Oregairu 3 | Episode 4

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Binge watching is both a blessing and a curse; blessing because I can finish episodes in quick succession and I can write about them to all of you, but it’s also a curse because it’ll then become easier for me to experience a burn out which lasts a long time. As you probably guessed it, episode 4 is being in the process of being watched/finished with a blog coming through in quick succession!

Personally, I never thought I’d ever see an anime version of IKEA in an anime. I didn’t ever think that would have been a thing I’d enjoy so much, but I did. Seeing the “IKE” in the first few minutes of the anime is by far the highlight of the episode. Speaks to how well SNAFU does at providing a visual experience that mimics that of real life.

Besides that funny moment for me, what this episode did well at was conveying different emotions are various points of the anime. At the beginning, we during the IKEA moment, we were shown the strong friendship between Yui and Hikki as they walked through the store together and wondered what to get Homachi. During that scene the overall feel, with the illustrations, the emotions of the characters provided a displayed a very happy and vibrant scene. When the episode transitioned to a scene with Yukino’s mother demanding the cancellation of the prom for whatever reason and the scenes following depicting a rather gray scene (because it was raining), with the characters looking washed out, along with the piano in the background playing a rather depressing/saddening track really made everything feel kinda depressing to say the least.

I think what hurt me the most as a person was when Hikki was on the phone with Shizuka when she told him that the prom was cancelled in the end. Not willing to accept that the prom was indeed cancelled Shizuka managed to get Hikki to truly convey his feelings as to why he wasn’t willing to accept that the prom was going to be cancelled. It was, because you guessed it his feelings for Yukino. Something that was openly shown to Yui who was standing right beside him and realized right then and there that she didn’t have a chance at all. We were then presented with the following scenes;

Seeing Yui cry really hurt me internally. She didn’t want to get in the way of their (Yukino’s and Hikki’s) feelings for one another, but at the same time she wanted to. She wanted it to be her, but at the end of the day she knew it wasn’t going to happen. She wanted them to be happy, but she also wanted herself to be happy. That realization for her, coupled by the fact that the ED song was song by her voice actor alone. Really hit home because it made it feel that she felt alone, and she didn’t like that. Overall, a really good episode one of my favourites for sure.