Warning! This review on Yahari ore no Seishun love Come on wa Machigatteiru Kan (Oregairu 3) Chapter eight contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the episode yet, I recommend watching it and then going back to read the review.
# 8 We pray that we won’t be wrong again
Oregairu 3 Chapter eight begins with Hikigaya talking to Hayato, even though he refuses to help him, but everyone said what they had to say. The preparations for the anti-prom are still in progress and when the web is ready they will need Haruno’s help filtering it. Everything goes according to plan and with no further inconvenience, Hachiman manages to put Yukinon’s mother on his side so that Yukino’s prom is approved. Hayama and Haruno discuss a little about their involvement in the volunteer club relationships. Meanwhile, Hikigaya goes to the club room to spread the word about the acceptance of the prom to Yukinon. After all is said, Yukinoshita makes her final request, her wish is that Hachiman grant Yuigahama’s wish. With that he ends the relationship, including Yui.
A peaceful solution
Before we get tired of the important dialogues, let’s take one last look at the theme of the prom. Now that an agreement has finally been reached, it is only fair that we go over the conclusion. As you may recall, Hachiman’s plan was to resolve a dilemma between two different projects. To support the Yukinon Prom, Hikigaya started their own event but made sure that it was less attractive than the original. Up until that point, everything went as planned, except that he may not have received the support of Hayama’s club. But hey, that didn’t really affect the plan as they could always invent one even without the support of a real club.
The final phase of your plan is what is really important. First they had to make their project known, for that the blog and the social networks. The painting had to be sold, which was a consolidated work that would become a reality any moment. However, it was not enough to just publish the blog and post information on the networks to give it the necessary reach. This is where Haruno comes in because she was the most important piece to get to the desired ears. Thanks to her influence and proximity to the real recipient of the message, Haruno was the ideal candidate for the job.
The final stage was the key figure’s response in this whole plan, judgment would fall on what Yukinoshita’s mother had to say. At least it seemed so, but the situation wasn’t that serious. Haruno’s words gave us the answer, prom was never something that Yukinon’s mom was personally interested in, she just cared about the problem before it really was. As someone of power and influence, she became the bad news spokesperson. Therefore, Hachiman could turn the board over and do exactly the same thing. With the timely help of Shizuka, they managed to get the Dilemma plan working and Hachiman used an exclusive card for its use. He used the role of Yukinoshita in his accident to “force” a favor.
For Yukino’s mother, her family’s reputation is paramount. Because of this, he couldn’t refuse Hikigaya’s request to those who oppose the prom. Hachiman bet on his choice, but from what we know about Yukinon’s mother, we could say he was playing it safe. HIKIGAYA, injured by a Yukinoshita car for refusing to do this “favor”, could be interpreted as impolite and tasteless, which the Yukinoshita mother could not allow. Let’s not forget that she’s the type who fix problems before they even arise. That said, the conclusion became somewhat obvious, the prom would get the go-ahead.
The easiest way is to complicate everything
Now let’s go into the ocean of emotion and talk about Hayama. He is an external agent for our protagonists’ problem, but he cannot avoid getting involved. Partly because the situation reminds him of the past, but also because the rare closeness makes it part of multiple moments. The beginning of this episode corresponds exactly to this rare proximity. Hayato and Hikki are not friends, they have openly declared their mutual hatred, but some things can still be trusted.
We have Hachiman seeking his help with the anti-prom project and a resounding rejection from Hayato. Instead of rejecting Hikigaya’s idea, Hayama rejects the way she does things. Unlike the others, Hayato has no consideration for Hikki when he points out his lack of commitment to do everything in the most complicated way. He just cannot accept that he continues to lie to everyone and to himself and that he covers all of that with well-crafted excuses. His frustration is nothing more than a manifestation of his own regrets as, deep down, he has never forgiven himself for not helping Yukinon in the past. That’s why it bothers him that Hikigaya walks around so much when he could be more direct, after all, he has what it takes to help her.
Hachiman is no stranger to these feelings, and therefore he can receive Hayato’s words. In fact, on some level he is relieved that he is like the only one who understands why he is doing what he is doing, even when he does not agree.
But Hayato isn’t the only one addressing the issue, Ebina does the same in their brief encounter during the photo shoot. As empathetic as it can be, it doesn’t take long before the fragile situation of the volunteer club is recognized. But unlike Hayato, she does not condemn Hikigaya’s actions, she undoubtedly believes that there were better methods, but she trusts that Hachiman is what he is, she will be able to solve it. After all, he was the one who helped her when she was in a similar situation. As we will remember, she asked his help not to destroy the status quo of her group of friends with a confession that was meant to be rejected. That’s why she understands the sensitivity of the club situation because she knows how much feelings can affect a group.
It’s not a code dependency
We return to the subject of code dependency, but this time we will see Yui’s position. As always, this topic comes thanks to Haruno, who is becoming more and more provocative with it. As Hikigaya continues to run into Yukinon’s troubles, he must emphasize how harmful it is. Especially when you consider that Hachiman continues to make excuses for his intervention. But before Haruno wants to go any further, Hachiman puts an end to it, because anything that exists beyond excuses should not be reported to her, but to the person concerned.
At this point it must be emphasized that Haruno’s intervention is becoming increasingly flawed. She has gone from being a touchstone to a true emotional psychopath. We can see this in his conversation with Hayato and Yuigahama. With Hayama, we listen to her impatiently and listlessly, she cannot forgive those who have hurt her loved ones, but she is also the type who prefers to hurt herself before someone else does. And with Yuigahama, we see that she is intolerant and devastating. She recognizes her merits but does not ignore her shortcomings. He cannot and does not want to look beyond the harmful relationship of the three volunteer club members.
Independent of Haruno, Yui’s feelings catch up with us again. Gahama is not the most intellectual girl, despite knowing in her head and heart the good and the bad and even the twisted that accompanies her relationships with Hachiman and Yukino. She never bothered to name her. It was Haruno who did it for her, but she just couldn’t accept it. It’s not that he didn’t understand Haruno’s words, it just happens that he doesn’t feel right. Why were the three as big as the code dependency? It doesn’t feel right to engage, help and take care of each other if you don’t have to wear this label. If code dependency was all they have, they wouldn’t experience so much pain. At least that’s how Yui feels about it.
Let’s be clear, Yui is right about something that is between them is not a code dependency. But it’s not for the reasons she stated because the code dependency is painful. They are not co-dependent, they are simply ignorant. Let’s be fair, both Yukino and Hachiman are socially withdrawn, they both cut themselves off from the rest. By the time they joined the club, they began to actively engage with others. As a result, they experienced new emotions, including depending on someone and the desire to help someone. As newbies, they didn’t know how to properly draw the line, and that’s why they’ve been so confused until now. Yui, on the other hand, understands all this better and therefore she has to be “the maturity”, because for better or for worse she is best aware of the situation in which they find themselves.
Yukinon’s wish
If we continue with the above, we come to Yukinon’s resolution. Her prom won, but she knows she lost the fight. Of course, Hachiman doesn’t agree, after all, it was the prom chosen that would determine the winner regardless of whether any of these proms were ever seriously planned. It is this empty victory that finally gives Yukinon the perfect excuse to end it all. After all, it was the best evidence that he was too dependent on Hachiman. The reason is simple, she always knew his plan and trusted that she would reach him, which exposed her dependence on him because no matter what, he would get her out of trouble.
It was unforgivable for Yukinoshita to relax on her laurels as it showed that she was not independent enough. Unfortunately, Yukino continues to confuse independence with self-sacrifice. It is amazing that although she complained to herself about the ease with which Hachiman sacrificed herself, she is now doing the same. The stigma of co-addiction is ingrained in their consciousness, making them vulnerable to signs of addiction. Therefore, his last wish is a desperate cry to return to his “lonely / independent” state from before.
Eventually the bomb was dropped, Yukino asked Hikki to grant Yui’s wish, hoping that this way everything would fall into the right place. Of course, this won’t solve anything, I mentioned it in the previous review, but the fact that Yukinon sent Hachiman with Yui won’t change his feelings. And even if it were, it wouldn’t be real, and we would go back to the beginning because that is exactly what Hachiman is looking for, something real, unmade feeling. Obviously, Yukinon leaves out Hikigaya’s wishes in this choice. But not just Hikkis, she also avoids Yui’s wishes, although she loves Hachiman, she doesn’t want things to turn out that way.
At that moment, Yukinon has given up on everything, but she keeps her hope, one who yells at her that she is the best choice because this will lead her into a future where everyone can be together, with no shackles or labels of co-dependence. With that hope, Yukinon can continue to pray that his choice was not wrong.
Final comment
Oregairu 3 Chapter eight was a bombshell episode, from start to finish we followed a wick right up to the explosion. Obviously, their inability to convey their feelings continues to take their toll, which only grows. In the end, perhaps the biggest problem is that even if they really digest things without so many twists and turns, they may not convey everything that they really mean. We’ve heard it from Hachiman before, it’s not that he really has one big goal like getting all of his feelings across, he’s content to show that they are not incoherent. And that happens through actions, not words.
Before closing this, I would like to give special mention to the meeting between Yukino and Hachiman. I can’t believe they are bringing us back to the beginning so nostalgically at this point because that view is clearly similar to the first meeting they had in this room. Nostalgia aside, I loved the detail of making Hachiman utterly delighted with the figure of Yukinon at sunset was great.
Anyway, these were my impressions of this chapter: What do you think of the episode? Do you think that you are really in a disjointed relationship? When will they stop sacrificing themselves for others? What can our trio expect now that Yukinon has “given up” their relationship?
