Characters: 10 - Dynamic and extremely well-realized main cast, with a mostly fleshed-out and enjoyable supporting cast.
Art: 7 - Serviceable, but rarely outstanding. Evocative cinematography.
Sound: 7 - OST is mostly forgettable, but used effectively. Solid vocal performances. Solid OP and ED.
Enjoyment: 10 - Intelligent and insightful without being dry. Effortlessly breezy with endlessly likable characters.
Full Review:
Despite the overwhelmingly positive impression of this show from the vast majority of fans and critics alike, it was really hard not to be skeptical about this. A romantic comedy LN adaptation with an overly long title? That's not generally the realm of timeless literature. Fortunately, as everyone assured me, my expectations were blown away in no time at all.
It's apparent right from the opening monologue that this show really gets its characters, and empathizes with them, but it doesn't make excuses for them. And that is quite impressive considering the actual nature of the characters. Our hero Hachiman is a cynical and abrasive black hole of smug indifference. He's internalized his own isolation and built a fortress out of it, but hell if he isn't still a likable character! Not even in the sad or pitiable way that misanthropic loner nerd characters tend to be in anime. Hachiman has a certain charm and charisma all his own. It doesn't really surprise me at all to see younger fans latch on to his various "Hachimanisms" as some kind of gospel. His worldview is the distillation of the introverted intellectual teenager experience. I can definitely remember feeling like the only sane man in an insane world when I was his age. I think everyone probably has a little bit of Hachiman inside them, and that makes him a broadly relatable character despite how much of a huge pompous jerkass he is. Our main heroine is similarly despicable, though in very different ways. Yukino barricades herself in a perfectionist facade. Her willingness to help others and her drive to succeed are as much a crutch as her frigidly standoffish personality. Her biting sarcasm and massive superiority complex belies what may be an even more fundamentally broken person than Hachiman. Hachiman's problems are clearly nothing but demons of his own design, while Yukino's seem to be related to more external factors. Her home situation is never explored in-depth, but is hinted at being a major source of her anxieties. Their interactions(or non-interactions) are the backbone of this whole show, and would be more than enough to carry the entire show just on their own.
The characters aren't the only things keeping the show afloat, though. This is a romantic comedy after all, and OreGairu has a great sense of comedic timing. The jokes flow freely from the characters' base personalities, and the show avoids most of the silly reaction faces and manzai gag set-ups that plague the host of its contemporaries. The music and animation are mostly just serviceable and don't have many stand-out moments to make either of them particularly memorable. Thankfully, the cinematography is generally quite good. The shot framing easily evokes the sense of loneliness and mistrust that the characters wallow in, but also gracefully illustrates the cracking of their proverbial shells over the course of the series. Though it doesn't ever look or sound bad, OreGairu's technical merits are definitely taking a backseat to the script.
OreGairu's one big stumbling point is that in order to continually punch holes in Hachiman's defenses, it has to keep forcing him into situations that challenge them. And "force" is kinda the key word there. As smart as this show is, there's really no avoiding how wish-fulfillmenty the base foundation is. Awkward loner kid is unwillingly thrown into a club with two beautiful, and comparatively lonely girls by his equally young and attractive female teacher. Geez show, there had to be a better way to do this. Making the Main Character an ineffectual harem lead is still kinda transparently pandering, no matter how incredibly bad at it he is. Regardless of how well-written these characters are, and they are fantastic characters, the show can't really rise above the tropes it constantly seems to be sneering at. And that's incredibly unfortunate. This show has so many smart things to say and wonderfully articulated characters, but it just can't escape its own inherent ~anime~ness. Characters like Saika just bog down the story and serve as blatant reminders that, oh yeah, this is an anime romcom(Even though I am quite found of him, personally). He was still a pretty likable character, and I think he actually had decent chemistry with Hachiman, but yeah, he mostly exists just to make hurr-durr trap jokes. And he's not alone in the one-joke supporting character department. The lack of actual romance in this romantic comedy might be another possible sticking-point. I understand that issue is supposed to be the whole joke; Throwing some hapless dude into Anime Harem 101 and not having anything happen because they're all emotionally-stunted jerk-faces cloistered within their own defensive facades, clever! But that doesn't make it any less frustrating to sit through. The show is carefully trying to balance what it wants to say about its characters and having their relationships actually move forward. I'm not sure it quite succeeds.
Still, it is undeniably fun just to see these characters faffing about. They're all just so well-constructed that it's fascinating to simply watch them bounce off each other. However, this show's greatest feat is probably just being such a breezy watch. As weighty and melancholy as the character-drama is, I still blew through this show in what felt like no time at all. I'm not sure I'd call OreGairu a timeless masterpiece, but I'm absolutely glad that it exists. And simultaneously angry that so few shows ever actually strive quite as hard.
