SPOILER ALERT: If you have not seen up to Oregairu S3.EP9, everything that follows is a spoiler.
With S3.EP9, we have reached a moment of clarity in the long running story of Hachiman Hikigaya. In EP8, Yukino charged Hachiman with her wish that he grant Yui’s wish.
Dutifully, Hachiman attempts to fulfill Yui’s wishes. He spends the evening with Yui and her mother baking pastries, and as they are out walking, he comes to a conclusion which he acknowledges only to himself.
“If only I could continue living out my days like this, granting all of her wishes one by one. That impossible fantasy played out in my head.”
Hachiman has gone as far as he can in granting Yui’s wishes which means he is not about to grant her Romantic interests. Yui is not the one for him. Hachiman has made a choice.
This outcome in all likelihood means that Yukino will be his number 1.
Many fans dislike Yukino and support other girls like Yui, Iroha, Shizuka but they disregard Hachiman. Their fandom seems to be a choice for themselves, and not for Hachiman.
After all, Yukino has a very similar personality to Hachiman. She tends to be a loner, and is very honest and direct with others. The best example of how this works in her character is when she first meets withTamanawa, and after listening briefly to nonsense, she proceeds to call him and his entire team out in blunt and direct talk. She takes no prisoners. But she gets the Christmas party back on track, and saves the event.
I think Ice Queen is a very unfair characterization. She definitely has very strong emotions, which she generally does not show. As she says, the relationship to Yui and Hachiman has had a strong effect upon her, and has helped her to become even more outwardly emotional.
Hachiman is a cynical loner who believes he only speaks the truth. The three females who he most reacts to are Komachi Hikigaya, Shizuka Hiratsuka, and Yukino Yukinoshita. Although these three are very different from each other, in relationship to Hachiman, they have serious similarities. All three are honest, and direct with him. When they think he is wrong, they do not hesitate to tell him, and Hachiman responds to that kind of behavior. In fact, he needs that because his overriding value is “that which is genuine”, the truth.
But these three have problems which would prevent a relationship with Hachiman.
Komachi is his sister, enough said.
He has already talked with Shizuka and acknowledged that had he been 10 years older, he would marry her. But as things are, there is a serious age-gap between them.
Which leaves Yukino. He in all likelihood does have strong feelings for Yukino. But there is a serious problem. While the Hikigaya family appears to be well off, they have a very nice home, they are not in any way close to the social level of the Yukinoshita family. Hachiman has already said that he hopes he never sees Yukino’s mother ever again.
At least in subtext, it would appear that perhaps the Yukinoshita family and the Hayama family have already discussed pairing Yukino with Hayato. They have been together since early in their childhoods, and Yukino even gave chocolates to Hayato. But Hayato’s lack of support for Yukino has caused a falling out.
Yukino has been shown to harbor feelings for Hachiman. She asked him out on a shopping date, and that was of such significance that she mentions it again, and how nervous she was. At the end of season 2, she almost gives Hachiman her homemade cookies, only stopping because Yui did so first.
Would the Yukinoshita family, especially Yukino’s mother, accept Hachiman? He definitely impressed her to the point where she needed to cover her face with her fan to hide her emotions. This is a very open question, and must be addressed before a (Hachiman X Yukino) can happen.
Fans are facing the fact that there are only 3 EPs to play and then The End, so it looks like the Prom is going to settle the Hachiman Choice!
© 2020 Folcwine P. Pywackett (mox002)