Review: Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru (Oregairu)
There are hundreds of high-school rom-com anime out there. Most of them are trash which was rightfully forgotten about after they aired. However, there are some that can break out of the mold and have legacies that far outlive its air time. It might be because it has interesting characters, a compelling story, or it connects and engages the viewer. Oregairu does all three of these.
The anime begins with the main character, Hachiman Hikigaya, being forced to join the ‘Service Club’ by his advisor, Shizuka Hiratsuka. He is sent there to become a ‘better person’. He is not a troublemaker or a bad student, he just has a bad personality. He is spiteful, overly negative, and willingly isolates himself from having any social life. He believes that the concept of ‘youth’ is evil, acts like he is above it. By being forced to join the Service Club, Hachiman will hopefully learn how to help others with their problems, which in turn will help him become a better and more sociable person that will enjoy his youth while he still can.
The only other person in the Service Club when he joins is Yukino Yukinoshita — a girl who on the outside seems to have it all, but in reality is similar to Hachiman. She has a superiority complex and elitist attitude that causes her to be isolated from others, just like Hachiman. The difference between them is that Yukino is of elite standing due to her family, while Hachiman is a nobody. Their first visitor, and ultimately the third member of the club, is Yui Yuigahama. Unlike Hachiman and Yukino, Yui has many friends and is easy to talk to. She joins the Service Club because she admires both Yukino’s and Hachiman’s way of being true to themselves. While they are everything that Yui is not, she (in her own way) tries to be more like them by not being as easily influenced by others.
Oregairu’s story consists of Hachiman, Yukino, and Yui helping out students and faculty, as is it the point of their club. While the Service Club does not ‘grant wishes’, it helps those out that seek it and steers them in the right way. More of a ‘teaching someone how to fish rather than giving them a fish’ type thing. What makes the anime’s story good is how the three find solutions to the assignments they take. While Hachiman and Yukino both calculate their solutions thoroughly, Hachiman’s are more notable due to how self-destructive they can be. While he claims to not care about what others think about it, it obviously affects him. Hachiman’s philosophy and general way of doing things takes a hit when he actually has friends and can not live as a fly on a wall anymore.
While this setup is not uncommon, what leaves Oregairu standing out from the rest of its kind is in its execution. For one, every main character is written with the intent to be cared about. Hikigaya is written to be a loner/loser/etc., but the anime does not beat him down too much or build him up. He is kept in his own realist reality of being a ‘pragmatic loner’ and often overcalculates things. Even with all of this, he begins to really help people out (even if it is in his own special, sometimes overly self-sacrificing way). Other anime would more than likely glorify Hachiman’s behavior, making him always right. In Oregairu, Hachiman is often wrong — and even when he turns out to be right, it is for the wrong reasons.
Yukino and Yui are also brilliantly written characters. As I said earlier, Yukino is a girl that is smart and beautiful, but is alone due to barriers that she herself puts up. Up until Hachiman and Yui joined the Service Club, Yukino did not have any real friends at school and did not let anyone penetrate her armor of cold demeanor. Behind that is a soft and fragile young woman, who is chasing something that is not yet able to be seen yet. She is brilliant at everything she does, but she does not realize (or want to realize) that she has to rely on others if she wants to get anywhere in life. Yui could be seen as a foil to both Hachiman or Yukino, due to being the only one who is outwardly cheerful and positive. While she is not a moron, she is definitely the most emotional of the group and is more of a follower than a leader (and can also be an airhead at times). Yui’s main contribution is making sure that all three of them stick and come together as ‘friends’ rather than as ‘classmates’ or ‘acquaintances’. Yui does not need any help when it comes to socializing, but she does need some when it comes to thinking for herself (which is one of the reasons why she admires both Hachiman and Yukino).
Oregairu also has an excellent list of supporting characters, such as Hayato Hayama, whose positive radiation, good looks, and his natural talent as a leader puts him at odds with Hachiman, or Haruno Yukinoshita, who is Yukino’s sister and is the polar opposite outwardly. There are too many others to name here, but the supporting cast also contributes immensely to Oregairu and are used to challenge the main characters, rather than being used in ways to boost them up.
The only real concern about ~this~ season of Oregairu is that the animation is quite shoddy at times. It does not really impact the watching experience, I just have to point it out due to how better animated the later seasons are.
Oregairu is one of those anime series that will always leave an imprint in my brain. Not for the wrong reasons like a series like Oreimo, but due to how unique it is, even if its plot is not that original. Oregairu’s characters are all written to be cared about. I think a lot of this series being popular has to do with how likable Hachiman is. It is rare in anime series of this kind for a male character to be the most popular one, but Hachiman seems to be the exception. His abrasiveness and willingness to what it takes to accomplish what he wants is admirable, even if it is ultimately the wrong choice. In the end, he is not some overpowered character with plot armor, he is just a high school boy that acts more grown-up than he actually is. While Hachiman is to be admired, no one should be like him. Of course, Yukino and Yui, and pretty much every other side character are likable as well. Oregairu is a must-watch for anyone into anime in my opinion.
