With the season cooling down, we got an episode of Oregairu that actually felt more like a season one episode – that same somewhat uneven mix of archetypal stuff and really smart, poignant character stuff. Haruno is basically a big mean-spirited wrecking ball here, who seems to more or less represent what Hachiman would become if he stayed bitter and insular and emotionally distant. If Yukino and her friends were older, they wouldn’t be made so insecure by her petty tricks, but they aren’t, and so insecurities abound. I’d honestly be fine with the final episode just being Sensei shaking Haruno by the shoulders and then telling her students not to listen to her, but I’m guessing things won’t resolve quite as simply as that.

Here’s my full episode review, and you can check out the notes below!

Ugh, Haruno

“Nothing’s changed. And she thinks that’s fine. That’s part of what makes her cute, but it’s what I can’t stand about her.” Haruno is a very cruel sibling

“If it’s not trust, then what is it?” This is nice. Hikki said “I don’t think it’s trust” initially, but that was just a vague Hachiman-ism. When Haruno actually runs with it, he ends up asking her what she means

“At the very least, I wouldn’t call it the real thing”

Valentine’s Day approaches

All the way back to the first episode, when Yui wanted help making chocolates

And again we get “why’d you leave first?”

Yui being positive about her friends treasuring their current time, of course. In contrast to what Hikki has struggled with all season

“Do you have any free days coming up?” Dang, Hikki!

Yukino diagnoses Hayato’s refusal to accept chocolates – because it would cause social problems. Everyone’s Hayato to the end

Also Iroha has decided she’s part of the club now

“Okay, then I guess you’ll do, senpai.”

Yumiko’s being too stereotypically tsun here, I think. The whole episode is a bit heavy-handed

And now even Saki arrives, and is being tsun about chocolate

Yumiko and Saki each doing the delinquent “AHHH?” at each other is pretty great

Yeah, really leaning on the gap moe with Saki. This episode is pretty dang light novel

And Yui being flustered about chocolate in a really obvious way

Hachiman giving advice on how to “trick” Hayato into accepting chocolate that’s really going to be used on him

Oh my god, Iroha’s going to use the student council to plan a chocolate testing event

Oh no it’s buzzword dude

And Haruno is the special instructor? Yeah, this episode’s pretty contrived

“Senpai, do you dislike sweet things like this?” Iroha is incorrigible

EVERYONE GETTIN’ FLUSTERED ABOUT HIKKI goddamnit

“Speaking of, Yukino gave chocolate to you once, didn’t she, Haruto?” Haruno stirring shit up as usual

This situation was designed to defuse the drama of giving chocolates, but it’s also resulted in everyone being together in the same room, where things could get heated if someone messes with them. And they invited Haruno

Things get tense between Yukino and Hikki, and Yui defuses them

But then she frowns, because she’s just helping them

“You’re a guy who doesn’t really get much. The people you’re involved with don’t really get much, either.”

“I don’t particularly feel like I’ve grown”

“Are times like these your ‘real thing?’” In contrast to Sensei’s empathetic lessons, Haruno is the gleeful sledgehammer

“Are you that boring?”

“Haruno attacks me with the things that I always want to avoid thinking about.”

“It’s not trust. It’s something more cruel… something repulsive.”

Yukino’s mom laying into her in front of her friends

“‘Who we are’ is always clashing with us somehow.”