Book Review: ‘My Youth Romantic Comedy...#14′
My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected, Vol. 14 by Wataru Watari My rating: 5 of 5 stars The end is the beginning is the end. And for Hachiman Hikigaya, every awkward and fidgety breath he takes in the final weeks of the semester drags him ever closer toward resolution. Whether that resolution bends to the ephemeral will of a youth gone terribly awry or the oversimplified yearning of a burgeoning adulthood that thrives on indecision, Hikigaya knows this: the nebulous, triangular affection between he and Yuigahama and Yukinoshita must be made real, lest it be increasingly, if not eternally, bent out of shape. MY YOUTH ROMANTIC COMEDY v14 capably fulfills the novel series' enduring promise of delivering a character drama among selfish people who are consistently too stubborn to believe the truth about themselves. Yukino Yukinoshita must overcome her mother's withering glare and her elder sister's insufferable pretentiousness to prove she's capable of governing her own future. She'll never succeed if she keeps bowing her head and taking the easy way out. Yui Yuigahama is overloaded with kind-heartedness but never ventures beyond a careful, cheerful, appeasable smile. She'll choke on her own charm if she's not careful. Hachiman Hikigaya detests in others what he sees reflected in himself; he is rotten, hopeless, and friendless. And yet, somehow, his reliability and persistence, however dark, have proved endearing. Now is not the time to be idle. The prom event that was so masterfully called into being by Hikigaya and his bespectacled allies in the previous volume comes to full fruition. This end-of-year celebration required intense and roundabout haggling that kept Hikigaya on his toes. But the event is here. Will things go smoothly? Will the event meet senior students' expectations? Will the event meet the expectations of worried teachers and meddling parents? Funnily enough, the prom itself is of little concern or consequence to the narrative. More critical to note are the dramatics rummaging about in the shadows. Yukinoshita is under pressure to validate her capacity as a business woman and problem-solver extraordinaire. Yukinoshita is also trying to figure out why she's so comfortable letting Hikigaya get so close, to help her with her problems, and to bolster her position in her most arduous, personal fights. But she cares for that rotten-eyed boy with the messy hair. What would happen if she left him behind? Would she be stronger for it? Or would she suffer her loneliness all the more? Unresolved loneliness is a recurring theme in MY YOUTH ROMANTIC COMEDY v14. The turning over of winter into spring, and the changing over of the academic year, parallel and cradle these thematic notes. People come and go, but loneliness and separation permeate every adult's lived experience. One requires courage and affection and steadfastness to fill these gaps and endure their turbulence. And that's when Hikigaya functions at his best (worst). The young man feels Yukinoshita and Yuigahama slipping away. He doesn't want to lose them; they don't want to lose him; and the girls don't want to lose each other. The tenderness of their bonds varies, but the realness of their relationship is so new and so tenuous that to dismiss it and move on would be a colossal mistake. So Hikigaya hatches a plan. And it's a doozy. It involves that fake, joint-prom from before. It involves deliberately drawing Mrs. Yukinoshita's icy gaze (and then fleecing the woman of her own expectations). It involves shedding the skin of presumption in allying with the idiots at Kaihin Makuhari High School. It involves backing person after person into a corner, leaving them only one way out, and then tagging them on the back as they flee. If readers learn one thing from MY YOUTH ROMANTIC COMEDY v14, it's that Hikigaya will rake everyone over the coals for the sake one, fragile relationship with one, fragile girl. And it'll take all of this guy's guile, resilience, and self-inflicted buffoonery to make it out alive. But if it works, if his plan succeeds, even in the slightest, then the young man will have finally bargained with his inner idiot to confess how he truly feels to the young woman who pushes him the most. Best-case scenario: He will have successfully bartered a sheepish acknowledgment from the source of his affection as to how she truly feels about him. In short, Hachiman Hikigaya manufactures a literal crash-course of human emotions. Yukinoshita feels so worn down that she falters in the face of honesty ("I knew my expression was abnormal, poorly executed, and awkward, but nevertheless, I would have to get better at smiling from the next day onward," p. 57). Yuigahama sobs because her sweetness is a poison to her heart and her heart alone ("I wish I could have hated her," p. 107). And Ms. Hiratsuka, in another grand flirtation with off-brand maturity, reminds readers that human relations, as with life, are hard, because they wouldn't be worth it otherwise ("The answer is inside you. You just don't know how to get it out [..] If understanding came so easily, there'd be no suffering," pp. 198, 200). What does one say when "I love you" clearly isn't enough? Why would one willingly burden oneself with the emotional frailties of another? How many tears must one shed to replenish a heart constantly running on empty? In the end, we learn that romance at the heart of youth only exists when one wants it to. This is paradoxical and inconvenient, and also entirely true. Which is why, once more, Hachiman Hikigaya gambles with his own emotions. But this time, it actually pays off: "It was so arrogant to hope for something unbreakable and real, so I had to use everything in my power to twist it, smash it, hurt it -- test it, or I wouldn't be able to believe it really existed" (p. 238). Structurally, MY YOUTH ROMANTIC COMEDY v14 feels like multiple stories in one. A story with multiple twists and turns, multiple climaxes, and multiple shifts in the emotional latitude the author is willing to reveal about his characters. For example, early in the novel, the author uses rapid-fire exposure to the three Yukinoshita women to draw a definitive, compare-and-contrast calibration of the family's professional-grade loneliness. That is to say, the Yukinoshita women are consistently beset with aloneness, but it's how they respond to it that differentiates them: haughtiness (Mrs. Yukinoshita), bitterness (Haruno), and comradeship (Yukino). As the novel progresses, readers, as well as the protagonist, unintentionally peel away the layers of egotism, shortsightedness, and pity, respectively, which denote and decorate these women's lives. But the journey is worth it. By the time a certain character bashfully chirps, "I love you, Hikigaya" (p. 336), the reader feels just as awed and unready as the narrator. And the peaceful, complicated, meaningful dynamics that enter the fray are a hassle. Such a ridiculous hassle. But it's not unexpected.
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