Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru Zoku – Review

Yahari Ore No Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru Zoku is the odd second season that not many fans of the franchise ever expected to happen. Not only did it happen, however, but it happened under a new director and studio in Kei Oikawa and Studio Feel respectively. Its definitely a great thing to see, as too much anime these days rarely continues its story, let alone concludes it, and so its a definitely a huge blessing and an exciting moment when a series that you thoroughly enjoy gets a second coming.

The issue, however, with second seasons is that they bring with them the expectations of a concluded story. And while Yahari Ore No Seishun Zoku is a great follow up to the first season, often times eclipsing it in quality and epic moments, it is not the season that concludes the story. The season actually ends on a rather intense cliffhanger, as the story very much reaches the point where its about ready to conclude.
Is that disappointing? Yes, yes it is. The only thing perhaps more painful than never getting a continuation of a franchise you like is seeing it continue very strongly, only to leave you hanging at the worst point in the story. And its the fact that Zoku is just so darn good, strong and entertaining in its limited thirteen episode run that really worsens the blow.

Having said that, is Yahari Ore No Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru Zoku worth a watch despite its rather painful ending? I really think it is.
For fans of the first season, watching this second season is a no-brainer. It not only revisits the characters and world from the first series, but also continues to build to something rather powerful. With 13 episodes, this season is just sublime, all the fat trimmed off in favor of an intense, lean experience.

The story moving along at a quick pace, developing characters, providing answers to questions that the first season introduced is by far the highlight of this second season. What’s truly impressive, however, perhaps to the series’ detriment is the fact that the story doesn’t shy away from the core issue, and its core cast.
This season tackles the issues surrounding protagonist Hikigaya Hachiman, and the two main girls Yui Yuigahama and Yukino Yukinoshita head-on. There’s no beating around the bush regarding the core love triangle, and each character’s weaknesses and core issues are the main themes present within each arc that the show presents.

There’s always a maguffin to get the story rolling each arc, but it merely serves an excuse to examine the main characters and their motivations and relationships to one another. For a character driven show like Yahari, this really really works. It works so well, and it makes so much sense that its kind of shocking to wonder why so many Anime series avoid it so thoroughly.
But… Despite the fact that this season of Yahari is so darn good, there’s no doubt that the ending leaves you in a worse place than season 1. The adaption itself is a bit perplexing because of how it actually catches up to its source material fully by its 13th episode. From the way the story is developed at that point, it really does seem like the endgame is pretty much in sight at that point. Had the series waited for a little while longer, its conceivable that the light novel source material would’ve concluded in its entirety, leaving it ripe for adaption.

Instead, what it very much feels like is that there’s only a small bit of story left, that pretty much resolves the core question that many fans have; “Who does Hikigaya Hachiman end up with, if anyone?”. And this whole issues leaves the franchise in a very interesting place, as far as an anime adaption goes.
There doesn’t seem to be much story left for a third season, frankly. The only other options then, is for the story to either conclude in a bunch of OVA episodes after the light novel concludes, or not at all. You can guess which of those two options is likely to actually become a reality. My guess is that this might be the last time we see Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru in animated form, and that feels like a darn shame. I’ve been wrong before of course, and I’d love to be wrong again. Only time  will tell in that regard.

So, leaving continuation issues aside for a second, lets talk about the actual production of the show. It really feels like the decision to change directors and Studios was a really good one, because Yahari ore no seishun feels like a stronger show for it. The credit for the pacing and stellar adaption has to go to the new people responsible for this season of course.Art direction and character designs are markedly different but still recognizable and that’s because the series gets a new character designer in Yuu Shindou. The new character designs are a bit different, but definitely easy to get used to. In general the animation and art for the series is pretty well done and fairly competent.
Yahari isn’t the sort of show that begs for a lot of intense animation, so backdrops and locations are reused to great effect, as they would probably be used in a live action sitcom. It works pretty well, as the focus is squarely on the characters and their interactions and conversations. And when the pivotal moments happen? You can bet that the atmosphere, background art and animation are all going full throttle to amp everything up to eleven.It all works, and that’s doubly true in the sound department. The series composition is handeled by Shōtarō Suga this time around, and is markedly better and more poignant this time around. The Anime OP and ED theme in particular, outdoes the first season and is particularly memorable.

The voice acting, a staple perfection of the anime medium, is just as good, with seiyuu Takuya Eguchi (Hachiman), Saori Hayami (Yukino) and Nao Touyama (Yui) back and in top form. Nearly every character in this show is expertly voice acted, and its a testament to the anime medium, but also the voice acting talent in Japan that this aspect of the industry is just so well done and often taken for granted. The power and success of this season just couldn’t happen without the great voice acting work behind it alongside everything else.
Looking at the second season as a whole, Yahari Ore No Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru Zoku is a bit of a double edged sword. Its a perfect example of a sequel that really does get everything right, continuing the story, further developing its characters and just really nailing down things like pacing. Its also a perfect example of what makes Anime in general these days so heart breaking, in that it really does end in a horrible cliffhanger, without any mention of whether the franchise will continue in animated form or not.

While fans of the first season will definitely find a lot to like here, Yahari Ore No Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru Zoku can’t really achieve greatness until it sees that cliffhanger resolved in some kind of proceeding series. And despite how good  it is, the ending does actually bring the overall value of the package a bit lower than the first season. We award it with a B Grade. Please let there be a season 3 or some kind of OVA conclusion!

My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO!

When an anime has as cutesy a title as My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO! does, it's hard to believe that it is anything but the typical high school romantic comedy. However, as those who have seen the first season can attest, it's true. Transitioning perfectly into its second season, SNAFU TOO! is a refreshingly insightful series that, accompanied by its philosophically deep characters, adds a dark twist to the romantic comedy formula so that even those who normally avoid the genre can enjoy it.

This dark twist is first realized through Hachiman Hikigaya, a cynical, friendless loner drafted into the Service Club by his teacher in the attempt to brighten his personality. Working with the popular Yui Yuigahama and the also friendless Yukino Yukinoshita, he gradually becomes friends with them as they assist fellow schoolmates with their problems, but trouble stirs when his methods of helping begin to hurt himself in the process. It's then clear why "SNAFU," a military acronym meaning "Situation Normal: All Fouled Up," is part of SNAFU TOO!'s title.

Many returning fans have been concerned about whether SNAFU TOO! can do justice to its incredible first season, especially since, as a result of switching animation studios, its art style has changed. Fortunately, these fears are unfounded; SNAFU TOO! is a natural continuation to the series that makes it feel like the first season never ended. The series picks up exactly where it left off, logically extending and intensifying the new conflict introduced in the previous season’s last episodes: Hachiman’s pragmatic, self-sacrificing methods. To ease back into the story after a two year break, however, it begins with a quick introductory arc to reacquaint viewers with the Service Club and Hachiman’s martyrdom so that the strain between the characters builds at a reasonable pace. Thus, even if SNAFU TOO! has a new, smoother look — one actually quite easy to adapt to — it is the same twisted romantic comedy everyone was hoping for.

At the center of SNAFU TOO!'s twisted romantic comedy is the characters, intriguing for their differing perspectives on life. Hachiman seems to be a logical, but bitter jerk, and this is where his tragic flaw lies; because he is kinder than both himself and others realize, as well as so convinced that people's negative opinions of him will never change, he continuously acts as the antagonist and sacrifices himself in order to solve problems without disrupting the status quo. This clashes with Yukino’s preference for difficult approaches that force people to face themselves and their friends, but ultimately result in people solving their problems and dealing with the accompanying changes rather than having someone take their problems away. These contrasting ways at first result in humorous banter, but as the conflict escalates, Hachiman and Yukino’s relationship is stretched to its limits. Attempting to keep the club together is Yui, the seemingly typical popular girl whose bright perspective is not made the enemy of the other two’s unconventional views, but rather is portrayed as necessary in combination with them. The depth of SNAFU TOO!’s characters is enough that people should marathon the first season and quickly catch up with this one.

As a result of these philosophically varied characters, SNAFU TOO! reworks the romantic comedy genre to be much darker and more insightful than usual. Due to Hachiman's sardonic nature, much of the comedy comes from his blunt, bleak musings of others' behaviour and desire to fit in, as well as his surprisingly lighthearted moments of attraction to his closest male friend. Moreover, blatant romance is not the series's central focus, but rather the subtle development of it through deepening friendships that lay the foundation for stronger, more realistic romance later on. This well-developed romance in combination with dark humour results in an anime that makes several points about philosophical issues under the guise of comedy, prompting viewers to think critically about life.

A long-awaited second season that makes it feel like the first one never ended, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO! does incredible justice to its first season and, rather than idealizing high school life, remains intriguing through its two greatest strengths: its philosophically contrasting characters and its unique take on the romantic comedy genre. If you're looking for an insightful series with a dash of love and humour, look no further than to the Service Club to help you.

THE DISAPPEARENCE OF YUI YUIGAHAMA

Hello Everyone ! For This blog I have message To Hachiman x Yukinoshita shippers I'm sure you understood who I ship but for those who didn't : Yess I'm a Yuigahama x Hachiman shipper

Back To The point ...

  I'm not talking To every single one of you but for general. You're erasing Yui and see Yukinoshita and Hachiman as The two main characters of The Story. Here's The comment That I found from Amazon

You think They're The two main characters who are in Love and Yui is just a Girl who disturbs them. That's not it. This Anime/Manga wants you To do ships. There's not a couple yet. Also romance is between these 3 Characters. You can't say that Yui is a Side character. She has lots of romance scenes with Hachiman like Yukinoshita.

But tbh I Don't think the ships will happen. Or I wish it like that Because I Don't want any of them To get hurt. After all They're very close friends and both of them are very cute I'm sure They're in lots of people's Waifu List.

But I have lots of reason To ship Yui x Hachiman. The mostly Yui's personality. She would Never leave her friend behind. Also she wouldn't keep her feelings for Hachiman inside.

So please Don't erase her. She's not The enemy of Yukinon. She tries To stay as friends with Yukinon and get along with Hachiman at The same time like Yukinoshita does.

Also I want you To imagine that your crush seems To have interest in your Best friend. You wouldn't let your crush go away in front of your eyes Right ? Or would you ? Meanwhile there's your friend ... You Don't want To hurt her too. Isn't it same for Yukinoshita and Yuigahama ? They both want This.

I'm trying To say that Yukinon and Yui are The same. They both have interest in Hachiman. And Hachiman has feelings for both of them. We'll just wait and see.

That's all for This blog Folks Thanks for reading and I Hope you understood what I meant. Bye !🏻

Stay Kawaii Ok ?

#IShipIt #Yukinoshita #Yuigahama #Oregairu #SNAFU

Lohuydahutt's General Reviews

OK, I decided to make a new review thread, and yes my ERB/FMERB reviews shall continue. I decided to make this a separate thread both because the format will be different and because I'll simply be covering different things. I had the idea to do a review a certain anime after watching it, and so I was going to make this an anime review thread... but then I realized that I could review all sorts of things like video games or movies or whatever else as well. If I experience anything like an anime or a video game that I enjoyed/disliked enough to talk about it, I would share it with you guys. This thread is simply for me to share my experiences with certain shows, games, even music if I want to etc. in review form. This thread is going to be different because I'm NOT TAKING REQUESTS! You could do a suggestion like, "Oh you should watch x if you liked x" and I might watch that and do a review on it... But for now, HERE'S MY REVIEW OF THE FIRST SEASON OF PSYCHO-PASS =D

Also if you haven't watched this show, you might want to be 100% unspoiled and skip this review until you watch it but all of the actual spoilers will be put in *GASP* spoiler tags so it should be safe xP

Plot Synopsis: LOHUY ADDITION

OK, so basically we're in dystopian future land, a land so unique that the fucking characters discuss what books their society is similar to.


People read people's brains to see if they're likely to commit crimes or whatever, they send crazy people after the other crazy people because I guess crazy people know how crazy people think best or whatever. And then Inspectors sit back and make sure the crazy people chasing after other crazy people don't do stupid shit. Woo. This is one of those things where it's a LOT easier to have it explained by watching the show than just sort of reading it. Either way, I'd say the concept isn't really THAT unique, but it puts enough of a unique spin on it so I can't complain too much. It gets more interesting as it goes on.

CHARACTERS

Akane Tsunemori

She's the protagonist, her main purpose in life is being the most normal person on the show. She's the person who asks the questions you were wondering and all of that kind of shit. She starts out sort of boring, just being the typical rookie that gets thrown into a hell of a lot of shit on the first day of the job. She's not exactly the most interesting protagonist on the face of the planet but for someone who's just meant to be normal, she does end up becoming a pretty good character, and probably the most well-developed one.

Shinya Kogami

Oh hey, a brooding bad ass. Better yet, HE FIGHTS FOR HIS FRIENDS! He's not the most unique character ever or anything but he gets a fair amount of development and I guess I like him.

Nobuchika Ginoza

He's basically just a tight-ass. He gets more interesting towards the end though, and I haven't finished season 2 of Psycho-Pass but I think I like him more in season 2 already. Not much to say about him really xP

Shushei Kagari

This guy... this poor guy... he used to be one of the twins from Ouran Highschool but then his brother died and then he went into a downward spiral... he was deemed psychologically unstable afterwards and now he's an Enforcer :c

OK but really, we don't really get to learn all that much about this guy, but at the very least he has a rather likable personality

Masoaka Tomomi

Basically just the wise experienced one, and that's about it. Still sort of like him.
Spoiler: 

Kunizuka Yayoi

Not really sure what to say about her, she's serious... and she's probably the most boring main character on the show as far as I'm concerned.

Shion Karanomori

Sort of like Penelope from Criminal Minds except like, sexual or whatever. Eh, I prefer Shion from Higurashi

Makishima

He's pretty much the main antagonist of the first season (which isn't really all that much of a spoiler considering he gets shown literally in the first minute of the fucking show.) He's a pretty likable villain all things considered, sure he's a horrible person but he TALKS ABOUT BOOKS FOR NO REASON =D

Overall, I'd say the characters probably could've afforded to get a bit more development. Many of the characters backstories are only explained with a few sentences and the ones that do get more still don't really feel like they've really gotten enough, sans Akane. The characters are still enjoyable for the most part, but if you're looking for a show that dwells deep into the characters past and get a really good understanding of how they got to the place they are today and their motives and all of that... this show probably isn't for you.

Comments on the plot

This is one of those shows that starts at the end and then shows us how and why it got to that point.

Spoiler: 

At the beginning, it feels like it's just going to be one of those "monster a week" type shows where they just tackle some unique threat every episode. But it eventually goes past that, and we start seeing an underlying purpose to it all. I like the show in the way it makes us question what's truly good and what's truly evil. Raising typical questions like "do the ends justify the means?" and all of that stuff. At parts the show does sort of feel like it's just another story about a dystopian society but at the very least it actually does feel like it brings new stuff to the table. And I don't think I've ever seen a dystopian society sort of thing from the point of view of the people who enforce the rules before (OK, Fahrenheit 451 sort of did.) Either way, though admittedly crime fighting in the future isn't really all that new of a concept it brings just enough new stuff to the table to say it feels like its own thing.

Overall

Overall, I'd say this isn't really the most amazing show ever or anything but it never really felt boring to me. The action is limited for the most part, which is a good thing because the action scenes would end up being beyond repetitive or beyond stupid otherwise. It's basically what happens if you had CSI in the future except there's an important overall plot, especially in the second half. Characters probably could've been a bit better but they're still enjoyable for the most part. Though there is some fanservice I'd say it's a below average amount, so anybody who's tired of that sort of shit shouldn't have too much of a problem. It has a serious tone and I'm actually able to take it seriously for the most part, so that's a plus. Just as a warning the show can get pretty gorey and fucked up, and there really isn't all that much to lighten the mood, which could be a problem for some folks. What else is there to comment on... Well, I like the visual style of the show for the most part. The music is... well nothing too amazing but it gets the job done. The topic of romance is mentioned and sort of hinted at a few times (well, enough to give shippers a foothold, but eh, they'd find one some way, some how anyway) but nothing much really happens on that front.

Spoiler: Overall, I enjoyed it. There are certainly things that possibly could've been better but it doesn't really have any GLARING flaws I can think of so...

Oh wait

They killed R2D2 ;-;

0/10 the characters aren't likable and it doesn't make me want to dance
but really

For Psycho-Pass (not counting the second season)
I'll rate it as an
8.5/10

Tune in next time I feel like doing a review xP IDK what the fuck I'll review so it'll be a pleasant surprise. I might cop out and just review Psycho-Pass 2 xP but until that time when I review something, fair well.

Last edited by Log; 01-21-2015 at 10:51 PM.