The entire point of mixing romance and comedy together is to balance each other to improve the experience for the viewer. Comedy can serve as an emotional release valve to the drama of romance and the romantic situations can serve as comedic fodder given the situations the characters will be put in. This is the basic formula for every romcom. Even series that are purely dramatic romance, as opposed to romantic comedies, will add some humor to them for that very same reason. A show doesn't need to be called a comedy to have humor in it. Unfortunately for Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru (SNAFU), this show was both not funny in its humor, AND had zero romantic development for the entire season. Never mind having a balance, this show had neither element at all!
So, what is left in a romantic comedy show that I found not funny and had no romantic development? Not much...
Story/Plot
There is no overarching plot beyond what the synopsis states. The 3 main characters are part of a volunteer service club, and the story follows them around as they help with the requests of other people in their school. It can be summarized as an episodic slice of school life. Since it calls itself a romantic comedy there is romantic tension in the show, and it makes it very obvious to the viewer, but due to the protagonist's "trauma" from past misunderstandings he is too cowardly to even acknowledge the obvious, let alone consider if he should pursue romance with another character, leaving us with little more than unresolved romantic tension and zero romantic development. As is typical of most light novel adaptations the narration comes from the protagonist's perspective so most of our understanding of other characters comes from what he sees and his interpretation of events.
My 3 biggest issues with this story are that it is a romcom that I found neither funny nor romantic, the main character is poorly written, and that the resolution within the "climax" of the ending was largely unbelievable because of cognitive dissonance within the show.
As I stated previously, there is no romantic development, just tension, so there is no character progression with romance. Heck, there is very little character progression or growth overall either! Additionally, I didn't find much of the humor to be believable, let alone funny, given the serious setting the story takes place in. As an example, I can believe that characters will hit each other in a series like Ranma 1/2 because it takes place in a setting that isn't serious and the show itself has martial arts fighting as a major part of the show. Akane hitting Ranma when she catches him in a compromising position, and him letting himself get hit as a form of "atonement" when he could easily avoid being hit, is believable in a series that doesn't take itself seriously. There are no police lingering around to arrest characters for assault, battery, etc. because the show isn't supposed to be taken seriously. Contrast that to SNAFU, in which a teacher not only threatens the protagonist with violence, but follows through and hits him while in school, because he points out that she is single in a conversation about classwork related to group behavior. This is treated as comedy in the show but falls flat because in the setting of the show a teacher hitting a student in this situation would likely result in them being fired. This happens throughout the show in the beginning, with Ebina and Yoshiteru being the worst offenders, but thankfully it is toned down some in the 2nd half. Maybe the creator belatedly realized the humor wasn't working and changed it up later, but it makes getting through the 1st half that much more difficult.
The author also went out of his way to write a smart MC that is good at reading people. Unfortunately, this doesn't make sense in the context of the story. How did the most antisocial character in the show become better at reading people and persuasion than the more socially experienced characters? Magic! You think I'm joking, but that's honestly my best guess. He was terrible at it in middle school, as the show repeatedly demonstrates through flashbacks, he is also shown failing at it in high school too, but through the power of not showing any development to the contrary, he magically became amazing at it! Isn't that how it always is supposed to work in story telling? Snarky sarcasm aside, this ruins the story being told, as the basis for resolution for a lot of the random requests the club gets are based on the MC successfully analyzing social situations and providing a solution for them.
Additionally, the resolutions to the issues presented to the volunteer group become unrealistic as the show progresses. We go from teaching someone how to bake, and helping someone keep their tennis club going, to believing that an "apathetic high school student with narcissistic and semi-nihilistic tendencies" would go out of their way to make themselves hated by nearly everyone around him in school for a trifling reason. It would have been interesting if Hachiman recognized the dissonance between his stated "philosophy" of life in contrast to his actions, but alas, even that metaphorical layup is missed in favor of pretending that his character defects are just "part of who he is" as opposed to the reality of it being little more than the emotional baggage of middle school. C'est la vie.
Art/Animation
The art is average. The animation is minimal overall since the show is mostly focused on dialogue. Overall, the production quality is lacking, but the backgrounds were pretty decent, and I liked most of the character designs themselves. Not much more to say.
Sound
The VAs themselves did a decent job with their characters. There is only so much emotional range you can show in a character that is flat or 1 dimensional so the weakness of the characters weakens the VA performances too. The OP has a cute upbeat sounding track that shows the characters in the series. The ED is very well done. A nice combination of music and slide show style visuals to close the show focused on the 2 erstwhile love interests for Hachiman. It feels like they went all out on making these parts as visually appealing as possible. They weren't memorable enough for me to remember them fondly long after watching it or anything but were still enjoyable to watch when I felt like doing so. The rest of the sound was average. They accurately matched the sound to the tone of the scene, but nothing stood out as particularly noteworthy either positively or negatively.
Character
The focus of the story is on the 3 main characters, so they receive most of the characterization and development. Unfortunately, Hachiman doesn't really grow as a character as part of his "philosophy" regarding school life and changing himself, so we are left with only some character development for Yui and then later Yukino towards the end of the season. While Hachiman and Yukino are interesting characters, far more interesting than the average romcom couple or love interests, the lack of growth makes their characters grow stale over time, particularly for Hachiman, so we are left with the temptation for potential greater character growth later in the show that is only partially realized. This leaves the viewer wanting more, but also exasperates them when it fails to deliver.
Frankly speaking, Hachiman is such an unlikeable character that he wouldn't even be rated in the top 5 of my favorite characters for the series despite him being the protagonist and that is a major issue for the show. In fact, I liked Hayato Hayama, the generic popular nice guy character, more, even though he is used as a foil to Hachiman, because he felt like a realistic character. Hachiman doesn't behave the way he describes himself, or is characterized as in the show, and this contradiction is never addressed directly, so we are left with a self-insert vessel for loners/losers to relate to that never breaks out of that state. While some may believe Hachiman is noble to stay "true to himself", to me, this is just the result of poor writing that inhibits any progression in the series. The show wants the viewer to believe that it is okay for Hachiman to behave the way he does, because he is being "true to himself" despite society saying otherwise, but the unresolved contradiction in his character results in major plot holes throughout the story.
Yukino is your typical perfect female tsundere/ice queen idol with a dash of Hachiman's broader antisocialism due to bullying she received from other jealous girls in middle school (more unresolved middle school baggage!) and Yui is the cheerful outgoing girl that serves to bridge the gap between the antisocial natures of Yukino and Hachiman. Yukino and Hachiman are both needlessly cruel assholes in the beginning but mellow out somewhat after spending more time together with Yui in the club. I guess that is supposed to count as character growth??? I liked Yui the best of the 3 main characters because she was the most believable of the 3. Even if her character is simple and straightforward, she fulfills her role successfully in the show, and her attempts to grow and change the things she dislikes about herself, in contrast to Yukino and Hachiman, were often heartwarming and enjoyable to watch.
The last thing on the main characters I will note is that there is no resolution of the "love polygon" for this season, but it seems destined to be predictable given how it is set up. I would be pleasantly surprised to be wrong about that.
Outside of Hachiman's little sister Komachi, Yukino's older sister Haruno, and Saika, the remaining characters are either boring and/or 1 dimensional cardboard cut outs. I will note that despite being 1 dimensional, Saika provided the only actual humor in the show I found comical with his interactions with Hachiman. Ebina and Yoshiteru actively make the show worse for existing at all. Every time they appeared on screen I wanted to skip ahead. More examples of ruining the supposed seriousness of the show with unfunny over-the-top ridiculousness. I refuse to believe anyone seriously considers anything resembling these characters would appear in real life as the story itself pretends to. The rest of the characters aren't worth mentioning as I don't even remember their names without looking them up.
Enjoyment
Going back to my original question of what is left in a romcom show that I found not funny and had no romantic development I am left with this conclusion: Based on the title of the show, the creator purposefully created a romcom with no romance, while also failing as a comedy, to subvert expectations.
It's as if the author thought up the title first, then decided to create a series based around that subversion, to be different from other series in the genre and stand out. It's like taking the energy from an "It Was Me, Dio!" meme and inserting it into a romcom. Unfortunately for the creator, much like Erina, when I want Jonathan Joestar, and I instead get nothing but Dio Brando the whole time, I'm going to be disappointed, because what I wanted was Jonathan (a good romcom) not Dio (a mostly boring slice of school life that blue balls any romantic development and isn't funny).
If I had watched this show on a lark without any preconceived notions prior to starting it, I would of probably dropped it on the first episode. I would probably of also dropped it after the 2nd and 3rd episodes too, but the praise I saw for the show prior to starting it left me hoping it would improve with time. While it did improve, ultimately, I was still left very dissatisfied with what remained. I wouldn't recommend this show to anyone that wants romance and comedy in their romcoms, since there essentially is none, so who can I recommend this show to? Maybe frustrated lonely adolescents that want to feel validated, but if you don't fit that demographic, you will probably feel as disappointed as I was.
Thank you for reading.
