Oregairu 3 | Episode 11 and 12

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Episode 11

Hikki, a simpleton but also one of the most complex and intelligent individuals I’ve ever seen in an anime. I’ve never seen a person take so many words to explain/convey a simple feeling. This is a characteristic of him that I really liked because at the end of the day, this anime is based around real life, the lives of teenagers traversing through teenaged struggles, both physical but also emotional. Something this anime does extremely well at conveying, which is something I’ve mentioned countless times already.

The scenario presented to us, is something I think the majority of people can relate to. When you join a club, team, or council where you meet people you never would have thought you’d ever meet. A bond, a friendship is formed within that affiliation. But what happens once that club dissolves, or if the team disbands what happens to the relationships that were made during that time together? If you’re not in other classes, programs or what have you with those same people, naturally that bond you’ve made with everyone slowly disappears. That friendship, admiration, or love you felt for the people you’ve met, like all things slowly drift apart, and this was something Hikki didn’t want, and this was something Yui also didn’t want. So while I am sad that Yui got her feelings crushed at the end, I am happy that the feelings the three of them had amongst each other wouldn’t get in the way of the one thing that matters most (disregarding their personal feelings), their time together as friends.

Hikki and Yukino are much alike. They both do what they think is best for others, they’re both stubborn individuals, they give ‘100%’ albeit in different ways, and they take 5000 words just to explain and complicate their feelings towards individuals. Regardless of how close they are to them. Which is why I think they work well together, especially with Hikki’s blunt and witty personality, it does well to combat against Yukino’s mother’s strict personality. Which was demonstrated several times throughout the latter half of the anime.

Episode 12

Now that they are considered a ‘thing’, what do you do when you both recognize your feelings for one another and accept that feeling as pure. Well, if you have never dated before, you act very awkward with each other because you don’t really know what to do. It’s nice to see them slowly start to break away from the awkwardness that you felt whenever they were with each other, before and after their ‘accepting of feelings’. They’re like brand new characters, as they now explore a new feeling they have for each other. Something I thought was really nice.

Also, I didn’t know they were going to have two proms!? It may have been mentioned in the previous episodes but I thought Hikki’s version of the prom (which is what we see during this episode), was part of the competition he had with Yukino for their school prom. I thought his plan for it was to make something so outrageous that the PTO (as Hikki’s version was basically the popular option for the students) had no choice but to compromise and to mitigate unrest amongst the students by going with Yukino’s more PTO friendly version of the prom. I didn’t know we’d actually see both versions played out.

I would like to touch briefly on Shizuka Hiratsuka’s role. Looking back on this anime, her role is similar to Haruno Yukinoshita (in my opinion). The role the two characters played, was to help our three protagonists realize their true feelings and for them to act on it accordingly. Albeit through different methods. Haruno played more with their emotions (in my opinion), in particular she worked wonders in Hikki trying to get him to convey and accept his feelings; likewise with Yui when she asked her if she was truly happy. Ultimately, she did all this with good intentions, but damn, I really did dislike her at times. On the other side of the spectrum we have Shizuka, who was the more supportive individual, similar to Hikki’s personality, she was more along the lines of “might as well get on with it” and that’s an aspect of her that I really liked.

Not to mention;

I also found the ending of the anime to be very fitting. Yui coming back to the Service Club, not as a member this time around, but as an individual asking for advise. There we hear something that we all expected to hear “A person I like has a boyfriend, but that person is also my best friend, what should I do?” Hikki’s expression after hearing that was the best thing. It’s nice to see that their feelings didn’t get in the way of the friendship they forged. That is something I really, really like.