" I want something genuine. "

* * * *
now, i know what you are thinking after reading that sypnosis. Another generic mediocre romcom, isn't it?
WRONG. Sure, the plot line is nothing new and it's just like most other LN's. So what sets it apart from other LN?
First, this is one of the most realistic LN out there (pretty rare).
And Mainly, the difference lies in characters.
Hikigaya, is, a loner. It's not like he wanted to be one, but he had some mental trauma from junior and middle school and other circumstances forced him to be one. He tries his best to distant himself from others. He tries to read between words. Plus, he has dead fish eyes that makes people not to approach him.
Then, he meets yukinoshita, she's a loner too but a complete opposite of 8man. Excellence at everything she does.
And then yui yuigahama. She's total opposite of 8man and yukinon. Popular, good looking and a nice personality who wants to get along with everyone.
These three make make up the service club.
The story moves along with the requests the service club gets.
Now most anime watchers say that Oregairu doesnt have a story, but, is that true?
It does have a story. It's a character driven story, and a good one at that. We see how Service club tries to solve the request they get.
Again, so what? What's so good about those requests?
NOTHING. The request are simple. What matters is how 8man solves it.
And more than that, we see the psychology aspects of high school students and the philosophy of today's society with those requests.
Hikki's view on other people, the society, is harsh. It's crude. (lets just say cynical, k?)

Yet, none of it is wrong. Instead, his view is so accurate that you cant even refute that. And it's thought provoking.
As i said, this LN is realistic, so even you, the reader, have to agree with his views even if you dont want to.
Hikki is called monster of logic. Why? Because he has a logic for everything.
Hikki's thoughts are contradictory. It's full of sofistry. Yet, you agree with him.
Yukino & yui, both try to solve the problems. But for some reason, 8man is the only one who solves it.
But his methods are not complementery.
Anime watchers, who saw those methods, said, " HIKIGAYA IS BADASS ".
But no, he's not. It's just that hikigaya doesnt have other options.
This series, has an amazing writing style and narration. You relate to the characters, you cheer for them, you feel sad with them.
The character development is also good, something you should look forward to.
The story, as I said, is character driven. There are plot twists, there are some sad moments, some cheerful moments, some satisfactory moments.
The art illustrations are good too. Especially the color illustions. Those are beautiful.
But hey, is this really a love comedy?
Yes and no. It's like 25% comedy, 10% romance. But the rest of it, is the reality described in a cruel way, harsh words.
Now, something about yukinoshita. She's an ideal student, but even she has her problems. She has a bad tongue, plus she's beautiful. Also she's a cat lover.
Makes her a good character.
Yuigahama, is someone relatable, for me personally. Someone cheery and who wants to get along with everyone. Reminds me of my highschool days.
The thing is. Every character, including side ones, are people you'll find around you. The atmostphere, is exactly like a high school.
It doesnt feel artificial or fictional, like most LN's in market.

About romance angle, it's there. Yui and yukino, both have shown an interest in hikki. (Plus 2 more characters, but that'd be spoiler)
and finally, a minor spoiler.
" I want something genuine. "
when hikki says that, he cries. The badass, cries. And at that moment, your heart warms up.
But what does hikigaya want? What is that genuine thing?
It's something you, the readers have to find out.
Overall score : 9/10
If you liked the anime, then you're gonna love this LN even more.

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I was promised a masterpiece. A novel full of well crafted dialogue and deep story with a social commentary. Needles to say I got none of that.

The whole time while reading this I was waiting for the breaking point, the part when it gets good, the big twist or something, as I couldn't believe this is what the huge amount of people are praising. Yet here we are.

Oregairu is a harem light novel. No matter how much it tries to hide that with pseudointellectual monologuing, it is still a harem LN. Of course, I'm not saying that anything harem is inherently bad (look no further than Monogatari Series or Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei), but Oregairu certainly failed to make the genre interesting.

In other reviews, you can see "this isn't your typical romcom novel" being noted a lot. That's a lie. This is your typical romcom novel. The only difference there is that the protagonist is (self)described as a loner and loser. A loner and loser yet he gathers supporting characters around and 2+ girls hinting theirs interest in him (this is a romantic comedy after all). You guessed it, it's just a self-insert character at his core. A character for the unpopular folks to identify with and to fantasize how they'll get surrounded by girls too. And Hachiman is self-insert not only for the reader, but also for the author, as the author himself even mentioned that in the afterword. Everyone else is just a background character for the MC to interact with, really. Yes, even the secondary lead consisting of the two girls. And have I mentioned considerable chunk of the whole content of the novel is the MC fawning over a trap? If that is your thing, good for you, but otherwise be beware you might cringe a lot.

I suspect that the reason for mostly positive reception is that almost nobody who didn't like this from the start is going to stick around to actually finish it. And it is the right decision, there is no improvement or reward for forcing yourself through the novel even though you do not like it. The only reason I haven't dropped this is because of my personal no drop policy, and even then I was tempted to just drop this numerous times. It's not outright awful, but it is boring most of the time.

The social commentary, the beloved philosophical and psychological aspect of this franchise. It just turns out to be a shallow "people are bad and people in a group are even more bad" rambling. The philosophical level of Oregairu is unironically on par with "We live in a society" memes. It brings nothing new to a table for your understanding of society if you made it through a highschool. As mentioned above, all of this really feels just as an excuse for the reader themselves to feel cool - "Those normies don't even understand how cruel society is", "I'm actually totally smart and capable, I just hide it because I'm a lone wolf", "Girls would totally like me if they got to know me more" etc.

As usual with light novels, unless I'm reading an official translation, I'm unsure if the writing style is a fault of the author or of the fantranslation, but I'll have to make do. The writing is bland and there are almost no descriptions, just a string of dialogue and inner monologue of the protagonist - even more than usual with light novels. Contrary to what their recommendations might try to convince you of, the style is in no way similar to Monogatari series. If anything, it's more Hyouka-tier, and that is no compliment either. Popculture references are sprinkled over the novel in attempt to make it more interesting, yet (especially in the first few volumes) the references follow the pattern of "What am I, X from Y?!" or "I see, you know about X as well". This is not a hyperbole. The beauty of references is that you get them only if you know what it references, this is just smashing them in your face. Thanksfully this reference "humor" is used less in later volumes.

The illustrations are amateurish and unimaginative. It's mostly just the characters, well, standing there. As if to complement to writing, the art style is also bland. And just a little pet peeve and again mostly in the first few novels, the boob physics are hideous and on a level of bad ecchi. Though to be fair after finishing the series I can say that the art actually improved, so at least that's something positive.

Overall, there seems to be a lot of readers enjoying this, so you might very well become one of them. Just be warned that there is a chance you might be unpleasantly surprised.

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