Forum - View topicMy Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU (TV) (both seasons).
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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It is a good question, and the answer to that is something this script is keeping carefully hidden from the viewer. You aren't supposed to know (at least this point) any more than you are supposed to know whodunit in a mystery. Speaking for myself, I would say Hachiman is actually spoiler[aware of it at some level but is in denial over it. He has probably told himself that Yui really doesn't know what she wants and is mistaken or if she is not then letting it go forward would only involve pain to her and himself.] |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
 Subscriber Posts: 3017 |
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"Does Hachiman know that Yui...?" has always been this show's "Who are the seven Level 5 espers of Academy City?" mystery: not necessarily the most important unanswered question, but you still really, really want to know the answer. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11354 |
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I think he caught on at the end there. There was something about that shot of him with his mouth hanging open that seemed like it was about more than her decision and its ramifications, followed up with the short scene of him at home on the couch like he was still in shock and unsure how to deal with it. Or I could be reading too much into it, as usual.
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23770 |
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This last episode was pretty typical for me in that I really have no idea what people's motivations are. Okay, so Hayato begs Hachiman to come along on this "date" that he knows will be painful for him, why? Lets the girls run Hachiman down for ages until he finally steps in, why? Iroha acted the way she did when she bumps into Hachiman, why? Hachiman's sister is angry at him, why? Yui must know she has no chance of beating Yukino in the election, but she's going to forge ahead anyway, why? I could go on and on but, why?
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Prince of Thieves
 Posts: 13 |
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This is one of my favorite posts ever! I have similar questions so often when watching anime. So many of the choices made never make sense! This episode was hard to follow. I did not really understand what was going on. I mean I get the gist of it, but it was all so convoluted that I would have written off this episode if not for the last 5-10 minutes of content. Again. Great post. 
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BodaciousSpacePirate
Subscriber Posts: 3017 |
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I watched the episode again tonight, and this is what I think:
He basically felt bad that Hachiman didn't get invited, so he went out of his way to make sure Hachiman came along. Of course, this was all part of Hayato's "plan"...
Hayato decided that he'd set up an "incident" between Kaori, Yukino, and Yui, which would force some kind of resolution between the girls and Hachiman. Hayato originally planned to not do anything until Yui and Yukino showed up... but he's too much of a "nice guy" (in his own mind) to sit there watching Hachiman suffer without stepping in. Hayato just isn't a very effective antagonist: he's not as good as Haruno at manipulating people, and he's certainly not as good as Hachiman at anticipating how people will act when he stirs up their emotional anthills. So, Kaori storms off, Yui takes the opportunity to remind herself that she isn't good enough for Hachiman, and Yukino refuses to make eye contact (anger is the armor made from her own weakness, to quote another slice-of-life anime). Situation Normal... well, you know the rest, it's in the show's title, after all.
The most important take-away from this scene is that when Iroha sees Hayato and Hachiman walking around with a bunch of girls, she immediately walks up to Hachiman, not Hayato. She's awfully attached to her new senpai, huh? Iroha reminds me a bit of Haruno, because so far she's been able to figure out the exact ways to push Hachiman's buttons.
She's still mad at him about the fight they had earlier this season... it's only been a couple of days since then, and that fight was clearly a big deal to Komachi.
Yukino seems like the best choice, until you consider how anti-social she usually appears to be. The series focuses mostly on Hachiman's interpersonal problems, but Yukino's "I'm better than everyone else, so I'm going to sit alone in this room" behavior hasn't really changed that much since the first season. Her limited interactions with people like Yumiko suggest that she rubs a lot of the popular, influential students the wrong way. Meanwhile, Yui is closely associated with, and easily controlled by, some of the most popular students on campus. Yumiko clearly likes Yui, and would probably throw her public support behind her (I'm of the opinion that Yumiko is actually not a bad person... she's just never had to be a good person in order to get what she wants). If Hayato and Saika also back Yui, then she essentially has the support of the sports clubs. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23770 |
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@ BSP - thanks for that, it definitely filled in some blanks for me, especially with respect to why Hayato acted the way he did which was a real cypher to me, originally. And even I picked up on what I interpreted as Iroha's interest in Hachiman, but there was just something weird about the encounter that I couldn't put my finger on. I'm not hugely persuaded by your take on the election because given what we know of Yui's character, I find it hard to believe that she actually thinks she stands a chance. And in this school in particular it doesn't seem becoming prez is a popularity contest. Nobody seems to want to do it and even if Yukino isn't personally liked it seems most students have the opinion that she'd do a bang up job.
After reflecting further, I have a better understanding of why I'm not enjoying this season as much as the first (although I had reservations about the first season too given that I wasn't digging Hachiman's mopey attitude): first, there seems much more angst and less comedy this time around. And everybody seems to be self-loathing. Last season it was mainly just Hachiman who cornered the market on this trait, but it seems to be spreading to Ebina, Hayato and Yukino. And while I'm not sure if Yuki actually loathes herself, she definitely suffers from low self-esteem. Hey, can we maybe have at least some variation in the type of angst we're wallowing in? That would be nice. But mainly, I'm sensing too little fun amid the emotional darkness, something the first season did better in balancing, imo. Now we have this election that seems artificially crafted to ensure conflict between our main characters. Fun times ahead, folks, fun times. But it bears repeating that, for all my kvetching, I'm clearly getting something out of this show. I'm not hate watching it. If something engenders my hate, it gets dropped faster than a nympho's panties. For example, the scene were Hayato slapped down the two girls was brilliantly handled. Very naturalistically uncomfortable. Everything from the girls initial confusion (can he really be saying that?) to the understated way they left. You can imagine the bad "anime comedy" version of that scene and SNAFU completely avoided it. |
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Season 2, episode 5:
Imo, spoiler[this was a good episode for the election arc. Good to see Zaimokuza return as well since I missed him this season. And as for Yui, I also wonder what kind of school she would run because of her personality.] Also, Hachiman has such an amusing relationship with his sister. |
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Hentai_JP
 Posts: 605 Location: Toronto, ON |
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Episode 5. I have to confess, I love Iroha. She the breeze of fresh air so needed in these trying times. spoiler[Her turn downs are always a riot with me, no matter how many times I rewatch them. ]
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Season 2, Episode 5
And so he managed it. The first step was spoiler[apologising with his sister who clearly knew that the way to help was to make it so he was doing it for her sake]. Through spoiler[friends/acquaintances he got the plan to convince the girls to stop running by finding out about popular choices]. He used spoiler[Hayama's name simply to farm names and then switched it to Iroha in a bid to convince her that she could get more support] which would make it a spoiler[popular win and she could use her title]. Basically Hachiman kind of lied to her to make her somewhat happy so that he could keep the girls in the club. He kind of used his ability the other way around, although whose to say she might enjoy the benefits and stick to people who nominated her to waste her time? Iroha spoiler[actually seemed to start liking him], actually I enjoyed this Hachiman seen. Standout moment of the episode for me felt like the part where Yui was touching his hair, I just really liked some of the details there like when he tries shaking her off. Although there is still a hint that spoiler[something is not right with Yukino]. |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
Subscriber Posts: 3017 |
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From Episode 4: “So Yukino isn’t going to try for the student council president, huh? I was so sure you were going to. The way you just push things on to other people is exactly like mom. Well, that actually might just fit you, Yukino. You don’t have to do anything after all. Someone will always do it for you, right?" Check out everybody's body language in episode 5 after spoiler[Hachiman says Yukino won't have to run for student council president anymore. Yukino says, "I thought you understood", then gets up and leaves the room. She says they don't have to wait for her to come back, too.] I think that these scenes suggest that spoiler[Yukino really wanted to be student council president. After all, she told Hachiman that she "wouldn't mind doing it."] If this is true, then Hachiman totally screwed everything up. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23770 |
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That was my favourite eppie of the season so far. Hachiman's sister is adorable and it was wonderful seeing those two get along. Iroha still confuses me. You sort of have to wonder if she "doth protest too much" with her rejections of Hachiman, yet the preview made it seem like maybe she really does have the hots for Hayato.
Oh and by the way, hello Hentai_JP! I haven't seen you post in a dog's age. Nice to see you are still around. |
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HaruhiToy
Posts: 4118 |
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Follow your gut and I think you have it right. What might have confused you is that she clearly hasn't admitted it to herself yet. Remember that the big thing about her personality and also Hayato is that it is mostly facade which few people -- notably Hachiman -- can see through. Since they know that and also know that he doesn't condemn them for who they really are they are both attracted to him. Hachiman is clearly actually a pretty popular guy not only with the girls but the guys as well. And little sis who is a prize. The fact that he doesn't realize it or is in denial about it is what this particular story is all about. |
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Stark700
Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Season 2, episode 6:
Interesting episode this week. spoiler[I kinda liked Isshiki and Hachiman's chemistry especially now that she is involved with a Christmas event. Decent buildup including Yukino's somewhat uncomfortableness with some of the developments. I'm curious to see where this leads up to.] The comedy still remains refreshing with a few awkward moments here and there too. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 6
That has to be one of the most annoying type of group to organise anything. I know in anime you have to expect caricatures, but they were the grandest example of spoiler[self important teenagers trying to act intelligent]. When one said they needed to break the establishment I immediately thought it was spoiler[incredibly unnecessary], started to realise something was wrong, and then almost everything else spoiler[they said was pretty much pointless crap]. The conversation pretty much came down to spoiler[planning how to plan, and trying to pass work onto other people]. Why am I getting so frustrated over it? Maybe because most of us can sympathise with being involved in spoiler[a meeting that is going nowhere, or being that stupid teenager using tricks to look smart]. I can't help but wish I could just jump in there move it along properly. First should in most cases a spoiler[brainstorm be illustrated on something like a whiteboard, otherwise they actually have no idea what they are doing]. And talking about needing to spoiler[know what they were doing, someone needed to make sure they had a mission statement earlier on to make sure the discussion did not go off topic, but the guy running the meeting was doing that]. Lets also talk about Isshiki. Unfortunately for her she is not exactly the brightest, not trying to insult her but she really could not follow the situation and just smiling to please them was making things worse for her. She was actually a pretty likable character here, I can totally get behind a manipulator if they are willing to own up to it and mean no harm from it, and actually enjoy a bit of foxiness, and I thought that her chemistry here with Hachiman might be among my favourites. Yui and Yukino spoiler[are out, Hachiman seems to realise that there is still something wrong with Yukino and that her doing some of the student council work would have made it worse]. Sadly it looked like him and Yui were spoiler[getting along better than ever, getting a bit self-conscious about each other too]. There is going to be a sense of betrayal coming from this. |
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