Over the past years, I went from weekly anime reviews to anime reviews once a month, to delaying a review until the end of the month because I didn’t find anything that really caught my eye. I mentioned before, at least I think I did, how I used to get into phases where I would care about the medium of anime for a couple months, leave, and come back to see some new shows I decided to watch. Sadly, I think that mentality still exists, as I am putting these reviews on hiatus until I can find things that aren’t as tropey, because either the past few seasons haven’t been very good, or I’m just becoming an angry young man, which certainly describes the main character of My Teen Romantic Comedy Snafu.
My Teen Romantic Comedy Snafu Review
Studio: Brain’s Base
Length: 13 Episodes
Availability: Subtitled on CrunchyRoll
Hachiman Hikigaya, the protagonist of this little tale, is an isolated teenager who believes that he has figure out the intricacies of life and human interactions by the age of seventeen, and dismisses things such as work and friendship in favor of his own solitude. That is until his science teacher gets pissed at him for turning in a pretentious sounding assignment about the importance of youth, where he is forced into a club based on providing assistance to others, by the name of the Service Club. With the other members being Yukino Yushinoshita, another loner, but one far more critical while also being distant and critical than her male counterpart, while also being more attractive than Hikigaya if only for how she doesn’t have a constant sneer on her face. With Yui Yuigahama being a bubbly opposite to the two, as she actually has friends.
As far as the actual storyline between these characters, it’s pretty much just that they work in the Service Club and try to help out other students in episode length problems. While Hikigaya tries to remain as distant as possible from everyone around him, or Yushinoshita alludes to herself having a breed of complex past that is never given much detail, as the story is an adaptation of part of an incomplete one. Which also does hinder on any form of character arc feeling a tad on the incomplete side of things, as Yuigahama is the only one to have learned much from the group, as the other two remain a reclusive, but responsible young woman, and somebody who is desperately trying to justify his ineffective skill tree path.
I try to be considerate when saying things like this, but Hachiman Hikigaya is a character I’m glad to be gut punched by his teachers, as I have difficulty looking at him as anything but an asshole who is not good at much of anything. In terms of careers he says that he desires to be a stay-at-home father, which is amusing due to how he shows physical attraction to a feminine male more than anyone else in the show. While he doesn’t appear to do much of anything with the free time he possesses, not even running a blog for him to vent his depression with the ideals his country possesses with youth. At least in spite of how he would probably make some valid points, only to then go too far with his radical ideals that resulted in him more or less saying that people should be more like bears.
He seems like the sort of person who can do things well if he had a guide for them who is willing to slap him in the face for being a wise moron, which appears to be the way things are going in terms of the story, but instead it stops with him being a prick in order to trick somebody else into doing their job, while making him come across as somebody who deserves to be alone to the majority of the school, which he seems to be perfectly content with. It is the mentality of an underachiever taken to an extreme, but based on what glimpses of his past are given, I can’t help but view it as his own personal weakness and fear to accept the world instead of isolating it and keeping a list of things that are wrong with it. It is a mentality I came close to possessing years ago, and seeing it taken to a logical conclusion like this actually does make for a very interesting lead character.
Leaving the other two as far less important and interesting character in my mind. Yukino Yushinoshita is essentially a privileged young woman who, from an objective standpoint, appears to have been raised well despite not having many she views as her equals, and she is willing to let them be aware of that. Snobby is an easy way to put it, but I’d consider her more harsh to everyone else, as it is implied that she got where she is through more than a little extra effort, and instead wants to see that shown in people.
A mindset of which I can accept Yui Yuigahama as a representation thereof, despite how she is still a bit on the same wavelength as *insert any happy-go-lucky side characters you’ve mentioned in a review, two of which are also red heads*. Yet, confidence is taught to her as she needs to deal with people who I would call many things, but certainly not nice. A word I would also not sue to describe the animation at play, as it is kept on the more minimal side with shortcuts and budget constraints being apparent during the more active sections of this very reserved show. Though, it was originally a light novel, so I suppose that is to be expected, along with the majority of what is visually displayed, which does remain in the realm of acceptability with little debate in my mind. Or in layman’s terms, the show looks okay.
The problem I see with reviewing something like, My Teen Romantic Comedy Snafu, however, is that I’m not all that sure how to describe it aside from examining the characters, and also feel conflicted about my thoughts on it, when in reality I want to simply blame it on how the story is ultimately not reached its end. However, that defense is faulty as people review series by season all the time, going into detail about the events that unfold and how they worked with the show provided. However, no matter what way I look at it, there is something to My Teen Romantic Comedy Snafu that feels absent. Perhaps it could be due to how I regularly compared its story to that of other shows I’ve reviewed, and struggled reviewing at that, or that the show lacked a simple spark that brought it above an enjoyable tale of teenagers being teenagers and struggling at pursuing the understanding allegedly possessed through entering adulthood, or something along those lines. Though I guess it was enjoyable regardless.