YMMV / My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, as I Expected

aka: Yahari Ore No Seishun Love Come Wa Machigatteiru

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Hachiman someone whose Zen-like mentality is something to be inspired by, or is he a petty, narcissistic person who is out of touch with reality? Is he really in search of something genuine as he outright states, or is he just an insecure Classical Anti-Hero who tries to be a sigma male at any cost?
  • Yukino. Is she a Messianic Archetype whose willingness to help people despite the way she is treated by them is to be commended? Or is she a hypocrite with an inflated sense of self-worth who sees faults in everyone but herself and often treats them just as poorly, especially in Hachiman's case? Strangely enough, while most people think more that she's the former, detractors still exists and think she's just a hypocritical, arrogant and self-righteous jerk.
  • Yui's actions at the end of Season 2/Volume 11 have sparked much debate. Did she give Hachiman her cookies to encourage Yukino to open up about having feelings for Hachiman as well? Or did she lay down an ultimatum: if Yukino wasn't going to pursue Hachiman, she will? Is she a genuinely heroic and selfless girl who supports her friends, or not? Surprisingly enough, some people even see Yui as sort of a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, who isn't by any means as innocent and sweet as she looks, and is pretty selfish and concerned with her own feelings.
• Applicability: Considering that Hachiman's main character arc is learning how twisted his worldview is and that he really does wish to have genuine bonds with others, one could easily argue that the series' ultimate message is that pessimism never did and never will help anyone, and you can't let yourself be defined by the worst parts of your life. In a story that's usually so dark and cynical, this comes off as especially potent.
• Awesome Music:
  • The first season opening theme, "Yukitoki", and the closing theme, "Hello Alone" have some nice tunes to them.
  • The variations of the S1 ending theme, "Hello Alone -Yui Ballade-" and "Hello Alone -Band arrange-" are excellent as well.
  • Season 2 busts out a new round of songs with Nagi Yanagi's new and excellent opening theme "Harumodoki". In addition to the new opening theme, Saori Hayami and Nao Tōyama return for the ending song, "Everyday World" and its variations "Everyday World -Ballade Arrange- Yukino Solo Ver." and "Everyday World -Ballade Arrange- Yui Solo Ver.".
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Hachiman himself tends to have split opinions on how he's supposed to be viewed as a character. At least some fans still see him as being right in what he does. Other fans see someone whose methods are supposed to be heavily criticized and deconstructed (especially in the second season). There's a middle ground who sees him as sympathetic but not necessarily right.
  • Yukino fits this as well for seemingly being in the right most of the time despite acting almost exactly like Hachiman who's often supposed to be wrong. She also has a dividing effect for her "banter" with Hachiman. Some people see it as friendly snark on snark combat while others see it as her being an ass to Hachiman for little reason. It does not help as some of her comments seem to honestly hurt Hachiman.
• Broken Base:
  • Over which subtitle group is superior between Commie and Crunchyroll. While Commie is a speedsub group known for often inserting memes into their subtitles and having questionable translations, a lot of fans feel their subtitles for Season 2 are actually superior to Crunchyroll's, due to CR's translations often being more literal and not as closely following the Light Novels' dialogue. In particular, their translations for the scene between Yukino and Hachiman in Episode 7 and the "genuine"/"real thing" speech in Episode 8 have received some flak.
  • Yukino's scene in Episode 9 was also seen by some as being relatively underwhelming compared to Yui and Iroha's scenes, despite being arguably the most notable scene in that chapter in the light novel. Other people think it's fine the way it is.
  • Yukino and Hachiman's second season character designs caused quite a stir in the fandom before Zoku! even premiered. One side of the fandom decried their new character designs for not being similar to Brain Base's ones, where Hachiman was purposely drawn crudely to emphasize his "grossness" and rotten fish eyes compared to his "more handsome" design in the second season, and where Yukino's first season design was touted to be more unique-looking than her "generic" season 2 design. On the other side however, fans defend Feel's character designs for being closer to Ponkan8's art and for improving Brain Base's rather low budget designs of the characters. There were even forums dedicated to this argument before they died down in the second season's run.
  • Many characters' usage of "The Reason You Suck" Speech as a device for problem resolution. Many think it's a breath of fresh air and a fitting Deconstruction of the Nice Guy harem protagonist's normal shtick. Others are more critical and think it sends the wrong message about what's an acceptable conflict-solving strategy because the characters aren't sufficiently punished for their choice of methods or it seems that some characters are punished while others get away, with Yukino being a rather standout example, as detailed under Alternative Character Interpretation and Base-Breaking Character.
  • The Show, Don't Tell approach is also rather divisive. Some like the fact that the characters' personalities and beliefs aren't in your face and the series encourages you to figure things out for yourself, which is seen as crucial given that Hachiman is clearly shown to be biased in many of his views. Others, however, feel that it takes the approach too far to the point of being excessively vague and that such an approach just doesn't work in a romantic drama. Detractors further point out that good relationships are based on clear communication between others and relationships that don't have that can hardly be called "genuine".
• Contested Sequel:
  • Which season was better, the first or the second one? It seems that there are fans who believe that the second half of the novels/second season of the anime is not as good as the first. The first managed to strike a reasonable balance between comedy and seriousness, but the second dove full-on into relationship drama, making for an incredibly heavy and depressing series. On the other hand, there are those who argue that the first season followed a largely episodic format with little story progression, something the second season ditches in favour of an overarching plotline, as well as giving Hachiman some much-needed Character Development after he had spent the entirety of the first season as a blatant Static Character, invoked or not. One thing just about everyone can agree on, however, is that between seasons 1 and 2, the art and animation drastically improved.
  • The third season of the anime/conclusion of the novels has also gotten this reaction. There are those who love it for showing off how much Hachiman has grown as a person and for the well-written romance between him and Yukino. However, detractors believe that Hachiman and Yukino's growing relationship got so much focus that it ended up swallowing up the entire plot and leaving every other character without any sort of closure.
• Crack Pairing: Hachiman/Yumiko has gained a lot of supporters from the West, despite there being not many hints of Ship Tease between them. This might be due to their personalities, almost to the point that it's nearly a Fan-Preferred Couple.
• Epileptic Trees: In a very minor extent; some fans believed that a small picture (in the new announcement of the PS Vita game adaptation in a magazine) consists of Saika holding something which is believed to be a pregnancy test tool, which strongly implies that he's surprisingly; pregnant with Hachiman's child. But in the end, the full sized picture turns out that Saika's holding a band-aid.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Hachiman has 8man, since the "hachi" in his given name means eight. He is also known as Batman or the Dark Knight due to obvious reasons.
  • In the same vein, Hayama being the Superman opposite to Hachiman is quite popular as well.
  • Since the main characters' parents aren't named at all despite having prominent roles, the fandom generally decided on Yukimom/Yuimom/Hachimom. Other variants include Gahamamama, Mama Yukinoshita/Mama Yuigahama and several others.
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • Most of the artists from Pixiv are fond of Yui/Yukino.
  • Saika is a very nice boy, who comes without baggage. He just wants to befriend Hachiman but soon develops a crush on him. Hachiman finds Saika cute and likes hanging out with him. Not to mention, it takes Hachiman out of the popular Yui/Yukino ship. With him out of the way the two girls can get together.
  • Hachiman/Shizuka is a pretty popular pairing.
  • Hachiman/Haruno, given their chemistry together, and how she's one of the few people who's openly nice to him.
• Ho Yay:
  • Hachiman and Saika, Hachiman’s thoughts about and around Saika are totally different from his thoughts on others, he clearly finds Saika cute, plus it’s obvious Saika has a crush on him.
  • Hachiman and Hayato, an opinion shared both in-universe, thanks to Hina's wild imagination, and among fans of the series. It helps that they have both friendly and tense moments with each other: Their encounters are surrounded with Ho Yay-laden language in the light novels, which are from Hachiman's perspective, and Hayato kabedons Hachiman in the @comic manga.
  • Even Hayato and Saika have some moments, due to the BL-esque play Hina forced them into in the cultural festival in season 1.
• Jerkass Woobie: Both Hachiman and Yukino. Despite their abrasive personalities and cynical outlook on the world, they're both fundamentally lonely people who had to deal with isolation, rejections and bullying. It's downplayed in the long run as they really aren't jerks deep down and their kinder side comes out later.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Hachiman, ironically enough. Besides his main ships with Yukino, Yui, and Iroha (all three of whom are the biggest ones), there're people who ship him with Saki, (especially for the light novel readers) Hiratsuka-sensei, Hayama, Totsuka, Yukino's sister Haruno, Ebina, Yumiko, heck, even Yui's mom.
• Les Yay: Yukino and Yui.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Yandere Yui after the Season 2.
  • Sore aru!^Explanation  Said by Kaori in season 2 and translated as Preach it! in one sub, is now a popular image quote used by the fandom to show approval of, and agreement with, this or that idea.
  • Nico Nico Douga gave us gold songs like Senpai Song and Huh? Huh!?^note Both starred by Iroha, mostly the first one, which also have long versions of both songs if you got addicted to them.
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • Some fans see Hachiman as a rightfully cynical Anti-Hero who is almost always correct in his observations of others. This ignores the fact that he often is called out for his methods and over-generalizations of others. By the second season, it's made increasingly clear that Hachiman's attitude and methods to solve problems are causing a lot of stress with his club and within himself. By episode 8 of Season 2, he openly admits that it was arrogant for him to think like that in the first place
  • Similarly, the audience often takes Hayama's reputation as a nice guy at face value (which Hachiman does at times as well). While he has admirable attributes, it's made clear in the novels that he's flawed (if not as much as Hachiman).
• Moe: Saika.
• One-Scene Wonder: Yui's mom seems to have made quite the impression among the fanbase despite appearing for only a few minutes in the last episode of season 2.
• One True Threesome: Some fans ship the three leads together. Some other fans enjoy shipping Hachiman, Hayato, and Saika together.
• Sleeper Hit: Overlooked at first due to mediocre animation and being labelled as harem romance comedy. Highly appraised later by virtue of great characters and thorough exploration of their psychology and motivations.
• Strawman Has a Point: Hachiman's cynicism is meant to show how out of touch he is with reality, but his reasoning can be seen as absolutely correct in-universe. It's mainly because Good Is Not Nice is shown to work wonders; he's the only character to actually receive any backlash from being harsh. All others who have called someone else out have gotten what they wanted, and those who've been called out have bettered themselves.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Yukino. While she does ultimately have good intentions, the unrelenting scorn she shows for Hachiman makes her come off like a total jerk, often being nasty to him when he's done nothing at all. It doesn't help that she's guilty of the very things she calls him out for, such as his arrogance, cynicism, occasional naivety, and refusal to change himself for the better whereas she's never called out for any of these things.
• Unpopular Popular Character: Hachiman himself is an antisocial loner barely acknowledged by the rest of his classmates, but is considered one of the best light novel protagonists in recent years.
• Woolseyism: Title change to "My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU". Short, snarky and precise.

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