Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. Zoku OVA

This OVA is actually more interesting for what DOESN'T happen than for what does, and to understand what I mean by that you need to have watched the two seasons of shows that precede this. Then seeing this makes a lot more sense than watching it as a stand alone.
For me, this episode is an observation of the stagnation our two core characters will remain in if they are not pushed or challenged from the outside. Having in their 16 year lives to (in different ways for different reasons) isolate themselves from the rest of the world, Hachiman and Yukino will maintain their ... social exile even while drawn into the public world. During the first part, when Hachiman somewhat unwillingly spends a day on the town with Iroha, the mood of the scenes seems to say that this is not an event he is enjoying but rather a sort of necessary maintanence of a working relationship he is obligated to uphold, about as much fun a changing the oil on your car or cleaning the gunk from the fish tank. Not much better is the mood when our primary trio repeat the exercise the next weekend. While Yui is able to enjoy the experiences of shopping and interacting with clerks etc., Yukino seems to cling to Hachiman, but not out of any sense of affection, but rather because he is the only available port in the storm of her borderline agoraphobia. The only time she seems comfortable is at the petshop mewwing at the kittens in the window.
I look at this OVA as a status update... saying that although there is something of a bond building between Yukino and Hachiman and Yui, it is still tenuous, and they still are very lost in the larger world outside of their respective self isolation bubbles. While Yui and Iroha (and certain other characters) have been allowed in, they still have not reached the point of being able to step out, at least of their own inspiration. That's why I ranked story and character at 6, because it's hard to watch and kind of sad that these charactes are still in their shells so firmly. Art and Sound ranked at 7 because they continue in the same refined and high quality as the general series. But overall it gets an 8 because it is establishing an honest and unpleasant truth about our characters, that they have seen the light of social interaction, they have yet to turn and approach its warmth.

Somewhat of a mediocre OVA... which is strange because the first season's OVA was fantastic.

This OVA does not continue the story of the second season but is rather a one-shot side story. It does not really advance the relationship of the characters and does not reveal any important information, it's a bit more like the first season in that regard , given that it's mostly light hearted and flows pretty smoothly.

However, the big flaw is that almost the entire run-time is dedicated to Hachiman and Iroha rather than Hachiman / Yuigahama / Yukinoshita. This is a massive downside to the OVA since Isshiki Iroha, ... love her or hate her, is not a main character, she became a strong supporting character in the second season but not strong enough to usurp most of the runtime of an OVA from the main cast.

So I found myself struggling to complete this OVA. Not good, not recommended, can be easily skipped.

This series is so dumb it manages to screw up even the most basic of rom-com tropes and make it painful to watch. I'm largely biased about anything fun this show tries to do because of how much I've grown to hate these characters over the course of two dreadful seasons. I don't want to see them having fun, because it reminds me of all the suffering they've put me through.

I dislike the younger girl with blondish hair who's always hitting on the protagonist in the same breath that she's rejecting him. "Hey Hiki, let's go on a date. Ew gross I meant as a ... friend you pervert. Wow Hiki I really like you. Ew you think I like you, what ever gave you that idea you pervert go die." I guess I can give them that it's a realistic depiction of how awful teenage girls are to deal with in real life, but it's like geez who hurt you? I also hate her because functionally within the narrative she's basically identical to the pink hair girl already established when she was introduced. Their hair color and personality are similar enough that I genuinely get them mixed up most of the time and don't bother separating them in my mind because I know it doesn't matter.

The 3 way date he goes on next is even more infuriating because any time the 3 main characters are on screen together it just feels so painful and awkward and makes me want to die. They both clearly like protagonist-kun but all 3 of them apparently hate talking to each other and especially hate voicing their motivations or actions and we're just supposed to guess. I don't care about any of their feelings and I'm just so sick of it all, I really can't take much more of this show. I'll watch the 3rd season out of spite to see how they try to end the stupid love triangle but I pretty much guarantee no ending they come up with will be satisfying for anyone because the only good ending would be for all 3 of them to die horribly in a bus crash or something, or be forced to live out Amane's tragic backstory from Grisaia over and over again. 4/10