Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. Zoku – 06
Lost in thought.
Unsurprisingly, Hachiman tackles the Volunteers Club’s newest job request on his own.
Thin Ice
Careful observation.
Even though we’ve seemingly moved beyond the crisis from the previous arc, the aftershocks from Hachiman and Yukino’s conflict can still be felt. The atmosphere in the Volunteers Club is decidedly awkward; there is a feeling of continuing tension that stifles the clubroom. The slightest thing could easily blow up and threaten to pull the trio apart again since neither Hachiman nor Yukino have reconciled with the others’ way of doing things. And it seems that all three are aware of it to a certain extent. Hachiman finds himself inadvertently spying on Hayato’s clique in an effort to figure out how they maintain their status quo after Tobe’s attempt to confess to Hina. And Yukino outright speaks the words that everyone is thinking: it might be better for the club to not get any requests at all. Of course if there are no job requests, and in extension no opportunities for Hachiman and Yukino to butt heads, the Volunteers Club will remain intact. But at what cost? Things aren’t exactly the same as they were before, when the trio were arguably comfortable with each other and even had a decent time helping others. Now all that’s left is awkward silence and stiff smiles. Not quite the camaraderie and sense of belonging that I’m sure Shizuka was hoping to create for the loners.
Tehe-pero~
In the face of this, along comes Iroha to stir up the hornet’s nest again. It’s already bad enough that she’s got a nasty personality, but she also has to keep coming back to haunt the group that she almost destroyed (though admittedly she didn’t do it knowingly). Anyway, this time the needy and manipulative girl is hoping to dump the responsibilities of an intermural student council community project on Hachiman and co. Seeing a potential threat to the status quo of the Volunteers Club, Hachiman springs into action and takes the job into his own hands. This is nothing new for the guy as shouldering things alone is his M.O. But at least this time it seems like it might actually work for the best in terms of avoiding a conflict within the Volunteers Club. Plus, Hachiman hasn’t resorted to misdirecting any harm onto his own image so far either. So even if his recent efforts happen to become known to Yukino, I don’t think she’d have very much to complain about. Well, except for the very fact that he’s hiding what he’s doing from the rest of the club. And you know what, that might just be what ends up happening since that’s probably the worst case scenario: Yukino finds out about Hachiman’s dealings and the two have to sort out their differences in earnest this time.
Very Big Words
Behold, the council of tools.
As for the community project itself, the whole thing is basically a lot of hot air. The Kaihin High School stuco employs a lot of big words and literal hand waving to make it sound like a lot is happening even though nothing really gets done in each meeting. And then a bunch of what appears to be busywork gets assigned to Iroha and co. to sort through. I’m almost surprised that there’s enough work there for Iroha to call for help considering the absolute lack of progress that’s been made. But I guess it isn’t too hard to create busywork out of bullshit. The worst part of the whole thing though, is that the ambitious Kaihin stuco keeps increasing the scale of the project with little protest on Iroha’s behalf. I don’t blame the girl for not knowing what’s going on, but she really needs to stop mindlessly agreeing to everything. The whole situation is clearly creating rifts within her own stuco, and it seems to be only a matter of time before her vice president speaks out or resigns outright.
Extra Animated
As amusing as it was to watch Hachiman fight fire with fire and negotiate with the Kaihin stuco using their own words, I really wonder if the hero will be able to do anything to save the community project. There’s been no plan of action whatsoever, and absolutely no one knows what’s going on. All they’ve done is repeatedly brainstorm ideas, which by their definition is to accept only opinions that they find convenient. It’s even worse when Kaori, who just so happens to be there, randomly chimes in and spouts meaningless words of support for equally empty ideas. I might also add that Kaori is still an “unintentional” bitch to Hachiman, but I digress. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if the loner will be able to solve this new problem alone, or if he’ll end up needing the help of his Volunteers Club comrades after all.
Bitch please.
About Sumairii
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 105 comments
Fear the Jazz hands!
Geez, talking a big game but resolving nothing in the end. Sounds familiar no?
POWUH: 600-699 and LN Enthusiast with 623 comments
This part was somewhat uncomfortable in the novels because of the strained situation in the club plus the awkwardness and impending trouble of the committee meeting but somehow it came out a bit comedic. Couldn’t help but laugh and cringe at the ENGRISH words that the other StuCo pres was spouting.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Iroha knows there’s a problem, but she’s completely wrong about where the biggest problem actually is. I’m actually a bit surprised that the others on the student council weren’t the ones who came to the Service Club for help. The perils of a complete newbie as the person in charge, she doesn’t realize that even while they’re not getting anything done, all the work is being shoved onto her team (which she doesn’t even help with).
They aren’t even brainstorming “ideas.” I figure the other school will think of some way to blame Iroha for not having an actual event when Christmas comes, but so far there’s not actually anything to do.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
This is a case where the rest of the Service Club is needed. While Hachiman is just as good at saying fancy-sounding, meaningless things as the other StuCo president, he can’t stop what’s going on and make them make actual progress. Yukino probably could. For one thing, she’d have no problem calling the joint committee out for B.S. Hachiman knows what’s going on is just spouting a bunch of B.S. as is clear from his internal dialogue, but he can’t say it out loud. Yukino has no trouble being blunt with people.
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
Oh, god… Can I punch that guy? If I do, do I get a bitchslap at that former classmate girl as a bonus? Seriously, I was so pissed off watching this episode, the best part was Hachiman’s exchanges with Iroha.
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
Greatest villain this season.