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Yahari Analysis

Part 6: What are the things that need to happen in Volumes 13 and 14?


(Or at least, from Yukino’s side of things.)

1. Yukino needs to tell Hachiman and Yui about the car accident and why the Service Club exists.
2. She needs to tell them what happened in her past and with Hayato.
3. She needs to tell them what her current problems are with her family and why things are the way they are.

These first three conclude Yukino’s first major character development arc from the first season: finding people in her life that she can trust and open up to and rely on.

4. She needs to stand up to her mother and tell her that she wants to decide her own future.
5. She needs to muster up the courage to confess to Hachiman. (However this doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll end up together. If Watari wants to make the moral of the story: “Well, they never quite found love, but they sure did grow up to become better human beings and they have influenced one another etc.” then there’s really nothing anyone can do about this.)

These two conclude Yukino’s second major character development arc from season two: Yukino deciding who she wants to be for herself and going after the things she wants.

(6. This one is optional and more of a personal wish, but it would be pretty great if Yukino and Haruno made up. Yukino already made up with Hayato (to some degree), it would be satisfying if Haruno got somewhat of a happy ending as well.)

Yukino’s request from S2E13 will involve one of these things. As it turns out, Yukino’s request is to have Hachiman and Yui watch her while she sorts out her problems on her own.

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So, what is the story of Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru?
Two loners, both rejected by the world for different reasons, meeting each other through a chance encounter. Over the course of the series, through their ups and downs, the two of them are constantly growing closer and getting to know each other, while at the same time overcoming their traumas from their pasts that have haunted them until this day. Both of them have tried looking out for the other in their own way with the best of intentions, however due to a lack of real communication, the results have not turned out to be what they wanted.

After their relationship has been put to the test on several occasions, they finally managed to find something special in each other.

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Or an incredibly tl;dr version:

• Car accident happens.
• Yui falls in love.
• A year passes, Hachiman does nothing with his life.
• Yukino becomes concerned.
• Yukino approaches Sensei.
• Sensei instructs her to start the Service Club.
• Sensei forces Hachiman to join.
• Yui joins for her own reasons.

• Saika is now able to approach Hachiman because Hachiman is interacting with Yui.
• Hayato finds out about the Service Club during Saika’s tennis request.
• Hayato approaches the Service Club for his own reasons.

• Hachiman finds out about Yui’s involvement with the car accident, he tries distancing himself.
• Yukino feels sad, she wants to thank Yui.
• Hachiman and Yukino go on a date and buy Yui a birthday present.
• They encounter Haruno.
• Hachiman and Yui make up.

• They go on a camping trip.
• Hachiman finds out about Yukino’s involvement about the car accident, he tries distancing himself.
• He forgives her during Sagami’s arc, but he tells Yukino that he doesn’t want to know about Yukino’s involvement with the car accident.
• Hachiman becomes the most hated person in school because of his confrontation with Sagami on the roof.
• Yukino redeems Sagami, Sagami stops spreading rumors about Hachiman.

• They go on another trip.
• Hachiman sacrifices himself for Hayato’s group.
• Yukino doesn’t want Hachiman to hurt himself for the sake of others, especially not for meaningless reasons.
• Yukino wants to address the problem, Hachiman and Yui want to continue like everything is normal.

• Iroha introduces her problem.
• Hachiman suggests solving it by making everyone in school hate him, directing all the hatred towards himself, not Iroha.
• Yukino says that’s absolutely out of the question, she does whatever she can to stop him.
• Hachiman keeps driving Yukino into a corner.
• Yukino decides to run for student council president herself.
• Yui comes to the conclusion that this will mean that the Service Club will come to an end and so her means of interacting with Hachiman and Yukino.
• Yui decides to run for student council president as well, but she tells Hachiman how much she loves the “Service Club”.
• Hachiman needs Komachi to give him a reason to act.
• Hachiman decides to manipulate Iroha and deceive both Yukino and Yui.
• Yui is fine with Hachiman lying to the two of them, Yukino isn’t.
• Both know that Hachiman must have done incredibly shady stuff to preserve the Service Club. Yui thanks Hachiman for this, Yukino gives up on trying to save Hachiman.
• Yukino says it’s best if they don’t take on any new requests, because Hachiman is going to lie, deceive and manipulate people again.

• Iroha comes in with her new request.
• Hachiman feels guilty and decides to help Iroha out on his own, he does it behind Yukino and Yui’s backs.
• The Christmas planning event spirals out of control.
• Hachiman encounters Yukino.
• Yukino sets Hachiman free of his responsibility as a Service Club member.
• Hachiman has a talk with Sensei.
• Hachiman enters the Service Club and asks them for help, but he places the blame on himself.
• Yukino doesn’t want that, so she tries pushing him away.
• Yui says Yukino is being unfair.
• Yukino calls Yui out on her playing dirty.
• Hachiman says he wants something genuine.
• After regaining her composure, Yukino accepts.

• Hachiman and Yukino save the event from becoming a disaster.
• Hachiman has properly restored his relationship with Yukino.

• From here on out we enter the final arc of the series that focuses on resolving Yukino’s family problems, Yukino opening up to Hachiman about herself, resolving the love triangle and Hachiman finding something genuine (whatever shape that may take).

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At the same time, Yahari is also a story of what a person is able to achieve in a limited amount of time by deciding if said person wants to cross the line with someone else.

>Watari’s thoughts:

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.


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The easiest way to understand the series is if you strip away the characters to their bare bones, or to make it even easier to understand: What does the Service Club mean for the main trio?

For Yukino: The place where she can make amends to Hachiman for the car accident by making him a better person at first. Later on she stops, because Hachiman refuses to change. However somewhere around that time she falls in love with him and it becomes the place where the three of them hang out.

For Hachiman: The place where he gets to be close to Yukino (and Yui, but mostly Yukino). Hachiman is willing to do whatever it takes so he can remain by her side.

For Yui: The place where she can interact with Hachiman and grow closer to him so she can become his girlfriend (and later on also the place where she can hang out with Yukino, but mostly Hachiman).

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