I like that they start the second season at the climax of the first, in that ruthless but necessary confrontation with lazy narcissist chick feeling slightly guilty but more directly manipulative for conning others into praising her for a huge project she did almost nothing to complete but wants to take credit for. Sigh.
Its very human, which is why humans suck. I also like that the relationships between the despised anti-hero, Hikkigaya (name means Shadow or hidden or possibly overlooked), and those he's helped only allow a grudging respect for him, one they don't seem to want to admit when it counts, proving his point that human beings are crap. Many people reading this will deny this, but I can only say you are naive and haven't lived enough, or haven't paid attention to your own relationships. Sometimes the one being crap is you. Few notice when they're the one crapping on others.
Romance is in the title, but this is truly an anti-romance. Hikki knows better. I like that the two girls in his club, one more and more clearly crushing on him for her own reasons and we as the audience wish she'd get over it, and the other treating him like a lab experiment, not in love, only slightly curious of him some of the time, regardless of what she sometimes says, and whose older sister taunts them both over it because there is nothing there and that's the sort of sister she is. She teases and mocks them because there is no romance and she just wants to stir up trouble between them. Many young people would think she's giving her approval, but she really isn't. Its all just teasing, for her own amusement. The more times I watch segments where she appears in the story, the more I realize just how manipulative and spiteful she really is. She's all kinds of layers, being a politician's daughter, and used for hard core vicious political schmoozing and bribery up close and personal. Japanese politicians are just like american ones: utterly corrupt. They famously take bribes so their buddies can build projects and violate the law and get away with it. In the old days, the Japanese used to assassinate their corrupt politicians, and their politicians would use Yakuza or their own bullies to attack anyone who bothered them, competed with their monopolies, or otherwise interrupted their income or power. Pretty much ALL samurai movies are about destroying these kind of corrupt politicians. Its part of why Japan is so feudal where it matters. And Yukino's older sister deals with these sleaze all the time. Maybe she resents how Yuki is left to be normal, or maybe she's just cruel, but there's little reason for her to pick on Hikki if she isn't doing so for malicious reasons.
Hikki also has a younger sister, who is more normal and less abused/defensive than he is, and still young enough to be outwardly cheerful, a state he is careful not to disturb with too much truth. He is kind to her, despite her manipulations. True pessimists do fear how others are harmed by our comments in unguarded moments. We see things as they are, and remember what actually happens rather than how we'd have liked things to turn out. We drive optimists and narcissists up the wall. And this is unfortunate because both of those asinine twits LOVE to complain about how unfair it is to harsh their realm, man! Yes, telling the truth is socially wrong. Know what? I don't want to be part of a society that punishes me for refusing to coddle those useless and destructive morons. An optimist is a just a narcissist that imposes their views on everyone else. They do a fine job of lighting themselves on fire. We should stand back and let them burn. This is why I dream of mobility, though that would certainly cut into the anime I watch. I'd want broadband, wherever I stop. The rest of humanity is a sewer.
Hikki is the Japanese equivalent of Jeremy Clarkson, saying unpleasant but true things because he really does understand the ugliness in people. He is the mirror that never lies. I find it interesting that the villain of the story, his sexy chainsmoking teacher, who allegedly worries about him being anti-social keeps insisting on ruining his life and attacking his consistently proven beliefs with forced interactions with selfish and vain people who need to stop bothering other people, and probably will once high school is over and they have no value anymore. My own high school? None of us get together. We're happier apart, never seeing each other again. High school was prison. Hikki realizes this too, and I like the many comments on fans appreciating this ugly fact, seeing the truths from Hikki being things they wish they could phrase half as well. When people are bastards, you want to cut them deep with truthful and very hurtful words they won't be able to escape from. I know I got mine back, and rarely miss a chance to burn a bridge. Why let enemy tanks cross? The bridge is a lie.
Human beings only cooperate for short term gain. Long term are just competition for resources, and we are monsters, many of us right on the surface. Any good we do for a few others, we do a lot of bad as well. Usually bad that hurts many. And only a few even notice, and those tend to savor their pain as joy because people are really awful. I think this is what Hikki realized long ago, and having organized his life around avoiding relationships with monsters that only exist to hurt him, forcing him to interact with monsters is an act of cruelty. This is why I insist the teacher is the ultimate villain of the story.
UPDATE: 5/4/15 Episode 4 came out. My thoughts on this one are more complex. The blonde guy who was called by the older sister to tease Hikki about his old junior high crush, a vapid little bitch, forces him to come along on a double date with her and her bimbo friend for the express purpose of both mocking his original attraction to her, and to show what he isn't missing out on, then to chew her out for being a vain bitch. And this is supposed to make Hikki grateful? Hayato, the blonde popular guy with all the charisma and political acumen, is from a family subservient to Yuki and her sister the selfish fake bitch with the heart of iron. She's not a nice woman. I get the idea from this that she's actively jealous of her little sister for not having to deal with the politicians like she must. And that's why she's so mean to Yuki and her friends. I was curious enough about this I started reading Baka-Tsuki, which has the novels translated from Snafu. Hikkis motives are explained, but the girls remain baffling. Hikki thinks the girls are sort of getting revenge on him for solving the dork crush problem by pretending to sacrifice himself just so the dork could hear a rejection that wouldn't shatter their lame friendship. Meanwhile the girls are pissed at him and even his sister wants him to feel guilty for something lame and transitory and ENDING, because high school is temporary. And I think that's the most important thing Hikki understands that everyone else is missing, a point he made at the very start of Ep 1, Season 1. Youth sucks. Why can't they leave him alone? Japanese culture is often about exclusion. He's excluded from a hateful society. He was relatively happy with this, because it avoided all these nasty obligations. But then his teacher forced him to take random obligations, a really shitty thing to do to someone who gains NOTHING from his community, and essentially tries to make him suffer, to make his life worse through forcing him to deal with crap people, presuming that by solving their problems he will gain their appreciation, like that means anything, and redeem himself? Really? What has Chiba, where this takes place, done for Hikki? Its taught him that other people are shit. Okay, fine. That is so. Now what? Eventually he gains a small amount of respect from them, then is accused of being too aware of their actions and respect? What a bitchy complaint. This show is the smartest and most incisive and vicious depiction of Japanese culture. It damns them. I'm not even sure the Animators or Director is aware of just how damning it is of their culture, of how their obligations show their ugliness. Japan certainly needs more critics.
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