‘So you can be considerate’

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru Episode 9 Image 0007

Synopsis:  Yui invites Hachiman to celebrate the festival and watch the fireworks with her (a.k.a, Hachiman is tricked into going on a date with Yui). The watch the fireworks and buy his sisters’ wanted items until they are disturbed by Haruno, Yukino’s older sister.

Impression:

 Ah, it’s one of THOSE episodes… y’know, episodes where I can’t talk about much because nothing happened. And whilst it may sound as though I’m annoyed by this lack of plot, I’m actually kinda not, y’know? I mean, there was SOME plot, like, for example, the reappearance of Yukino and the fact the Hachiman has, again, reverted back into his old ways (hence the title). And whilst the plot was cliche (Hachiman gets tricked into going on a date which just so happens to be a fireworks festival? Yeah, I totally didn’t see that one coming) I liked it. In fact, I’d almost go as far as to say that sometimes I watch harem shows because I want to see the same thing portrayed in different ways… I guess I’m weird like that…

 The first half of the episode is all Hachiman and Yui, their ‘date’ shall we say? Whilst it’s nice to see Hachiman finally getting along with someone properly, I can’t help but feel as though this bonding that Yui and Hachiman are having is going to go to waste. We all know that in harems the protagonist ends up with the first girl introduced, that’s just the way it is, and so by that law Hachiman will end up with Yukino, making everything that happened in this episode simple exposition and ‘filler’, so to speak. And whilst the romantic feel to the episode was nice, I found it much more interesting to finally see Hachiman coming out of his shell. He’s a nice guy, we the viewers have always known that and it’s nice to see someone else acknowledge that for a change. And besides, those fireworks were pretty.

 On a side not… who is this ‘Minami Sagami’? And why did she look at Hachiman the way she did? I have a feeling this isn’t the last we’ve seen of her… although I don’t think she’ll become a main cast member, I mean, look at what happened to Saki Kawasaki, she was a ‘main cast member’ for a single episode and now she’s been relegated to background appearances? Lovely.

 The latter half of the episode is all about Haruno… I don’t get Haruno, why is she so intent on making Hachiman date Yukino? She doesn’t even know Hachiman! They’ve met three or four times maximum! And besides, she’s not even the funny when she’s on screen… And! She pretty much told us the same old same old this episode (about Yukino, that is) and it was technically a waste of five minutes of my life to be honest. The only interesting part was when she brought up the limo because it was something new. I’m done hearing about how Yukino keeps getting rejected! If you want her to stop getting rejected then stop whisking her away for no good reason… damned hypocrite.

 Overall this wasn’t the greatest of episodes, it was the same old same old with a bit of spice to make it look interesting. The same old information is regurgitated for the viewer to hear and all we really want to see is more of the limo drama! Which is apparently what we’re getting next episode so… yeah? It can only get better… right?