My Teen Romantic Comedy: SNAFU

No, not like that, that's not how I imagined it at all. The previous season pretty clearly painted the future storyline on the wall, where we already had the whole present beautifully wrapped, ready to go, it was just missing that last bow. But it took an ungodly amount of time to pull it off, as if it had been woven together with the skill of a tyrannosaurus or by deliberate stalling for the sake of building false tension; either way, neither option is laudable. The story is literally sadistic towards all the characters, and it doesn't matter who you end up rooting for. The fate of a love triangle logically tends to be that one of them gets stuck peeling carrots whether they want it or not (unless it ends with something crazy), and yet SNAFU Season 3 did the impossible and stabbed everyone in the back. And after the wound healed a bit and there was a light at the end of the tunnel, 3 others came from opposite sides. The throwing of people under the bus was up to Olympic level, and while Hachiman came out of it more often innocent than not, even he couldn't completely avoid it. We suffer the preordained downfall of one character and logically lose our long-built sympathy for the other because he simply doesn't appear on screen, and I find that not only an annoying cheat but a failure of writing overall. The last 2 episodes iron it out nonstop (though I had to wait for that confession, the payoff was truly beautiful) and we get the coveted final act and the expected sugar-coated conclusion, which I unabashedly enjoyed, but the journey hurt me perhaps more than the protagonists. It's a shame, a terrible shame. There may be a ton of melancholy and elaborate roundabout speech under the guise of the "complexity" mentioned in the comments (which is only played at), but I couldn't shake the impression they were making a camel out of a gnat. The ending deserves that extra star, but it doesn’t make up for the 10 weak episodes. If it had been a movie or multi-part OVA? Ideal standard! (16.10.2020)

Ugh, it's been a long time since I finished watching S2 and for anyone else who suffers from a similar "affliction", I recommend watching the last 2 episodes of S2 as this one directly follows it. The unraveling of the relationships of otherwise reserved characters continues and everyone knows/fears the situation when things start openly veering towards love rather than friendship that some bridges will totally catch fire. Judging by the 2nd half of the episode, I'm expecting a bit lighter and less melancholy undertone than before. (10.07.2020)