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Yahari Ore no Seishun
Love Comedy wa Machigateiru
- By Pax Alquiza
H
ere’s a question. What kind of person do you find “weird”? That’s a “weird” question
in itself. Every person has their own view of “weird”. But then, there are those who are
generally labelled “weird”. Not by preference of an individual, but the society itself.
There have always been those people in your class in middle school, have there not? And if
not, then it could be you.
Anyway, as those lonely spirits of our batch grow, they become more aware about
their surroundings. Loneliness could either make you, or break you. Most often, our
lonesome friends tend to do the latter, and stand-up and be proud of themselves, which,
in turn, freaks everyone else out, and get branded as “loners” and “weirdos” until your
graduating year, unless drastic changes are made.
STORY: One such interesting individual is Hikigaya,
Hachiman. He’s you’re basic run-of-the-mill loner.
That one guy in class who’s anti-social, and is more
like a little, unused chair in the corner of the room
rather than a classmate. We’re going to take his
daily mundane life in which he takes good pride in,
and put him in standard “Love-comedy” situations,
and see what happens. Living through his lonely
high-school life with the burden of a “RomCom”
protagonist, our hero has no choice but to follow
his almost similarly anti-social leading ladies into
the fray and surpass a very judgemental school,
family, social, and not to forget, love life. The
comedic and romantic situations fit themselves
nicely in the story, and bring in more interest in
our uninteresting protagonist.
Characters: To be straight up and frank, this
section entices me the most. Although our main
man is detestable and amazingly thick-headed, I
can’t help but relate to the way he thinks and acts.
Probably because I kind of experience what the
characters have experienced.
And as the Otaku isn’t really a sociable being, I can
easily say that people will relate to him as well. As
for his band of similarly awkward “friends”, they
are also very much relatable. This rarely happens in
“RomCom” anime, which is why I give the characters
of Yahari a big thumbs up.
Sounds: There’s nothing more to say about the
sound and voices but “spectacular”. The OPs and
EDs are both beautifully composed, especially the OP
(Yukitoki), as expected of Supercell. And the seiyuus
all fit very nicely with their characters, especially
Takuya, who voices our main man, Hikigaya. You guys
probably know him as Saru from Oda Nobuna no
Yabou or Shinji from Kuroko no Basket.
Art: The visuals are also pretty good. The art portrays
the story very well, but isn’t as “Visual Heavy” as
Bakemonogatari, or Photo Kano since it’s more story
oriented anyway. So expect some smooth watching.
I also like the way they do their “next episode”
previews. Although it gets frustrating as well, at times.
Verdict: An anime that sets an atmosphere on its own is really hard to come by. But Yahari
keeps it up. It manages to project its own feel to the viewers by using the characters to relate to
them. This is a hard task to accomplish, but is accomplished nonetheless. The way it tells its story
is enticing. The sound and the art are good. And all in all, it wraps itself up in a neat package.
But then, this anime may not be for everyone. Because once you stop relating to the characters,
the story ends up being a meaningless ramble. It also doesn’t have much action, so totally not
recommended for Shounen-heads. I can easily recommend this anime to those who want a good
“Slice of life” anime, those who like a good romance and those who like a light watch once in a
while.
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Anime Reign | Issue 2 | 2013