Yahari Ore no Seishun Rabukome wa Machigatteiru - 13 [End]

"Thus Their Festival Will Never End"

That erasing your presence thing... Ah. good times, good times.

It's kind of weirdly appropriate, though somewhat disappointing, that Oregairu ends on one of those anime-styled finales where everyone is all smiles and reflection. It's even weirder considering how OVA-like this episode is in general, as if it was an afterthought to counterbalance the far more depressing arc conclusion last time around. It's true that we're supposed to treat the Festival arc as the real end and this as an extra, but it's rather hard to do so when this one kind of undoes some of the poignancy of the former. It's not as if it's a terrible or out-of-character sort of episode either; it's just far too much like those aspects of the series which are more conventional than usual. But at the same time it's unmistakeably Yahari, so perhaps I'm reading into things too much.

The arrival of the resident chuunibyou (plural) to save the Sports Festival is undoubtedly one of the more fanciful solutions of the series. We've gotten used to Hikki's harsh problem solving skills so it's kind of weird seeing that classic anime approach here: if no one else can solve the problem, let's outsource to the loners and hobbyists who have the skills we need! And even more jarring is the fact that the approach actually works with little to no fuss (minus the fact that Hikki cheats so obviously he ends up disqualifying the team). I also wasn't particularly fond of the more "buddy-buddy" sort of feel amongst the character relationships; didn't we just go through a whole arc where Hikki came out as the bad guy? Sure Yui and Yukino like him, but since when was Yukino so lenient on him? Perhaps that's an effect of what happened, but I can't help but feel like some of that Festival impact was blunted with this sort of depiction.

Still, it's not as if all the special qualities of the series have magically disappeared. Totsuka is still very much the only character Hachiman has shown open attraction to (going so far as to claim that he's in love when he sees him in his captain uniform) and I like that that's never really pulled for laughs the way other series might. Sure, he's distracting enough that he drives all the other boys nuts, but Hachiman doesn't openly try to dissuade himself from his attraction, nor do the other boys have fits when they see how cute Saika is. There's also that whole matter of "erasing one's presence", a trademark Hikki remark filled with self-deprecation and the usual pessimism. Sad as it sounds, some of us really do this (and try very hard to excel at it) whereas others naturally can't help going unnoticed. It's part of what makes Hikki Hikki; he's that loner who understands all too well what he is and what his place is among everyone else, and that's exactly what's made him such a brilliant character in an otherwise forgettable show. Even if he considers himself invisible.

N.B.: Thanks to Ivan for the caps!