Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru.

This is an average highschool romance story. The twist? The main character is repulsive, and intends to stay this way. Otherwise, the series is quite lackluster, and frankly did nothing that stands out in my mind to make it very enjoyable.

Story (7/10):
Hikigaya is a die-hard introvert who enters high school that is 100% uninterested in forming a relationship. The plot revolves around him joining the Volunteer Service Club and meeting it's two members, Yui and Yukino. A love interest develops between both, but doesn't get very far due to Hikigaya's nature.

His adventures constantly involve him being the bad guy, and while there were a ... few good moments, they were never very outstanding.

Art (6/10):
The animation was not an eyesore, but it was frankly rather mediocre. It's a bit clear that not too much attention was given to the illustration, although the viewer (probably) won't be bothered too much by this.

Sound (7/10):
If I take anything from this series, it's the opening track. I loved that song. Otherwise, the soundtrack isn't anything to brag about.

Character (5/10):
The characters are the very definition of flat; they stuck to their natures 100% of the time and each fulfilled a trite, overdone archetype: the outcast, the floozy girl, the ice-queen, etc. I felt like there could have been more to Yukino's character that lie underneath her surface, but the series did little to explore this.

The decision to make Hikigaya an unlikable outcast was not the most original choice, and it certainly wasn't the best. He constantly makes a deliberate attempt to make people hate him, and while I recognize this fact, it still bothers me to the point where I cannot care for him.

Enjoyment (5/10):
It calls itself a romantic comedy, but I didn't find myself laughing very much. On top of this, at no point would I consider this series' attempt at humor outstanding of another. I also didn't care much for the romantic part, or at least what passed for it since Hikigaya rejects all notion of it.

Overall (5/10):
I came out of this series with few fond memories for it. While opinions may differ on its humorous and light-hearted nature, few can deny that it is rather shallow. If you enjoy a simple, shits-and-giggles anime to watch, you may consider this. If you're looking for something with depth, continue your search.

High school sucks. But I bet that's puberty talking.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
I haven't put out a review for some time so I guess I'm glad to be back. Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru (aka Oregairu) was an anime that was recommended to me as one of 2013's better romance/comedy/slice of life genre. Of course, I was instantly turned off just by the genre, but I've caught up with my weekly animes so I took my chance to run with it. First, I browsed through the reviews which were filled with praise as being a very clever, comedic anime about life, youth, and pessimistic analysis ... of high school life. Sounds enticing. Since I've just finished the anime, I will attempt to analyze this anime and give you the reason why it deserved the rating.

STORY (6/10):
Being a greenhorn to romcom/slice of life animes, I've come to a point where I will predict a vague, boring storyline, as the genre tends to stray far away from it. Actually, I was quite surprised how unpredictable it was. But that doesn't mean it will be a good storyline. In fact, due to its confusing and sudden change in character development, do we have a mess of an anime like Oregairu. Let's elaborate. At first, we see a underdeveloped and a quite negative character brooding in the shadows that defines high school as despicable and fake. With such a perverse attitude, his teacher introduces him to the Volunteer Club which only consist of another anti-social, in order to straighten his behavior. Hilarity ensues as the two students that refuses any social interaction, work together to help their fellow peers with issue that are questionable, and sometimes, completely unrelated to the plot. Another character decide to join in the fun and also becomes part of the club. The anime focuses on the trio as they live out their boring, lonely, and quite depressing lives as high school students. But wait a minute...when did the characters change their personalities so suddenly? What was the intervention? The cause and effect? During most of the anime, we see our main hero whining about how he's against society, then spontaneously, he has a change of heart in his own philosophy. Our main heroine(s) never get any chance to enhance their development until the last couple of episodes. It feels like the characters are doing whatever they want as the audiences sits there, thinking to themselves: I thought this was an anime about growing up so why is it so stagnant? In addition, the social and psychological concept behind the main character is quite elementary, nevertheless challenging. Social psychology? Nay, we are dealing with a self-conscious high school brat who decided to put walls around himself because of a few bad experiences.

Art (7/10):
Coming from Brains Base, whose producers have created imaginative animations in the past, the background and character designs are impressive. Each character has their own unique characteristics and it's not hard to tell who's who. But I can't ignore the obvious laziness within the drawings in some scenes that do require the extra-boost.

And their noses. No matter how detailed the creators have tried to make for each character, EVERYBODY HAS THE SAME, NON-EXISTING, FLAT NOSE.

SOUND (6/10):
"Yukitoki" by Yagi Yanagi is the OP and the EP is "Hello Alone" by Saori Hayami and Nao Tōyama. Both songs have a J-pop feel which is fluffy and positive. But to tell you the truth, I've heard them from the first episode and since then, I've just skipped them and went straight to the show. The vibes were not tantalizing enough for me to sit there and listen to the whole song(s).

CHARACTERS (7/10):
As many romcom/slice of life animes should provide, the characters are the most outstanding and prevalent. But with so many characters introduced in the anime, it was quite hard to really follow through which character development was the most powerful. I've sat and meditated on the characters and I've come to realize that within Oregairu, all of the characters are quite stationary, to the point where I question the past reviewers how they managed to give this anime a "10" or a "9". I will focus on the trios, as they are the main characters in the anime.

Hachiman Hikigaya is the ultra-straight man with a pessimistic personality. His aptitude as a social outcast allows him to be a cowardice figure that can only be pitied...so why is he complaining when his peers do? He loves to fly solo, bragging about his spirit animal: the bear, a solitary animal within the animal kingdom. He justifies his actions as someone who refuses to function in a society that wears masks, when in reality, his real intentions lie in helping others. Sorry, Hachiman: you can't help others if you can't help yourself. I just destroyed your flawed logic. At first, I was quite fond of his character, as he reflected me while I was in high school. But then, looking at him only reminded of how I acted and began to annoy me to a great extent. I really wanted to punch Hachiman (me) in the face. You see, I've been in Hachiman's shoes, literally. But as I grew older, I've learned that if you act in such a manner, you are not only destroying the relationships around you, but you're also destroying yourself. It is impossible for humans to survive alone. But to have sparked such a realization and emotion towards the audience, Hachiman can or cannot be one's favorite character in the anime.

Yukino Yukinoshita is our "Ice Queen" and the condescending beautiful tsundere. Quick with the tongue, Yukino's dialogue between Hachiman has a few hilarious moments, although the jokes quickly grows stale by each passing episode. Her personality is quite easy to identify: a self-conscious girl who has a inferiority complex and believes in hard work, rather than raw talent. Though I beg to differ, as Yukino seems to excel on everything that gets in her way. Many of her interpersonal problems syncs with Hachiman though she changes herself for the better. In my opinion, Yukino's character development was the strongest as her complex was triggered within her family, but gradually learns how to depend on others to solve her problems.

Yui Yuigahama is our typical fluffy, energetic heroine that annoyed me ever since she was introduced. Slow-witted and the clown of the trio, Yui is usually left out in the cold whenever Hachiman and Yukino battle out with words. Thinking carefully, Yui is the borderline between Yukino and Hachiman, the one who rides the fence. While assimilating into society, Yui is attracted by the solitude that her friends (?) share, as she gains more affection and trust from them. Ultimately, Yui is a third-party character that attempts to wiggle her way in a world (the loner world...) where they won't accept her.

OVERALL (6/10):
I'm serious. This anime is not a head-turner at all, and I could not make myself more clear. I flew past the episodes, surviving off the comedic standoffs alone. If the comedy was not there, I would not have recommended this anime since most of the characters have a strange knack for clinging onto cliches. The supporting characters do not reinforce the characters whatsoever, and I felt like I was watching a rip-off of the popular anime, "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya". If you really want to know what this anime is about, I suggest you recall your high school days and think about those social outcast, who thought that the world was against them. Now imagine their pea-sized brains that cannot comprehend macro-societal issues and then imagine whining about how life sucks. Now proceed to the watch the anime. Maybe it will spice up the comedy effect. And to the person who recommended me this anime: "Ehh..."

Going by the number of positive reviews this series has received so far here on MAL, you would expect to get into a good/decent show that maybe has some original ideas going for it or at the very least something something that keeps it apart from the rest of the crowd.

What most people agree on is the anti-social protagonist,about how the series deserves praise for tackling this type of character instead of having the usual bland boring lead most rom-coms have.
Lets get one thing straight out of the way : many other series had anti-social or depressed lead character (Welcome to the NHK, Sayonara ... Zetsubou Sensei...) that have been handled much,much better.The closest thing explaining Hikigaya's behavior was him breaking his leg in a car accident and getting turned down of a few times in some very insignificant situations like changing phone numbers or practicing during Physical Education class while being in elementary school,that's it.

Secondly he isnt really anti-social, he is just a self centered ,overly cynical and downright hipster of a character,with the "im above all these sheep who get together and form friendships" that kind of self indulging superior way of thinking, all while totally contradicting himself by staying in same damn club ,which he was completely against being dragged into (only in the first episode of course) in the first place.It doesn't even cross his mind to leave the club because how else would the producers make a high school related anime without including this very tired and unoriginal trait?
Call this the Kyon from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya syndrome of constantly complaining and trying way to hard to be ironic about every little thing just for the hell of it.Because that's funny and in no way gets repetitive almost instantly right? right? ....


Yahari Ore no Seishun has almost no romantic elements ,which would be ok instead of forcing one down our throats,but it briefly tries having one mid series that gets completely forgotten by the next episode,like nothing has ever happened.Which is ever worse than having a bad romance in the first place.
And the comedy is mild to non existent ,this depends on your subjective taste of course.I can only remember 2-3 moments where the show got a smile out of me,most of the time it felt like a total drag despite being only 13 episodes.

The "story" ,if you can call it that, is just the usual high school slice of life with all the usual situations and locations you've seen a million times: the fireworks festival,going to the mall shopping,the school festival....
It had a episodic nature where it introduced new character each episode alongside their petty problems in order to resolve them,no that all fine and dandy but surprisingly almost no of the issues really get resolved,they are either forgotten or just handled in the most .In some cases it goes into complete nonchalant territory such as :"Hey you're sad and lonely,stop being sad and lonely" - "well ok if you it that way" , "Hey you need money to provide your family.Why don't you get a scholarship?" - "Oh ok,ill get one right away".

That's when the writing was just abysmally bad,it also didn't help that everything was brushed away under the rug after each episode ended with no future mentioning.


I've touched upon the main character ,but what about the other 2 female characters? Are they well developed or interesting in some way?
Nope ,Yukino is a condescending ,overly direct ,perfect in all she does type of character .You could have literally replaced her with a robot with no understanding of human nature of emotions and it would have been exactly the same.
Yui is the typical air-head ,overly cheerful character that is pretty much mandatory in any high school related anime nowadays.Not much to say about her.


You only need to take a brief look at the cover for this anime to guess what kind of characters they are, its that simple.Character development is non-existent ,nothing has changed about them during the events the show presented.


The rest of the side characters are completely one note and extremely forgettable ,such as a the girl who likes guy on guy "action",the boy who looks like a girl and is mistaken for one everytime,the cute little sister who constantly repeats "onii chan" over and over again .
Notable mentions goes to the useless ,short tempered teacher who punches students and constantly smokes around them ,because that's funny and in no way gets you instantly fired in real life right ?.....


Overall its a very mediocre and forgettable anime that didn't even try bringing anything new on to the table ,it just rehashed the usual anime tropes.The high school setting has been easily the lowest common denominator for a very long time now,and this series does nothing but to reaffirm how tedious and uninteresting it has become.
Mediocre animation that takes you back to early 2000's series ,not something made 2013,decent VA,almost no story or character progression,bland and one note character ,that's Yahari Ore no Seishun in a nutshell.
Oh and just to make matters worse ,of course there has to be a sequel to this.Because every shitty ,unoriginal,mediocre series warrants a sequel nowadays.

I initially liked this show because it had a brutally honest male lead that was also a loner despite the fact that he was intelligent. *Sighs* Its called a rom com, but honestly I have seen way better shows than this that did not just finish so open ended or BLEH that I wanted my time back. Really some parts were ok, but the absurdity weighed heavier.

There was massive potential for growth and REAL closure concerning the unique personalities of the main characters and how they interacted, yet t'would nae be so. This show could have stood to be longer to finish things ... up, perhaps a 2nd season is in store, who knows?

Basically:

Loner guy who has good points about things seems negative for his honesty and insight and is relegated to a position he had at the show start. The rest of the characters in the long run remained absolutely indifferent to the social issues that trickle down to school age youth in our society. Perhaps it is the fault of our experiences in school, or it is in fact the world that makes life so, but to me, I just wanted a less pathetic male character in a highly enjoyable rom com again. C'est la vie

First of all, I would probably include some spoilers. As in many of my forthcoming entries, you have my WARNING of SPOILERS ALERT.

Comparing to your standard Harem/Sci-Fi/Action/Love Comedy/Comedy /Youth Drama shows, you have the biggest freak show in town.

The show "My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU" could be simply put as a nerd called Hikigaya desperately trying to avoid making friends. For some unknown reasons or even past histories that I still don't understand/get it, he is desperately trying to OBJECT the idea of having friends or joining a club. He might have a better life if he would just act and join a ... random club and showed up once in a while, He refuses to.

He is not rejected by the society. It is just himself quitting the crowd. Like what I did.

You've also got a girl called Yukinoshita. There are almost too many "TOO" to describe this girl: she is too good at her studies; too honest when she speaks; too stupid to speak so blunt; too strong that doesn’t even need to rely on the others; and probably too good to be true. And I too, had such "friend" surrounding me. He is my English literature teacher. A good friend of mine, an ass at times.

The second girl called Yui also applies with a few "too". Quote from Frank Ocean, "Too many white lies and white lines". She is too weak. Too good of a girl. One thing that she is not "TOO" is her social skills. Just the right fit to survive.

I don't know who she is at my life. Hell knows.

You've also got a Chuunibyou Otaku called Yoshiteru. He, like many, is fascinated with the idea of writing light novels. He had a dream. A Dream of becoming the top selling light novel writer in Japan. The thing he doesn't know is that he could not write: his writings are sloppy and full of grammatical mistakes. But well, who cares?

to surprise you, this is not a slice-of-life show.

You never had a otaku friend that would write like this and still doesn't get his, or her literature/language teacher beating him up; You never will find anyone as useless as Hikigaya to win a tennis match against the Ace of tennis club; You might heard some, but you might never find anyone struggling with their tutorial fees, (or you might not even found one in the US, but it is something easy to found in Hong Kong). And you might probably be able to find anyone as stupid as Hikigaya trying to avoid a relationship. You might never find a woman trying to seek advice from a man on how to bake cookies (Instead of searching YouTube) that is trying to please a guy - usually man does that.

At times, this is not a slice-of-life show. While the solutions are raised, problems are not instantly solved (like the scholarship case), but they move on. The show does a good job of discovering solutions, not at actually helping to solve them. Scholarship case was one of the more abrupt endings of the show: the idea of Scholarship was raised, but the difficulties of getting a scholarship were ignored. It was, at times, making me feeling incomplete and quite empty.

At times, the show does feel shallow, sometimes circling around. There is an excessive amount of irrelevant scenes, such as maid café scenes. Shopping scenes. Useless talking scene. At times, it even attempts to preach: Episode 1’s did have a debate on the definition of youth and try. It is a good effort of including such ideas in an anime, but it is poorly presented in the dialogue form: there are many talks but no walks. It might be a right choice in a novel, but it would not apporiate for something like this to happen in an anime: Visual-wise, the animation at that time was considerablely boring, consisting only two guys speaking and switching position. Plus, It leaves the audience unsatisfied as they never do what they claimed they would do.

At times, freaks do shine. Hikigaya was the best character of all times: he is just like me and I hate myself. He's able to come up with some great solutions at times, like the tennis game. But he's trying very hard to do a useless escape. Stupidity has no boundaries, but I love him. At least I am not a good student as he does. Yoshiteru is a freak and he shines. Yukino was the genius of the group but she wasn’t the one to be shining. Freaks, Nerds, genius, or just even some normal person working for their love ones, deserves to have a chance to shine.

Freaks do deserve a chance to shine. So as the show.

6.5

If you are looking for a different kind of rom-com, Yahari Ore will offer you plenty. It has more complex characters than your average anime. It's story (while slowish) has plenty of development as it plays out. The authors philosophies and character design are not superficial. It is well rounded even though it has its flaws. If you are not a fan of more serious rom-coms with lots of drama, you might want to pass.

This anime is about a anti-social protagonist who's in the center of a dramatic romantic comedy. Unlike your standard light rom-com, this anime discusses philosophies through its characters. The philosophies are ... then acted upon as the impetus for character decisions. It is interesting to watch these characters attempt to stick to their ideal, or discover new ones. That in itself creates much more character development than you would expect from your average anime. This also might make the anime seem more realistic. It is not. The main character magically finds himself forced into a club with the smartest hottest girl in school. How is that realistic? Most of their problems are also easily solvable in my opinion without breaking character traits or ideals.

The story setup is not realistic. It might appear so because the character are more developed and the problems they face are less superficial. But take a step back and examine the introduction of this anime. The main character is forced to join a club with the smartest and prettiest girl. She turns out to be an ice-queen tsundere. Shortly afterwards a cheerful girl with the opposite personality joins. Thus the anime has setup its love triangle in no time flat. Did I mention the MC's teacher is single, sexy, and smart? None of this is realistic. He just happens to be thrown into the den of two cute girls and the rest is history. Since this is where the anime starts, none of it feels genuinely realistic.

After the setup, the story does feel more realistic with the problems the MC has to solve. These issues are not crazy but rather everyday high school issues that might come up. Its the details that the author goes into that makes it realistic. But the solutions feel forced as there are many ways to approach these problems. The author however, feels that he needs to force the MC and other characters to act on their ideals as a method of solving the issues. There is almost no compromise. There is almost no genuine rational. To this end, the solutions do not feel realistic and the story feels more like fantasy.

The story does steer clear of your standard light romance rom-com drivel. The characters develop over time and communicate in the way you would expect. You also get a diverse amount of emotions ranging from the cheerful and romantic to the bitter and hateful. Too often average pump and dump rom-com animes focus on one spectrum or the other. All this is told from the perspective of the three main characters. As one of the characters puts it: "You must change the world rather than change yourself to win."

The characters themselves are more complex than your average anime cliche. They all show change incrementally which is good. There are some character flaws however. The MC unfortunately contradicts himself early on, something I believe the editors miss. This isn't important in the long run for most anime viewers since they will forget. But it leads to a less convincing MC who may not be the person he claims to be due to unfortunate events. As I said earlier, his solutions are also forced and appear contrived rather than intelligent. I believe the author wanted Hachiman to appeal to viewers by being both smart and anti-social but largely fails in the former department. The other girls also have design flaws. Both are given plenty of screen time but little of it is used to plug the holes in their character design.

Yukino Yukinoshita's problems are never really explained to the audience. This might be OK in real life and OK from the MC's perspective, but its bad for viewers. You never really get to know the why's and the hows. It is a constant mystery why she acts a certain way and none of the relevant parts address the issue. It is almost as if her character was designed with the traits without the backstory that the author would address later on. My point here is that it makes for a weak justification for how her character behaves. Its OK to hide this from the MC for romance story purposes but its not OK to hide it from the viewers. The entire point of this story is to understand the characters. The hook is the romance so you don't need to worry about the mystique. You don't need to solve this issue during the season but it needs to be explained in a way that makes sense for her.

Yui is similar in that she doesn't feel complete as a character. While she doesn't have a meta problem like Yukino, her issue is that she has no real problem aside from the romantic one. Her reasons for being in the club are entirely circumstantial. Perhaps its that she is looking for something real but the author doesn't even go there. Instead the author hamfists through their teacher advisor that she's the glue that holds the club together. I just don't buy it. Instead of letting Yui develop something more she's entirely there for the relationship aspect. That's OK at a certain level but it makes her superficial. Her character is there to strike a balance between Yukino but she cannot do it. Her personality is the only thing that shines but her character isn't fulfilling enough. The author attempts to do something with the dog but later on the dog is completely missing from the story. Of the three main characters, she is the weakest.

Aside from plot and characters, there is also the philosophical side of this anime. The monologues from Hachiman serve to explain why he does what he does. His anti-social views however are weak compared to the real thing. He also likes to egotistically assume he approaches problems from a rational viewpoint. So why does he always take a flawed approach? The reason is simple, hes not nearly as intelligent as he is supposed to be and this I would say is not a character flaw but a design issue. I believe the author designed Hachiman to be smart enough to solve these issues in in a way viewers can relate to. But because his solutions are not even close to the best ones, he fails. This seems to be purely the fault of the author. The character itself is supposed to showcase the anti-social ideals that he holds by making good rational choices at the expense of his personal relationships. Instead however he choose poorly multiple times though this is camouflaged by the ingenuity of his solutions. Since we are dealing with people this is not a good thing. Nobody wants to make a situation more complex than it needs to be just because its a solution. So in this sense the Hachiman ideals are actually quite weak. If we factor in the issue where he questions himself, it becomes even weaker. Furthermore the author interjects to soap-box his ideas through Hachiman. These musings are a different view than what Hachiman's philosophies are. I suspect the author is presenting personal views rather than Hachiman's views because of this. The anime however refrains from preaching to the audience in most cases.

The social aspect of this anime doesn't really do it justice. While it examines the social structures of society well enough (compared to other anime), its still falls short. Many situations are not throughly thought out, many reactions are either overdone or ignored. Some of the drama even seems to be manufactured. My point here is that this anime has potential to extrapolate on the social aspects even more than it does. Instead of digging deeper however it waltzes around so that it does not damage some of the stereotypes it establishes.

The humor in this anime is subtle and good if you like deadpan writing. It pokes fun at every character's cliches and their developments. While it stops short of parody, it does ask many questions and does so through comedy. The comedy also serves as a nice break inbetween the dramatic sequences. One of the key features of this anime compared to others is how comedy is used by the characters as well. In that aspect I would say its more realistic than most animes which elevates the comedic factor.

At the end of the day this is an anime that you should watch if you like rom-coms as it will expand your understanding of the genre. It is not like your typical rom-coms and like many decent ones, it can stand on its own. It however, has a lot less romance than you might expect. If you're looking for something like that, I would pass on this anime as its more about trust than love. But on that note, the romance develops at pace that is much more believable than many other animes. Just don't expect to believe that this anime is that much more relatable than other rom coms.

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru, with its super long title is a LN adaptation, a pretty famous one that is rated pretty high by light novel readers. This hype attracted me, so I decided to read it to see what's all the fuzz was about, and it did not live up to the hype, not surprising at all, cause the thing is hyped so much that anything short of a tatami galaxy wouldn't satisfy it.

Let's get it straight here, Yahari is a harmless little show dealing with teenage life in a slightly more realistic tone than almost all other LN had ... and have ever done, with quite good writing and solid characters.

Having said that, it have little to nothing else to offer for anyone who had went past the relate zone or never met the problems offered in the book.

Hachiman the protagonist is a kind of "unique" MC, that is more cynical than most anime MC, the quotation is to high light that the "uniqueness" is strictly restricted to anime, cause he is just your average kind of cynical high school student. This of course makes him more relatable to most of the target audience, but unfortunately I went pass that phase long ago when my teacher told me I need to go see a therapist or get expelled, so Hachiman is about as relatable as all the other MCs (ie. not at all).

The other characters are more fleshed out compared to other LN characters, with nice bit of depth here and there, raising their likability.

The plot is just teenage life with a bit of drama/romance here and comedy there.

Overall, Yahari is just a harmless show that is okay for what it is trying to do. It isn't offensive and if you like teenage life/romance or never gotten over it, you might like it a lot. Personally I never get the fascination with teen life, but then again I spent most of it climbing mountains, travelling around the world, and playing video games.

tl dr no spoilerino - its like a fat kid falling over; entertaining but rather shallow comedy.

So the best thing about the cartoon that stood out was the characters. The producers of this show really nailed the anti social main character. He is definitely a weird guy that does weird things but they managed to make him not a hated character and yet not a likeable character either.
The same can be said about the female lead with dark long hair. She definitely was a fucking weirdo but in a similar yet different way to the main character. This resulted in a refreshing dynamic between ... the two main characters in which they get to know eachother in a non-romantic way. This pacing adjustment to not force the main characters together quickly/at all was well received by me and my fedora wearing meme club. It felt more real and not forced as fuck.

character development is definitely a flaw for this show. few characters have significant backgrounding and new characters are introduced and more or less thrown away. i wish they had taken the route of concentrating on a few side characters. specifically hayama aka sexy-spiky-does-no-wrong-man and the blonde bitchy girl and lead females sister.
This show was a bit too harem-y for my liking. for a ugly AF loner, he seems tobe surrounded by girls that he could get on his tip after a few beers. there are like only 3 male side characters. 1 of them is a a hayama aka asian-channing-tatum, the other is oddly reminiscent of me; a manga loving fedora, trench coat and fingerless glove wearing memelord and a small boy which is pretty much a girl. the rest are all females with big bouncy melons that make my donger rise like my processor temperature when i edit my 3d virtual reality hentai in 4k.

its more like a slice of life cartoon that is like okay man. at the end of the day, watch whatever the fuck you want to. you really shouldnt take advice from a 300lb neckbeard memelord late to his shiftat mcdonalds.

I can't begin to write how much I loved this Anime with Hikki being a devios, vigor, repulsive, villain character he is a true definition of a Lone Wolf.. Omega.

His dialogue is superb

This isn't your normal ROMCOM you are completely wrong and if you're into or not into this type of genre give it a watch.

To make it short the ending was not satisfying, kind of when a girl can't finish you off during oral

Yahari Ore is a bit of a parody but it is also the kind of romantic comedy which takes an unpopular antisocial guys then gives him his pick of two girls who are attractive in different ways. Yukino is beautiful and intelligent, in fact she is so perfect that she is ostracized out of jealousy. While she comes off cold has a warm spot for Yui and our hero Hachiman, the latter which she expresses in fairly typical tsundere style. Yui is not an outcast like the other two but she tries too hard to make people happy and that sometimes leads to her being ... taken advantage of by her so called other friends. She is warm and sincere and sometimes a little clumsy she is the person who brings the whole group together. All three of them are in a club called the "service club" where they basically help random people with their problems.

As the name suggests this show derives a lot of its comedy from the main character comparing his life to the tropes of romantic comedies however it doesn't break the fourth wall. One of the problems that I had with this show was that a lot of the comedy is presented as witty banter between Hachiman and Yukino and honestly I think a lot is lost in translation. It can be very wordy and at least my translation (which I think is the official one) it was occasionally difficult to follow. Sometimes they would make counter arguments that quite simply didn't logically follow the statement before. I think maybe this is just a subtitle issue. I almost exclusively watch subs but I was thinking half way through maybe I would have been better off with the dub. There are also times where I feel they try to parody romantic comedies as a genre. Sometimes it works but sometimes it kind of misses the mark and ends up not really being much of a parody at all and just feels like a standard member of the genre.

I did like the characters though. One of the nice things about this show is they do have a few characters you wont find in every anime ever. The main character is in many ways fairly standard but he wont always do what you expect. Likewise Yukino although she can fall into the tsundere cliche you can usually see where she is coming from and I buy her as intelligent. I think Yui is the most atypical of the main cast and I ended up liking her a lot more than Yukino as we get to know who she really is. There are also a few surprises in the supporting cast but I wont spoil it for you.

In the end I gave it five, its basically a solid anime but it's still a comedy that is not all that funny. The characters feel real and the art is really nice but I just couldn't give it any more than that because I just don't think it was enjoyable enough, it's a little bit boring. But it might just be the subtitles, if you go both ways maybe try the dub?

Otherwise unremarkable kinda-sorta harem anime with a somewhat likable protag but weak supporting characters. Nothing stood out to me in terms of the plot and I will probably forget this series in a few years. Which is not to say it is bad. Just doesn't stand out in any particular way.

A short and spoiler free review.

I went in with high expectations from this anime, and the first half was good enough for me. But from the second half onward, it went down hill. This despite the fact that I kept aside the fact that 16 year olds can NEVER be this mature enough to be having deep philosophical conversations or arguments on the nature of human beings. It would have been more believable if this were a college setting.

Anyway, I the biggest problem with this anime was the character development. The male protagonist fluctuated between being a loner, being a deliberate bad person, and ... being a complete jerk. The female protagonist, on the other hand, was a downright biatch. Being blunt is one thing, but to be so abrasively obnoxious, is another. No wonder nobody really liked her.

The anime is good if you're looking for a slice of life comedy (if you go in expecting not a lot). Just keep in mind that both the protagonists are not your conventional protagonists and in all probability, you won't end up relating to either of them.

Now, when this show was aired back in 2013, I REALLY thought it was going to be a generic RomCom. Why was this the case? Well, if a story revolved around a high school student who was forced into a club by his teacher, and ends up meeting a ice-cold beauty who is the president of said club, who wouldn't think this was a gonna be another RomCom. However, that said, this show really blew away my expectations and eventually became my personal favorite title.

Story - 8
As said previously, this shows revolves around the members of the "Service Club", Hikigaya Hachiman, a loner who loathes ... the idea of "youth" as he is affixed that it is a lie. Yukino Yukinoshita, an intelligent, seemingly perfect, beauty who is cold and brutally honest, and the last member being Yui Yuigahama, a girl who is seemingly all sunshine and rainbows. Together, they help people who come to the club with their issues. Now, this already sounds generic with this premise of the plot revolving around a club being run down to the ground with whats atop of my head right now, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumya, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, Gj-Bu and many other series that I am not gonna mention that revolve around a club. However, what this series does that defies the stereotypical is the characters. Even though all the club does is solve problems, what makes it entertaining is how they do it and come to that point. If it were any stereotypical protagonist, I wouldn't enjoy the show as much as I would have. But with Hikigaya Hachiman along with his viewpoint of the world, makes it entertaining. One thing to take note however, is that the series does not proceed to make the romance as major plot point in the series, as that is what would normally be expected in a RomCom. The romance is certainly is there and can be seen, but it is more of a sub-plot point and doesn't make a big deal out of this, but more rather, focusing more on the cast and their chemistry all together rather than 2 people. I sorta wish that they give that more focus, but it still was great either way.

Art - 8
The art is really distinctive among other RomComs I have watched due to Hikigaya's prominent feature, his fish eyes. The show's art is really nothing special but it it got the job done and that it suited the series very well, with it's vibrant and radiant colours and immediately changes it's tone very easily when Hikigaya delves into his monologues.

Sound - 9
I definitely liked the OST as it the situation the characters were in whether it was a dramatic moment, or if it was a moment of it's routine based comedy, and yet entertaining moments among the cast, the soundtrack did it's justice for the series. The voice actors were also chosen really well, with Hikigaya Hachiman being voiced by Takuya Eguchi, who played him very well, especially when it came down it the monologues, he portrayed the character really well when I compare it to the Light Novel. Nao Touyama and Hayami Saori also did a great job with their respective characters, Nao Touyama voicing Yui and Hayami Saori voicing Yukino.

Characters - 10
I absolutely loved the characters that had been written in this series with them being written more realistically then what is stated in the synopsis.

With Hikigaya Hachiman, he is probably the most relateable character and the most realistic I have seen, and without him, this show wouldn't be that good. His cynical and pessimistic mindset of society is always entertaining and yet, it contains truth among the words that he speaks. It truly kept me wanting for more as I hear more dark, truthful and humorous comments about society. The interactions he has is humorous and fun to watch, especially when he is in the club with it's members, being one of the best chemistry between a trio ever.
Yukino more or less counteracts Hikigaya's personality as they both have opposing ideals. However, this makes their interactions more interesting as they both continuously both exchange their own verbal fists against one another. To see who's ideology is better.
There is not much to say about Yui, but I really liked her character as well, although she was the least prominent member out of the trio. However, she plays a vital role amongst Hikigaya and Yukino as she is the glue the holds the club together and without her, they will more or less argue until one other wears each other out.
Even though there is some amounts of development, it certainly was there as Yukino steadily broke her icy shell, Yui became more independent and at the end of the series, Hikigaya started to grow more fond of the interactions that he is involved with Yui and Yukino, no matter how pointless it seemed.
Even the side characters, such as the delusional otaku, Zaimokuza, gender ambiguous Totsuka and The Joker of Hikigaya, Haruno, was very entertaining to watch, as they interact with Hikigaya and the club members and their reactions towards each person.

Enjoyment - 10
Overall, I was always hoping to come back for more as having to see this club continue with its pointless and yet oddly charming interactions were fun . I always liked having a good cast in any anime, and this certainly did what I wanted fulfilled.

Overall - 9
The series could've done with it's animation and done a little more with the plot, but what totally threw all that out of the bus was the characters that had been realistically written, which I had enjoyed throughout the series. This show was definitely not your stereotypical romantic comedy that throws the norm out of the window, which I personally think is a spectacle. This show would definitely be recommended to people who wish for a different spin on the romantic comedy genre and for people who loves anime that is dialogue-heavy instead of the shounens.

I am not going to try to be witty or over analytic in this review.

First and foremost: Where's the Romance? Besides 1 episode where the 2 characters go on a "quasi" date there really isn't any chemistry between any characters that you could call "Romantic".

Secondly - Comedy? Please feel free to point out something that was funny in this anime that hasn't been done a thousand times over.

I truly felt this anime had some qualities that could have shown through. The main character could have evolved more in his own eyes or those around him. ... Some characters were overly done as idiots. Let's not forget the same stereotypical crap we've seen over and over about heavy set/obese people.

All in all it wasn't a bad anime - it just never lived up to its full potential either.

**I watched the full thing so you didn't have to, you're welcome <3**

Oregairu in one sentence: an anime that constantly beats around the bush, has a slow burn romance that lasts 3 seasons and only shows romance within the last 2 episodes. Do not recommend at all.

This is taking into account ALL seasons, and the score would be so much lower if the last 2 episodes didn't exist. In the beginning, it was refreshing. I like characters like Hachiman. They're supposedly realistic yet pessimistic to everyone but them, blunt, "gross", don't fit in at all. It's different to the overly positive (no complaints with ... these characters), charming, aggressive or quiet MC's. I actually somewhat liked it at first. Then slowly, but surely, it started to drag on and on and on.

I started to lose what they meant? So many "read between the lines", "read my mind", "let's not talk about it outright" moments. Avoid using the main word and substituting it with something else. Too many characters were like that, it was frustrating. They were getting no where. And sometimes, it seemed as if the anime was blowing things out of proportion. What was the issue exactly? I couldn't even tell you half the time.

Maybe that's of my own fault. Everyone else seems to understand all too well. Maybe it was just too complicated for my small brain. But it shouldn't have been, no? Codependency, responsibilities, a love triangle, friendships, changing. What else? Why was it that complicated?

And I can appreciate character development. I can appreciate slow burn romances. But ONLY to a certain extent. There is such thing as too slow. And 3 seasons, that to me, hardly featured any character development, is the DEFINITION of too slow. Where is the character development? Sure, right at the end we see the main love interests (MAIN MAIN) actually speak their mind (one totally outright, FINALLY). But only at the end?

The only thing i can appreciate in Oregairu is the actual couple. As long as it may have taken to get to them (and it was NOT worth it, not matter how sweet they are together), I did enjoy seeing them together (however little it was). I couldn't pinpoint the moment when I even thought they saw each other that way, but I can admit they're good together. The rating of this would be so so different if half of the anime was more focused on their relationship and them together. Not just wild cat and mouse chase doing and say God knows what.

I like a couple other characters, and the design is gorgeous. I'm not sure whether Hachiman is purposefully made to look like that. It's as if his art style doesn't line up with everyone else's, but everyone else's design was gorgeous. The story idea itself isn't bad at all. In fact, it could've been really good if they had just done it differently. I had NO attachments with the characters whats so ever (I barely even liked them).

In short, Oregairu falls short of my expectations. It's overhyped. I'm so glad it's over, and I never plan on going back here. I get that the title is not to be taken literally, and if anything, is saying that the anime is anything but a romantic comedy anime, but romance is a tag in this. And people go as far as to label this the TOP romance. To each their own I guess. I wouldn't consider this a romance full stop.

Overall rating: 5/10. If you're a fan of 1D characters, never getting anywhere situations and recycled episodes over and over (MC being told the same thing, same love triangle problem, same problem again and again and again), you might just enjoy Oregairu. I don't see it, but maybe you will.

Couldn't really get into this. I found the MC (Hachiman) rather unlikable - misanthropic, a loner, with a huge sense of superiority over others. He becomes better throughout the series, but this development occurs at a snail's pace and he's not much better by the end of the 13 episode run.

In a rom-com, I should want the characters to get together. But I don't feel that with Hikigaya. The self-willed loner character who eventually learns to rely on others is common in this genre, and there's lots of examples of likable ones (Mei in Sukitte Ii Na Yo, Touma in WA2, Tomoya to an ... extent in Clannad) but this series fails to show the MC is somebody you want to root for.

It may be because this series is more like 85% comedy and 15% romance - Hachiman's flaws are kind of played up for laughs - and he turns out a lot better in the sequel season, but as far as romantic comedies go this is the one I've liked the least.

All other aspects of the anime are fine - it's your typical slice of life high school anime: There's overbearing teachers who want the best for their kids, 'popular kids' the main cast gets into conflict with, an arc about the culture festival + performance. Nothing really stands out too negatively or positively, except the aforementioned flaws of MC.

TLDR; A slice of life (light on the romcom) in a school setting. Decent watch if you're a sucker for the genre like myself but otherwise give this a skip. Decent dialogue but everything else is extremely average.

The most important aspect of a slice of life show is the characters, since you'll be watching them do basically nothing the entire series. Shame that these characters are generic and bland.
MC is a jaded edgelord with 0 reason to be so, but its refreshing that people actually hate him for it. Big shame he literally doesn't change at all for 13 episodes, his only character development comes ... near the end of the series and its rather minute.
The main 2 love interests are rather boring characters: Yukino is just the stereotypical "Ice Queen", and while her generic banter with the MC is entertaining she is extremely 2dimensional. Atleast she gets a decent amount of character development throughout the show; Yai is pretty entertaining no matter how awkward she is on stage. She has a single aspect of character development and its in the first episode you see her in.

Side characters shine pretty well, and usually the best characterisation comes from side characters interacting with the protaganists.
Dialogue is a highlight as well. Most characters have distinct conversation styles and usually makes up for the bulk of the entertainment.

Most of the artwork is passable, however some frames are downright terrible.

Story is atypical, not much stands out. As the "Service Club" deems their duty, each storypoint revolves around helping someone. This makes for some rather boring arcs that aren't actually useful at all to the main plot like the summer camp episodes.
Somehow the MC is useless until he magically becomes dependable at the end of each arc. Odd that his method of being useful is to get people to hate him, however it seems the writer himself has a history with being an edgelord.

I will continue to watch, I can see it becoming better when they actually input some romantic elements and start developing the main characters more.

This isn't a HORRIBLE series exactly: the characters are likeable and the main character has some nice inner monologue. I liked how he was perceptive and very realistic about how romances play out for most guys in real life.

ON THE OTHER HAND, I did not like the way he would never confront anyone or do the right thing /when/ he should have done it. It became very frustrating. Especially with the way he kept getting insulted. I can't stand spineless characters or characters who don't DO anything.

For me, the fact that he was so... passive, always watching things and barely doing anything to alter the ... course of the story, made this a forgettable story. As I said, the characters are likeable, but I never had any moments where I was cheering inside or happy. The storyline isn't anything great.

There wasn't anything there to make this anime worthwhile, especially as all of the story's realism and "perceptiveness" was wasted on a main character who was so uninteresting to follow around.

His behaviour was/is so out of sync with what an analytical but INTERESTING guy might have done. If only he'd been more like the main character of a series like, say, Log Horizon and a) been more upfront about his feelings, b) been more active when it comes to helping people, c) USED his analysis of people's characters to do something, rather than sitting around and waiting for the others to fix things, etc. Then this would've been a 10/10 for me.

Alas.

I've got other qualms with how the story threads were dealt with and how a lot of characters weren't developed enough or in an interesting enough way, but I'm not going to sit here proposing how to redraft the entire anime :P

TL;DR: The MC just isn't a main character. There should've been a different main character with motivation an a spine, and the current MC should've been relegated to being a background character... his rightful place.

Review in brief:

Oregairu opens with a season that is more com than rom and not to its benefit. Its decision to dive head-first into the realm of high-school rom-com tropes, combined with a strangely poor performance from Brain’s Base, leaves little more than what’s expected from this oversaturated genre. While not wholly uninspiring or lacking in potential, it does little to stand out across most of these initial 13 episodes.

Review in full:

The high-school romantic comedy is a staple of early 21st century Japanese storytelling, commonly offering a rose-tinted look at the emotional struggles of everyday teenagers. It’s something that the protagonist of ... this particular rom-com, Hachiman Hikigaya, wants absolutely no part of. With an embarrassing middle school experience he’d rather not repeat and a recent incident cementing his disdain for society at large, he strives to live a life of solitude, away from the petty deceit surrounding him. However, fate (and more specifically his guidance counselor) has other plans for him.

Hachiman’s youth romantic comedy starts out largely as expected, with him getting roped into a club that goes against his current mindset (in this case, a consultant-like “Service Club”) along with the school’s resident ice queen, Yukino Yukinoshita, where they frequently deal with problems for a host of tropey classmates & potential love interests. It doesn’t take long for the outgoing Yui Yuigahama to enter the mix and make the foundations of a classic love triangle. The catch with this otherwise default setup is that Hachiman isn’t about to give up on his loner ideals for a quick waifu and will fight tooth and nail to stay on the path he thinks is right.

With a decently sized cast to establish and a rom-com core, perhaps it’s understandable that this season largely focuses on comedic hijinks rather than the relationship drama that the main man is actively fighting to avoid. Brazenly, it does this by making fun of the stereotypical rom-com it opens as. In utilizing characters that follow obvious tropes, it needs to allow them to develop to avoid falling into the old parody-trap of becoming what it's making fun of. Most of the characters have quirks that would allow them to break free of their trope-definitions, but rarely do they get the focus needed to do so.

Let’s look closer at Yukino as an example. On the surface she’s a fairly standard kuudere, but there’s quite a lot to unpack underneath that, including a secretive family situation, a past she’s trying not to let define her, and a sense of what one may call “duty” twisted against the world (not unlike Hachiman’s beliefs on society). With those details and more, there’s plenty of potential dramatic development for her character. The drama we get involving her is easily gripping, with even minute details like her standpoint on truth paving the way for heavy interrelational situations to blossom out of Hachiman’s evolving perspective of it, but little of it translates into comedic potential. When it comes to jokes she’s aloof and deadpan like any kuudere, and Hachiman already has the deadpan part more than covered.

This reflects how nearly every character’s comedic potential gets cut short, even when they have dramatic strength. Yui’s genuine concerns for her peers and the effort she takes to alleviate them are touching, but her encouragement just lumps together with whatever other optimistic oddball shares the scene with her. Miura & Tobe’s obnoxiously nosy yet often fairly innocent antics are often undercut by Hayato and his strong desire to play the nice guy and maintain peace among his peers. Saika is a dedicated & helpful person who constantly appears just to be fujo bait, and Ebina is just a massive fujoshi.

Even Hachiman, who gets enough introspective focus to be among the most developed in the cast, mostly just follows the jaded introvert comedic tropes. His snark, which intentionally stems from a rotten worldview and is used effectively to create drama, unintentionally rots the quality of jokes centered around him for anyone who isn't projecting themselves into the story through him (and you will struggle to do so if you’ve never been a loner yourself). His lonely resentment for the lies of the social world builds up his tragic sense of justice, but attempted jokes revolving around it are just saddening. The extremes that Hachiman is willing to take his convictions are hardly ever funny, despite not being unentertaining, because they are tailored to fit his dramatic escapades.

When this season goes for drama, it usually works well since the characters are intentionally written around their tropes. With a story that embraces the idea of things being more than what meets the eye, this is where the characters’ deeper aspects get the focus they need to shine, and they’re often arranged within the plot in a way that allows them to develop easily and quickly (they have reasons for being the way they are, after all). The dialogue as a whole is well paced and at least moves along at a brisk rate that avoids stagnation. That said, it's mostly carried by Hachiman’s pithy inner monologues which, as usual, are more geared towards the anime’s sporadic drama rather than the abundant trope-based comedy.

Part of the issue may lie in, of all things, copyright; apparently the source novels are heavy on referential humor. That would have provided an additional angle to bounce the comedy off of, and that’s what it needed most. Unfortunately, it was likely too much of a headache for Brain’s Base to work with. Not to sidetrack, but it reminds me of Watamote’s anime, which constantly employed bleeps to avoid naming IPs and even spent half of a conversation to maintain a single Madoka☆Magica reference. Oregairu’s pace would’ve slowed to a crawl under such constrictions.

Despite Brain’s Base’s solid reputation when they adapted this season, the production quality struggles to make something of itself, rarely breaking above mediocre where it matters least and often ending up far below that. The animation direction in particular is an example of how not to allocate resources. Sometimes the animation is nice in places where corners are usually cut, with the occasional conversation being spiced up with a flashy motion or pose, but a lackluster frame-by-frame approach comes up far more often, including places where it has no right to (such as this tennis match -> https://i.imgur.com/xMqs9rG.gif). While the visual style and character designs are appealing at their best, the slapdash picture quality is sloppy enough to butcher it all more often that highlight it. Important developments often end up told instead of shown because the visuals can't cut the mustard with anything more intensive than small talk.

The music is mediocre on the whole, while the SFX is nothing special and the voicework mostly follows the tropes of the characters, sometimes to a grating degree. There are a few characters who receive nuanced voicework though, and those few characters stand out because of how much the underlying social cues in their voices imply about where their quirks lead, even if the rest of the presentation does little to touch upon them. Presentation-wise, the OP is the best part of the season, which balances out the boringly standard yet strangely unfitting EDs. Had this season’s overall production standards been more consistent, perhaps they could have made this season’s highlights matter more than its duller moments, but the unfocused presentation instead achieves the opposite.

Verdict:

In deciding that it wants to parody rom-coms, Oregairu initially overestimates itself and begins as the type of tropey, romantic slice-of-life it derides. If it hadn't tried that, it could have easily begun as a fairly good rom-com on its own merits. The writing is deft enough to make it flow well and the dramatic moments display potential, but neither the plot nor the production values thus far bring enough to the table to take full advantage of them.

On Continuing to Season 2 ~ A Side Note:

With season 1 out of the way, I must say with considerable frustration that it doesn’t represent what Oregairu becomes in season 2. The unfortunate thing about this first season is that it stops just before the plot truly picks up and characters fully develop beyond their templates. I ended up checking out the second season shortly after finishing this one and it quickly begins to bring forward a purpose behind the tropey nature of the story beyond the typical comedy on display here (and with a cleaner presentation to boot). However, there’s virtually no indication that things would turn out that way within these first 13 episodes. Oregairu is a slow burner in an unfortunate manner.

With that in mind, if you’re on the fence about continuing to season 2 I can only recommend doing so if you found my fence-pole of a review to either be fair or too harsh compared to your own stance. Oregairu gets better and shifts its tone, but it also stays true to the core theme the author started with here, bumpy progression aside. If that core theme doesn’t interest you or you find the tropeyness of this season to be overbearing, you likely won’t see Oregairu’s later improvements as enough to make it worthwhile. I don’t mind the tropes; I just want them to be used effectively. I saw the potential for it to reach that point buried under the largely trite comedy and was satisfied as said comedy became both less frequent and less trite. If the tropes themselves bother you, the later tonal shifts won’t matter to you, because building something meaningful out of old tropes was, authorially speaking, the point of Oregairu all along.

(Spoilers)

This anime was fine but it felt an odd loop of the main character not really changing much since he's an outcast and is still somewhat of an outcast at the end but with some people hating him.

Story 6/10- The main story was kind of simple, a boy name Hikigaya who is a social outcast is forced to go to a club called service club meeting with the leader of the club Yukino and then eventually meeting with Yui. At some point, before all three of them met, apparently all three were at an incident which involved all three of them, Yui's dog was almost ... hit by a car but Hikigaya saved the dog and apparently Yukino was in the car that almost hit the dog. They eventually do find it about this, Yui knew who saved here dog before they met but Hikigaya and Yui didn't know that Yukino was in the same car that hit Hikigaya. So you can they met by fate or something, but I think anime also had some a lot of side stories that maybe or maybe not be important in the future seasons but I thought these parts would least grow the characters in some way but in the end, there was not much change.

Art 7/10-The art was ok it had a simple look to it, and there was nothing really bad about, it was bright, colourful anime that did fit with the genre of the anime, characters were drawn well to sit some of there personalities.

Sound 6/10- The ending and opening were ok, I did skip it since it didn't really want to listen to it every episode and some goes for the ending. I watched the anime though the dub and that was fine as it matched the voices for the characters.

Characters 6/10- Hikigaya, Yui and Yuinko the three main characters, one is a social outcast boy, another one is a cheerful kind girl and the other one is a smart, good looking girl. These characters are ok but as I said before there was nothing really much difference when it came to growth for the characters and that made this season really simple and sometimes boring. Other characters are also ok as there are some weird or interesting characters but they aren't really important after they were introduced.

Enjoyment 7/10- This anime did have some funny moments that did make me laugh and I like those moments but when it came to the romance there was nothing really much to say about, sure the bond between the three characters are growing but there was really much romance growing between them, Hikigaya is a person who has no friends and doesn't talk to others much until he meets Yui and Yukino but he doesn't want to make friends with them until the end I guess where he says to Yukino if he wants to be friends but then is some what rejected but there wasn't much growth in the anime.

Overall 6/10- It has hard to choose 6 or 7 for this anime but in the end, it is 6 for me as it was a bit simple, nothing really much interesting in this season. For me, romance should have the characters to show some affection to each other and it should have to some parts where they are falling for each other kind but this anime didn't really have it but I'm hoping that next season will be better.