Thursday 25 June 2015

Hikky, My Spirit Animal

Right after Ouran Koukou Host Club, Jahan started pestering me to watch Oregairu. Its real name is Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru, and yes, it is incredibly long so let’s just stick to Oregairu—sort of like its nickname.

Hikigaya Hachiman, or Hikky as another character named Yui affectionately calls him, is a high school outcast who spends his days mentally complaining about life and talks to absolutely nobody. His future plans include “not working” [I had to snort in empathy at that] and staying home as a house husband. In short, he’s your typical antisocial teenager. Noting this, his Literature teacher/guidance counsellor sent him to a club called the Service Club, with hopes to remedy his attitude towards society. The leader...and, er, sole member of the club is Yukinoshita Yukino.

Hikky [Source: here]

Yukino aims to help others with their problems by realising their true potential. Very idealistic, I know. Except Yukino is, in fact, another example of the antisocial species. She stands out in a way that she's very good at everything she does because she believes in hard work. And she’s also kawaii (according to herself) that boys tend to fall for her and girls, in return, bullied her when she was younger. And so, she, like Hikky, is friendless. Together, they are impeccable dynamic duo of the Service Club: the underachiever, and the overachiever.

Yukino source: here]

They are later joined by Yuigahama Yui [seriously, what is up with this making the first syllables of their surnames their given names?], a average high school girl, with average high school IQ and average high school needs [friends]. She doesn’t look like someone important, really, but she acts as the glue that binds the group together since Hikky and Yukino tend to clash sometimes. *pause* Okay, most of the time.

Yui [source: here]
Anyway, back to Hikky, the reason why Jahan wanted me to watch it is because she thought I would identify with him, and, well...she's right, in a way. I totally get Hikky in the sense that he was the person I was before. He’s the kind of guy who hates people, in general, and doesn’t really care about what they think about him (even if they insult him right to his face—harsh). And I know how it feels to be the underdog in class. Nobody talks to you because they think you’re weird. And then they act surprised that “you can talk”. [That’s very insulting, you know. -_-] Hikky’s crime, as far as I know, is being awkward. He has this vast eloquent string of thoughts but when he speaks it’s like, “Unh....” I can totally relate.

But when it comes to his friends--that is, when he realised he might actually have friends in Yukino and Yui--he gets aggressively protective and at the same time,  his wall of indifference crumbles to reveal a very vulnerable side of him.

Although I don’t aspire for “not working” anymore [*snort* sorry, it really cracks me up every time] because I now have a purpose in life. The antisocial behaviour, however... we’ll see when school starts this fall. The only difference between us is that he thinks being this enemy of the society is his role to play to trigger its progression, while I considered myself an enemy to the society, period. Who cared about society?

Nevertheless, I admire that even though he genuinely doesn't care about almost everything, when he does, he pushes himself more than anyone. And he may not be the one to offer optimism, his realistic view towards life is his weapon in making the best of decisions.

[source: here]


Give it to me straight, Jahan. Did my eyes really look as dead as these when we first met?

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