2015 contemporary romance, light novel adaptation, 12 episodes:
AniDB. Sequel to
2013's Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru - My
Teenage RomCom SNAFU. Cynical loner high school kid and the rest of
the Volunteer Club continue to try to help other people and work out
their own problems.
The first series was animated by Brain's Base; this one was done
by Feel, and the character designs are, well, not bad, but
noticeably more generic than they were before. More oddly, while the
first series was basically a satire of high-school romance tropes with
a side plot about being forced to grow up a bit, this one loses the
satire and plays the romance and drama relatively straight.
It does it pretty well, though, with people stymied largely by their
own stubbornness and misreadings of each other, rather than forced
misunderstandings. Hachiman, the protagonist, doesn't notice how
much of a social creature he's become, and that works, even if it
turns him into the sort of male lead appealing to multiple women
that's more common in the "harem" subgenre.
Also, this cuts off with very little resolved (as it's run up to the
end of the published source material), and there's no promise of a
further series. Anime doesn't do that as much as it used to, and it's
disappointing to see it here (even though people would probably have
complained just as much if the series had added closure that wasn't in
the source). One may reasonably hope for an OVA or two to finish
things off, as it seems that the next novel is likely to be the last.
As it stands I wouldn't recommend it, as series 1 comes to more of a
conclusion, but if the story actually gets finished then it might well
be worth watching in full.
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