Oregairu, LN Recommendation of the Week!

Article at a glance:
The Oregairu light novel offers superior character writing and development compared to the anime adaptation, capturing the teenage mindset exceptionally well.
The story centers on Hachiman’s journey from a cynical, socially scarred teen to a more understanding and gentle person through his interactions in the Volunteer Service Club.
Each character, including side characters, is given depth and development, creating a well-rounded, meaningful narrative that balances humor with serious themes.

I usually don’t engage in the “X medium is better than Y” debates but again, this is one of those cases where the LN is better. This is simply because the anime adaptation is kind of bad. It skipped over a lot of things from the LN. And let me tell you, the Oregairu LN is a damn masterpiece. It is one of my favorite LNs of all time and that is for a good reason. Very few stories understand the teenage mindset as well as this one does and the character writing and development in this is phenomenal.

So welcome back to another edition of our LN recommendation series and this week we are talking about Oregairu. As you may imagine, I have a lot to say about it. So let’s get started right away.

Introduction

Oregairu LN was written by Watari Wataru and illustrated by Ponkan8. It was serialized from May 2011 to April 2021. It has 168 chapters or 18 volumes. The last volume is particularly long lol. As for the anime, I don’t really recommend it. The anime has 3 seasons made by Brain’s Base. The first season is pretty good, the second season is decent but the third season is really rushed. So yeah, do with that what you will.

Plot

Like most SOL/rom-coms the plot is pretty simple. Hachiman is a person twisted by his traumatic past social experiences. So now, he is just a cynical loser who tends to be overly negative about things. He even turns in an essay criticizing the mentality of the youth. This causes his homeroom teacher to make him join the Volunteer Service Club, a club meant to assist students in different things to help fix his personality. Yukonishita Yukino is the only other member of the club.

The two immediately get off on the wrong foot and end up competing to see who helps more people. If Hachiman wins, he gets to leave the club if Yukino wins, he will have to stay. They soon get a third member in the form of Yuigahama Yui and the club starts taking on way more requests than before. Of course, things are not that simple. Despite the simple plot, I’d like to appreciate its pacing. In an LN like this, the plot should give way for the characters to shine while still being somewhat present, and Oregairu is a very good example of that.

Characters

Hachiman is an amazing MC. Yes, he may seem like a jerk at times but he isn’t. He is just scarred by his past experiences and over time, he comes to realize the error of his ways. His “dead-eyed” expression may not change but he becomes a gentler person over time. The same goes for Yukino. She’s too rigid, stuck up with her ideals and standards, just like her namesake, “Ice”. In contrast to them, we have Yui. She appears to be totally normal on the surface unlike the other two but she has her issues as well and she does overcome them with time.

Then we have all the important side characters that add their own flavor to the mix like Hiratsuka-sensei, Saika, Iroha, Hayato, and more. The cast is small but every character gets a whole arc focusing on them, sometimes more. It is an incredibly well-rounded and well-developed cast, The character dynamics are really good too. One of my favorites ones is the typical sibling banter between Komachi and Hachiman. Their personalities couldn’t be more opposite but somehow they’re kind of the same.