Opinions (A):

Yahari Ore no Seishun continues to defy expectations and do things that are just… Unexpected. An episode that’s titled around Hayato but doesn’t have all that much to do with him? And it still works and moves the plot forward nonetheless? Well color me both surprised and impressed.

If there’s one downside to the approach this episode took, its that we didn’t get the story behind Hayato and Yukino, or as much development as I would’ve liked.

In the end, Hayato is a bit of an enigma. He’s not a character that we’ll ever get intimately familiar with, like say Hikigaya, Yui, Yukino or even Iroha.

The big mcguffin this week is a request from Yumiko, to learn about what path Hayato is taking for college. There’s some ha bub about Hayato and Yukino and rumors about them dating, but it gets quickly thrown away in favor of the whole Hayato’s future thing.

In general, the tone this episode takes is pretty potent, its moving from high school to college, and the toll it takes on students and friendships. This is the part of life where paths really do diverge, and contrary to what Hayato thinks, life and relationships can get a reset.

What we do get, through the episode and Hikigaya’s efforts, is the reason for why Hayato keeps loathing himself and whats really eating at him. Simply put, he, alongside nearly everyone else has realized that Yukino has feelings for Hikigaya.

And what probably hurts the most is the fact that no matter what Hayato does, no matter what kind of person he is or becomes, no matter what he wins at, he can’t be the one that catches Yukino’s eye. That’s Hikigaya, and that makes Hikigaya superior to him.

I sympathize with Hayato, and with his idealistic way of living. Its a nice contrast to Hikigaya’s realism, but in the end I’d say Hikigaya is the one looking at life in a better way. Its doubly true because of Hikigaya’s negativity and scorn for people has subsided, and he’s got people that he really cares about now too.

And while this episode would have you believe that it was all about Hayama Hayato, I’d say it was actually about developing Yukino back as a valid love interest.

And maaan… Did I feel like the story was favoring Yukino a bit more than it should. That may be my bias for Yui, but the little moment that Yukino and Hikigaya shared in the nurse’s office was pretty intense. Sparks were flying, and its kind of tragic that even after all that, Hikigaya still can’t accept that someone’s interest in him.

He’s definitely interested in both Yukino and Yui at this point, but the show seems to be hinting at a Yukino ending… Which kinda disappoints me.

The flip flopping from making it seem like Yui to Yukino is a bit cheap, and something that I feel like Yahari, with all its call backs and masterful plotting is above.

The question is whether there is indeed going to be some kind of ending. For the foreseeable future, it seems like all of the friends in Hikigaya’s grade are going into liberal arts, so they’ve still got time I suppose.

With the Hayato stuff dealt with, and two episodes to go, I’m really curious to see where we end up now. Two episodes seems like a bit too little to deal with the Yukinoshta family issues, so it’ll be interesting to see if this intense and exciting season is going to end with a bang or whimper.

Preview:

I really have no idea what the next episode is going to be about, but it seems like we’re very much in the end game of the season.