Something Genuine: Understanding Oregairu

By Tanmaya Kothari

Well the thing is, I have been watching anime since I was at the tender age of 10 and now I have turned into a full blown otaku. Romance and slice of life anime tend to be my favourite in the medium since those kinds of storytelling provide the most realistic escapism and projection of oneself on to the characters rather than seeing a ninja in orange shouting rasengan or a straw hat wearing pirate declaring he will become the pirate king. Here I talk about subtext to text and beyond in anime, especially romance anime using the example of my favourite romance ever, Oregairu or as its known in english, My youth romantic comedy is wrong, as i expected.

Oregairu or My youth romantic comedy is wrong as I expected is an anime about Hikigaya Hachiman, Yuigahama Yui and Yukinoshita Yukino and their life as the sole three members of the request fulfilment club, exploring their life in school, interpersonal and intrapersonal issues, solving request and their interpersonal relationships and their relationships with other groups such as Hayama’s clique(the other major group of friends in the show).

Hello and welcome. Romance and subtext go hand-in-hand, the probing questions, the double entendres, the subtle hints, even the most basic I like you has subtext that sometimes needs to be stated as I like like you, especially if it's coming from a piece of fiction. Sometimes these are calculated overtures a la kaguya-sama love is war, other times they're emotionally charged accidental utterances like in Toradora and there are, of course, stories who cut the subtext out entirely for a change of pace. Oregairu is all of these, and it's probably the romance anime that has the most interesting relationship with subtext mostly because of the protagonist, Hikigaya Hachiman’s self position status within his relationships. And we'll be exploring that here, not the entire show, nor every scene, but I want to talk about the genuine scene because in a lot of ways, this is the show's own elevation of subtext to text.

Even while it provides more subtext to break down as it also makes clear that understanding through subtext isn't truly sufficient to understand other people. Something that is reflective of the show's core takeaways. Hachiman is an interesting character to explore the topic of subtext with because he is someone who uses situational subtext to his advantage. He sees an end goal and proceeds to tackle it without considering anyone else’s feelings even if that means constructing narratives in the the most negative way possible, the final arc of season one is probably the best example of this.

He deliberately reads subtext into the suggested slogans for the festival so that they are negative, one for all being an example of one person being sacrificed for the rest, his reading of the character for MAN in kanji as an example of how Sagami is slacking off, and sure enough the climactic scene where he interprets, the fact that he found her first to insinuate that no one cared to find her in a long line of other negative interpretations of said circumstance. This also lends itself to his self-described outsider status since he's not emotionally invested in any of the people he's interacting with and generally doesn't care about the student body at large. His interpretations of subtext, seemingly come from a place of impartiality. The first season goes a long way to making Hachiman seem right and justified, on top of the natural association the audience would have given his role as the story's protagonist. The second season is really where these elements are challenged beginning with the school trip confession arc.

He successfully reads the subtext behind. Ebina asking him to keep the guys current relationships in status quo, in other words, to prevent the confession. But at the expense of his own friend's feelings. Hiratsuka indicated at the end of the festival that others hurt, when Hachiman demeans himself, something he brushed aside. But here once again, he self sacrifices to the anguish of Yukino and Yui. The later subtextual conversation that the trio has through the guise of discussing Hayama’s clique, makes clear how their relationships are maybe as shallow as Hachiman's opinion of the very group they saved.

We start season 2 with a successful subtext reading from hachiman, that leads to group fracturing. The iroha election matter, being handled in different ways. Yukino refusing to go along with a hachiman self-sacrifice plan again, as his initial speech plan aligned with. Haruno is the next person to comment on hachiman and subtext stating “Hikigaya, you can see through everything huh?” and how she likes that part of him. That's always trying to read between the lines that in and of itself has a lot of subtext but Haruno is a whole other can of worms that I don't need to get into, just note that this immediately leads into his error where he fails to interpret Yukino's plan to run for office as something she wants to do. The moment where we realized that he was incorrect, is when she says, “And here i was sure you would understand”.

This is what spirals the group into a free fall away from the normalcy that having iroha become student council president was supposed to solve. Instead becoming more and more superficial just acting, like things are normal until Yukino explicitly states, “if this is all that it takes to tear us apart, maybe we weren’t close to begin with” . A direct call back to the very words that Hachiman used to describe Hayama’s clique as he went to prevent the confession. This is also where we see that Hachiman really hasn't changed, stating “ I only do things alone because i am alone”. Basically, ignoring how his circumstances have changed since the start of the show and that fittingly enough brings back Hiratsuka, who effectively kicked off the change in those circumstances as she begins to inquire about about what's wrong. Hachiman says that time is the main issue, leading Hiratsuka to say that he's got a keen eye for what people are thinking but doesn't recognize the emotion behind it.

The fact that his subtextual reading of her initial question he interpreted as about the Christmas event and not about the state of the club. In this moment, we have officially gone from perfect subtextual read at the start of the season to failing to read to completely off the mark Hachiman is maybe at his lowest here. He's been told that he doesn't have to come to the club that he chose to save and by extension that his relationships with Yui

and Yukino, as he knew them are effectively lost, and maybe that won't bother him because he still believes that he's still alone but Hiratsuka who's more than able to read the emotional subtext makes clear that Hachiman is pushing Yukino and Yui away because he doesn't want to hurt them nor be hurt by them.

The implication here is that Hachiman’s excuse for his current way of doing things, self-sacrificing because he is alone, is no longer valid and that he needs to consider this fact. And he is not the only one who is at a developmental moment Yukino is also in a position where she could change and open up and Hachiman and Yui are the keys to make that happen. Hiratsuka also states, maybe most importantly for the scene at the core of our discussion today, “Its now Hikigaya. Now or Never. Think, writhe, struggle, and agonize. If not, what you are going through isn’t genuine”.

And that brings us to this scene at last, the orange sunset color is a distinct contrast to what we've seen so far in this episode, mostly dark blues. The sequence also starts off with no music, just the ticking of a clock and their voices, as Yukino, rejects Hachiman's request, to assist him in fixing both of the Christmas event and to help Ruri, another affirmation that Hachiman wasn't perfect, even in season one under the auspices that he did these things to himself. Yui counters that it's all of their responsibilities

because they let him do it and directly benefited from it, Yukino is being unfair.

Something that Yukino says, is true about Yui and slowly, this brooding piano track comes in. Hachiman remarks, “Hang on, this isn’t what i came to talk about” indicating that we're throwing back to the fracturing, both Yukino wanting to be president and the confession incident and Yui says, “There is stuff others won’t get unless you say it out loud”, a direct criticism of subtext generally. Presumably about Yukino wanting to be student council president and Yukino similarly criticises Yui using subtext to avoid the conversation. The unspoken agreement to pretend things are normal back in episode 3.

This discussion points out the flaws with relying on subtext. But it also says that sometimes even text Isn't enough, This is exemplified by Hachiman stating, “But sometimes, you can’t get through people even if you spell it out” because for Hachiman, in almost a direct call back to Haruno's words he'd search for subtext and assume the worst, “You won’t always come to an understanding by talking things out” Hachiman states. As shown in the Christmas event, words and therefore texts are malleable and meaningless, unless there's something behind them, they can even mask their true meaning or the speaker’s true desires. Words are simply insufficient to achieve understanding and if not for the conversation with Hiratsuka that would likely be the end

of the club.

But the music picks back up to provide, this hopeful melody as Yui and Yukino, raise their gazes and Hachiman begins to think through his desire to understand, to know others because not understanding is terrifying, to have a relationship in an attempt to truly understand one another, instead of merely a surface level knowledge, even with the pain that may come as a result of that. To get Beyond subtext and text to achieve that implicit level of understanding, even as Hachiman acknowledges that he thinks such a thing is impossible, beyond him. But even so, “I want something genuine”, Hachiman cries out.

Something to think about, rise, struggle and agonize over with someone something deeper than the superficial bonds that define Hayama’s clique, and even the club before this moment. Something beyond words, even as it opens them up to the pain that understanding can cause that is, what is meant by ‘Something Genuine’. This is a triumphant moment in the character development for Hachiman by declaring that he no longer sees the need to view himself as alone. Of course, since most of the meaning in that phrase was subtextual, Yukino doesn't understand and runs away.

Hachiman is dazed, hurt by this opening of himself to her and having it crushed, leaving Yui to repeat Hiratsuka's words ‘It's now or never’ to Hachiman in an attempt to get Yukino to open up in a genuine way. As they arrive on the walkway and Yukino asks, “what did you mean by genuine” in inquiry of the subtext of that all-important word. Yui ignores that she doesn't get it either but they can talk about it, saying “ And then we’ll spend our days figuring it out. But that is something I can get behind” and that'd be better than the state of their Club right now where they don't talk about the important things and their friendships are based on nothing but paper thin connections. Their current Club is a superficial impression of what it was prior to season two, something that no one was happy with but too afraid to potentially give it up, just like Ebina didn't want to give up her friend group and as that cause Ebina to hate herself, so too did everyone hear find weakness in themselves for the inability to do something.

The genuine scene is the moment where that step is taken, where the subtext of the state of the group is turned into text even as it criticizes the reliance on subtext and the insubstantial nature of text, towards deeper understanding. But the conclusion of the scene, seems to affirm Hachiman’s self-indulgent desire

to understand as something admirable, universal. Because even though the subtext of the word, genuine remains unsaid Yukino and Yui agreed to Hachiman's request. A trust beyond words, the first step towards ‘Something Genuine’, affirming a desire to discuss openly and honestly to the importance that each other, hold for them individually and finalizing that Hachiman is in no way, still alone our scene comes to a close.

Oregairu or My teen romantic comedy is wrong as I expected was an anime I started when I was alone, even I was surrounded friends, I felt lonely. Relating to Hachiman to a deep level, this Genuine Scene from season 2 of the show spoke to me. It helped me understand the people around me, taught me about subtext and how to read subtext in social institutions, helped me become better and overcome that loneliness in me. This in no way is a recommendation to watch the show for the sole purpose to understand the scene that we talked about but rather it is an ode to the scene, a tribute to Oregairu. For the longest time I have searched for ‘Something Genuine’ and this scene, this anime, this story and these characters helped me find it.

Many thanks for reading and thank you Oregairu.

By Tanmaya Kothari