So, I was kind of saving this entire theory for 4chan, but I may as well post it here, since we’ve entered long post territory. It’s essentially my take on Yukino as a character (or to be more precise: the reasons why Yukino started the club and why it’s so important for her that Hachiman changes) and the “story” as a whole (the story being, in a very simplified form, Yukino and Hachiman growing to become better people and Yui being the glue that holds these two extremes together). So if there are a few things that seem off about the text I’ve written, it’s because it was meant to be posted on another site that has a 2000 character limit per post and I’m too lazy to change it. Keep in mind that this comes from someone who has not yet read the LN, but does know a few key plot points, so in no way should you take any of this as being 100% true, it’s merely my interpretation of Yukino’s motivations. Also, since it’s my interpretation of the show, it’s not really a spoiler (there may be a few spoiler-y things thrown in here and there though). So without further ado:
Anyone else think that the Service Club serves as a front for Yukino to make amends for the car accident? Essentially at the start of the series she believes it's her family's fault Hachiman ended up being a loner in high school and out of guilt takes it upon herself to set things straight. There are quite a few things that support this theory.
If you re-watch S1E1, with the knowledge that Yukino and Sensei both know about Hachiman's situation, don't a few things stand out? For instance Yukino pretends she doesn't know who 8man is, but when Yui comes in later she does know who she is (she even remembers Yui's dog in episode 6, but somehow we're supposed to believe she doesn't know who 8man is? Also at the end of episode 6, she sure knows a lot about the incident that caused the falling out between Hachiman and Yui, she knows that both of them aren’t at fault and that they should blame the instigator, “The two of you can start over”).
Notice how when Hachiman enters the room for the first time, it's an empty storage room with Yukino sitting in a chair reading a book. Something that would take 5 minutes to prepare. When Sensei and Yukino start talking, doesn't their conversation feel staged? Hachiman barely gets any input and is literally forced to join because of some flimsy reason. Sensei leaves the room, however stays outside listening in on the conversation and when she feels that Yukino is making no progress convincing Hachiman to join, she comes back in to support her or when Yukino is close to spilling the beans about the real reason of wanting 8man to join, Sensei interrupts and pulls the Shounen bet out of her butt (a bet that is SO important she doesn’t even remember it during season 2) just to get Hachiman to join. (This isn’t the only time where Sensei steps in when Yukino’s getting too wound up about Hachiman, most recent example: S2E3, where Yukino was desperately grasping at ideas just to prevent Hachiman from self-sacrificing again)
Near the end of S2E6 the nature of the Service Club was brought up, Orimoto laughing at the club “what the heck is that, never heard of it”, Hachiman himself not being too sure what his club actually even means. Let’s look at it this way, what was the Service Club before Hachiman joined? Just 1 member, Yukino, sitting in an empty room, reading a book. You think Yukino had helped a single person before Hachiman joined? How many has she helped after Hachiman joined? Not that many, because her main focus is helping Hachiman become a better/more sociable person first (by letting him help others and maybe gain some friends in the process), helping others second. Notice how, in the first half of the first season, every student that comes to them with a request was sent by Sensei? If the students were aware that such a club existed, wouldn’t they come on their own? Isn’t it kind of a coincidence that the first person Sensei sent to the club was Yui, you know, the other girl involved in the car accident?
Also, notice how every time tensions between Hachiman and Yukino get high, Yukino says that “there’s no need for the club (if Hachiman won’t attend)”. (S1E10 Sagami arc and now with the post-StuCo Elections Iroha arc)
As you may be aware "Hachiman needs to change" is a recurring motive for Yukino throughout the series. The reason why Yukino has such a hard time talking to Hachiman (when things get serious) is because of the guilt she feels because of the car accident (as evidenced by the end of episode 6, where she says that Yui and 8man can start over, because they're not to blame), which is why she puts up her Ice Queen Bitch persona (yes, this is not her actual personality, merely a wall she had to develop to keep bullies at bay and also a barrier she puts up when dealing with Hachiman) to make it easier for her to talk to him. (Also she kind of has her own issues, Yukino’s social skills aren’t the best)
But why does Yukino get angry with 8man? Well, because his way of solving problems goes directly against what she set out to accomplish with her club. She started the club to make him a better, more sociable person. Instead he keeps committing social suicide and making his situation worse. It could be argued that every single time he does this (“Let me show you how to really change the world”) is for the sake of Yukino, which is obviously even more aggravating for her, to the point where she’s given up in S2E6 (or at least it’s one of the reasons she has given up).
So, what is the reason Yukino got upset with Hachiman solving the Student Council Election problem by himself? Well as some have stated, it’s because Yukino actually wanted to be StuCo Prez herself and because she wanted to test the friendships she has with Yui and Hachiman, believing that their friendship would last even without the club. While I definitely believe and agree with those two reasons, I feel that Haruno’s words from S2E4 also played a big role: “The way you go about forcing work on others is just like Mom… Others always have to get their hands dirty for you.” Yukino’s reply: “So, that’s what this is about.” While throwing a quick glance at 8man.
What is Haruno’s objective? To get Yukino to run for StuCo President. Why? So that Yukino can one-up her bigger sister, since Haruno never became StuCo President? I don’t know, Haruno’s intentions are always kind of vague. However, why did she phrase it like that? Well, like I said, for starters to manipulate Yukino in wanting to become StuCo president, but why the comparison with her mother?
If I recall correctly (from the LN), the car accident was pretty much a hit-and-run (which is why Hachiman and Yui recognize the car, but not the people sitting in it). I think it’s safe to assume that the people in the car at that time were Yukino, Haruno and Yukimom (and possibly Yukidad). Not wanting the Yukinoshita family name to be tied to a car accident scandal, I think it was Yukimom who told the chauffeur to keep driving. Afterwards she sent the chauffeur to the hospital to apologize to Hachiman and as far as she was concerned the whole incident had been taken care of, not really caring how missing out on the first few weeks of school would be detrimental for someone like Hachiman.
Why did Haruno’s words trigger Yukino? As I’ve stated before, Yukino started the club to help Hachiman become a better/sociable person, which was going okayish, until Hachiman developed a martyr-complex and started solving problems by sacrificing himself. S1E9 reveals that even Haruno knows Hachiman was the one that got hit by the car: “Don’t glare at it like that. There aren’t any visible marks anymore. Huh? Yukino didn’t tell you? I shouldn’t have said that.” However, for Yukino’s sake, she didn’t bring it up in previous encounters with Hachiman. After the Sagami confrontation in S1E12, Haruno and Sensei approach Hachiman. Haruno tells Hachiman that she heard of his “heroics”, which indicates that she knows how he operates. (Also, this should be another sign that shows that Sensei knew about Hachiman’s situation beforehand, Sensei and Haruno both approach him directly after the confrontation, immediately start talking to him about it, it can be assumed that they heard it at the same time, discussed it a bit and sought out Hachiman to talk to him about it: “I heard about that heel turn of yours. I like that. Letting Yukino have you might be a waste. Right, Shizuka-chan?”)
Haruno knowing about the car accident, Hachiman’s way of handling things and Yukino’s motivations for starting the club, says to Yukino: “You’re just like mom, letting others get their hands dirty for you.” These words strike Yukino deep, because basically she’s saying: “I thought you were talking all that high and mighty shit about how you were going to fix this guy, however you let him, martyr-complex-kun, solve all of the issues by letting himself become an even bigger social outcast. Your way of handling things is in no way better than how mom did it.”
After hearing those words, Yukino decides to take matters into own hands, believing that even if she won the StuCo election, their friendship would last even without the Service Club (even though Yui points out the far more realistic outcome). However Yukino’s resolve doesn’t last long, since Hachiman goes behind her and Yui’s back and solves the problem himself (in an underhanded way). So not only did Hachiman pull her resolve away from under her feet, but from her point of view, Hachiman and Yui are doing this solely to protect the club, which means that their relationship might not be as strong as she had hoped. This is where she gets depressed, because she feels powerless to fix anything (in fact she believes she’s only making it worse by forcing Hachiman to be in the club, since his way of solving things only worsens his social status) and Hachiman’s actions and Yui’s forced cheerfulness have now forced all three of them to be in the Service Club preserving the status quo, instead of being there because they want to be.
Why doesn’t Yukino just say what she means? At the beginning of the show, our main trio is in the second grade (classes 2-F and 2-J). The car accident happened on the first day of the first year. From the LN it’s revealed that Yui was keeping an eye on Hachiman an entire year before finally being able to verbally approach him (which happens the first time she enters the Service Club). Is it too much of a stretch to assume that the same thing could be said about Yukino? Hachiman is an unapproachable “proud loner”. If Yukino had observed him for some time, she would have come to the conclusion that it wouldn’t be possible for her to reach out to him directly and say: “Hey, it was my fault you got in the car accident, missed the few days of school and are now a loner, let me help you, because I feel responsible, ‘kay?”. So, instead, with the help of Sensei, she does it in a roundabout way by starting the club and pretty much forces Hachiman to join, because there would be no other way he’d be willing to join. (Also take into account that Yahari is inspired by Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, a series where one of the main protagonists, Yozora, creates a club under the pretense that she wants to learn how to make friends, when actually she uses the club so she can spend time with her childhood friend Kodaka)
So why doesn’t Yukino say anything about the car accident after he has already joined the club and gotten closer to them? Like I said, Hachiman is a proud loner, he doesn’t like being pitied. How did he react when he found out Yui was involved in the car accident (end of S1E5)? “You’re so nice Yuigahama. You don’t need to worry about me, though. I only saved your dog by chance. I’d probably be a loner even if that accident hadn’t happened. There’s absolutely no need for you to worry about me. Sorry. I know you went out of your way for me. But you don’t have to do this anymore. If you’re being nice to me because you’re worried, then don’t bother.” (Oh my, doesn’t this conversation sound familiar (S2E7)? But when Hachiman does it he’s so cool and Batman and “he is just like me, I can totally relate to him teehee”, but when Yukino does it OMG WHAT A SELFISH BITCH I WANT TO KILL HER, RAGE!! <- yes, this is an insult). (Also, because I didn’t have anywhere to throw this in, in S1E8 Hayama says: “Now I kind of get why she looks out for you.” Which implies that even Hayama is aware that Yukino is looking out for Hachiman)
At the end of S1E6 Hachiman and Yui have the same conversation in the club room (about her not having to pity him etc.), except this time Yukino is present. Yukino restores their bond, by saying that they can start over and the one they should be blaming is the person who is at fault (I know I keep referring to this scene, but it’s a very important one, notice how after saying her thing, she immediately leaves the classroom, because she feels uneasy, something she does throughout the show, you know whenever she starts opening up a little bit about her feelings and the whole guilt+car accident thing, her immediate response is: I need to leave the classroom and talk to Sensei or go do this).
So, from S1E6 onward, Yukino knows how Hachiman would react if someone were to tell him why Yukino started the club in the first place. In S1E8, when Haruno comes to pick Yukino up (with the car that hit Hachiman), notice how Yukino (and Sensei) feels uncomfortable? Why? Because the cat’s out of the bag. She didn’t get the chance to tell Hachiman first and instead he found out this way, you can tell that by the sad look in her face when they drive off (it also doesn’t help that she has to go see her mother). Hachiman says that he wouldn’t get to see or speak to Yukino for the remainder of the vacation. You can assume that this, Hachiman finding out this way and her not being able to apologize, has been weighing on Yukino the entire vacation (It especially sucks for her, because at this part of the story, Yukino was starting to warm up to Hachiman and Yui and thinking that she could actually be friends with them).
Notice how at the end of S1E9, when school is starting again, Yukino is standing at the top of the stairs, waiting for Hachiman? Isn’t this a very uncharacteristic thing of her to do? She asks him: “You saw my sister, didn’t you?” (implying that Haruno told her about seeing Hachiman and that she talked to Hachiman about the car accident and it not being Yukino’s fault etc.) When they reach the next floor, notice the awkward silence? Yukino says: Um- (this is the part where she would want to explain all of it and apologize), but Hachiman won’t stand it. He interrupts her and uses “her starting the club again” as a form of preserving the status quo, without having to deal with the issue at hand. From here on, S1E10-11 things get awkward for the Service Club for the first time, because no one wants to address the elephant in the room. So, as you can tell, Hachiman is not the easiest person to talk to, when it comes to serious matters.
So what’s up with all this “forced drama” from season 2 that naturally stems from the characters well-defined personalities? Well it all started going wrong with the Tobe+Ebina confession scene. Why? Because it’s the first time Yukino got to see Hachiman’s underhanded self-sacrificing ways of solving problems up close in person. She had only HEARD of the way he solved the Sagami issue, so while it was probably still an issue for her, she didn’t directly see how he handled it (also at the time he did those things, he did them to stand up for Yukino and to prevent the festival from becoming a disaster, whereas the self-sacrifice to protect the superficial group of Hayama was him being a fall guy for the sake of being a fall guy, in other words, his self-sacrifice was pointless).
This upset Yukino, because her forcing him to be in her club and try and help people, is now coming at the expense of himself, which was in no way the intention she had when she started the club. Then the Iroha StuCo election happens, then as I’ve described earlier, Yukino tries to take matters into own hands, to prevent Hachiman from self-sacrificing again (because she actually cares about the guy). Up until now, they’ve been solving the problems as a group, or to be more precise, tackling problems as a group, but Hachiman always comes with the harsh solutions that only delay the problem. Yukino asks Sensei about whose methods are the best, so that she can say that there’s merit to Yukino’s ways of handling things and that they don’t have to do it Hachiman’s way all the time (because once again Hachiman was tunnel visioning in on self-sacrifice being the only solution to solve a problem).
What does your selfless lord and savior, can’t-do-anything-wrong Hachiman do? He goes behind their back, forges pre-election results and manipulates an incompetent Iroha into becoming StuCo president and then lies to Yui and Yukino by saying that he didn’t have a hand in those results. Then once the position of StuCo president turns out to be too much for Iroha, he once again lies to Yui and Yukino by saying they won’t accept Iroha’s request, but goes behind their back and tries to solve the problem on his own. All for the sake of preserving the status quo of the Service Club, because it’s the Service Club that’s worth preserving and not his relationship with Yui and Yukino, right?
Seeing as how Yukino was already getting pretty desperate trying to stop Hachiman from solving problems his own way, she tries one last time, by splitting the group so that they can all try their own methods (to stop Hachiman from self-destructing) by deciding to carry the burden of becoming StuCo president by herself. Yet, Hachiman pre-emptively shoots her entire resolve down, by going behind her back. So there’s literally no way Yukino can stop Hachiman from solving problems his way and it seems like Hachiman is forcing himself to be in the club and that being in the club is making him more miserable than fixing him, plus he’s also making excuses so that he can leave earlier. This is where we arrive at the end of S2E7: Hachiman and Yukino’s face to face talk.
I kind of feel Spyro explains this very well, so I’ll copy his thoughts here:
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“So this talk between Hachiman and Yukino is crucial in what’s coming up. Starting with Yukino, we learn that she did know Hachiman was helping with Iroha, but she stayed quiet about it. It ties in with how she views him now; that he’s someone that can solve problems on his own. This is reinforced by what he’s done in the past: Rumi’s incident, the Cultural Festival, the confession, and the election. However, she doesn’t feel the same way about herself; at least, not anymore. She’s no longer confident in herself; before she thought she knew what she was doing and she felt she could do everything, but that all came tumbling down with the recent events of how powerless she ultimately was in the grand scheme of things. This reflects her feeling of being unqualified to say anything about what Hachiman does on his own anymore and her inability to do anything about it. Hachiman winces to this, noticing her self-deprecation. So when he tells her she’s similar in being able to do things by herself, she rejects the notion. A good hint of what’s to come regarding herself and her “admiration” of Hachiman.
Next, when Yukino tells Hachiman he doesn’t have to force himself to come to the club anymore, this is an ultimatum. As to why, remember how Hachiman would make excuses to leave the club? To Yukino, he might as well not come to the club anymore since it looks like he doesn’t want to be there, what with his excuses and all. But it’s also her saying that there isn’t much she can do for him anymore, so he doesn’t need to show up to the club; he can do everything by himself, after all. This is compounded by the fact that he’s been acting considerate towards them ever since the confession during the field trip because he’s afraid of stepping on potential land mines; so this might be another form of superficiality on his part. Though it hurts, Yukino’s trying to push him away so the both of them don’t have to go through any more pain due to their seemingly superficial relationship; both aren’t going to be happy with what they have, so there’s no point in trying to keep it going. This does strike a nerve for Hachiman though because he definitely does agree with Yukino that their relationship isn’t all that it’s made out to be if it’s enough to be destroyed by him no longer attending the club. Unfortunately, the both of them aren’t really sure if there’s anything they can do about it hence his hesitation and her pushing him away. So basically, she feels he’ll just be hurt more if he stays in the club any longer. It’s a cruel kindness, to say the least. But if he chooses to continue going to the club, that shows that he does care about the club, a feeling he’s been trying to hide away under layers and layers of logic. She’s essentially forcing him to look at himself over again and really come to terms with what it is that he really wants with Yukino and Yui.
Highlight would be Feel’s ability to show how fragile Yukino really is especially with the way she smiles. Same thing to Hachiman’s hesitation and consideration towards her. Again, this developing dynamic is really something.
Also, another interesting interpretation thanks to Watari, Hachiman’s confirmation with Yukino is his roundabout way of getting “permission” from Yukino when she asks him if he needs that from her. So while he rejected the notion, it turns out he may have been trying to get it anyway by apologizing to her.”
https://kyakka.wordpress.com/2015/05/14/oregairu-zoku-episode-7/
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So, what it comes down to, from my point of view, is that Yukino has come to terms that she can’t really help Hachiman anymore, the entire situation has gotten all messed up and she has no control over it anymore (“All I ever did was act like I could do anything – like I understood everything). Him being in the Service Club and forcibly trying to keep the Service Club superficially alive by constantly sacrificing himself, is only making Hachiman and Yukino (and Yui, but my entire post is more about Yukino, so that’s kind of why I’m leaving her in the majority of my post) miserable. So she decides to say that he should stop going to the club because he feels forced to. (If however, he wants go there because he actually wants to be with them, then that’s a whole different story)
Now I know, I’ve been putting a heavy emphasis on the car accident, but by doing so, I’m not trying to say that Yukino’s entire personality is: guilt over car accident. I’m just trying to get across that the car accident plays a big role in Yukino’s motivations for starting the Service Club in the first place and for needing Hachiman to be there. I know you’re probably thinking: “How is the car accident relevant? They simply glossed over it in season 1 and haven’t addressed it since.” Well that’s because, as revealed by Yui in S1E11, Yukino isn’t ready to talk about it yet and also because the story (in the LN) is shaping up to a final boss confrontation between Hachiman and Yukino vs. Yukimom (and possibly the rest of the Yukinoshita family) and dealing with Yukino’s family issues. I feel like the writer is keeping the resolution for the car accident for said confrontation.
Throughout the story, Yukino does develop actual feelings for both Hachiman and Yui and she genuinely does want to be their friend (in Hachiman’s case probably more than friends). What I’m trying to achieve with this post is to show my take on Yukino as a character and the story, to possibly shed some perspective on the whole matter, since I see a lot of people aren’t grasping what’s going on with Yukino. Which is kind of a big deal, since the story is all about Hachiman and Yukino.
I’m not saying everything I’ve written down is 100% accurate, but it wouldn’t hurt to at least give my take on the story some thought. For instance try re-watching some key scenes from season 1 (S1E1, end of S1E5, S1E6, end of S1E8, S1E9-12), however this time with the knowledge that Yui, Yukino, Haruno and Sensei know about the car accident and come to your own conclusion.
And, yes, this show IS deep. |