point that, while Aharen seems to think she is the one who is always being cared for and protected, she doesn’t yet understand she does as much for Raido as he does for her.
Review: Aharen-san wa Hakarenai, Episode 5, “Isn’t That a Little Too Heavy?“
Raido has played the monster collecting game before, so offers to battle against Aharen.
But, as you might expect, when Raido chooses his Level 99 dinosaur to be pitted against Aharen’s teeny tiny Level 17 ghost dude with hardly any HP, things don’t go quite the way you, or Raido, expect.
That is because of the unfathomable nature of Aharen, it seems.
It is that unfathomable nature we see displayed at the game center later on when Futaba, the girl from the park, arrives to try to win a stuffed dinosaur for Akkun so she can win his affection.
Because Aharen not only tries to give the younger girl a free crane game token so she can win the toy, she even puts one of the toy dinosaurs in the right position for Futaba to knock it into the win slot.
After all, if you love somebody, you should be able to give them the gift they want more than anything, right?
And this is what is so brilliant about Aharen, as she is often portrayed as someone who spends too much time in her own head, so has no idea what is happening in the world around her.
In reality, though, not only is she often one step ahead of everyone else in her own strange way, she usually sees things others don’t see — Raido being terrible at games, and so an easy pushover, and Futaba too nervous about winning the dinosaur for Akkun, so obviously going to leave the game center disappointed.
As air-headed as Aharen may seem, she is actually quite perceptive and incredibly kind, so doesn’t want anyone to have to suffer unnecessarily.
She is one of those girls, in fact, who boys believe needs to be taken care of but, when it comes down to it, she is often the one surreptitiously taking care of them.
So much so, while Raido is the guy who always gets the wrong end of the stick where Aharen is concerned, Aharen is steps ahead of him while he runs desperately behind her trying to keep up.
As Futaba walks away from the game center clutching the dinosaur for Akkun, even she figures that out.
Plus, look at the bag of dinosaurs Aharen-san gives Raido, and remember the ghost toys she won at the crane game in Episode 1 of the aime? Toys that are now circling Raido’s bed as he sleeps.
Now don’t the monsters in the game suddenly look a whole lot different, and isn’t Aharen the boss of bosses?
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She knows she destroyed Raido in the monster battle, so wants to make it up to him by giving him a few more versions of what he lost.
The rest of the episode is Aharen worrying about Raido gaining weight, and Raido again getting the wrong end of the stick, as he believes Aharen herself is going on a diet when he catches her looking at a diet book so she can help him.
But, it is the last few minutes of Aharen-san wa Hakarenai, Episode 5 that are the sweetest, as the pair decide to study together so Aharen, who does better than Raido in every subject, can help him pull up his grades.
Something that, by the end, when Raido says it is thanks to her he understands the material for the test, pleases Aharen no end.
After all, like I mentioned at the beginning of all this, Aharen still believes Raido is the one that takes care of her, while she does nothing for him.
So to be able to help him improve his grades causes her to suddenly hug him tightly, as she is just so darned happy she was useful.
Little does she know, Raido isn’t as together as she thinks he is and, while he might have brute strength when the situation calls for it, when it comes to taking care of Aharen, he is often just luckier than not.
But this is what is so lovely about Aharen-san wa Hakarenai, Episode 5, as we get an episode giving us a window into how Aharen really feels about Raido, and how much she values her relationship with him.
Remember, she has grown up as someone who finds it difficult to get along with people due to her weird sense of distance, so has always felt different than everyone else.
Sure, she might hide it, but you have to admit it must bother her.
Then here comes Raido who, in his own way, is just as strange as her, but who goes out of his way to always make sure she is alright.
No, Aharen-san doesn’t yet understand Raido anymore than he understands her, but that’s okay. She is helping him as much as he is helping her. She just hasn’t figured it out yet.
Watch Aharen-san wa Hakarenai, Episode 5, “”Isn’t That a Little Too Heavy? on Crunchyroll.
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