Preamble

Going to use this to review the show as a whole as I don't really have much to say about individual seasons that don't apply to the overall show besides season one really and even then I don't have that much to say. I'll be honest and say this isn't really a particularly meticulous review, there isn't really any structure, anything that coherent or thought out, this is more so just my ramblings about the show that I put together which hopefully represents the thoughts I have on it well and hopefully brings an interesting perspective/conversation for the people that have watched the show and on anime in general. Also, I might repeat some stuff in this review quite a bit to the point where it's tedious and unnecessary. I also forgot their names besides Hachiman's for the most part. Sorry about that, I really just grabbed a lot of my critique here from various conversations I've had about the show where I felt I expressed what I feel about it somewhat well. I'll edit it down to some extent but can't be bothered to go too in depth with that lol. Finally, my rating in this review is how I'd rate the show overall and not just this season. Without further ado, I'll begin.

My Thoughts

Ok, not trying to insight any hatred or invalidate people who like Oregairu, just want to get that out of the way. I don't think the show is bad, I do however think it's just ok and I'm curious as to what elements of the show really made people love it because I'm aware it's a very well loved show.

First of all, I find a lot of the conflicts either nonsensical or extremely melodramatic. High school dramas are almost always a turn off for me as I don't relate to the problems present in them nor can I see where the characters are coming from a lot of the time. Now, starting off with season 1, start off with the usual edgelord protagonist who hates the romantacized view of high school life everyone around him seems to have and live. Reminded me immediately of Hyouka which I watched before. I know the Oregairu anime came out first, don't know which light novel came out first but that's besides the point. The point is it's something I've seen before and in my opinion, Hyouka did it better. We get the whole everyone shits on the main character schtick because of Japan's collectivist ideals and their obsession with perfectionism which has always bothered me in anime like this because I find a lot of the times how the mc gets shat on is very unjustified and I see it as just straight up bullying without any fun or light-heartedness, it's just mean and not funny to me especially since I find the character of Hachiman in this show doesn't do anything that bad to warrant the treatment he gets from other characters. The scene on the roof from the concert episode baffled me so much, like wow, he was being a dick there, yes, but damn, did he really need to get pinned against a wall?! Just felt really weird to me. The comedy was also "eh" for me throughout all 3 seasons, I was more interested in the drama elements which were pretty weak in season 1 making it my least favourite season.

Season 2, we get a huge step up in animation and art style with "feel." studio behind the wheel. This improved the experience for me dramatically as the simple art style in season 1 which was more suited for it being a comedy was just really lame to me personally and took me out of a lot of scenes. Now, we see that Hachiman actually is handsome in season 2 (sheesh). Tbh, can't remember much that happened. I don't remember if the divide in the friend group with the glasses girl thing was this season or season 3 but I found it really weird how upset they were with him. Like I get that they wanted to guy to tell her how he feels so that he at least had agency in that situation and he undercut that but he didn't seem to take it that hard so why was everyone else on his ass about it? Idk, I just don't relate to those types of experiences. Maybe if I had similar ones I'd understand it but I don't. The co-dependency narrative is introduced here and it's the main thing I want to address. They are friends. They don't even spend that much time with each other. They aren't attached at the heel or anything like that, they have friends outside of each other and family who they're with most of the time. They only went out as a group like twice outside of it being a club or class activity if my memory serves me right. This narrative was really exaggerated and I thought it was really fucking stupid for the most part as I found it very unjustified. I liked the whole wanting a genuine relationship thing too, thought Hachiman's passionate speech was decent, a bit melodramatic, but I enjoyed it. Also, saying this now, didn't care one bit about any of the school drama. That stuff was so boring and lame for me. Couldn't comprehend how people care about school to that capacity. I know that's more so a result of a cultural difference as the Japan school spirit, pressure and strive for perfection is very intense but I wasn't there for the school drama at all.

Season 3 time. I had nearly no investment in the romance of this show. I knew from the beginning he'd end up with the quiet, stoic girl whose name I forgot. His choice to go for her was unsurprising and fine by me. Felt bad for the other girl to some extent, I'm glad they didn't make her jealousy interfere with the relationship so she wasn't an asshole or anything, that's a plus. Uhhh, can't think of any other comments tbh, this show meant so little to me, my memory of it is somewhat sketchy and I just didn't get into it and frankly didn't understand why other people did but I'd like to know and get a different perspective on it. I thought the show was fine, definitely not bad, but nothing I'd call great by a longshot.

Offhand comments, I liked quiet girl's sister, thought she was fun but when she forced the co-dependent narrative on them to discourage them and shit I thought that was really stupid. The teacher was hot, how did they not censor her smoking? Found it really interesting that they didn't and that was the most intriguing thing about the show to me. I don't know if the version I watched was an uncensored version or if that's just how the show is regardless of the copy used. I like the guy that pinned Hachiman against the wall in the concert episode. I didn't like that moment, but I liked his attitude and character throughout the show. I didn't find the rap thing with the student council that funny, I smiled at best. I felt that this show lacks in personality in general, find it a bit stale and uninterested in the way everything is presented. It looks good a lot of the time but so do most things. Yeah, don't think I have any other comments.

Conclusion

Oregairu was just teenage melodrama that wasn't particularly interesting and imo didn't bring anything new to the table or improved on previous ideas or was that much of a standout from them. Just thought it was ok the whole time. (Season 1 comment) Like, just wasn't a fan of the more comedy focused stuff, plus I feel like similarly to shit like Rent a Girlfriend, the mc just gets relentlessly bullied by the other characters and gets told he's in the wrong all the time even though personally I don't think they really did that much wrong, at least not enough to warrant how all the other characters treat them. I liked the mc's perspective and character which was a main thing that made the show for me, just wasn't too big on the comedy really and sometimes I thought he was a bit too edgy. Like, I saw the romance between them coming and the trope in romance anime tends to be first come, first served so I pretty much knew it would end the way it did. For me personally, I just think a lot more nuance was added to the characters and their dynamic after season 1, plus I liked how Hachiman was changing slowly (even if I didn't really like the changes, it made sense). I felt Yui had a lot more story and building behind her to win, hell even the big sister of the black haired girl had more building than the black haired girl herself. I think the idea is that she was more pitiable therefore she deserved love more which is a trope I tend to find in romance anime specifically and I fucking hate it. I just saw it coming from a mile away and figured they weren't going to change trajectory so it really didn't bother me, especially since I was never all that invested to begin with anyway.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did or more and form your own opinion of it.

Thanks for reading!