My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected (light novel)
| Hayama is a character I've been genuinely interested in since the start of this series. While most of the fandom either hates him or thinks he's simply a foil to Hachiman, I'd argue that he's something much more. I've tried to piece together his character and his interactions from the information we've been provided in S3 EP 8. If you haven't seen that ep yet, THERE ARE MASSIVE SPOILERS HERE. I wrote this in hopes of giving an insight to the readers and not to prove my opinion over someone else's. If even one person found this interesting, I will be satisfied. ________________________________________________ Hayama in his younger years, much like Yukino, grew up watching the back of Haruno - this superhuman who could possibly do everything - get excellent grades, make friends, live up to her parents expectations...everything. Being an heir to a rich influential family himself, he had no choice but to put himself in Haruno's shoes. And like her, not only does he have his life already planned out by his parents but he also had tons of expectations to live up to from the get go. Expectations from his family, his friends, his peers and from society as a whole. His future was pretty much decided for him since his birth so it wouldn't be wrong to say that Hayama Hayato has no freedom of choice. The concept of 'worth' and 'self-worth' in particular is something oregairu explores a lot and one of the characters who tackles this issue is Hayama. If I had to say how Hayama determines his worth as a person, I'd say it is through helping others, living up to everyone's expectations of him and thus being 'everyone's Hayama Hayato'. Even if it means hurting himself, keeping up a facade, losing his sense of self and being 'no longer human'. The reason why Hayama is willing to go to such an extent might be because that's the only thing in life he is able to do on his own accord. Something that is not chosen or forced upon him by someone else. Something that he chose for himself. It might be a selfish desire. It might be self-gratification on his part. But it is his solace, his something genuine. This attitude of his hadn't fully formed until he entered high school but instances of this could be seen in his younger years as well. Hayama and Yukino attended the same elementary school. Yukino is shunned from her class because of her 'beauty, temperament, and intelligence'. To help his childhood friend Hayama, in order to fulfill his duty took actions similar to the ones he took with Tsurumi Rumi - he tried to set her up to be friendly with and made attempts to integrate her into girl-only groups. This obviously backfired horribly, leading to Yukino becoming a total outcast and even suffering bullying. He saw Yukino descend into darkness by herself and yet, as a friend he couldn't do anything. He felt terribly powerless. He didn't put enough heart, motivation and resolution into helping Yukino fully because it would distance himself from his own friends and peers. He couldn't pick favorites when he had his image of 'everyone's Hayama Hayato' to maintain. For the first time, Hayama learned that there were people he could not help, people that he could not save. His ideology of helping everyone and acting as "everyone's Hayama Hayato" only served to alienate the person he cared about. For someone who derives the entire value of his being through helping others, it's now clear to see how devastated he must have felt at being stuck in a situation like this. This became something that he would continue to regret for all his life. His powerlessness fills him with regret to the point where he would never truly forgive himself. This incident would leave a huge impact on the lives of both Yukino and Hayama and would also cause Hayama's relationship with Haruno to become sour At night, in the park Hayama lays forward his regrets about how he couldn't help Yukino in their elementary school. He says that to this day, the decisions he took back then continue to haunt him. After revealing such an emotional and vulnerable side of him he begs Hachiman to understand the error of his ways. What Hachiman was doing with his fake-prom idea would only serve to hurt Yukino and himself in the long run. Both of them could never truly reconcile after this. He knows that he could never truly help Yukino out after elementary school so he desperately wanted Hachiman to do so. It might be his own guilt pushing him to say these things and ask Hachiman to help Yukino out in a better way but it's clear that he wanted the 3 of them to move on. Lastly, I'd like to address Haruno. Haruno is as vague as it gets so most of the stuff here is my interpretation of her and her actions. As mentioned earlier, Hayama's relationship with Haruno was clearly sour because of the actions he took in elementary school. It is stated that Haruno would never forgive someone who hurt the people she held dearest to her - in this instance Yukino. Coupled with his own regrets of how he handled the situation back in elementary school, Haruno's interference only served to haunt Hayama forever. Maybe to atone for his sins he would be at the beck and call of Haruno as is seen multiple times in the series. At the cafe after Hayama and Hachiman had their interaction at the park, Hayama confronts Haruno. There we find that their relationship continued to exist as it was since elementary school, without progress. Haruno was still holding grudges and Hayama was still regretting the mistakes he made. Both are stuck in the past. All this leads Hayama to say that he had no opportunity to atone and wishes everything would have gone correctly so that Haruno might forgive him. This only serves to add the claim to the fact that he wanted to move on from his past and by helping Hachiman, or at least trying to, he was trying to make amends for the mistakes he made. ________________________________________________ Also a small note as to why i don't believe Hayama is in love either of Yukinoshita sisters - 1. Throughout this story author uses and presents love and the act of confessing with incredible care. We haven't we heard the main trio say they love each other yet. 2. There's no factual evidence evidence. As a LN reader and someone who's closely following this series for the larger part of 2019/2020 there hasn't been any claims made by the Watari that state that Hayama loves either Haruno or Yukino |
Mr_SakataAug 27, 2020 2:17 PM
| I've always loved his character. There's also a video on YouTube explaining his "genuine scene". Really glad someone made a forum on something important rather than fighting about ships lol. I disagree with the last one that he isn't in love with anyone. I do think he has/had a crush on Haruno at somepoint, Wataru did give us some hints. |
| Believe, believe there's magic here tonight~~ |
ShiroHachi said: ncviik said: I've always loved his character. There's also a video on YouTube explaining his "genuine scene". Really glad someone made a forum on something important rather than fighting about ships lol. I disagree with the last one that he isn't in love with anyone. I do think he has/had a crush on Haruno at somepoint, Wataru did give us some hints. There's no way it's Haruno. You forgot the fact that Haruno used to bully them both since they were little, he also avoided Haruno if he can. He just wanted to be forgiven for his past mistakes. He is also jealous of Hachiman who could change Yukino and helped Yukino. Don't tell me he's jealous of Hachiman because he's trusted by Haruno? Come on Damn, I honestly don't know who it is. I used to think it's Yukino but I saw an article yesterday on it claiming it's Haruno, it did make some sense. Yeah, mainly because of the "jealousy". Who do you think it is? I hope we get to know something about it in the sequel atleast. Even if we don't get to know who he meant by "Y" but atleast him ending up with someone. Probably Miura. |
| Believe, believe there's magic here tonight~~ |
| I agree with pretty much all of the points you've made. I'm not sure if Hayama's in love with any of the Yukinoshita sisters, though. But yeah, your analysis on Hayama is very accurate to say the least. He is usually overlooked by the fandom and thought be an insignificant part of the show. But that definitely isn't true as he also plays a major role in shaping up the story. There are many people in real life who try to meet everyone's expectations in order to find value in themselves, and Hayama is a great representation of that. |
ShiroHachi said: Nice analysis bruh. I agree with all the points except Hayama who doesn't love anyone. He was jealous of Hachiman several times, which is hard to ignore I've also did an analysis on the Hayama-Hachiman dynamic and why Hayama is jealous of Hachiman. I'll leave an expert here. _____________________________________________ It's important to understand the Hayama-Hachiman dynamic. Hayama is someone who's truly better than Hachiman in every way. Whether it be sports, studies, having a good image and even having a good moral code. But to Hayama those are things he has to do. For him helping those around him and living up to everyone's expectations of him is what he deems important above all else. It's that which brings him purpose and value. Yet he's only failed time and again. While Hachiman has been able to solve problems and help others even if it resulted in him getting hurt. Hachiman is able to do the things Hayama wishes to do. This helplessness gives a rise to an inferiority complex within him towards Hachiman. He is no longer the guy who can spew out happiness to everyone around him and he struggles to live up to the expectations that people have placed upon him. He is 'not a good guy'. Hayama says that he holds Hachiman in high regard so that he can accept the things where he's not as good as him. By this Hayama yearns to have an equal relationship with Hachiman. Not of friends, but of people who recognize each other, their talents, their shortcomings and what they value. |
ncviik said: Damn, I honestly don't know who it is. I used to think it's Yukino but I saw an article yesterday on it claiming it's Haruno, it did make some sense. Yeah, mainly because of the "jealousy". Who do you think it is? I hope we get to know something about it in the sequel atleast. Even if we don't get to know who he meant by "Y" but atleast him ending up with someone. Probably Miura. Yes Hayama's "Y" is still up in the air. But as yet Wataru himself hasn't released an evidence that it is Yukino or Haruno. There are multiple posts and analysis made by people to that try to link Hayama liking either one of those characters. But they lie on the verge of speculation so i don't particularly like them. I like to think of Hayama "Y" in vol 4 / S1 as simply Wataru confused with the way he wants to take Hayama as a character at the time. He chose to make him something more than simply a foil to Hachiman and i'm glad that he did so. |
| If anyone still wishes to know and understand more about Hayama, I'll link my full analysis about him here - https://www.reddit.com/r/OreGairuSNAFU/comments/ii5k2t/the_brilliance_of_hayama_hayato_and_the/ |
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