Quote (Devor @ Jun 21 2013 06:25pm)
this is what somebody wrote about hikigaya:
I really love Hachiman and his very honest words on how he views other people, but to relate to him is a whole different story.
Since all we see is Hachiman being the narrator, we only see what he thinks of the situation. Sure, we all may have been rejected at a time, hurt by our naive perceptions of people and how high we can make our expectations. This is something Hachiman does and what really leads him to be a misanthrope. Yes, I am saying he is a misanthrope.
In Plato’s Phaedo, Socrates defines the misanthrope in relation to his fellow man: “Misanthropy develops when without art one puts complete trust in somebody thinking the man absolutely true and sound and reliable and then a little later discovers him to be bad and unreliable…and when it happens to someone often…he ends up…hating everyone.”
His attitude, although easily relatable on sight by what he says doesn’t mean he necessarily tells us all that he thinks on his mind. It’s pretty clear that he hates people deeply, he doesn’t trust anyone, and his very pessimistic view on life is not something to admire or strive to be.
Anime characters like him are usually very out of your league. And if you want to be someone like him, who is clearly suffering because he doesn’t trust anyone you’ve missed the whole point of the series— it’s about a young man working in a volunteer group with other people who have hard times socializing. Yukinoshita, although almost same bred as him, is very different. She sees that his attitude on life isn’t exactly the greatest and voices it in that mean way of hers. Yuigahama is also a girl who’s gone through a lot, but she takes it a different way and tries to involve herself in society as best she can, and yes, she seems happy and yet she still can understand those feelings of being left out.
And, as an assumption, people who change themselves are not running away. They want to improve themselves so they can be better people, or to become stronger! If you feel like you are sad all the time and you don’t want to change yourself because you think you’re running away from your problems you are not! It’s called adapting to the situation and improving yourself. That’s probably the only point Hachiman makes that I 100% disagree with and this comes from a person who felt almost exactly the same way he did.
We all say it isn’t cool to act depressed or have such a cynical outlook on life, but we still look to characters like him (and Houtarou Oreki and other characters) as being incredibly cool or easy to relate to. Hachiman’s anguish is probably much, much greater than you think it is. Especially how he looks at adults as people who ‘bitch and whine’ their way through life.
I love Hachiman a fair deal. Relating to him? Some of his words are very pessimistic but are true. Saying that it’s cool that he thinks that way? Not cool at all. He really needs some help, and apparently he doesn’t improve throughout the rest of the volumes that are being published. This is very concerning because it gives the idea to fans that being a pessimist or hating people is a cool thing and to keep it up if you think that way.
I probably looked into this a bit too much, but what I wanted to say overall is, anime kind of makes us think that being upset and isolated is cool and in, but it’s not. Houtarou gets a much more colorful outlook on life as Hyouka progressed, and hopefully, if the author knows how to make a statement to his fans, Hachiman will mature (or feel a little better about being a person) and help himself out of his deep and dark pessimist ditch.
It's really not cool, to the point of almost unhealthy.. but kinda sucks that he has to take the role of the fall guy.
I don't like the coolswag blond kid's method of wooing her back, giving her the credit she doesn't deserve and the attention she wanted, but hachi went a little overboard with the social suicide.
at least his friends will know what's up..