I’ve been watching the second season of Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, aka Haganai, aka I Have Few Friends, a surprisingly good show about a bunch of misfit high school students who don’t have any friends, so they form a school “neighbor’s club” in order to learn how to make some. (The joke is on them: they don’t realize that they’ve already got great friends in each other.) One word that comes up a lot in the show is リア充 ria-juu, so I thought I’d talk about it a bit. Coined around 2005 on Japan’s ubiquitous 2ch BBS, it’s short for リアル充実組 riaru juujitsu-gumi or “those to live a satisfied, happy life in the real world.” It’s a catch-all (and somewhat mocking) term for anyone who leads a happy life with normal hobbies and healthy human relationships, especially those lucky enough to have a real girlfriend/boyfriend instead of having to make due with alternatives. The battle cry of Japan’s hardcore otaku and Internet users is リア充は爆発しろ！ ria-juu wa bakuhatsu shiro! or “blow up all people who have happy sex lives.”
Haganai is about high school kids who want to find friend.
