Back in 2015 when the 2nd season aired I was 15 and just about to graduate from high school. Me and fellow weebs in the school, having read all the light novels of the series published at that time, decided that this was the greatest show in the decade. We treated it like it was some kind of holy scripture, believing that's how we should think about our relationship with other people et cetera et cetera. Five years later after finishing the conclusion of a big part of my youthhood, I found out I've scammed myself with nothing more than an overly pretentious book for kids.
To be honest, I still consider the series a good series. Among all the anime that came out in the last decade, Oregairu is at least above average by having a somewhat engaging, un-orthodox plot, The anime didn't do the light novel justice; t's a problem that's already present in season 2: the light novel has too much content and you really can't fit all of them into 12 episodes, so cuts have to be made, but unlike season 2 this time the cuts are made with strange choices which result in a very strange rhythm in the whole season.
My biggest disappointment is about the whole deal about the "real thing" and the so-called "co-dependence" - the latter, towards the end of the story, almost comes off as gaslighting rather than anything that's supposed to be "good" for the protags' mental development. The prom issue, in hindsight, is surprisingly stupid - like, the kids just want to have a little bit of fun, where's the harm that is so grave that PTA just has to come out and stop the whole thing? It almost seems like the whole hassle has no meaning whatsoever other than telling you "oh no no no this is not the correct time for them to date because of cO-dEpEnDeNcE" *yet again*, and in the very end we see the two protags having a lovely date leaving everyone wondering what exactly does this all drama mean or does it mean anything at all. Now the "real thing" seems to be love itself (which, of course, was totally out of the expectations of us then-zealots: considering how the characters suffer from it we all thought it must be something even deeper & more profound than love), so what exactly is this "co-dependence", and why in the flaming pits of hell does Haruno (or anyone) believe she's the one who can effortlessly decide what is and isn't co-dependence and just "know" what's the "bEsT" for other people? Who gave her such arrogance?? Other than that, the characters do have their cute moments, but it wasn't enough to justify all this.
Remind you - this is the ending that the author took a good 4 years to fully complete (considering the publish date of the light novels). My guess is that in the end Watari Wataru probably finally found himself knee-deep in the quicksand after years of milking the plot drive from this manufactured (or at least artificial) profundity of "co-dependence" and "the real thing" (if not then I really wonder how did Girlish Number come about), totally forgetting that this was a high school teen romcom with light-hearted twists in the beginning, and decided to drag everything down into the pit of deprecation with "ooOOOooOOoh heart-wrenching love triangle ooooOOooOOOoooh" and "some assholes just can't let the kids be". Maybe that is just a Japanese teen thing - a very Japanese teen thing, a nuance, a feeling, a kind of emotion that I, neither a Japanese nor a teen, can never identify myself with.
Or maybe - just maybe - in the end, it's me who was the stupid one all along, just like a certain philosopher would have said: "There’s something wrong with people who seek reality in fiction."
Considering how well the show does in the beginning it's a 6/10 for me. I wouldn't give it a 5 but it definitely does not deserve a 7 or 7+.
