First Impression – Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. Zoku

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Yahallo~ It’s been a while since my last post, but now I’m back with a vengeance! And with what more fitting than a continuation of one of the first shows I blogged on Metanorn? So without further ado, let’s jump right into things.
 
 

FUBAR

Left to right: Dead eyes, dead eyes, stoner eyes.

I can’t believe it! SNAFU ditched Brains Base and picked up Feel for animation production instead? Everything is ruined now! Why, they completely butchered the character designs! Just look at Hikki’s face now! His eyes aren’t dead anymore! He just looks like a lame stoner instead! Everything is ruined! Man, it’s so bad it’s like SNAFU jumped straight to FUBAR! Didn’t even take a moment to pause at TARFUN. I’m dropping this shit faster than I d-d-d-drop the bassssssssssssss11 awshieeeeeeeeeeeeeeet122 subscribe and check out my blog at metanorn.net

Carrying On

An ordinary day for the Volunteers Club.

OK, now that I have dispensed with such reactionary folk, let us proceed to my real first impressions of SNAFU TOO: SNAFU Harder with a Vengeance. The new season picks up right at the climax of episode 12 of the first season, reaffirming the “omake” nature of the previous series finale. If you don’t remember what was going on in SNAFU’s final arc, Hachiman and co. had their hands full dealing with the cultural festival and Minami’s selfish shenanigans, leading to a confrontation between our hero and the normally amiable Hayato. This was a rather nice way to bridge the gap between the seasons and to remind us of Hachiman’s character. Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that Feel just wanted to show off/reassure us that they were more than capable of doing their job by reanimating the band jamming away. Not to beat the dead horse, but I really do believe that this premiere actually looks better than all of the first season. The new designs are definitely less flat, and are drawn and animated with more depth and detail.

Fujoshi girl knows what’s up!

So back to the contents of the show, it’s business as usual; the Volunteers Club is still going around helping people with their problems. Their first job this time is to help a bro catch a chick. And the girl in question happens to be a fujoshi who ships Hikki and Hayato and is now unhealthily excited at the idea of a triangle forming between the two and the aforementioned bro. I think we all see where this is going. But that’s boring, so let’s instead talk about the members of the Volunteers Club themselves. The first season initially saw lots of development between Hikki and Yui. The accident before the opening ceremony was covered, and Yui’s character was fleshed out from silly wannabe to well-meaning airhead. Then the spotlight shifted to focus more on the relationship between Hikki and Yukino as the two dealt with Yukino’s sister and the cultural festival.

Keeping distance.

This season continues with that trend as Hikki and Yukino have a cute “private moment” of their own thanks to Shizuka’s meddling. The ~45 seconds of near complete silence as the two walked, followed by Yukino introducing a 3 meter gap between them to avoid social consequences, and then her halting thank you as they arrived back at the hotel was the perfect way to end the premiere. Not only did it serve to highlight and reiterate the social awkwardness of the two main characters, it also provided an undertone of innocent teenage romance to counteract the “shallow” attraction that broseph Kakeru likely feels for Hina. Not to stereotype people like him, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know much about her. And much worse, he probably doesn’t even bother to make an effort to get to know her better. Otherwise, he wouldn’t need to turn to a bunch of outsiders of all people for help.

Extras

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All in all, this was a very strong reentry for the series. I’m hoping that the show will take a more “personal” approach to addressing Hikki’s antisocial tendencies moving ahead by more strongly pushing some sort of romance between him and one of the girls, because that might really be the easiest way to “rehabilitate” his warped views of society. It certainly looks like this might be the case since Hachiman seems to be growing more conscious of the girls. Now, it doesn’t help that Yui is a bit of a dunce and Yukino is slightly antisocial herself. But I like to think that two people with problems together can help each other change for the better.

Good night~

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