Oregairu 1.7

Without too much surprise, the upcoming plot is a machination of Hiratsuka-sensei. "To learn how to live with people in different cliques; learn how to deal with them smoothly without fighting or ignoring them." In other words, learn how to practice some basic human skills. Leave it to Sensei to strongarm her students into growth. Thus, the trio and Hayama's group will assist at a middle school summer camp for a few days. 

(An aside: yet another perfect example of Oregairu's slice of life honesty: the opening scene is exactly how people deal with unwanted texts. It also illustrates how close siblings interact. I wish I had something more profound than pointing and saying, "Look! This is great!"

Oregairu has up to now presented what human nature often does with social interaction. Thus, no matter the ages, general patterns are going to emerge. Those might shift over time, assuming one actually grows up, but though the standards for judging success and failure change as one gets older, the same general idiocy prevails. Nothing prevents someone from being a superficial airhead at forty, the same way nothing prevents another from being an isolated cynic at nine. Yukino notes this explicitly when she explains to Hachiman, "There's no difference. They're human, all the same."

The catalyst here, however, is the influx of new faces; specifically, younger children. The highschoolers are in some fashion responsible for them, and this often has the effect of growing people up, In fact, one could argue this is generally what makes you grow up in the first place - responsibility. A boy becomes a man when he assumes the responsibilities of a man. Thus, a whole new dynamic will be introduced between the Hachiman-Yukino-Yui trio and the Hayama group. 

The new dynamic affects Hachiman and Yukino first, illustrating that both of them are on the same wavelength, practically reading each other's thoughts. A group of middle school girls finds a snake and adores the helpful Hayama, while one girl stands apart and alone. This persists, so Hayama speaks to her (name: Rumi) and tries to re-introduce her to the group. Predictably, it's a dismal failure. Hayama has probably always been well-liked, so he's not exactly an expert at dealing with loners. He doesn't speak their language. Yukino and Hachiman do, so any solution (if there is one) will almost certainly have to come from them.

Unfortunately, neither Hachiman nor Yukino are able to provide any wisdom for her, though she not unexpectedly seeks them out (loners attract other loners, after all). They are isolated, and so is she; it would be strange for, say, Yukino to give successful advice on solving the same problem she herself has - being socially shunned. Now, however, all the group has noticed this dynamic, and they try to solve it all at once. Hachiman's unspoken opinion is that being lone is fine - it's the shunning that's the problem; Hina's suggestion is for Rumi to devote herself to her hobbies, since one finds friends through mutual interests. 

This isn't such a terrible idea, but Hayama disagrees. The solution, according to him, is to make everyone friends again. This immediately prompts a cynical, superior smirk from Hachiman, and Yukino shuts it down in the only way she knows how - cold, blunt, and brutal. Yumiko can't stand that side of Yukino and starts a fight, which illuminates something important. Komachi observes that Rumi has a strong personality, which makes integration difficult. Hayama agrees; it's as if she's disinterested, or disillusioned. Yumiko counters that she's not disillusioned, she's looking down on everyone, which is a sure-fire way to alienate them and make them resent you (I can't really stand Yumiko, but I've gotta hand it to her - she is absolutely right about this). She links that to Yukino's behavior (this is a terrible idea, Yumiko; there's no way you'll ever trump Yukino in an argument), and that goes over about as well as you'd expect. According to Yukino, "You simply feel you're being looked down upon because you're aware that you're inferior." This is about to start a real fight of Vingananee proportions, and would have, were it not for Hayama's intervention. 

Thus nothing gets resolved, but that night brings out one of the best conversations between Hachiman and Yukino to date. The latter "Spent thirty minutes refuting her (i.e. Yumiko's) arguments and made her cry." One can only imagine what was said, and it's genius directing move that we didn't see it. Yukino doesn't know her own power with words and tears make her uncomfortable. But outside in the dark, she feels totally comfortable telling Hachiman about her relationship to her family ("I'm just a replacement"), her desire to help, and even whether or not she and Hayama have a history together. That sort of transparency is remarkable, and belies her claim that Hachiman is not her friend. He understands her quite well, and vice versa. It is not too much of an exaggeration to say the two are now close friends. 

The new insight into Yukino's character  - she sees herself as a mere replacement for her sister - makes me terrified to imagine what kind of twisted family dynamic is at work in the Yukinoshita household. Given her close-lipped nature, though, it'll probably be awhile until it gets more fleshed out.

Oregairu 1.6

We get a treat of Hachiman Spiderwebs: an elaborate attempt to convince himself everything is fine. "We're totally reset. By resetting our relationship, I've regained peace of mind, and Yuigahama has been freed from the chains of guilt. Now we return to our original separate lives. I made the right decision." Good try there, but the mustard hath not been cut. He manifestly has not regained peace of mind, and he immediately compares his 'reset' with Yui to how he hasn't spoken to anyone from his middle school. He's honest enough to call that a delete, but by saying he and Yui return to their separate lives, isn't that the same thing as a delete? You can call his treatment of her last episode many things, but a 'reset' isn't one of them. 

He keeps this charade of "everything's fine" going for Yukino, who's smart enough to realize Yui and Hachiman have been distant for a week. Yui hasn't been coming to club for a week, and Yukino knows it's not because of Yui, and not because of Yukino. That leaves Hachiman, who admits under interrogation that they had something like a "difference of opinion," to which Yukino responds, "Then there isn't much to say." And that's that. These two are like social slugs. Nothing will happen unless an outsider prods them. 

And this outsider happens to be . . . Hiratsuka-sensei! Her character is such a breath of fresh air. Role models would be non-existent in Oregairu were it not for her, and even she does not fit the standard categories - she is in her late 20s or early 30s and unmarried, a source of running jokes throughout the series (to be honest: they are both hilarious and awful). Every interaction she has with her students (at this point, mostly Hachiman and Yukino) pushes them into something new, expands their boundaries, or forces them to consider something different. She is an agent of genuine growth, and those two sorely need her. She is absolutely dedicated to her students' flourishing, and you don't get a mentor like that every day.

Hiratsuka-sensei pushes Yukino to (in effect) re-recruit Yui. This leads to celebrating a birthday and Yukino asking Hachiman to go out with her on the weekend to get a birthday present. Apparently she thinks she needs him for some reason - though what that could be is beyond me. Perhaps it's as simple as recognizing her own lack of expertise in shopping for personally insecure girly-girls.

Call it effusive optimism, but perhaps it's because Yukino is really enjoying her banter with Hachiman. They go back and forth during the shopping spree, and Yukino even acknowledges Hachiman's talent in blunt accuracy, cracking a faint smile as she does so. All is well, till The Awkward shows up. Her name? Haruno, Yukino's older sister. She is everything her little sister isn't - flighty, bouncy, effusive, fun, flirty, and excitable. She takes delight in provocation, like Yukino, but in the form of relationship poking rather than insults. 

In the face of this fiercely happy, frisky nymph, Yukino becomes stony and frigid, treating her sister with barely-polite severe formality, as if she were a complete stranger. If that's not indicative of a gigantic amount of resentment, I don't know what is. Something has poisoned their relationship, either on both ends and Haruno is just pretending, or Yukino has something truly deep-seated against her sister. When she agrees with Hachiman that Haruno is amazing, she sounds as if she's robotically reciting an oft-rehearsed speech that says what people want to hear. That, she figures, is what Hachiman means. But she is wrong, rendering herself confused and taken aback by the cynical loner for probably the first time. 

What he finds amazing is Haruno's armored shell: her sociable behavior, acting all nice and starting conversation, being the life of the party, always smiling, being every man's ideal woman. "But," he concludes, "those are ideals, and ideals are not reality, so it feels fake." Yet again, he delivers a social depth charge that explodes illusions. and yet again, Oregairu proves its understanding of people. There is more than one way to hide from genuine human connection, and acting coquettish, fun-loving, sexually playful, etc., is just as effective (if not more) than Yukino's barbed venomous superiority or Hachiman's alienating behavior. Best of all, that realization doesn't need to be accompanied by a condemnation, just a description, which makes it feel even more true. The depth of human understanding Oregairu continually displays can actually inform and help purify one's own relationships. To say it again: I can't believe anime this good exists. 

The next frame is pure gold.Yukino is fiendishly delighted, smirking at Hachiman out of the corner of her eye as she delivers him a dessert-sized dish of teasing compliments on his sight into behavior. For the first time, they are delighting in one another's company, and they've just had a fleeting moment of real connection. Hachiman either surprised her because he saw in Haruno what she saw, or because he showed her what she hadn't seen before. They are friends now, halfway through the first season. 

Enter Yui, who upon seeing them immediately assumes they're dating, which Hachiman realizes but Yukino hilariously does not. Hachiman's insight is only good with others, not with himself though, since he does not pick up on Yui's rather unsubtle hints that she's into him. This is for the best, because he is actually able to reset their relationship so that they proceed forward instead of staying apart. It's probably the first relationship he's ever mended, and it probably wouldn't have happened without Yukino's incisive commentary. She speaks Hachiman's language, and since the problem was with him anyway (Yui's only problem is that she's falling in love - God knows why - and won't say it), her speech wound up being mostly for his benefit. Thus everything is truly back to normal, and the happiest of them all is (surprise surprise) Yui. If her last frame is not the image of a delighted, pleased girl in love, I'll eat my hat.

Oregairu 1.5

Another loner is introduced, Kawasaki. Unlike Yukino and Hachiman, however, she simply seems private, reserved, and intense, not raising barriers against other people out isolation and fear. She often stays out till 5am, making her brother afraid she's getting into trouble. Getting close to her is next to impossible, especially when your method is to say, "You need to change now. Change this way exactly, please." Yes, Yukino thinks this strategy will work, and yes, she is sorely mistaken. It is up to Hachiman again, who inadvertently winds up exposing her brother Taisha's worries about her as much ado about nothing - she's just working to help pay for summer school and college. Voila, Crisis averted.

Along the way, a few insights into family come up, chiefly that in this series, parents are overwhelmingly absent. Hachiman's parents work all the time, as do Kawasaki and presumably Yukino's. If this is a widespread phenomenon, alarm bells should be going off all over the place. In Yukino's case, however, we discover a) her father works for the prefectural assembly (whatever that is), which grants his family a very well-to-do position. So he and his family are rich, but the parents are distant from their children. It is unlikely the Yukinoshita siblings are different, since Yukino strongly resonates with the description of siblings being "the strangers who are closest to you." It doesn't take a Nostradamus to figure out that Yukino's isolation begins at home.

Other than the above minor familial reveals, this episode would be kind of a dead note if it weren't for the final scenes. Komachi tells Hachiman in passing that Yui owns the dog he saved - probably assuming he already knew that and has talked about it with her. We know of course, that he had no idea. Now he thinks over all of Yui's kindness to him, and assumes it must be because she feels guilty his saving of the dog got him hospitalized. He makes this assumption because the alternative is untenable for him right now. It's probably wasn't hard to figure out, however, that Yui was not being nice to him out of guilt, since her eyes immediately flood with tears and she runs away with a bitter, "baka!" (meaning 'idiot' 'fool', 'jerk,' 'stupid' or all of the above) on her lips. 

Of course, this is the safe way out, i.e. the way out that does not risk genuine connection. Misunderstand someone's intentions and therefore alienate them. One of the surest ways to get and stay on someone's bad side is to misunderstand their motives, especially when you choose to misunderstand them. That's probably what happened here with Hachiman and Yui; he chooses to look at her behavior as coming from guilt, instead of her human goodness or (even worse) because she is beginning to love him. He does this mostly because she's a nice girl, and nice girls are dangerous; it is easy to read romantic interest in their casual encounters with you if you're not careful. His snafu with Yui was simply a resolve to not make that mistake again. 

His experience with this phenomenon prompts another glorious Hachiman Monologue: "I hate nice girls. Just exchanging pleasantries with them makes me curious, and texting each other makes me restless. If I get a call, for the rest of the day I'll keep checking my call history with a stupid grin on my face. But I know the truth. They're just being nice. Anyone nice to me is nice to others too. But I always find myself on the verge of forgetting that. If the truth is a cruel mistress, then a lie must be a nice girl. And so niceness is a lie. I would always hold expectations. I would always misunderstand. At some point I stopped hoping. An experienced loner never falls for the same trap twice. A lone warrior, surviving hundreds of battles. When it comes to losing, I'm the strongest. That's why, no matter what happens, I will always hate nice girls." 

It's like being sledgehammered with the truth. Almost all of what he says is absolutely true. Once again, Oregairu shows that it knows what it means to be young and alone. This is exactly the effect nice girls have on intelligent, rather isolated young men! Hachiman's clarity here is astonishing. On the other hand, his monologue is completely self-centered and selfish, in the service of justifying alienating behavior. The problem is not with Yui being nice to Hachiman, the problem is with Hachiman! Either she was simply being nice to him because -newsflash- Yui is a kind and generous person by nature, or because Yui is becoming drawn to him. He doesn't want to risk the rejection and humiliation of the latter possibility, but the former will tend to make him think the latter is real, so he figures it's safer for him to hurt her so that she avoids him. And all the while he can call himself "a warrior surviving hundreds of battles," and feel like he did the right thing: after all, since he said Yui didn't have to be nice to him anymore out of guilt, if she avoids him after that, doesn't it prove she was acting that way out of guilt? QED, right? Wrong. Duh, Hachiman. 

The way Hachiman blends concise, clear illumination on social interaction with staggering amount of self-deception is yet another reason why Oregairu is so great. His own fear and previous pain are at the heart of his defensive, nasty behavior. Within those walls, he is safe. Yui came close to sneaking into a postern gate, but he caught the potential intrusion and filled that gate up with bricks. This way, he is safe. The wall just got ten feet higher, but it's less stable than it used to be.

Oregairu 1.4

Whereas last episode sang the praises of Yui, this one brings out some of Hachiman's strengths. He doesn't play second fiddle to Yukino or Yui here, displaying an acute awareness of what goes wrong in group friendships, and we even see something of his generosity (masked, of course behind indifference to ridicule) in problem-solving for other people.

We get his 'origin' story too, where according to him, he began to be a loner. Run over by a very fancy car while saving a cute, dumb little dog (which belongs to a pretty girl of whom we only catch a glimpse) - the perfect setup for a Boy Meets Girl story. Since it's Hachiman, however, things can't be so idyllic: Dog Girl visits his house while he's in the hospital, in order to thank him and bring thank-you food. His little sister Komachi eats said food, and forgets to ask Dog Girl her name for Hachiman, so even though she goes to Soubu High, they have no way of meeting unless she approaches him first. Good job there, little sis. 

This is one of the best depictions out there of a sibling relationship, banter and all. The way Hachiman and Komachi interact is actually how close sibling relate, especially brother and sister. It's startling, how real it is.

The action of the episode revolves around the chain letter text slandering three of Hayama's friends: Tobechi, Yamato, and Oka. Hayama being Hayama just wants it to stop, not necessarily expose and humiliate the perpetrator. Unsurprisingly, Yukino absolutely disagrees, showing a vehement hatred towards anonymous slander we've come to expect from her. There is a special place in Yukino-Hell for authors of slanderous chain letters. Given her predilection for honesty even or especially when she's ripping people apart, she operates fully known and in person. Whatever her flaws, she is not wont to spreading lies about others, and despises those who do, particularly when they're anonymous.

Despite her wrath, however, she is able to do almost nothing about it. It's Hachiman who accomplishes the solution in this episode. Yui tries by interrogating her girlfriends, but is entirely unsuccessful, not even able to hide her affection for someone, which isn't even relevant to her goal. She does drop some social wisdom on Hachiman, by informing him  that girls are more apt to be aware of the relationships in the class, and that "if you talk about someone you both hate, they can get carried away and say all kinds of stuff." Oh my. 

We never do find out who sent the text, but thanks to Hachiman's observations about a friendship revolving around a single character (something everyone has experienced - a person is your friend and another's friend, but when he leaves the group, the others are just friends of friends, it gets awkward, and conversation dies). Yui puts it the best: "When the person who keeps the conversation going leaves, it gets totally awkward. You don't know what to do, so you pull out your phone." That's an awful solution, but it perfectly captures the difficulty of genuine interaction.

Hachiman is able to put the solution together extremely fast, leaving Yukino far behind. She doesn't realize the implication of Hayama being the center of the friendship until Hachiman spells it out for her. Remove Hayama from the situation, he advises, and the problem will disappear - Tobechi, Yamato, and Oka might even becomes friends in his occasional absence - and indeed, it seems as if they do. 

This is the first time he's really done something for another person in the series, particularly while avoiding his characteristic, cynical cruelty. He claims to have done nothing, but in fact is the sole reason the solution works so well. This is probably not a watershed moment (Exasperated, Sensei asks him at the episode's start if he's changed at all, and he seems dedicated to appearing unchanged in front of her for the time being), as if things will be radically different from here on out, but since we already knew Hachiman is not the hardened, triumphant cynic he thinks himself to be, it's exciting to see his potential so early. Soon that good potential will begin to conflict with his defenses against human connection, so troubles will be afoot soon, and they'll probably be afoot for him sooner than Yukino.

Oregairu 1.3

Now that the group dynamic is settling in (Hachiman, Yukino, and Yui, occasionally visited by help-seeking outsiders), the trio will start to change. And in this episode, most of that change has one source: Yui. She's the one who bridges the gap between Hachiman and Yukino, referring to their mutual inside jokes (a bit of an odd way of describing their vicious banter, but Hachiman does not object. After all, Yukino is the only real social interaction he has at school), she is the one who brings Saika to the clubroom, she is the one who initially helps Hachiman in the tennis match, and when she's incapacitated, she's the one who fetches Yukino to help finish the job - in addition to unleashing the latter's humorous, competitive fury. 

The banter between Hachiman and Yukino is always well-done, always funny, but it does more than amuse - it reveals. Yukino's experience with jealous competition (the passive-aggressive, envy-inspired female sort, primarily) has taught her that rivals, when they team up to take another down, generally confine themselves to sabotaging that person, pulling them down; not by making themselves more excellent human beings and surpassing them that way. Now I'm not a girl, nor do I have much experience in that sort of catfight, but everything I've heard about the way girls are nasty to each other in competition just got elegantly, if bitterly, distilled by the Ice Queen. Pure, if brutal, social enlightenment.

Yukino has been consistently revealed as extremely competitive. She possesses an intense desire for victory, which even leads her into voicing sentiments of camaraderie with Hachiman during the tennis match - and in the hearing of others, no less. Granted, she would have endless dirt to throw on him if they lost (e.g. "You made me lie. Disgusting"), but I still can't imagine her putting any confidence in another in the pilot. Her expression of confidence is likely to increasingly win Hachiman's respect ("I may spew insults and gaffes, but never once have I spewed a lie"), though squaring her identity on  avoiding a ubiquitous vice is a bad idea. If she ever does lie to Hachiman, he won't take it well. 

Further, Yukino is - or used to be - solitary as an oyster, as her opening frame suggested. But that is beginning to change, now that Yui's here. It is Yui who first calls Yukino a friend, which surprises - even shocks - the latter (although Yui doesn't think anything of it, or if she does, does not indicate it), who is so flustered she can't even repeat it yet. Yui is almost certainly going to be the one who gets Yukino and Hachiman to make interior progress.

Speaking of Yui, her letter of intent is adorable. I have seen girls do exactly that before, and it's (surprise) hilarious, mostly because it would never occur to me to do that in a thousand years. Heart of gold.

Hayama's character is also getting more fleshed out, and his identity as a nice guy seeking social reconciliation - "let's all get along" seems to be increasingly solid. Thus Hachiman and Yukino's resentment towards him (though to be honest, hers is more directed at Yumiko, who has much less to recommend), is strange. After all, he's smart (like them), attractive (like them), and has friends (not like them). They seem to resent his apparent superiority in precisely the same way they criticize the inferiors who resent their own superiority. Neither seem to be aware of this inconsistency.

Now that the initial dynamics of the trio have been fleshed out, both Hachiman and Yukino are depicted as having intelligent, if immature, highly articulate views of the world. Both see themselves as internally consistent, but both have been revealed as inconsistent in rather significant ways, and neither one recognizes it. The only one who is consistent like that is Yui, the airhead with the heart of gold. In a way, that's refreshing. Who would honestly expect an intelligent, bitter, and solitary 15-year-old to be completely consistent? The surest way to know more of who you are is to experience life with others, since they expose your flaws and the lies you tell yourself and other people. Neither Hachiman nor Yukino do this, so it is unsurprising that they exemplify many of the behaviors they condemn in other people. 

Oregairu 1.2

The exposition continues with Hachiman's monologue on human pack behavior, namely by observing popular cliques and the groups of the unpopular. That is where the social power lies, so the popular do whatever they will, and the unpopular suffer what they must in the hopes of becoming popular themselves. There is a lot there worthy of contempt as superficial, and Hachiman sees that. He likens it to a zero-sum game of alphas and non-alphas. It produces the flighty, superficial behavior Yui tried unsuccessfully to defend in the pilot, and Hachiman rejects it as destructive to the individual, save when that individual is the alpha, in which case he can force his opinions and personality on the unpopular.

The alternative to this of course is genuine friendship, and Sensei is clearly trying to cultivate that between him and Yukino by asking him what he thinks of her. It is not a surprise that he is unwilling to be forthright with her, so he claims to hate Yukino. Liar! Sensei ignores this (she's probably smart enough to see through it easily) and makes a surprising observation: both he and Yukino are twisted into their current views, and they're both twisted in similar ways. Everyone is fond of saying that Hachiman is "rotten" or "dead inside," but it is equally true of Yukino, though of course it manifests differently in her. She is actually more venomous, more angry than Hachiman, who is already restraining her outbursts. I don't know whether Sensei means for her explanation of Yukino's behavior is meant to illuminate Hachiman's or not, but it does. Both of them have experienced cruelty, but both probably have immense capacities for others, as Yui  clearly does, for her conformist tendencies seem to come from a desire for others, not something self-centered. The others, by contrast, have largely retreated from this sort of behavior.

Speaking of Yui, she is already in an interesting place, in the process of separating herself from the alpha pack. She does not want to reject it completely and thus sever the accompanying friendships, even if they are (as I'm pretty sure they are) on the superficial side. Her solo attempt to do this is almost entirely unsuccessful, because she is afraid of confrontation and is easily reduced to tears. Yumiko surely knows this, which is probably why she exploits it, claiming to want "straight talking" while bullying Yui into a place of cowed, acquiescent silence. She has to be in control all the time, forcing her opinions on her social subordinates, and when she can't, she becomes flustered and defensive. After Yukino's hilarious intervention, which exemplifies her extremely funny, barbed cruelty, when Yui actually does have a chance to speak frankly, Yumiko can do nothing but pretend indifference and hide behind her phone. But the battle has been won anyway; thanks to Yukino's (and, to a lesser extent, Hachiman's) intervention, the separation is achieved. 

Strangely, it is Hayama, the Popularity King, who keeps the conflict between Yumiko and Yukino from escalating, though of course not resolved. He actually seems like a nice guy, not scum. Mark that cliche averted. 

Yui's explanation of what draws her to Yukino and Hachiman is beautiful. "They say what they mean, they know what people want but don't force themselves to do it." As the pilot hinted, that has made her realize the stupidity of mindless social conformity: put briefly, it's a self-contradictory, incoherent means of communion, for the individual self is lost, and genuine communion can only grow between full, not partial, persons. She will no longer be stunted by the need to run with the pack, and is the quickest of the three to realize the way she needed to change. Neither Hachiman nor Yukino have any inkling they have any need to change, much less concrete ways of changing. Yui is light years ahead of them, even though it was their example that awoke her to it. Granted, her explanation of it to Yumiko is a description only of the best parts of Hachiman and Yukino - she does not mention how they can be totally awful human beings (e,g, the way Hachiman treated her in the pilot, and how Yukino seems to relish social cruelty so long as it is in the service of the truth). Doubtless she knows the ugly sides of the two, but perhaps that is just who Yui is - someone who prefers to see and focus on what is best in people. 

The tone between the three seems to be settling into something stable. Hachiman claims to despise Yukino, and his notebook of Who to Kill is dominated by references to her (and they are hilarious: "Ice Queen. Looked at me as if I were a bug. Called me gross 15 times today"), but the two's mutual insults are rapidly becoming more like intense, enjoyable banter. And now that Yui has had her first experience "saying it straight," it is likely she will the them and be an example of effortless giving the other two sorely need.

Oregairu 1.1

I cannot believe anime this good exists. Claymore was good, Bebop and Champloo were better, Eva is about the best, but Oregairu is right up there. It leaves almost all the anime I've seen far behind. I am still in shock and awe. So much so that I'm going to write on every episode. Can this be real? How can anime writing be this good? And so on proceed my thoughts as I'm watching.

Oregairu understands and explores alienation, insecurity, social cruelty, fear, and how these all intertwine in relationships - and it does this better than anything I've seen in a long, long time; it probes the ways we project ourselves and seek to dominate, or self-efface, retreat and hide, raising shields and walls against the hostile other, all with one common denominator: to fly genuine human connection. Oregairu enfleshes what it is to be a lonely, smart, social outcast; and it points the way out. It's never preachy (something I can't abide in art) but it will often say the truth in such simple ways that you're staggered, such as when Hikigaya describes the behavior of a bright, extroverted, very pretty, fun girl - every man's dream - as an armored shell designed to ward people off; or when he describes the ways lonely boys so easily mistake the kind attentions of nice girls for romantic interest. Simple, clear enlightenment.

Again and again the fear of genuine relation appears throughout the series. Eva dwelt on that at length, in excruciating, horrific detail; likewise, Oregairu presents it as a problem in a way that Clannad never did. Notably, there are no role models for flourishing human relationships, which is odd, since those are precisely that which above all make life worth living. Children have no relationships with their parents (or if they do, with one exception, they are awful, destructive relationships), nobody is depicted in love, and those who struggle for friendship have a tendency rip the other apart as often as they show them love - even more so as romance becomes a possibility within a friendship. The potential for relational destruction seems infinite - and it is. Since human relationality is a necessary corollary to the rational nature of man, to avoid it seems to be a rejection of who we are and were meant to be. Such rejections are never made from a place of reasoned detachment, only from past pain. What can equal the pain of being ripped apart by someone you thought a close friend? the rejecting contempt of someone you loved and thought loved you? Those are the sorts of experiences that raise the interior wall of Jericho, and Oregairu explores how one might lower them. 

The pilot opens with an cynical, contemptuous monologue, in which truth and falsehood are (by the writers) ingeniously wound together. The monologue's author, Hachiman Hikigaya, has a penetrating gaze, and sees a lot of the falsity that lies behind a life of celebrating youth; the mindless seeking of varied experiences instead of wisdom (he singles out lies, secrets, sins, and failures), of heedlessly accepting failure ("the hallmark of being young!") while refusing to think through the more sinister implications: "If failure is the hallmark of being young, then someone who has failed to make friends [i.e. Hachiman Hikigaya himself] must be at the peak of his youth." A blithe, saccharine, "I'm-okay-you're-okay, yolo" seems to be something like what he's excoriating. He despises mindlessness, and his school seems to exemplify mindlessness. 

Just because it illuminates a few truths about high school society, however, does not make it a masterpiece. It is a sneering, contemptuous piece of suffered alienation (like Holden's conversations in Catcher in the Rye) and his teacher, not wrongly, shreds it as "worthless drivel." This launches him into his meeting with Yukino Yukinoshita, who seems to be his immediate, albeit complementary rather than mathematical, equal in intellect, wit, and loneliness.

Like him, she has no friends, though being an attractive girl, gets plenty of unwanted male attention. She takes immediate delight in sparring with Hikigaya, and is as ruthless as possible in said matches. She uses words as venomous weapons and enjoys using them to rip people apart, especially since much of what she says is completely true. A perfect example of loveless truth. Both of them have articulate views of the world; according to Yukino, "The human race is weak, ugly, jealous, and hate those with more than them," which she has amply experienced by being pretty, and thus the frequent object of male lust and envy-inspired female hostility. She is clearly intelligent, and argues that "the talented (i.e. herself) "have it rough." She is not content to retreat from all things, but wants to "change the world and everyone in it." What that means exactly I don't know, and I doubt she does either, since she holds the world in just as much contempt as Hikigaya. They see themselves as superior, outside observers with clear sight. 

Her attitude clearly wins (and fast!) Hikigaya's respect: he seems to admire honesty, and judges that she never lies to herself; by extension, she will not lie to him either. She appears intrinsically honest and straightforward, which immediately begins to strip away the elaborate hostile defenses he builds for himself. His refused offer of friendship gets them right back where they were, but it is surprising how quickly they came down when he found another a) like him and b) honest. He is not the hardened cynic, the world-weary champion, that he makes himself out to be. 

Into this duo comes Yui Yuigahama, who is almost everything Hikigaya and Yukino are not - energetic, part of a popular clique, a bit of an airhead, and someone dedicated to social conformity. It would seem that they have nothing in common, especially since Yui seems to be kindhearted and generous, while the other two are more like solitary, angry porcupines. Their articulate, black views of the world are just true enough to give them the pleasure of feeling right, as if they are knowers of the truth, and they are young enough that they do not realize being intelligent is not the same as being wise. For all the grief she gives Hikigaya about unwillingness to change, Yukino sees no reason for herself to change, though she is just as alone as he is, in just as much need of interior transformation.

Both Hikigaya and Yukino fear human connection, and Yui does not; rather, her longing for it is what causes her to do and say whatever necessary to fit in any social circle, including this one; she is unwilling to establish her own identity, seeing it as an obstacle to friendship; she changes everything whereas the other two are unwilling change anything; thus Yui has everybody but little of herself, and Hikigaya/Yukino have nobody but themselves. Paradoxically, because she is so attracted to Yukino's advice of establishing yourself and refusing social conformity (and it does not hurt that this advice is actually true and useful), Yui's tendency to conform will purge itself, and may allow her to develop as a human quicker than the emotional solipsism of Hikigaya and Yukino.

New

I had thought I had exhausted good anime. Nothing, so it seemed, was left except relatively humorous shonen series to serve as distraction. Perusing lists of anime proved a waste of time, since the same awful series predominated said lists, and I didn't have the time to research hundreds of series one by one. I needed an in - someone reasonably intelligent whose judgment I trusted. But where to find such a person on the Internet, of all places? The task seemed hopeless and for awhile I turned aside.

Then I discovered Your Lie in April, which I devoured in one sitting (I love classical music so was immediately hooked, disregarding the more annoying shonen cliches), and the youtube comments directed me to Clannad, which turned into one of the most beautiful series I have seen in a long, long time. So while googling top ten lists, I found my way to a site whose top thirty list put Eva at the top, and which began with Hideaki Anno's pre-Eva work. Upon examination, I realized that for the first time in very long time, I once again have anime on deck! They are:

• Shiki
• Kyousogiga
• Monster
• The Flowers of Evil
• Haibane Renmei
• The Eccentric Family
• Paranoia Agent
• Kino's Journey*
• Gatchaman Crowds
• Mushishi*
• Katanagatari
• Revolutionary Girl Utena
• Baccano
• Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress*
• Psycho Pass*
• Terror in Resonance*
• Kurozuka*
• Occult Academy*
• Requiem from the Darkness*
• Girlish Number*
• Fate/Zero*

Next time I'll write about Clannad and maybe a brief snippet on Your Lie in April.