This show echoes Hyouka in a lot of aspects- I mentioned these in my review of S1, but we have similarly cynical protagonists who are also tasked to fulfil requests of some sort, their faithful female counterpart/s and hints at romantic interest in each other, beautiful art, and a propensity for using classical music as BGM. In place of Oreki (of Hyouka)'s unconventional genius, in Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru we've Hikigaya's deadpan humour and extreme pessimism which he conveys in a manner that can only leave the watcher shaking in tears of laughter. For S1's excellent humour which was seamlessly woven in with the inevitable slice of life/growing up scenes, it really ranked higher in my book than Hyouka.
This season has destroyed all that.
(spoilers ahead)
The comedic element, the major selling point, is zero. All gone. Burnt to a crisp like one of Yuigahama's cooking travesties. Hell, this whole season was a travesty in itself. I no longer understood the lesson he had supposedly learnt at the end of each episode or arc. The xmas festival arc dragged on for as long as Hikigaya dragged his feet. There was plenty of vaguely-worded self-angst that was probably intended to sound deep, but half the time I had no idea what he was going on about. I don't think he did either, which is probably why he devolved into tears around the time he made the request for 'something genuine'. I know I'm straying into petty sarcasm, but I wasted a good 3 days on this show and nearly quit watching it twice. Determined to stick it out to the end (and maybe hoping for some redemption at the end of it all), I was disappointed once again. I have no idea what Yuigahama's vaguely worded proposal was about at the end of their aquarium visit. Hikigaya gave another vaguely worded speech and devolved into tears again (I feel you, bro. They wrecked your character completely. Men do not cry.) Yukinoshita Yukino made a request we never got to hear, and then the writers probably thought that would be a suitably vague and faux-deep point to end the whole thing on.
In the inevitable battle between exasperation at this bullshit and sheer relief that the whole thing was finally over, relief won out in the end. Even if there is a season 3 for this show, I don't think I'll be picking it up. If you watched the first season and were hoping for an encore- just rewatch the whole of S1 again. You'll still waste less time than you would if you watched S2.
