"Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru", Oregairu for short, is a Light novel series written by Watari Wataru. Which later turned into an anime and a manga. When I started watching the first anime season, it looked like a regular slice of life high school drama, seeing Hachiman being an outcast and Yukino being a cold beauty one could easily get to that conclusion. But it's a bit different than that, Hachiman the Main character chooses to be an outcast and Yukino doesn't like people much despite her popularity. And the story feels lot deeper than just a Romantic comedy.

Main Characters

Hachiman Hikigaya

Hikigaya is called many things, most of them aren't good. As for his appearance, he is said to have rotten eyes of a dead fish. He's also a loner by design. What brought this on is his own bad experiences. Mostly they are little spiteful things, but it seems it had hurt Hikigaya deeply and changed his perception of the world. Currently, he sees people as a deceitful selfish bunch. except maybe for his little sister, which he seems to adore. Since he has no friends he amuses himself by observing his classmates. Mostly he sees how they manipulate and lie their way through the society. So it's no wonder he doesn't believe in romantic comedies. Despite all this, He is a kind person. That's why he genuinely help people who come to the service club. But his methods are bit self-sacrificing and often end up hurting the people who care about him,

Yui Yuigahama

Yui is a cheerful and outgoing person. She's extremely good at readings the mood and adjusting to it. Also, she manages to put a smile on her face when she feels sad or angry. You could call her strong, but it's more like she's used to it because of her need to fit in. She hangs out with the popular group and seems to be well-liked by everyone. According to Hikigaya, her personality resembles of a dog's. Which is true she's friendly and loyal. In her first encounter with the service club, she gets scolded by Yukino. It's not that Yukino is being mean, she just says it as is. To everyone's surprise, Yui only feels grateful and decides to work towards expressing herself own opinions more clearly too. with this, she forces her way into the service club and acts as a glue that holds everyone together.

Yukino Yukinoshita

True to her name Yukino is beautiful but cold, She too lives self-imposed loner life. Unlike Hikki, she's not viewed as disgusting and creepy, but as a hard to approach Ice Queen. This may be due to her being beautiful, rich and perfect. However, both Hikigaya and Yukino are similar in many ways, like their love for books and the lack of friends. Yukino has a cat obsession, which she tries to hide. According to Hikigaya, Yukino herself is like a stray cat. I have to say he is dead on with that one. I mean physically, she has quick reflexes and good at anything but lacks stamina. and personality wise, she's more cat than human. Anyways, she too has weak points like her family and her competitive nature. She gets goaded into things because of her competitive mindset. Being an exceptionally gifted person, she thinks it's her duty to help others that are less fortunate.

Shizuka Hiratsuka

Hiratsuka is the school's guidance counselor and the service club's adviser. She teaches Japanese (which Hikigaya seem to be good at) and Also is the homeroom teacher for the class that Hikigaya and Yui belong to. Not only she genuinely cares about her students and their future, she also is responsible and very kind. Actually, she's the best teacher I've ever seen in my entire life. as for her personality, She's a junk food eating, manga reading, sports car driving girl that seems to have a hard time finding a guy. Hikigaya often wonders why no one ever snatched her up and hope he's a decade older LOL :D. Anyways she's quite strong when it comes to stuff other than her marriage (she's a bit sensitive about her marriage, and act violently or break down crying if the subject is brought up). despite that, she offers great advice when needed and goes out of her way to help her students. She also has various talents like martial arts and decent with the bass (she does play a song with Yukino, Yukino's sister, and student council president to buy time for Hikigaya)

 

Story

Hikigaya wrote a short story about High School life for the Japanese class which Hiratsuka-sensei teaches. Being Hikigaya, he apparently has written something that is heavily influenced by his anti-social tendencies. Concerned about her students well being, Hiratsuka forcibly drags her student to a club with only one girl. The girl in question happens to be none other than the ice queen Yukino. After Hiratsuka-sensei leaves making him a member of an unknown club Hikigaya is left with a cold beauty on his hands. There he finds out that the club he just made a member of is called the service club, and its main duty is to help people. Hikigaya and Yukino with their closely related but very different views of the world start to argue and Hiratsuka-sensei clearly has been waiting for this exact moment jumps in with her a manga quotes. And make it into a competition that loser has to do what the winner says. With this, they meet with their first customer who happens to know Hikigaya and calls him by a nickname she apparently devised herself. After being helped by the service club Yui forcibly joins the service club as well. Using their respective skills, they manage to solve problems that are presented to the club. Two girls and a guy, of course, it's a love triangle, their friendship will undergo lots of stuff before a winner is presented.

Light Novel

Oregairu Has 11 light novels and 3 side stories published. But the series is still ongoing. Fan translations of all the published novels are completed so you can read them by visiting translators website. I think they're 3 official English version so you won't find the fan translation to those there. Anyways If you want to get into the story, reading the novels are the best way to go. Anime and the Manga are good but they are not that descriptive. The best thing about reading the novels is that you get to know what goes on the mind of Hikigaya. Reasons for his actions, that extra bits of details that will make you understand the story more it's all there in the novels.

Anime

Anime covers all the light novels including the side stories. So if you just want to watch the anime it's okay you won't miss much. The anime has 28 episodes including the two OVAs. As for the art, it's good especially the second season, they have changed the art a bit in the second season. Making Hikigaya a bit handsome girls a lot cuter LOL :D

This series is quite good, The plot is great, and the story doesn't become boring in the middle, There aren't many drastic changes, but you will probably look forward to the next episode or books after finishing one.