There have been a lot of beautiful, clever opening shots in Oregairu (Yui seated helplessly midframe between the Dolorous Duo comes to mind), but this one is currently #1: Hachiman sitting alone on a bench, allegedly in his element ("I'm a lone wolf!") but anxiously, desperately miserable. He's looking for a miracle, so of course who should show up but .... Hiratsuka-sensei. This is no teacher, she is guardian angel. She is ready to teach, and for the first time in his life, he is ready to learn.
She asks him a leading question and gets an earful about the incompetence of the planning committee, but artfully steers it towards the heart of the matter: he, Yui, and Yukino. Hachiman has a keen ability to know what people think, but "You don't understand how they feel. People's thoughts don't always mirror how they feel. That's why they sometimes make decisions that seem nonsensical. And that's why Yukino, Yui, and you jump to the wrong conclusions." In a way, almost identical to what Komachi told him earlier when they reconciled. This woman is incredible, but she's not finished yet. The problem in both circumstances (Christmas party and the two slugs) is the same: the human heart. Hachiman pleads ignorance before impenetrable mystery: "That's not something you can understand by thinking about it." He's promptly cut down to size: "Baka! If feelings could be processed like that, they'd be digitized long ago." He already knows the answer, and she helps him see that: "The last remaining answer, the one you can't calculate - that's human emotion." In a word, that is how you find a decision of the heart.
Sensei is like a Yoda of the heart. It makes sense, according to her, that you try to avoid hurting someone by pushing them away - exactly what Hachiman and Yukino do to each other - though Yukino is better at it by far (probably because Hachiman has Komachi, who genuinely loves him). Not the pushing away, but the why of the pushing is what's important; because you care about the other. The alienation is simply from fear. Gently, forcefully, persistently, she works on persuading Hachiman to be genuine, and hence be vulnerable before the other. The vote count is in. Hiratsuka-sensei is best girl.
This is why Haruno and Sensei, who might at first glance seem similar - harsh, abrasive, interfering - are total, absolute opposites. Haruno's interventions are paralyzing. They cause friction, anger, resentment, and help make people - Yukino especially - worse. They do not help. Sensei on the other hand, is magic: everything she does and has done results almost infallibly in positive, stretching growth for her charges. Proof: she just did in five minutes what Evangelion spends its entire run working out - the pitfalls of human interaction and closeness with others, and why genuine friendship is still worth pursuing. This works in Oregairu because Eva takes place in a loveless, bleak world. There is no warmth, no gentleness, no connection there. Small wonder Shinji is so tempted by Instrumentality. Things are not quite so bad in Oregairu, and though it takes a sleepless night to ponder what he wants, Hachiman is able, thanks to Komachi and Sensei, to make a choice.
Everything about the Hachiman-Yui-Yukino confrontation is perfect. The writing, the direction, the framing, the acting, everything. Hands down it makes one of the most beautiful scenes in anime, in close contention with Re:Zero 18 and Clannad 2.18. And all of it appears to be for nothing. For the second time in his life (the first was for Komachi) Hachiman apologizes: he's acted like a solipsist, as if nobody else existed, so that the solution can be found with the minimum of pain. His friends (I'm looking at you, Yukino) are too blockheaded to articulately call him out on it, so the cycle continues. Yui knows exactly what's wrong and how to fix it, but is unable to take the first step. After Hachiman apologizes, she's riveted in shock, still looking for Yukino to take the initiative.
Until Yukino shuts him down. Hard. Only then does Yui act. Hachiman probably played the rejection tape a thousand times before entering that classroom, so Yukino's refusal barely surprised him at all. He would have left immediately, and the anime would end right there, if it weren't for Yui, who with Hiratsuka-sensei is the hero of this series. Hachiman is unable to reach Yukino, but Yui sure is, attacking her for not being fair. It is the first time Yui has ever eloquently, passionately disagreed with someone, and it is beautiful.
Hachiman tries to defuse the disagreement, but the girls totally ignore him. Yukino is bothered by Hachiman's method on every single level, not least because it works better than her own. He solved the hate-mail dilemma, he solved the Sagami problem, and he solved the Tobe disaster. Even from the beginning, when Yui couldn't bake a sheet of cookies without burning them and Yukino despaired of teaching, Hachiman provided the solution then too. She knows his way of doing this is wrong (and she's right about this) but his success makes her look inadequate. Her only statement that gets through to Yui is that she Yui, tried to act as if nothing was wrong in the hopes that things would fix themselves. "So I thought that if that was what both of you wanted..." she trails off.
That is when Hachiman admits that he can't trust what anyone says at face value. "I'd fall back into my habit of reading between the lines and thinking they had ulterior motives," he relates in a most honest dialogue. Yukino assumes the most defensive stance possible, hugging herself and trying to keep everything at bay. I'm almost surprised she didn't curl into the fetal position here. But that is not the end: "Even so," he says, and the frame, so closed off before, with none of the three making eye contact with one another, opens up into dialogue, because for the first time in his life, Hachiman is being straightforward. He wants to understand and know others, resting secure in that knowledge; he wants to know others inside-out and no longer be in the dark. He calls this desire egotistic, self-indulgent, and arrogant (probably out of fear), but he wants to share that desire, and have a relationship where you are free to seek that from another and give it to another in your turn (and the camera turns first to Yukino and then to Yui as he says this). He calls this out of his reach (and it is, because it requires the will of another, who can't be controlled), but bursts out that "Even so, I want something genuine!"
Yui wouldn't - and maybe couldn't - articulate it that way, but she intuits exactly what Hachiman means. She's won over immediately, just as we knew she would be. But we also knew that Yukino would be different, and she is. To the shock of both Hachiman and Yui, she too has a quiet outburst. "I don't understand. I'm sorry." And she runs away clutching herself as if she's in pain. Which she probably is.
That short cut is exactly why the two of them are the way they are. Hachiman was 100% totally authentically real, and he got shut down with barely a word. No wonder people act the way these two do, or the way Haruno and Iroha do; that kind of response feels like treachery, and Hachiman is shell-shocked, immobile, in despair. Somehow, however, Yui is not rendered immobile, and knows exactly what to do (she and Hiratsuka-sensei are the heroes of this arc), and just by being Yui persuades him that it's not over yet, but if he stops, it will be.
Understanding Yukino is hard, because we only see her from Hachiman's perspective, so she almost always appears perfect (because to his eyes, she is), which is why the frame of her friends approaching, Hachiman in the foreground, Yui ahead, and Yukino in the background, smallest, most diminutive of all, is practically a photographic miracle. Hachiman just had an epiphany, Yui intuits what it means even if she can't explain it, but Yukino feels small, inadequate, and ignorant, because being genuine also means being vulnerable, which she can't abide. She tries to take refuge in words or argument, and Yui, who has no talent whatsoever for that sort of thing, counters by doing the thing women somehow know how to do at exactly the right time: she sees someone in fear and pain, so she simply flings her arms around her suffering friend. That's the camel's straw, and both of them dissolve in tears. One could be forgiven for thinking it's a hallowed moment.
She asks him a leading question and gets an earful about the incompetence of the planning committee, but artfully steers it towards the heart of the matter: he, Yui, and Yukino. Hachiman has a keen ability to know what people think, but "You don't understand how they feel. People's thoughts don't always mirror how they feel. That's why they sometimes make decisions that seem nonsensical. And that's why Yukino, Yui, and you jump to the wrong conclusions." In a way, almost identical to what Komachi told him earlier when they reconciled. This woman is incredible, but she's not finished yet. The problem in both circumstances (Christmas party and the two slugs) is the same: the human heart. Hachiman pleads ignorance before impenetrable mystery: "That's not something you can understand by thinking about it." He's promptly cut down to size: "Baka! If feelings could be processed like that, they'd be digitized long ago." He already knows the answer, and she helps him see that: "The last remaining answer, the one you can't calculate - that's human emotion." In a word, that is how you find a decision of the heart.
Sensei is like a Yoda of the heart. It makes sense, according to her, that you try to avoid hurting someone by pushing them away - exactly what Hachiman and Yukino do to each other - though Yukino is better at it by far (probably because Hachiman has Komachi, who genuinely loves him). Not the pushing away, but the why of the pushing is what's important; because you care about the other. The alienation is simply from fear. Gently, forcefully, persistently, she works on persuading Hachiman to be genuine, and hence be vulnerable before the other. The vote count is in. Hiratsuka-sensei is best girl.
This is why Haruno and Sensei, who might at first glance seem similar - harsh, abrasive, interfering - are total, absolute opposites. Haruno's interventions are paralyzing. They cause friction, anger, resentment, and help make people - Yukino especially - worse. They do not help. Sensei on the other hand, is magic: everything she does and has done results almost infallibly in positive, stretching growth for her charges. Proof: she just did in five minutes what Evangelion spends its entire run working out - the pitfalls of human interaction and closeness with others, and why genuine friendship is still worth pursuing. This works in Oregairu because Eva takes place in a loveless, bleak world. There is no warmth, no gentleness, no connection there. Small wonder Shinji is so tempted by Instrumentality. Things are not quite so bad in Oregairu, and though it takes a sleepless night to ponder what he wants, Hachiman is able, thanks to Komachi and Sensei, to make a choice.
Everything about the Hachiman-Yui-Yukino confrontation is perfect. The writing, the direction, the framing, the acting, everything. Hands down it makes one of the most beautiful scenes in anime, in close contention with Re:Zero 18 and Clannad 2.18. And all of it appears to be for nothing. For the second time in his life (the first was for Komachi) Hachiman apologizes: he's acted like a solipsist, as if nobody else existed, so that the solution can be found with the minimum of pain. His friends (I'm looking at you, Yukino) are too blockheaded to articulately call him out on it, so the cycle continues. Yui knows exactly what's wrong and how to fix it, but is unable to take the first step. After Hachiman apologizes, she's riveted in shock, still looking for Yukino to take the initiative.
Until Yukino shuts him down. Hard. Only then does Yui act. Hachiman probably played the rejection tape a thousand times before entering that classroom, so Yukino's refusal barely surprised him at all. He would have left immediately, and the anime would end right there, if it weren't for Yui, who with Hiratsuka-sensei is the hero of this series. Hachiman is unable to reach Yukino, but Yui sure is, attacking her for not being fair. It is the first time Yui has ever eloquently, passionately disagreed with someone, and it is beautiful.
Hachiman tries to defuse the disagreement, but the girls totally ignore him. Yukino is bothered by Hachiman's method on every single level, not least because it works better than her own. He solved the hate-mail dilemma, he solved the Sagami problem, and he solved the Tobe disaster. Even from the beginning, when Yui couldn't bake a sheet of cookies without burning them and Yukino despaired of teaching, Hachiman provided the solution then too. She knows his way of doing this is wrong (and she's right about this) but his success makes her look inadequate. Her only statement that gets through to Yui is that she Yui, tried to act as if nothing was wrong in the hopes that things would fix themselves. "So I thought that if that was what both of you wanted..." she trails off.
That is when Hachiman admits that he can't trust what anyone says at face value. "I'd fall back into my habit of reading between the lines and thinking they had ulterior motives," he relates in a most honest dialogue. Yukino assumes the most defensive stance possible, hugging herself and trying to keep everything at bay. I'm almost surprised she didn't curl into the fetal position here. But that is not the end: "Even so," he says, and the frame, so closed off before, with none of the three making eye contact with one another, opens up into dialogue, because for the first time in his life, Hachiman is being straightforward. He wants to understand and know others, resting secure in that knowledge; he wants to know others inside-out and no longer be in the dark. He calls this desire egotistic, self-indulgent, and arrogant (probably out of fear), but he wants to share that desire, and have a relationship where you are free to seek that from another and give it to another in your turn (and the camera turns first to Yukino and then to Yui as he says this). He calls this out of his reach (and it is, because it requires the will of another, who can't be controlled), but bursts out that "Even so, I want something genuine!"
Yui wouldn't - and maybe couldn't - articulate it that way, but she intuits exactly what Hachiman means. She's won over immediately, just as we knew she would be. But we also knew that Yukino would be different, and she is. To the shock of both Hachiman and Yui, she too has a quiet outburst. "I don't understand. I'm sorry." And she runs away clutching herself as if she's in pain. Which she probably is.
That short cut is exactly why the two of them are the way they are. Hachiman was 100% totally authentically real, and he got shut down with barely a word. No wonder people act the way these two do, or the way Haruno and Iroha do; that kind of response feels like treachery, and Hachiman is shell-shocked, immobile, in despair. Somehow, however, Yui is not rendered immobile, and knows exactly what to do (she and Hiratsuka-sensei are the heroes of this arc), and just by being Yui persuades him that it's not over yet, but if he stops, it will be.
Understanding Yukino is hard, because we only see her from Hachiman's perspective, so she almost always appears perfect (because to his eyes, she is), which is why the frame of her friends approaching, Hachiman in the foreground, Yui ahead, and Yukino in the background, smallest, most diminutive of all, is practically a photographic miracle. Hachiman just had an epiphany, Yui intuits what it means even if she can't explain it, but Yukino feels small, inadequate, and ignorant, because being genuine also means being vulnerable, which she can't abide. She tries to take refuge in words or argument, and Yui, who has no talent whatsoever for that sort of thing, counters by doing the thing women somehow know how to do at exactly the right time: she sees someone in fear and pain, so she simply flings her arms around her suffering friend. That's the camel's straw, and both of them dissolve in tears. One could be forgiven for thinking it's a hallowed moment.
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