Tear Jerker / My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, as I Expected

aka: Yahari Ore No Seishun Love Come Wa Machigatteiru

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

See? It's simple. A world where no one gets hurt is now complete.

Season 1

• Episode 5: The Parental Abandonment at the Hikigaya Household. Hachiman, being the loner he is, simply jokes about it by calling his parents corporate slaves but that doesn't change the fact that his parents are never home and, at one point, Komachi grew sick of this and ran away.
  Komachi: That time, it wasn’t my parents who came to pick me up, it was my big bro.
• Also Episode 5: While most consider it to be Hachiman's Moment of Awesome at the end of the episode, Hachiman's "I hate nice girls speech" reflects just how badly Hachiman doesn't want to be hurt anymore, and his way of preventing that from happening again is to stop himself from keeping his hopes up altogether, whether it be for romance, or for friendship. The end of his speech also has him admit that when it comes to losing, no one else but him can come out on top.
  • He also ended up hurting Yui before he gives this speech, (mistakenly) believing her to be one of those very nice girls he hates.
• Episode 12: Hayato gets so fed up with Hachiman's self-destructive behavior, that he slams Hachiman against the wall and yells at him him for his behavior. You can tell the situation's bad when it's the nice guy who snaps and goes "What the Hell, Hero?".

Season 2

• Episode 2: Hachiman once again sacrifices himself "for the good of the status quo" when he purposely botches Tobe's confession to Ebina for Hayato and Ebina herself so Tobe can give up on her. He thinks it was a necessary thing to do and yet, Hayato, Yukino and Yui all wish he would consider the feelings of the people who care about him before he lies and in turn, hurts himself to just keep people satisfied. It's to the point where Yui is in tears when she tells him off.
  • Right before this happens, Hachiman mentions there is a solution to the entire issue. The responses of Yukino and Yui to this sudden statement show just how much they trust Hachiman. It only makes it all the more heartbreaking for the girls when they find out what the solution actually is.
    Yukino: Well, we'll leave it to you.
    Yui: (nods): Yep.
• Episodes 3 through 5 of the second season deal with Hachiman fighting with not just Yukino and Yui, but Hayato and Komachi as well because Hachiman sees nothing wrong with throwing himself under a bus and self-sacrificing over and over just to satisfy people and keep everything "normal". Just to keep Hachiman from doing a pledge speech for Iroha, to which he thinks will get her a no-confidence vote because he believes people hate him that much; Yukino and Yui decide to run against Iroha, to spare Hachiman getting hurt and to get him to realize his worth to the people around him.
• Episode 5: Hachiman manages to resolve the problem favorably... mostly. At the end of the episode, the now former student council president laments to Hachiman that she was hoping that things turned out differently, so she could stop by after graduating and chat with him, Yukino, and Yui, now turned into the new Student Council, about the good old days. Hachiman briefly contemplates about if things could change if they could go back in time and do something different.
  • The real Tear Jerker is in how Hachiman ends this scene by rejecting the idea of a happy ending. In his eyes, no matter what decision he could have changed, they would always end up in the same bittersweet trail.
• Episode 6 through 7: The Service Club is at its Darkest Hour. After everything they faced during the entire season, all the problems and arguments, all the wrong answers and misunderstandings, it all has severely damaged the relationship between the members. Hachiman is slowly abandoning the club while realizing that his methods don't really help anyone and only makes things worse, Yukino is always distracted and passive as she bears a fake smile and Yui is desperately trying to keep everyone together but is not able to do anything at all.
  • This line:
    Yukino: If this is all it takes to tear us apart, then maybe we weren't all that close to begin with.
• Episode 8:
  • The argument that ensued between Yukino and Yui after hearing Hachiman's request. Yes, these are the same girls who, despite having very different personalities, have grown to love each other almost like sisters.
    Yui: You're being unfair, Yukinon
    Yukino: (glares): You bring that up now? (Beat) Talk about playing dirty.
  • Hachiman letting go of Yui's hand. Her expression says it all.
• Episode 9: The very end, when Iroha is speaking with Hayato. Even though the whole exchange plays out without the others hearing it, her running away in tears says it all - she confessed to him, and was turned down.
• Episode 10: Yukino's situation with her family and Hachiman and Yui's inability to help her in the restaurant scene.
• Episode 11:
  • Hayato revealing that he feels inferior to Hachiman. While everyone thinks Hayato can do anything, the only thing he's never been able to do is what Hachiman does best: Helping people. And he can't stand that. The Ace is aware that, when people most need him, he's useless.
  • For a second, Yui's expression was full with sadness when Hachiman opened the door of the infirmary and found her right in front of it. Yes. She saw the whole thing.
• Episode 12:
  • Yui realizing she's inching closer to becoming a Hopeless Suitor as she sees how close Yukino and Hachiman have gotten towards each other. Though she tries to put on a smile, when no one is watching, she looks sad. Made even sadder because Yui is the one who chose to become that.
    Hachiman: Are you free someday soon?
    Yui: (flustered) Eh? Well, probably. I'm mostly free, but... (realizes they're in front of the service club classroom) Let me think about it.

Season 3

• The trailers continued what it went in the episode 13 of the past season, especially the final trailer that shows the trio after being in the zoo. Here, Yukino is clearly overpassed by the decision and on the verge of tears, with Yui tries to comfort her. Also, Hachiman's Despair Speech in one of the trailers:
  Hachiman: Actually, if it is cold and cruel, if the genuine thing is only filled with sadness, then it's something I don't want.
• Compared with past openings, in the one for this season the protagonists look sad and anguished for what it comes. Especially noticed on Yukino and Yui, both looking at the verge of tears, which is just a tease of what we see in this season.
  • As the past season, this one keeps with the "interactive openings", when in the past one can be seen how many members participate in the Service Club per episode at the end of the opening. Here the change between episodes is the weather that Yukino sees in the window, being a sunny day a happy/warming episode and a cloudy/raining day a sad one. And yes, like the half of the season is a raining one.
• Dear lord, Episode 4. Yui, you self-sacrificing, wonderful girl. To explain her anguish would only cheapen it.
  • Let's not kid ourselves, Yui gets put through the wringer. Although her final confession is gently and subtly rejected, Yui still hoped to get a clear answer, but Hachiman rode off to help Yukino without once looking back to say something. At least in the light novel, his thoughts confirm he was fighting himself to not look back since he knows he broke her heart.
• After that episode, there're various others focusing on Yui with some dates with Hachiman and close moments together, as the dance scene. Even when they're heartwarming moments, in the end they're just painkillers for the poor Yui, who got anxious about her dream to be with Hachiman and just enjoy the moments with him and don't wanting to get an end as eventually will come (as she knows Yukino is the one who Hachiman chooses in the end.)
• Iroha isn't safe of this. Despite her close encounters with Hachiman and her constant Ship Tease, in a moment she got anxious too, showing for the first time in the series her frustration about Yukino and her inability of being closer than her with Hachiman, who keeps seeing Iroha as a little sister or as an extension of Komachi.
• "Codependency", the Arc Words of the season sown by Haruno. This word was said to Hachiman and later to Yukino and Yui as she saw that's the way their relationship works, which makes Yukino move away from him to get more independent, makes Yui feel useless since she relies much on him, and produces anxiety to Hachiman about the relationship with both girls in the whole season. It wasn't until he talks with Shizuka that the word was misused by Haruno as a way to separate the group.
  Shizuka: Can you honestly pack all your feelings into just a single word?
• Season 3 Episode 8. Having won the original, Shizuka-sponsored competition between herself and Hachiman, Yukino disbands the Service Club, agreeing with him that their relationship was a sham because of their lack of honest communication, as painful as it is for everyone involved.
  • Yui completely disagrees with Haruno's belief that the Service Club's relationships with one another were based on codependency, and so she tries to prove her point by hanging out with Yukino at the end of the episode after Yukino disbands the Service Club. They talk about the prom and Hachiman, but the more they talk, and the longer Yukino puts on a fake smile, the more Yui realizes their friendship is de facto over. This hits Yui hard because she admits Yukino's "pretty smile" was something Yui loved about her, but now, it's a symbol of a friendship that was torn apart from a love triangle.
• Season 3 Episode 11 has Hachiman definitively choosing Yukino over Yui. In the middle of him saying he will learn how to properly express his feelings for someone (read: confess), he subtly turns Yui down by saying she doesn't need to wait for a confession from him. Yui takes the hint and later breaks down sobbing to her mother, knowing her chances with Hachiman definitively ended that moment.