This review is meant for all three seasons When it comes to most RomComs out there they usually have the same genericcliche trope. The girl liking the boy for no reason just for plot and drama instead of focusing on the relationship and real life. Our faces end up get shoved with unnecessary fanservice not natural just for flashing some delicate parts. Sure we cant deny we like to see some racy elements now and then. But its only eyecandy with no relation to the story nor does it add any nuance to the cast. No it only serves as a way to ruin the flow of the storytelling if anything. This is frequently dished out in most RomCom to keep the viewers interested but for the wrong reasons. I dont mind fanservice but make it has some purpose if youre gonna flaunt it like that in our faces regularly. Or try to not flex it almost all the damn time. If its not useless and forced fanservice its creating drama by letting the characters move based on set decisions. This means acting in the way the situations tells you to over feeling genuine. Not to mention you cant forget pouring on the waifus to attract more audience. But instead of fleshing them out they get used to the same thing repeatedly with the typical set of personalities but nothing more. Such as being a tsundere a shy girl oneesan type perhaps even an imouto type. Why not? It just adds more content to deal with youre not going to go anywhere with or is even not remotely contributing to characters. Either it gets stale quickly or goes to plant the seeds for the shows ruin since nothing gets solved and everything ends up becoming a mess. Thats where Oregairu comes in one of the best RomCom out there and for clear and feasible reasons. Not only does Oregairu avoid most of the issues the romance genre tends to have. The one with forcedfanservice not letting the character develop beyond their preestablished traits. It has excellent use of dialogue thats sharpwitty and is very refreshing. If you know about Monogatari by the brilliant Nisiosin. In that case you can see the similarities in Oregairu with how the characters speak to each other. Its intriguing and striking with a big dash of maturity. It does not waste much of its dialogue. It got tons of nuance in there and depth that can mean a lot more than you might give it credit for. Instead of giving us dialogue thats easy to interpret. Oregairu does things straightforward but does not convey the words directly but with a sense of vagueness. Like saying I love you or something similar gets across by using the environment the characters traits emotions or a personal link to a moment or thing they could have from the past. Its hard to really put it into words so I hope you understood the gist of what I am trying to get across. Majority of the mature audience will get more out of Oregairu. Teens are more likely to enjoy it for its delightful comedy and quirkydorky characters. But someone who has experienced life over many years is more liable to see the true appeal of Oregairu and appreciate it. As the dialogue for someone too young could be overwhelming and complicated. Its not like you will perceive every word perfectly but it will make you comprehend things more easily. Even adults could have problems and thats a given. Oregairu is written as such. I had to watch scenes even an episode several times to make sure I understood it but the dialogue is damn entertaining. So I didnt mind that. There are as a result various ways to interpret the conversations. Among the many reasons Oregairu is the only RomCom. I have seen to this day. I would label a gem without feeling dubious about it. Its not flawless but its the closest thing to perfection I have found in the RomCom genre. Lets talk briefly about our castHikigaya Hachiman our male protagonist a bit of an oddball but in a good way. Hachiman is an isolated boy who tends to like spending time alone over being with others. He is pragmatic to a fault and gets as such worried over the most minor things. Hachiman sees the world in a very quirky but fascinating way through his trademark deadfish eyes. One of the things he says is that he believes youth itself is just an illusion created by hypocrites for hypocrites. Suffices to say he is a unique one but at the same totally relatable on a personal level. Oregairu doesnt just show us the exterior but even the inner workings of our characters minds and how they think. Hachimans inner monologuing is one of the wittiest things you will ever encounter both valuable and engaging. Its filled with enthusiasm. How he thinks about others situations and so forth gives you different perspectives to chew on. Not only does this in an ingenious way flesh him out but it shows how similar we are to Hachiman deep down where no one can read or hear what we are thinking. He is written in a way to not make you cheer him on because you can love him hate him or completely feel neutral. It just makes sense. Hachiman is someone that reflects back your inner feelings and viewpoints. Issues that are common amongst many teens and adults even. Things like how does it truly feel being alone? What happens when you try to open up to people? Why are you afraid to talk with others. Why are you secluding yourself from others in the first place? What is your trauma and scars of the past the reason you act in such a way? These and more everyday issues are answered through Hachimans interactions and views on the world and its people. Making his development so damn fantastic. Its executed extraordinarily well. Hachiman is no doubt one of my alltime favorite characters. In fact many characters in Oregairu that have affected each other in either a negative or positive way. That is to say the side cast also influences the more crucial roles. Nothing much feels wasted with Oregairus writing or execution. Yukino and Yui are a prime example of how you do two characters with trope weve seen before stunningly. Yukino is on the surface your everyday serious and passionate about her studies kind of girl. Shes intelligent and got that cool beauty vibe going. But a reminder thats just on the surface on the inside. She has all kinds of problems she must overcome. Thats not even counting her situation with family which is a delicate topic that might spoil major parts about her character. So gonna stop here. Then there is Yui who is your everyday innocent bubbly kind of girl. She is so easy to talk with and overflows with charm and is always so positive that she spreads a burst of sunshine and happiness wherever she treads. Thats not even considering her iconic way to greet someoneYahallo. Which gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling inside and is so damn adorable top it all off. Again thats if we look at the surface. As we progress we see how vulnerable weakwilled our adorable cinnamon truly is. At last theres Iroha she is another compelling and loved character in Oregairu. She is the very bold decisive sort of girl. Who loves to reject Hachiman over and over for strangest reasons. But It never seems to get old. Because she throws a banger rapping number whenever she does her thing. On top the rejections seem to get mellower from going to Nah impossible to Try again next time. Implying Iroha is gradually growing feelings for Hachiman and slowly starting to open herself up. It goes to show the dialogue can have valuable information without you knowing. So its highly recommended to rewatch Oregairu to appreciate it all the more. Iroha is cheeky very endearing and foxy and is just as much fun as the other love interests. Everyone is unique and complicated. Its hard to explain the characters are merely a few sentences. You really must dig deep for that. Despite my previous points I wanna discuss one more character which gives you an idea of how imouto or little sisters should be portrayed. Its normal for imouto anime to be ecchi and not be a good role model for how a sibling pair acts in reality. There are many innuendoes which often is offensive to the point its laughably bad and unrealistic. It doesnt feel sincere and might at times feel forced. Komachi is a prime example of how an imouto relationship in fiction should be more like. The banter between her and Hachiman always fills me with so much joy and is hilarious. Its wholesome pleasant charming and stuffed with tons of witty and astute remarks that one never gets bored out of. Komachi and Hachiman have the kind of relationship where they can be endearing toward one another or be savage and roaste each other. Komachis sassiness is so damn endearing and is put in a single line just incredibly funny and engaging. Its kind of like how real siblings are at the core. They do love each other but more than that they enjoy teasing making fun and pranking one another without letting up. I find their relationship so adorable wholesome even a bit unique and amusing but not excessive or offensive in the slightest. Its true most times you put on a different identity for your friends the teachers parents relatives on the internet and even your siblings. To go from someone shy and afraid to speak out plainly to become a person who doesnt care about saying whatever is on his mind. This just makes this excellent quote by Hachiman resonate with me so profoundly: We all have our own personal images thats dictated by others one thats always off the mark. We wish to remain faithful to ourselves but who gets to decide who we are as a people? When our image never goes handinhand with reality where can we find something genuine? Where can we find ourselves?. Thats another thing to look forward to in Oregairu. And thats outstanding amounts of sharp and intense dialogue that can really make you think. The following quote essentially tells me we have a different mask for everyone dictated based on their being. If someone is more softspoken you are careful to not overwhelm them with a coarser language. But if someone uses a rougher language and writing style you tend to match so you are on the same wavelength. There can be many reasons but one that comes to mind is to not give wrong impressions. Now looking at everything discussed there is one more thing that makes the characters of Oregairu stand out more than many others. And thats flaws. I dont mean those who come out nowhere but the ones that have always been there somehow. If you use the idea of show and tell than Oregairu is definitely more of the former. Youd have to read between the lines and comprehend the hazy but informative dialogue as you see fit. That gives you more options to think around and it provides you a chance to play detective and crack the code by not giving you straight answers. What makes sense to you? How would you explain the characters actions or even Oregairu from a more metaphorical perspective? Calling it even a highly advanced RomCom does not constitute much justice. I have my take on it but others might differ. The following just made sense to me. Oregairu encapsulates the pain of moving forward and to continue living through both the good and the bad. The pain you experience by protecting others only by hurting yourself in the process. Nobody can comprehend the pain of your own struggles and worries even if you clearly tell it to someone. The pain of being genuine its the coldhard true. Often the truth hurts more than you could imagine. Thats life in a nutshell and Oregairu gets that across stunningly well. Life is pain. But its harder to live a life thats becoming and worthwhile than just dying. Pain is what we started Oregairu with and thats where we went. Not everyone got all their wishes fulfilled and it was painful to see these other best girls lose. But thats life. Oregairu makes you commend and admire everyone who goes on with their life. At the same time their pain bears over their shoulders responsibilities and other conflicts. This is literally an everyday thing for us humans even if its unique for everyone. Whether it be work school homework to do bills to pay financial needs timeconstraint or other actualities. The fact is we are all tacking and handling our pain daily to make sure it hurts less and less. As a result we are all slaves in our own life. Looking at it like that we are totally so damn awesome not to go nuts and keep to our routines. Even if we stray more times than we are willing to admit and waste it by procrastination or other matters that should not be prioritized. Pain is also there to remind us that joy and fun should be savored properly not taken for granted. About the artstyle of Oregairu its improved in every way since the first season. At the time the visuals where wonky and the art was only decent at best. It still didnt nail the atmosphere of Oregairu across the board. We got a far more polished and refined version when the sequel came out. Everyone looked so much more expressive. Not to mention the background looked absolutely stunning and harmonized so fittingly with the mood of the given situation. Season two accentuates Hachimans eye on Deadeyes more vividly and the whole cast looks mature for one. But there is a cute feeling to the style. Season one did have a slightly more lighthearted vibe so the first style worked but its good. It was changed for the later parts since everything is so different and challenging. We are far away from simpler times. I want to lightly touch upon the sound for Oregairu. It got many topnotch openings and ending songs that exude nostalgia and emotions. Opening from the first season to the last was sung by Nagi Yanagi and her tunes were never disappointed. There is no bad opening song or ending songs in Oregairu. Ending are sung usually by both the lovely Yui and Yukinos angelic voice actresses which is another blessing to your ears. Thats not even counting how many incredible insert songs we got. As for voice acting in Oregairu as implied its incredibly energetic varied and got tons of subtle tone shift making the experience more genuine and intense. Crazy how much I have discussed Oregairu but barely touched upon the romance topic and how its handled. But I can assure you its beautifully depicted and tastefully grown over time. None of the females starts out liking Hachiman from the getgo. We did have some shaky parts in the final season but for me the conclusion made it worthwhile. Not to mention a love confession did happen in Oregairustyle and its one of the most satisfying and adorable things I have seen. It carried so much weight and value since both parties expressed far many words than a simple I love You ever could. Its no doubt my favorite love confession and I wonder if anything will ever beat it for me. Everything to the atmosphere setting dialogue and background was simply flawless. Closing it off with a beautiful song made the impact far more incredible and sincerer. Ive discussed Oregairu strengths in great detail. Here comes the time to touch upon its flaws what couldve been better and what needed work. I am not a light novel reader as of yet so this is my animeonly viewpoint. Oregairu for me is more than solid and its concluded. You cant say about many RomCom nowadays since they seem to always draw the short end and get hanging after one horrible or barley decent cour. Sadly the last season did have some inconsistencies and segments that didnt mesh or flow naturally. Above all it was heavily rushed but it didnt ruin the story entirely and its direction. From an adaptation standpoint season two was the strongest. Despite also being rushed it felt wellbalanced allaround. Season one was great as well. I didnt feel like things moved too fast or otherwise. Season three is where most got problems for being a bit inconsistent and moving things too quickly. All said and done there were many solid episodes the best one being the 11 and 12th arguably. I am surely biased when it comes to Oregairu but I dont see any point in not praising it to such high heavens. It was such a perfect ending that gave us a proper resolution to the romance and the relationship. I wanna note that Oregairu got a strong side cast when it comes to interactions but they are not very fleshed out. They only get brought to our attention to progress the main story forward otherwise we often dont hear from them. I am gonna confess there are many characters I personally would adore to have a more prominent role. I got such a sweet spot for Yumiko Miura for one. She is such a cute tsundere that got more to her than meets the eye. Saki Kawasaki was supposed to be another love interest for Hachiman. Yet she never felt a part of the game and only got some moments here and there. Haruno and Hayama were fascinating but their ending left some things to be desired. While many others just ended up taking space for literally nothing in the end. Oregairu is one of the few RomComs out there after which a rewatch might offer a more powerful but incredibly rewarding effect. No way you can get everything at first glance since the dialogue is highlevel. Not to mention not giving straight answers and using exact words mean they could have several interpretations. Various answers could be the correct one. Just make sense of your logic and you can get possibly away with your explanation of the situation. Oregairu truly is an incredible story with an intense and rich set of characters. No one should miss it out for anything. It gets a big fat must watch from me. If youre bored of the generic and cliche RomCom with the same elements repeated over and over. Give Oregairu a shot since its more than likely you will end up loving it like many others. Most who dont like it are those who have not seen or read it. Ive said it many times. But Oregairu is not so easy and has many layers to talk about. At times it can be a quality comedy. Other times you might find yourself dealing with politics and internal school issues. Our primary setting is in a service club that helps out students with any request they might ask. This serves as another way to flesh out our cast and give us an interesting perspective on things we mightve thought about but never revealed in the open. Oregairu cast is reflective of their issues and worries. They are always evolving meticulously. Oregairu is a damn fantastic RomCom. A masterpiece I loved with all my heart and I recommend to everyone with every single fiber of my being.