Volume H Afterword

Volume H Afterword

Good evening, I am Watari Wataru.

Somehow whilst talking about it, I have been continuing on with this [A] series. If you noticed, I have already written all the way to Volume H. I have always been thinking about writing the A series, but the deadlines given to me are just a huge bother, aren’t they? Definitely. Because of all the deadlines piling up here and there, I am at the level where I want to buy charcoal to burn myself.

So, amidst that, I present to you these 5 volumes.

[A][N][O][T] and now, [H]

Seriously. I mean seriously. I really have no idea what those even mean! I have not the slightest idea about whether those letters even follow any sort of pattern! I don’t know what letter I am going to put on the next volume. Right now, I can’t think of anything else but D.

Still, even if I try to play dumb, I think most of the readers would have more or less guessed the next letter of the next volume. But, hey, look, you can’t really know until it comes out……

No matter how obvious it may seem, please don’t say it, because there are times where you speak without thinking it through.

For example, “Arghh, I have so much work…….” Times like those! Yup!

Ah no no, I can’t just go around making that sort of stupid and asinine comments! When I want to do something stupid that like, I just have to grit my teeth and will myself not to do it!

Even as one goes around telling others “I’m fine, I’m fine,” with a pale face and even if one could fool themselves that they are okay with all those lozenges and nourishment drinks, there would still be the undeniable fact that the hardships still exist for one to weather through, so I can’t really say that it’s an entirely bad idea to turn your back from reality.

On the contrary, while words such as ‘Accepting reality’ or ‘Face reality’ sounds all well and nice on the surface, it can actually be used as a means to imply that you are already giving up. Even when they try to toss the problem aside with words such as “This is freakin’ impossible!”, this action can also be interpreted as an acceptance of reality.

Even if you ignore the truth and the reality out there, even when you try and pretend with all your m ight, there will still be times where you cannot totally achieve it. Though it’s not a mistake made solely by youths, it’s also a fact that people go forth recklessly precisely because they refuse to accept the truth in front of their eyes.

Of course, there will come a point where if you do that too often, you will lose everything. It’s kind of hard, just like seasoning a dish.

Though one does not look at it, because one averts their eyes from it, when they look another way, there are also things that they see. Once they admit to what it is, they can no longer return to the previous state.

So back to the story, the thing that they ‘saw’, I wonder what exactly it was, eh?

So with that in mind, I present to you, [My youth romantic comedy is wrong as I had expected. H].

Ah, wait, those words are really strange, even if you see reality for what it is, you won’t really be satisfied I guess. What strange words, truly. That’s why, I guess, that’s why I more or less turn to anime. Everyone, let’s turn our backs on reality and watch some anime! Especially, Oregairu.Zoku!

That being the case, let’s discuss the various episodes along with some beer and snacks!

From here on let me devote part of this page on my reflection of the 8th and 9th episode of the anime. As one of the reader and viewer, and uh, let me see, as the original author, it’s time to pen down some of my thoughts today on these two episodes.

Now you should remember that all this is purely my own personal thoughts.

First, let’s start with the 8th episode, “Even so, Hikigaya Hachiman is.” To be perfectly honest, I feel that an explanation for this episode, along with the subsequent episode is not really necessarily at all. This is because these two episodes are fairly straight-forward. How people interpret it as well as their thoughts will inevitably vary from person to person and their ratings will also be divided as well. Still, though their interpretations may vary, the breadth of their interpretations won’t be that huge. Instead, what we should focus on are the details. Well, I haven’t had the chance until now to properly explain it, so let’s do it now!

Let’s look at Hiratsuka appearing in style during the pre-title. My estimation of her annual salary says that she can’t be riding such a nice car. She’s probably blew all her savings into that car, because there’s no one who she can take money from. That is like some kind of farming game, isn’t it?

Then, Hiratsuka suggests to Hachiman that they take a detour. Where are they going? What are they doing to do? Let’s go search for it over there. (TL: Allude to the OP.)

From here on, there’s one particular scene that I would like to bring to your attention. That is probably the scene where there were only the two of them in part A of the Blu-ray. In this scene, there is close to zero movement of the two characters and the location doesn’t change at all…… Oh author, why did you write such a simple scene for this?

Though this scene was made into such a boring scene in the anime, I must really thank the enthusiastic performance of the two of them for making the screenplay and continuity of the anime so excellent. Just the two of them, Eguchi-san and Yuki-san, were able to create such a wonderful atmosphere that brought out both the tension as well as calmness of that scene.

Then in the following scenes, Hiratsuka pointed out the wrongs of Hachiman, or in other words, to point out his weak point. This is something that has also been said by Yui. That Hachiman “does not consider the feelings of others.” Up until now, Hachiman has always been using his own logic as a way to make a conjecture about the feelings of others. That’s just how he calculates things. But, feelings are neither logical nor rational.

He knows those feelings, but at the same time is mortified by them. Because of Hachiman’s experiences, he is very sensitive towards negative feelings, and so liable to hypersensitivity.  This is why he is always skeptical with respect to any positive feelings. Because of this, as a kind of defense, he always has the habit of taking those positive feelings and ascribing them to his own scale. Such thinking is not easily altered just by a few words from anyone.

Hence, this is why Hiratsuka suggests that Hachiman eliminate everything one by one. It’s a really clumsy way to get her words across. However, to stop Hachiman’s constant calculation and his reading between the lines, the fastest way was to simply just flood him with a sheer volume of calculations. Hiratsuka is really something……

Since she’s that awesome, there will obviously be the part about her being a really great female, and it is also where I hope where you would focus your attention onto as well. She’s a really cute woman in her 30’s. Facing such a cute girl, Hachiman has that monologue about what would’ve happened if he had met her 10 years earlier. Hiratsuka was born in the prefecture of Chiba, Hanamigawa ward. That said, Hachiman also lives somewhere near there. Hence the possibility of them meeting 10 years ago would be quite possible too. But, that, is for some other, story……

Let’s return back to the present. Or rather, this story has always been about now.  The limited time that a high school student has, and this narrow society is what sets the stage for this work. Sometimes, a single year of those young people could be said to be the equivalence of a decade of the old people. Hiratsuka herself definitely understands this. Exactly what we would expect from a woman in her 30’s.

Anyway, with the hint that Hiratsuka gave, Hachiman repeats his calculation again and again alone in his house. The result he obtains, is but one answer.

For the B part, we have Hachiman knocking on the door of the Service Club. From here, after knocking and entering, he didn’t go to his usual spot, but rather chose to sit down on a chair at a place that was reserved for those making a request/coming in for a consultation. This is where he will give his answer after exhausting all his calculations.

However, this is just the beginning. For all he has now are the words that he has prepared. Because they are just words built upon by theory, he is rebutted by Yukinoshita, who thinks along similar lines as him. Though their line of thoughts are similar, they are really different people inherently.  Because of how similar they are, they like to read between the lines and often arrive at a misunderstanding. For example, the intention of those words, “it’s my fault”, “it’s your fault”. Because they read between the lines, they interpret things as they themselves see fit and often come to a misunderstanding.

On the contrary, it was Yui that understood the meaning of those words.  I would like to bring to your attention to the contrast between these two people. As these two quietly exchanged words, it is remarkable how Yuigahama is always looking at Yukino but Yukino is unable to do the same. Yet despite these contrast, the action that they take is the same. Someone who can read the mood will engage in superficial conversations with others despite them being not interested at all, or they might also be forced to talk about their weakest points. Now then, I wonder whom those words were directed to. Those ambiguous words of hers were probably a little unfair indeed. However, such vague words, are indeed the characteristics of Oregairu!

However, such words are really difficult to interpret and so of course, Hachiman is racking his brains to figure out how to treat these words. The words that were prepared that in turn became the answer that he gave was sadly destroyed, but even so, he manages to squeeze out some vague words out of himself. It’s something abstract and intuitive. It’s probably something that not even Hachiman himself understands. That is precisely why Yukino, with her current thought system was unable to process it.

Hachiman himself probably felt relieved after saying those words. A sense of accomplishment that is similar to a form of acceptance and understanding.  However, on the other hand we have Yui who accepts Hachiman’s ambiguous words as they are. Of course, accepting and understanding are two different terms altogether.

It wasn’t just words only, but a couple of other reasons as well that ultimately resulted in the reestablishment of communication between the trio. This is confirmed in the last scene by the poses of the girls.

However, despite establishing communication once more, this is different from a complete mutual understanding. The thing that Hachiman wants is still far away.

In any case, his request is now entrusted to the two of them, and the three of them begins their club activities anew.

This ‘restart’ brings us to the 9th episode, “And so, Yukinoshita Yukino is”.

At the beginning we can see Hachiman in agony. Man, I know that feeling dude…… As he agonizes over why he had to say something like, and wishes that he could just die right there. I mean, this is exactly how I feel at this moment as I am writing this.

And it is at this time that the world’s greatest imouto, Hikigaya Komachi appears! This sort of pre-title…. Anyway, Komachi is cute! As the door opens, we see a really cute Komachi staring blankly at her Onii-chan! Komachi sighing there is cute! Komachi putting her hand on her hips and going “Yare Yare” is super cute! If Komachi showing off a bit of her tummy through her uniform was cute, then her imitating Hachiman was definitely cute as well! Hang on. After having been told that she was putting on a strange face, I suppose that her indignant expression was considerably cute as well. Then, Komachi goes ahead and starts stepping on her brother.  From the back shot of it, we can see that Hachiman has a nice ass.

Now then, with the A part. With the previous day events still in his mind, Hachiman has a hard time entering the club room despite having readied himself for it. On the other hand, the fact that Yukino greets him so normally is quite impressive too. Or so I thought. Because this was followed by a high-pitched coughing sound from her…… What, are you the heroine?

Heroine? Yup Heroine. Such an innocent reaction that is so love comedy-like is something I haven’t seen in quite a while. Then, in contrast to these two, we have Yui coming in as energetically as ever and she pulls the chair closer to Yukino. The sense of distance for these characters have always been carefully thought out of, even on the screen. Do look back at (the previous episodes) and pay attention to it if you could.

I think that this scene is particularly striking. Though the Service Club has begun anew in a sense, there is still a sense of distance between them. However, compared to how they were at first, the distance between them has shrunk since some time ago.

Then we have Isshiki Iroha. She’s passing the bag (to Hachiman) is a overly-natural manner. What the…… are you guys dating?

As a result of their meeting with the NEWFACES, the cruel reality before their eyes hit them and so they turn to Hiratsuka for help. There, we have the cute scene of Hiratsuka giving out Disneyland tickets to them. Setting that aside however, please pay attention to the exchange between Yui and Yukino. Just how many times have we been seeing the scene of Yui begging Yukino to do something already? However, there is some slight difference here. Talking about the entire work itself, though the situations are quite similar, the meanings are different. Un un, that’s Oregairu for you!

With Yukinon’s year-pass, let’s head over to kingdom of dreams and magic, Destinyland, the stage for our story! The people waiting for Hachiman at Maihama station is not just Yukino and Yui, but also Hayama and the others. So this is the reason for Yui’s concern as well as the meaning behind Iroha’s “It’s a secret!”

Now then, the first thing to note about this Destiny Land is the art.

I won’t go into too much details, but it’s just amazing. Everything is amazing, just simply amazing. Especially [Pan-san’s bamboo fight]. It is completed down to the last detail despite the lack of description in the original LN. Here, I think that it’s no wonder that they had to commercialize Merry-chan, the precocious cat and Pan-san.

The most impressionable part was probably how it was the three of them taking pictures and then it became just the two of them walking side by side.

When I write those light-hearted scenes and such, I often insert some very important details into it. I would be most delighted if you guys could be on the lookout for such things. Anyway, it doesn’t hurt to have a light-hearted scene once in a while.

I mean look, the story is taking place in a kingdom of dreams and magic! A world you don’t see every day! There has to be some festive feel to it!

The prime example being the scene in the Pan-san shop with Hachiman and Yui. There’s really no particular need to explain this scene in depth.

There’s also another big scene. That is, the scene of Hachiman and Yukino riding the Sprite Mountain coaster.

Due to the parade, they were separated from the rest, and just before they rode it, Hachiman determines that Yukino is not really good at coasters. At this moment, Yukino says that she will probably be fine, because she was fine when she rode it together with Yuigahama-san. Without reading too much into that, let us move on.

Then, they board the coaster, and the reason behind why Yukino is so bad at this is determined. Once again, it’s because of the trauma caused by Harunon. He looked surprised at this revelation, just as the coaster reached its highest point as well. Right before it falls, I hope that you all will remember the words that Yukino said.

The two get off the Sprite Mountain, and rest for just a short while. Then, Hachiman buys something to drink and Yukino seems to be putting away something in her bag. Just what exactly was that? If you know what service exists in this sort of ride, then you would know what she was holding in her hand. When you have knowledge of such stuff, it kind of gives you a warm fuzzy feeling inside, doesn’t it?

Yukino, over that couple of scenes, finally tells Hachiman that at the end of it. This sort of talk probably doesn’t exist in normal everyday conversations. It is because they are at an abnormal place, that this could be done.

In one aspect of it, you can think of it as her revealing information about herself. On the other hand, this probably would never have happened if not for the special atmosphere that the ride presented them with. Anyway, this is definitely progress.

The problem is the contents of what she said. If we think of it from the perspective of her living environment and her relationships with others, there’s not much insight to be found from her words. Though it’s still as vague and ambiguous as ever, but as the story progress, surely her fears and worries would be made clear as well.

And, we have finally come to the end of episode 9. The huge fireworks that launches up into the air at the very end. This fireworks are also one of the motifs that light up this series. As this huge flowered lights blossom into its full glory, this flowers also fade away into the darkness of the night. Because these lights are bright and beautiful, once they fall, the shadows that they leave behind are dark as well. After all, these shadows are the remnants of his bright youth being sent away.

Anyway, let us continue next time. This was seriously such random talk. The next time, we have our ever-so-cute Rumirumi caling Hachiman a creep! Un, un, that’s so Oregairu!

Then, we shall end it here. I will write some of my remarks about the episodes next time as well!

Here, I give my thanks. (TL: In essence thanking everyone with the same set phrase.)

Some day in September, whilst maintaining the correct intake of MAX coffee.