Likely this is recency bias, but I'm pretty certain that OreGairu is the best of its genre, hands down.
To get the practicalities of the show out of the way, I think the art design of this season sheds some of the downright reptilian aspects of Hachiman's character design from earlier seasons in favor of a more muted emphasis on his creepy physical characteristics (an intentional choice reflecting his inner shift away from weird incel). The overall choices that they make with lighting and facial expressions are spot on, but there's no overwhelmingly detailed set pieces or anything, so an 8 for art seems appropriate.
The songs
...
slap. It's about that simple. 8 for sound.
Now the meat:
Love triangles are overplayed, especially within anime. It's a tried and true trope that can serve as the focus of a show or as a backdrop (think Naruto) but it's an extremely common feature of the medium. Pulling it off well is difficult. Pulling it off *perfectly* is impossible, but OreGairu comes the closest. The story itself is nothing extraordinary (falling into standard slice of life pitfalls here and there) dealing with high schoolers wanting to plan a prom for their school. It's the characters that truly make this show a step above anything else in the genre.
There are two fundamental aspects of this show's previous handling of its characters that make the third season so well set up to execute how it does. The first is the work the show puts in the first and second season to develop not only the existence of this three person friendship but more importantly the significance of this friendship in each of their lives. If a love triangle exists without well established friendship between all three members, then the characters have no real reason not to sacrifice that friendship for the sake of romance. In seasons one and two, the show makes clear that what all three of these people are really looking for is companionship, and that romantic feelings that develop become an obstacle put in the way of that friendship rather than the end goal each of them was pursuing. The second setup it does perfectly is the individual character work -- establishing the way that each character deals with personal conflict and having them learn and change from their mistakes. Too often a story like this is told with each character bringing their personalities into the scenario and the resolution coming when one personality wins over the other. Oregairu from the beginning sets out to tell a more interesting story of people learning how to navigate these emotional conflicts *together*.
The character work done in seasons one and two is exceptional. The character work done in season three is transcendental. If everything in seasons one and two was Emotions 101 class, then season three is the metaphorical exam -- Hachiman, Yui and Yukino all have to acknowledge the reality of their emotional connections with each other and resolve them, but each of them care so deeply for the friendship that they've built that it becomes something they feel like they can't address. Even better is the fact that each of the characters we were introduced to at the beginning of the show would have failed this metaphorical exam abysmally. Yui can't simply go with the flow in an attempt to resolve the conflict as she would have in season one because she has too much at stake emotionally. Yukino can't remove herself from the situation as she has historically and she can't pretend that her pain is because she's better than those around her -- she knows she's just as terrible as the other two for letting it get this far. And most importantly Hachiman can't use his tried and true strategy of "f*ck it blame it all on me, you two just hate me and keep going" because for the first time in his life he has people that don't would rather feel that pain themselves than see him feel it.
I won't give any spoilers, but (much like Hachiman's speech on the selfishness of wanting to understand those around you in season two) this season has some of the best dialogue about emotional turmoil, personal expression, and the concept of "codependency" and "friendship" in recent anime memory. I've seen the show get poor reviews because people consider a lot of the dialogue sort of navel gazing-y, and I think that is a shame more than anything because it misses the point entirely. It is absolutely true that characters will make cryptic hints, or deal in absolutes about things like "genuine"ness or "codependency", but people too often make the mistake of "if a character is saying this in a loud and confident voice then it is both a) correct and b) the moral of the story". The whole point of this third season is that, more often than not, people will confidently get these things terribly wrong. The dialogue is only navel gazing-y if it is interpreted (incorrectly) as the scripwriters talking to themselves. These characters are deeply flawed, especially when it comes to social interaction. The way they speak to each other and themselves about these things is as stilted and convoluted as it is because that's *the only way they know how*, a premise that's easy to accept because of all the character work done in seasons one and two.
This season gets a 10 from me without pretty much any hesitation. I strongly recommend anyone reading this, even if you started the show once and didn't like it all too much, to go back and give it a shot. One of the best payoffs to a premise I've ever watched in this medium or otherwise.
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Mar 8, 2021
Likely this is recency bias, but I'm pretty certain that OreGairu is the best of its genre, hands down.
To get the practicalities of the show out of the way, I think the art design of this season sheds some of the downright reptilian aspects of Hachiman's character design from earlier seasons in favor of a more muted emphasis on his creepy physical characteristics (an intentional choice reflecting his inner shift away from weird incel). The overall choices that they make with lighting and facial expressions are spot on, but there's no overwhelmingly detailed set pieces or anything, so an 8 for art seems appropriate. The songs ... 
May 17, 2015
Cross Game
(Anime)
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This anime is, without question, the most emotionally effective and utterly enthralling anime I have ever seen.
The story and characters, though slow overall, grab your attention and affection and hold it through all 50 episodes. Even if you're not a baseball fan, ESPECIALLY if you're not a baseball fan, you can understand and feel the loss of a loved one and how to carry on their memory through nothing but the interactions of these characters, the words they say to themselves, to each other, and the words they left unsaid entirely. This anime puts you into this corner of their lives and breaks your heart, ... |
