Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. Kan – 08

「せめて、もうまちがえたくないと願いながら。」 (Semete, mou Machigaetakunai to Negai Nagara.)
“Wishing That, At the Very Least I Don’t Make Any More Mistakes.”

Hachiman’s conversation with Hayama was interesting to say the least. I’m impressed at how candid they are about the fact they dislike each other. But I can also respect that they won’t let it get in the way if they have share a goal. In this case, helping out Yukino – a matter where Hayama expresses a lot of regret. Despite the sketchiness of the plan Hachiman raises and his initial disapproval, Hayama implicitly gives his blessing and steps aside when Hachiman makes a spurious claim that the reason he’s exerting all this effort is down to his pride as a man. Now let me make this clear. Like Hayama, I don’t buy that sophistry for even a second. Because that’s really just simping of the highest order. That said, it takes one to know one and I don’t doubt that Hayama has a crush on the older Yukinoshita sibling.

I thought it was the end of the road for the grand prom plan when Yukimom called Hachiman in for a meeting with her, and she correctly assesses his motive for running a secondary prom plan. This was going to be the moment where she used her unrivaled political influence to quash him without any recourse. But who could have guessed that it was all according to keikaku. Hachiman goes straight for the jugular. In his interactions with Yukimom, he whips out his trump card – the fact her chauffeur accidentally injured him in a car accident. Confidently declaring his name, Yukimom chooses to back down out of guilt, allowing Yukino’s revised prom plans to go ahead.

What do I make of the resolution? Well… no matter how Hachiman tries to paint it, there’s no way you can say Yukino really succeeded in breaking free of that ‘codependence’. No Hachiman intervention, no Yukino’s prom. There’s a direct correlation there, which is why I feel that the contest they held is a total sham. The mental gymnastics required to reach Hachiman’s conclusion – that his stubborn behaviour is a man’s pride (as opposed to love) and that Yukino won in accordance with the terms they’d decided. Not to mention when Hachiman allows Yukino to choose whatever she wants, she decides to sacrifice herself by asking him to fulfill Yui’s wish. Only even with the best of intentions, Hachiman is probably going to hurt Yui because he will always long for Yukino and be unintentionally insincere. So they’re really merely delaying the inevitable here.

But I suppose it isn’t out of the ordinary. And as I’ve previously said, true to life. I’ve seen it happen many times, where people would step out of the way despite their feelings, because of friendship. And where this sort of kindness actually caused more hurt and more suffering. Still, it continues to drag out with no end in sight. Though once they figure out the situation, I trust that Yukino will realise that Hachiman with Yui won’t work and that Yui won’t hold it against her. Since we have four episodes left, I expect one more arc for good measure. Unfortunately, I’m not very excited that Oregairu will slowly peter out like this – filled with agonising indecision – as the primary trio continue to dance around directly facing each other.

Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to discuss. As always, thanks for reading this post and see you next week to spectate how Hachiman will go about fulfilling Yui’s wishes, as requested by Yukino.

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