Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru – 10
SNAFUUUUUUUU!!!!
Forget romcom. SNAFU continues with its drama streak this episode. I have to say I felt very annoyed throughout the episode. Everyone is being so stupid, and the worst part is they probably realize it. That just makes for a rage-inducing experience.
Culture Fair Committee
The school culture fair is around the corner, so of course class representatives are being chosen for the committee. Hachiman gets stuck with the position thanks to Shizuka-sensei, while the role of his female counterpart goes to a Sagami Minami. We had seen her previously when she stumbled upon Hachiman and Yui during their little “date” at the fireworks. During that exchange, she came across as just another forgettable, annoying popular girl character. But now we know she’s got a more important role to play than someone who makes fun of Yui for being with a loser. And this new role is even more dislikable than the previous. Being part of the “in crowd”, she’s constantly seeking to boost her reputation. So when Hayato recommends her as the female class representative, she politically downplays herself before “reluctantly” accepting the position1. By this point, I’m already starting to get irritated. But Minami isn’t done yet. When the committee convenes for its first meeting, she volunteers herself for the position of committee chairman after Yukino declines the offer from the student council prez. Yukino’s refusal is interesting in and of itself, but more on that later. So now we have an irresponsible, incompetent person who’s only in it for the reputation somehow ending up in charge of the committee. Truly, a recipe for disaster.
I was already wary of Minami grabbing the position of chairman, and it doesn’t take long for her to make these concerns very real. Soon after the meeting is adjourned, she stops by the Volunteers Club seeking Yukino’s assistance to make the culture fair a success. Let’s not be mistaken here. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help when you need it, but Minami’s intentions here are so painfully obvious that it just makes me all the more annoyed. And worse yet, Yukino agrees to be her “assistant” despite initially doubting her motives. She knows full well what the nasty girl is up to, so why does she still go along with her? I really don’t understand what was going through Yukino’s head at the time. Was she waiting for Hachiman to step in and stop her? What happened to her usual tough reception towards people like Minami? Remember her confrontation with Yumiko a while back during that tennis match? She certainly didn’t hold back then. Why the difference in attitude here? Is it just because Minami came to her as a “client” of the Volunteers Club? Because that’s really not a very good reason, and someone as intelligent as Yukino should know this. In any case, I could go on and on about everything I hate about Minami, but that would take a long time and serve no further purpose. Suffice it to say her lazy attitude really grinds my gears.
Volunteers Club Problems
So with that out of the way, let’s get back to the Volunteers Club. Things have been reallly awkward between the trio since summer break ended, and after a period of this, they finally decide to break up the club “temporarily”. Honestly speaking, I’d say “temporary” can very easily become “permanent” unless something is done about the situation. But obviously something will be done eventually. It’s just a question of when. Going back to the awkwardness, I’m having a little trouble comprehending what exactly is responsible for it. We know that all three now know Yukino was riding in the car that hit Hachiman. So the obvious result would be for Yukino to feel guilty about it. But then why does it feel like there’s more to it than just that? Yui has made a point to remind Hachiman to help out Yukino in times of need, despite his maintaining that he doesn’t care about the accident any more. Does Hachiman actually feel a bit of resentment towards Yukino for putting him in the hospital? While Yukino was selling her soul to the devil that is Minami, he just stood by silently even though all three members of the club knew Yukino was getting herself into trouble. And even after Minami and her lackeys left the room, only Yui spoke up voicing her concerns to Yukino.
And while we’re on the topic of Hachiman’s opinion of Yukino, we should go back and examine Hachiman’s monologue at the end of the previous episode. In that, he tells us he despises himself for the first time in his life for his own unrealistic expectations of Yukino as a sort of perfect being who could never lie, let alone do any wrong. Does this perhaps suggest that instead of resenting Yukino, he feels guilty for pushing his ideals on her, even if it was all in his head? I think it’s safe to say that Yukino definitely feels guilty for putting Hachiman in the hospital, so perhaps the whole awkwardness results from these two feeling guilty about completely different things? It would make sense if this were the case, because Hachiman does step in for Yukino when the prez starts challenging her in front of the whole committee,2 even if his whole argument about soldiering through things on your own didn’t sound very convincing to me. This would suggest that if anything, Hachiman doesn’t resent Yukino. And don’t get me wrong, the prez isn’t at fault either. She’s a nice person, but it’s just that every time she opens her mouth with good intentions she ends up making things worse instead. The heavy hitter, of course, is when she brings in Haruno, the one person Yukino doesn’t want to see. But I’m not even going to get started on Haruno this episode. Because that would just be a whole nother sermon on my irritations.
This episode was by no means a bad one. The thing is, it was far too painful to watch. We have no shortage of aggravations, from Minami’s attitude to Haruno’s behavior. I didn’t really have a problem with Haruno before, but I’ve come to hate her for making things harder on Yukino. Obviously she’s making a point to agree with all the stupid things Minami is saying, but for what purpose? What does she hope to achieve by making Yukino look bad in front of the committee? I can’t even think of some subtle way in which she’s somehow indirectly helping the little sister she claims to love so much. It just looks like pure malice to me. Is she displeased that it appears Yukino is yet again following in her footsteps? If that’s the case, she doesn’t even know the whole story! Yukino turned down the offer herself probably for this exact reason, and is only serving as the VP thanks to Minami’s own evil schemes. Anyway, I should probably cut myself off before I start raging again, so let’s just leave it at that. Hopefully the next episode won’t be nearly as rage-inducing.
1A point which Hachiman humorously discerns thanks to his previous rejection experiences.
2What’s left of it after Minami has done her work to ruin their productivity, anyway.
About Sumairii
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I think Minami has played her role very well. She played it from the start….She gets the title, none of the actual work…Doesn’t make her any less awful, but something tells me Yukino may be disarming her in future…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I think it’s less that Yukino feels guilty about her car running over Hachiman, and more that Yukino feels guilty that she never could tell him. And I think that Hachiman feels bad both at himself for thinking she was different and at her for thinking she was different when she’s not.
I do wonder if Yukino can do anything to break out of the Haruno trap. Even if she wanted to do something different, she gets railroaded into doing the same things. And then Haruno gives her shit for ‘just doing the same things’. How much of what Yukino is doing is because it’s what she wants to do, and how much is shoved onto her? We learned last week that she basically doesn’t get to do anything because of their mother.
Minami’s sneaky plan will work fine if Yukino pulls it off. She’ll get credit for being the President, and not really have to do any committee work. And perhaps she thinks she’s cornered Yukino into making sure it gets done. But I wonder if Yukino’s figured out a way to have it fail, or at least light a fire under Minami’s ass, especially with the ‘you worked her too hard’ thing.
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 63 comments
>>But I wonder if Yukino’s figured out a way to have it fail
I don’t think she was figuring out anything in the first place. She simply gets the work done, because basically no one else will.
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 63 comments
>>She knows full well what the nasty girl is up to, so why does she still go along with her?
I thinks it’s a case of noblesse oblige. (if you remember, it always was the case. “they come to my club and I need to help them”) As for the lack of her usual response to such people, I think it’s a combination of a festival-related workload and her awkward situation towards Hachiman.
Also, on the subject of that awkwardness. I suppose Yukino did want to talk about the situation at the end of the Episode 9, but Hachiman turned her down. So she understood he didn’t want to raise the topic at all, but she still feels guilty the whole car accident thing. Hachiman, in turn, sees that she didn’t want to raise that same topic all this time, and doesn’t want to make any fuss, but deep down feels betrayed(both by Yukino’s silence and his own expectations). It’s awkward and stupid and painful, but until some divine intervention, they solving that on their own will take a lot of time. (where’s the damn divine intervention when we need it?!)
Haruno is another matter entirely. Meguri didn’t do anything wrong(conciously, at least), but Haruno gleefully makes things worse. Not only she constantly reminds Yukino that she’s in her sister’s shadow, but also starts scheming things by emphathizing Sagami’s attitude so as to make Yukino the committee head. While she is de facto a committee president, she doesn’t really enjoy the fact(not to say overworks herself to the point of collapsing the next day).
As for the wanting to do all the work alone, I perfectly understand both Hachiman and Yukino. Socially awkward people do tend not to ask others for help.
All-in-all, I do agree the episode was painful to watch. Though that also means the series made us sympathize with the characters that much, which is good.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 77 comments
Hachiman had an interesting way of helping. His social suicide is effective but it probably hurts Yukino deep down and probably even Yui. And the awkward scene was reminiscent of when Yui thought Hachiman and Yukino where dating.
I wonder if Yukino really did fall ill to sickness or because she’s watched Hachiman sacrifice himself one too many times in order to help her and this is burdening down upon her, especially since the car accident revelation.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I dunno. I do tend to find anime illness to be rather eye-rolling. Apparently high school kids are so frail that being out in the rain, or doing some extra hours of work is enough to bring on a fever or collapse. That’s kind of why I want it to be that Yukino is playing this up as a plausible excuse to torpedo Minami, instead of the standard “Oh, she overworked herself”.
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 63 comments
>>Apparently high school kids are so frail
That’s why there are restrictions for working minors, you know.
Don’t forget that a) Yukino took the workload of several other people besides her own, b) she probably worked overtime and c) she had to bear with her sister. Not to mention generally unhealthy atmosphere of the organizing committee. In my opinion it’s a bit too much even for a healthy adult.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I dunno about that. Noone in the world is as robust as a high school kid, with sickness and injury recovery that people in their 20’s would love to have. Being more cynical, the reasons for child labor laws are workforce anti-competition and schooling, not because teenagers are not able to handle spending more effort at something.
They also didn’t show us anything of her weakening or obviously overdoing it. Just doing more of the work. It could go either way, but I wouldn’t say that 2 weeks of, essentially, overtime is too much for anyone.
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 63 comments
>>or obviously overdoing it
Like that bigass pile of paperwork wasn’t enough.
Anyway, let’s just wait and see.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
This show needs more chunnibyou guy, fujoshi girl and Saika 🙁 Too. much. tension.