Season Three has been especially brutal to Yui Yuigahama (由比ヶ浜 結衣, Yuigahama Yui). Among the fan base, Yui, Saki Kawasaki (川崎 沙希, Kawasaki Saki), Shizuka Hiratsuka (平塚 静, Hiratsuka Shizuka), and Iroha Isshiki (一色 いろは, Isshiki Iroha) have been some of the most consistent fan favorites for best girl.
Yet there is something very special about Yui. She is consistently shown as being a total sweet heart who wants nothing more than to be a member of Hayato’s normal clique, and yet she is attracted to Hachiman apparently because he risked himself to save Sable, her dog. And so she joins the Service Club, and forms a deep bond with Yukino. And the triangle is formed which exists in the story all the way to this scene of rejection.
For the Yui fanbase, this is nothing but suffering. After all, Yui has been the emotional glue that holds the Service Club together, and ultimately is the force which brings Hachiman and Yukino together. In Chemistry, an enzyme is a chemical substance called a catalyst which facilitates other chemical reactions. The catalyst helps other chemical reactions to take place. And in Oregairu, Yui helps to bring both Hachiman and Yukino out of their protective shells not because she understands either one, but because she is just so sweet and caring.
And she thinks that she is in love with Hachiman. In EP10, Yui says this to Hachiman, “Though it’s because you were always so weird that there were also sad, uncomfortable, and painful times….”. Yui needs to listen to herself. A life with Hachiman would be one long weird because he is not about to change, and her entire life with Hachiman, would always be hurting at behavior she cannot understand.
“Falling in Love” does not mean that one is falling in love with the right person. Mother Nature has invented Courtship in an attempt to filter out some or most of the bad pairings. In a more or less “normal” pattern, one person “Falls in Love” with another, but that does not mean that the other person is also in love. It usually does not. So the person who has fallen in love must prove to the other, that this is a good pairing. This is called courtship.
A beautiful and accurate Anime, “Bloom in You” has shown how this process plays out.
In Yui’s case, she has been courting Hachiman for most of the run of Oregairu, and in this scene she receives as direct an answer as Hachiman is capable of delivering. In one of the most incredible animations of facial emotion, we can see all of this play out on Yui’s face. Absolutely brilliant with no qualifications.
If it is permissible to rate rejections in the same way that we rate confessions, this would have to be very high, if not at the top of the list. But that does not make it any less painful for Yui, and all the legion of the Yui fanbase.
Fortunately for Yui she has her mother. Anyone who marries Yui would find gold in their mother-in-law. That statement probably doesn’t resonate with those who have never been married, and do not realize the power for good or evil that a mother-in-law brings to the table. Yui’s mother like Yui is an absolute sweet heart, and totally understanding.
Compare and contrast her with the prospective mother-in-law that Hachiman will have to deal with in Yukino’s mother. Yikes! Yet two times now Hachiman has turned the corner on her, and the story shows that he will be more than enough to deal with her, perhaps even gaining her respect. Mrs. Yukinoshita is not evil but she is cold and calculating, and we see the effects of her mothering on Haruno and Yukino.
Yui’s first hurt is really affecting. Rejection is always painful, but sometimes necessary.
And it will happen to most human beings, sad as that may be!
Then EP11 ends in the moment that all fans have been waiting years to see, the Confession as only Hachiman could possibly do it!
After this intense mutual expression of love where the word “love” is never spoken, we now see clearly that this is love and nothing more can be said here, as its as clear as anything that Hachiman ever does! “So deal with it!”
© 2020 Folcwine P. Pywackett (mox003, mox004)