"Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru" Anime Review

***This is a spoiler free review***

With the total failure of Date a Live and utter disappointment of Suisei no Gargantia, it’s a good thing there were other decent shows. While I lost interest in Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru in the middle of its airing, the amazing cast really brought this anime home.

Story: 5/10
So while the premise of the show really interested me, most of the content was just boring in my honest opinion. The show follows Hachiman, Yukino, and later on Yui as they help fellow classmates with their problems. While the cast interactions really made this show work, I was unfortunately just bored with what was going on. Essentially Hachiman and Yukino are somewhat reserved people who kind of have to be forced into situations in order to open up at all. This provides some really interesting banter between them but I did not like how other characters in the anime looked down on them. On the socially opposite side of the high school spectrum, you had the “cool” kids headed by Hayato and Yumiko who I despised immensely.

In pertaining to the actual plot of the anime, essentially it boils down to the club Hachiman is part of taking on different tasks set forth either by fellow classmates or the club monitor Shizuka. While some interesting moments come up in the show, it was overall pretty boring and average stuff. The final episode was pretty interesting and enjoying but overall the whole show just really felt like clever conversations with blandness in between.

Animation: 7.1/10
So the animation quality was entirely dependent on which ever character was on the screen. While the animation itself was fluid and good, the quality of each character was not. Characters Yukino, Shizuka, Haruno, Saika (I don’t care if he is a trap), and some others had great character models and looked great while on screen. Hachiman and Yui though each had certain things I completely disliked and was annoyed by. Hachiman had a very fish like appearance (which was probably on purpose but I still didn’t like it) and I found that in a lot of scenes his character didn’t animate as fluid as the others. Yui while very pretty in appearance had some serious hair issues. This might be an extremely superficial gripe but there was just no detail to her hair; it just looked like a mangled knot.

Resist...you must resist!

Sound: 8/10
The voice actors deserve a 10/10 but the generic soundtrack really brought this anime down quite a bit. Starting with the bad, the soundtrack really just felt out of place and not adding what so ever to the anime. It was just uneventful and average at best. Now for the good; like for all the –monogatari series, dialogue plays a huge role in this anime. The back and forth bantering between characters was very well done and the voice actors did an excellent job. Both Hachiman and Yukino were awesome from episode 1-13.

Characters: 10/10
Hands down the best cast of this season and possibly last year as well. Both this show and Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko had really well knit characters that made whatever was going on extremely funny and/or interesting. In Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru the stars of the show was Hachiman and Yukino. Every single conversation that was focused on them was either funny, interesting, exciting, and/or cute. Hachiman while not a very interesting person to begin with was a pretty good male lead. He worked well with all the characters including the super cute and super trap Saika. He really made whatever situation the team was in better due to his “unique” insight. Yui (while a complete ditz) had a pretty big heart and served as a medium between the club and the “cool” kids. The club teacher Shizuka also had a huge impact on how the show turned out. Her constant meddling provided most of the situations the club got into.

The cast overall just felt so in-sync with each other. Even though some of the episodes really felt like there was no direction, the conversations between each character made it somewhat interesting.

Overall: 7.5/10
While boring in some parts, I have to recommend this anime to everyone looking for some laughs and enjoyment in the slice of life realm. The characters just make this show so interesting to watch and while the animation and sound isn’t overly great, they are good enough to help you enjoy what this anime has to offer.

More New Airing Anime Initial Thoughts: "Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san", "Zettai Bouei Leviathan", "Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai", "Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru" and "Shingeki no Kyojin"

So I have watched pretty much everything that has been released thus far and I have to say that although there is some crap mixed in, there are a couple shows that I just know I will end up liking.

So starting with the not so impressive we have Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san. It is going to be using the twelve minute format rather than the full twenty four so I initially wasn’t going to get my hopes up. This is however going to be that super raunchy and perverted show (may not be the only one) for this season. All of the jokes are sexual based and while every second of the show tries to throw in some sort of gag, I did find myself somewhat enjoying it. The animation was actually to my liking; the lighting is very well done and the overall design of the scenes seems pretty unique. I cannot really say anything else about this show just yet; for now it will stay on my watch list.

Next on the not so sure list is Zettai Bouei Leviathan. This show is going to essentially boil down to a trio of girls who will most likely go on some sort of adventure together in order to defeat the bad guys. The three main characters seem to work well with each other so hopefully the story flows well. The animation is pretty average but with some good aspects slipping in like lighting and the fight scenes. So far all I can tell is that this is going to be your average comedic adventure.

Now the next show is one that I did not enjoy very much when it first aired but for some reason I feel sorta obligated to watch it. Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai is the bother sister comedy from 2010 that send a shockwave throughout the anime community. While there are a vast amount of supporters for this show, I just cannot get behind a show that has such a repulsing main character. This character Kirino is the reason why I hope to god I do not have a girl if I ever decide to have children. I do not get why anyone would like her she is abusive, manipulative, and two faced. In some positive news the animation seems to have gotten a slight boost from its previous season. Reflections are nicely done and the character models look great. I’ll be sticking this one out just so I can write a horrid review on it in the end.

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru (god these anime titles are getting longer and longer) while not coming off as crap certainly did not come off amazing. The first thing I noticed was that the main male character looks exactly like the one from Sankarea. He even has somewhat the same personality. Essentially our main character is forced to join a club due to his last of effort on an assignment. In this club, he and the club leader must help people that come for assistance (Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi anyone?). Umm the chemistry between the two club members seems to be good so hopefully they will bring some interesting moments. Animation is ok nothing else to really say on that. Looks like it has potential to be good so I’ll stick this one out.

Ok so the one anime that has just screamed out at me as something worth watching is Shingeki no Kyojin. The entire episode does a great job setting up what the focus of the entire season is going to be; revenge. While the whole “I must avenge my family” thing has been done a billion times, I honestly felt for the main character when sh!@ got real towards the end of the episode. The main character seems head strong and actually has balls unlike some other male protagonists. The animation is very good as the giant titans look amazing and all the shots done at sunset have an amazing quality due to the lighting. If you are going to pick one anime to watch this season I would put your money on this one. It looks like it is going to be a straight up action bloodbath will no unnecessary ecchi stuff thrown in.