There is near to nothing of actual, life-changing importance that can happen to you in your high-school years, not your first crush or your first whatever the hell it was, not even your friends most of the times.
If you felt inadequate at life by watching all those sparkly scenes where people seemed to find some kind of core-deep connection and became best-friends forever and ever, or by watching all those excruciatingly slow and drama-stuffed love stories that have been so hardly fought over you will never ever feel like dumping that person in the future not even if it's best for you because "duh, with all the episodes we've wasted just to confess to each other, like hell i'm going through that again with someone else, I'll stich with this one", it doesn't mean you actually ARE inadequate at life. Actually, it means you're way more normal than any high-school anime drama will ever hope to be and will probably lead a much more balanced and over-all satisfying life.
Our Hikigaya here, he knows what's going on pretty well. He knows what's worth the bother and what's not, and although sometimes he decides to be quite stubborn about everything being NOT worth it, he's right 99% of the times. He decides to be stubborn about it because, although he preaches uite a lot about how fake are the relationships around him and is spot on about it, he too likes to be fake. Not because he doesn't really think what he thinks or because if he didn't wear that mask he would be crying his eyes out at not having friends, but simply because he sees it as the dignified way to go about life and I agree to a certain extent.
He really wants to be the person he looks and so long as you're trying to be what YOU want to be and not someone else, maybe it can't even be called fake entirely.
Because yes, we really needed some hardcore cinism in this particular genre to bring all those other obnoxious and self-serving anime off their high horse.
I think the characters were very well made, especially the main character, and even the annoying Yui turned out to be quite a nice piece of the show.
Sure, most of the times the issues were made bigger than they were, especially in the second season where things tend to take a more dramatic and maybe not so needed turn, but it really manages to convey the character's view of their world, which is what this anime is about in my opinion.
The story was a bit dull, not much going on, it's mainly about insights on life and how the things that seem so perfect in other anime are being defiled here. I'm not really complaining, that's the kind of anime it is and making more important things happen maybe would have ruined the creators' intentions.
Basically, yes, I liked it because I hate the other animes of the genre and this is like my petty revenge on them.
