Sep 24, 2020
As someone who had their fair share of drama and romance during my high school days, I’ll provide my two cents on this finale season.
What initially drew me to this anime was the comedy and wittiness of the MC, Hachiman, and his little funny monologues. I watched the first season maybe four or five years ago and I went through a kind of “edgy,” nihilistic outcast phase, so I found him funny and somewhat relatable. In this season, Hachiman still has that vibe, but he just doesn’t seem as funny as before. Comedy-wise, this season is greatly lacking. I think the the biggest portion
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of humor is usually derived from Hachiman’s internal quips, but they feel very misplaced due to the nature of the plot.
Speaking of the plot, this season is 100% drama. I think that’s my biggest issue with this season. There is virtually no comedy. I guess Isshiki is comic relief, but her whole “wait, are you actually trying to hit on me because I’m your cute kouhai” thing gets stale. There’s the ironic “siscon” between Hachiman and his sister too if that’s supposed to be funny. Oh yeah, the hands guy was pretty neat I guess, until the weird rap battle. The rest of the characters are practically irrelevant.
The “plot” generally revolves around making a prom, with the subplot being the trio in the Volunteer Service Club trying to express their feelings to each other. And man, is it slow and boring. There are some cute moments between Yui and Hachiman sprinkled in. But most of the time, I feel like the dialogue and storyline are just complicated nonsense that would make most viewers confused. We have the Yukinoshita family drama intertwined with the prom drama, which is also intertwined with the drama between our trio. It just seemed like a huge overblown mess and it made me feel confused and nearly indifferent to times when the plot actually moves. I was not drawn into the plot whatsoever and the whole “story” being ambiguous did not help. Like at certain points, I was thinking, “oh, is this supposed to be a good thing? Was this important? Am I supposed to care this happened?”
As a casual viewer, I approached this season mostly expecting some cheap laughs, a nice story, and a little drama, which made this anime very difficult to enjoy considering how nearly every dialogue between characters is ambiguous and convoluted. I understand that high school is a very confusing time and it’s hard to properly comprehend and express feelings to one another. But this anime takes it to another level. Nearly all dialogues have confusing nuances and are left inconclusive on purpose, probably to let the viewers understand them on their own. Which is fair. But realistically, normal people don’t talk in metaphors and deliberately leave things ambiguous. Even if you were to understand every subtle nuance in the dialogues, you’d still be in the same place as most confused viewers: nothing really important was said, right? Even the characters’ internal monologues are ambiguous, which doesn’t make any sense. If they’re going to give audiences internal monologues of characters, it should at least be clear exactly what they’re thinking and how they’re feeling. But it’s not clear. Which makes it hard to get attached to the characters and storyline, and ultimately makes it pretty boring.
One thing I did appreciate was the development between Yui and Hachiman. I feel like she had the least confusing monologues and it was much easier to at least feel some sort of attachment to her compared to the rest of the characters. She was the only character I feel like I could truly understand and empathize with because her feelings and thoughts were clear. The animators did a good job on her facial expressions and reactions which would convey certain things, whereas the rest of the characters felt like watching dead fish. Her voice actor did a stellar job too.
The anime also redeems itself in the final two episodes when the characters stop beating around the bush. Meaning, there is some romance. Even then, the dialogues are still fairly ambiguous, but it should be clear enough to understand what actually happens. The first ten episodes are generally just pseudo-complicated filler made to appear important. But thankfully, watching until the end wasn’t a complete waste of time.
If you’re just looking to turn your brain off, get some laughs, and watch a cute romcom unfold, I suggest looking elsewhere. In general, this is just a slow-burning high school drama.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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