Fangirl February: Hachiman Hikigaya Character Review

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Introduction:

Characters and their interactions are normally what makes a show for me. Great characters can make a mediocre show with an average story good, but lackluster characters can make a show with a decent plot fall flat on its face This is something that comes into play with slice-of-life, romance, or drama shows especially, since they’re entirely character based. One of these particular anime is My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU, my favorite high school drama anime, and the main reason I love it so much is due to Hachiman Hikigaya, its protagonist. In fact, my liking for Hachiman has gotten to the point where he’s become my favorite male character in anime, and we’re here to analyze why. Sit back, relax, and read on as I talk about one of my most beloved characters, Hachiman Hikigaya.

General Character Overview:

Hachiman Hikigaya is, at first glance, not incredibly inspired. But, once you dig deeper into his characterization and actions, then you begin to uncover something truly special in his own weird way. Hachiman Hikigaya is a loner, and generally doesn’t interact with others due to every bad experience he’s had when he tries to become friends with others. The anime shows us how these instances affect him, and why he’s become pessimistic and anti-social. He was always kind of weird and outlandish, and had these expectations that, someday, he’ll have friends and a nice social life. However, as time goes on, Hachiman begins to lose trust in those around him as they keep on excluding and excluding him, to the point where he decides that he’s content with being a loner, purposefully excluding himself so he won’t be hurt by others. This was not helped by how he showed up late to high school. On the first day, as Hachiman was riding his bike to school, he ends up saving a dog’s life and gets injured in the process, staying in the hospital for a while. By the time he even attends high school, everyone’s already friends with everyone else, and this is the moment where he accepts how his life has turned out. This somewhat changes, however, when he’s forced to join the Service Club, where he meets Yukino Yukinoshita and Yui Yuigahama. From there, he uses his blunt and pessimistic mindset to help others with their social problems, even if it doesn’t always turn out for the best. Hachiman’s ability to observe his classmate’s behavior and decipher exactly what is wrong with a relationship is the best part of the entire show, mainly because he’s normally correct. He’s able to recognize faults, but when someone asks him for help, his response is normally hard for them to listen to because he never sugar coats anything. For example, my favorite scene in the entire show is in episode 12. There’s this girl who’s running the school festival, but completely slacks off and makes Yukino, the vice president of the committee, do all the work. However, when she’s supposed to speak in front of an audience, she has no idea what she’s doing or even what she’s supposed to say. Everyone around her tries to comfort her, but Hachiman realizes that she’s not upset over how she didn’t do her job, but because Yukino apparently stole the spotlight from her. So, he tells it to her without beating around the bush, using reverse psychology and forcing her to accept how she really didn’t do anything. Of course, all this does is anger everyone else, even though it’s the cold, hard, truth. This brutal honesty is what separates Hachiman from typical high school protagonists; it’s because he’s not afraid to speak his mind and doesn’t care who gets hurt in the process. But what keeps him from being completely unlikable are the small hints of how he wants to be social, and how his observations are normally spot on. Think about it: why would Hachiman even say anything to help these people if he didn’t care about them whatsoever? If he were really anti-social, he would just be quiet and not say anything. There’s obviously still some part of him that wishes that youth wasn’t a hoax, or that hypocrites didn’t exist, or that nice girls aren’t nice to him simply because they’re nice to everyone else, but at the same time he accepts reality and doesn’t believe it can change anytime soon. And, in my opinion, he’s probably the best character to come out of a high school anime. He is what makes SNAFU what it is, and the show would have failed dramatically had he been a generic main character.

Why He’s Featured in Fangirl February:

So after that long analysis, what is it about Hachiman that I like so much that I would call him my husbando? Clearly, he’s not typical husbando material, and the fact that he’s anti-social and blunt probably won’t go over too well with others. Well, personally, it’s because I can relate to his problems and how he tries to fix them. I understood his interior monologues about how hypocritical the world can be, and how most people put on a façade just for the sake of fitting in. I also respect how honest he is, even if it gets to brutal degrees at times, and how he just doesn’t care about what other people think of him. You know how earlier I was talking about episode 12 of this anime? Well, here’s something else to add to Fangirl February: it’s my favorite episode of anime of all time, solely because of that scene. The laconic delivery, perfect word choice, and the emotional response of everyone, including me, was enough for me to decide that Hachiman Hikigaya is my favorite character of all time, period. I can understand why people don’t like him; his pessimism probably won’t mesh well with people who are relatively happy and optimistic, or to others he may just seem like an ordinary, lonely protagonist. But, to me, personally, I was able to connect with him as a character on a level I never thought possible, and it’s hard for me to ignore my biased opinion towards him. He may not be a perfect character, but he’s my favorite, and for me, favorite is tantamount to best.

Conclusion: 
So, I hope you enjoyed this second installment in Fangirl February! I’ll see you all for my next post, where I talk about Shiki Ryougi, my favorite female character! Until then!