Snarky, pessimistic, and just a little bit depressing... why does it feel like high school all over again?
First things first: I know this is a late Impressions post and that there are already two episodes of Yahari out, but because I'm using a Crunchyroll stream and because I'm a bit too busy to catch up at this point regardless, I'm going to be blogging this on a one week delay. I know that's never very fun, but I promise to catch up once I have the time to do so.
Now that that's out of the way, just what is
Yahari? A
Haganai rehash? Another run-of-the-mill romcom? I'm tempted to say no on both counts. I'm not particularly familiar with
Haganai, it's true, but Yahari seems to be somewhat more tongue-in-cheek than the former. As for the romcom charge, it's a bit hard to say, considering the title translates to "My youth romcom is just as I expected" in a fairly sarcastic tone. There are definitely
conventional elements running amok throughout this episode, but overall I think this is a pretty interesting little show, and it definitely echoes much of my pessimistic outlook on high school life during my time there.
Hikigaya Hichiman (
Eguchi Takuya) is a loner who's become bitter about his social awkwardness and lack of friends, and who
now curses the "fools" who claim that youth is a time for fun and socializing. In traditional Japanese fashion (which doesn't look well upon lone wolves), he gets referred to a club whose goal is "helping people", led by the intelligent and popular but similarly lonely Yukinoshita Yukino (
Hayami Saori). Neither of them really likes the other, but there's no doubt that they're people cast from the same mold but under different circumstances; while Hikki is snarky because he's awkward,
Yukino is sarcastic because she stands out too much and can't make real friends. They've both been let down by society and have lost the propensity to want to fit in.
Enter the third member of this romcom, the dense and perky Yuigahama Yui (
Touyama Nao), who isn't quite as conventional as she looks. Though she's
clearly the fanservice draw and the obligatory bubbly character, she's also quick to realize what her problem is once Yukino alerts her to it. Namely, that she's too eager to please the people around her and isn't willing to be herself at the cost of alienating her friends. Instead of denial, Yui takes what
Yukino says seriously, and presumably chooses to be a loner for the sake of joining this odd little club and acting her true self.
Though there's nothing particularly outstanding about this series, it's true that there's some interesting commentary going on in a much less subtle way than most series would approach this topic.
Yahari is so
openly cynical of Japanese youth culture (and youth culture as a whole, though to a lesser extent) that it's actually funny to see Hikki and Yukino poking sarcastic holes at it despite them being rather sad cases in the eyes of their peers. Many of these scenes, such as Hikki's hilariously pitiful flashbacks, are well executed and only add to the atmosphere of critique
established by the dialogue. That's to be expected of a studio like Brain's Base, however (if you forget
Amnesia, of course), so it'll be interesting to see how far from the light novel formula this series is willing to stray. If it can retain its sarcasm and sharp commentary, it will certainly be a curious little series to follow in its own right.
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