Watching 7 episodes in a row of Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru made me think about human beings in general. What makes us human? The fact that we are all selfish, self-centered? The fact that we have emotions? The fact that we have desires and wants? The fact that we have compassion? What are human beings really like? Are we really just animals who think highly of ourselves? That we are above animals and savages just because we are living in a 'civilised' society?

When we say that we care for someone, do we really care for them? What is caring anyway? Concern and worry for a certain someone? Are we actually just deluding ourselves into thinking that we are caring for someone? 

Is someone really your friend? They may outwardly be friendly with you but inwardly, they hate you to the core. And you wouldn't know. Appearances are deceiving.  

In my opinion, people are just keeping up facades and farces. Whatever we do is a pretence. 

"I am not that I play." 

I'm inclined to agree with that, quoting from Viola, from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Wherever we go or do, we are not ourselves. In front of different people, we act differently. We are deluding ourselves by saying, "Oh, i'm only myself when i'm at home/with you." That's utter bull. There is always a level of pretence. I realised that we tend to exaggerate stuff as well, or add spice and toppings to the actual story. We put words into people's mouth as well. 

By the way, I'm stereo-typing here. Let's say there's a group of friends. In that group, there would always be a central figure, the one everyone loves or likes. The charismatic ones. There would also be the follower who has a weak personality who can't say no to the group's 'self-appointed leader' . There would also be the "kind" one and "blonde" or "bimbo", or rather, the one who likes to attract attention and has everyone at her beck and call and etc. 

Yahari ore no seishun love come wa machigatteiru

I'm sure many would disagree with me but this is just an example. There is a hierarchical organisation in the group. When the link, or rather, the charismatic one in the group is gone, the whole group kinda splits. The blonde guy with the cool hairstyle in the middle, that's Hayato. He's the outgoing one, the one everybody loves. When he's gone, the rest of the guys in the group don't really talk to each other. The people in the group are all friends of Hayato but they are just "friends of a friend" to one another. They seem to get along well together in a big group but once the central figure, Hayato is gone, poof, the rest of the guys are suddenly not 'best friends' anymore. 

Hypocrites. You tell someone not to gossip behind other people's backs because it isn't right. But the next moment, you'd find yourself gossiping, whether intentional or not. It's human nature. You can't not talk about others behind their backs, whether your'e criticising them or not.

That got me thinking, what are friends anyway? What do you do to have friends? Who really are your friends? Just integrate yourself into a clique or a group and pretend who you really aren't so that you have someone to hang out with or so that you wouldn't seem like a loner? Or would you just 'be yourself' and mostly ended up being alone as you assert your own individuality.

Humans are superficial creatures. That's what i feel anyway. People are often not honest with one another, not wanting to hurt a certain person so that they wouldn't hate you. Saying things they don't mean. Talking and criticising others behind their backs. Pretend to be supportive of others, to care for others just for the sake of it or because everyone is doing it. And there's nothing we can actually do about it. Most of us do not take the extra step. We go on with our lives, going with the flow of the modern society.

 In GP class, my teacher once mentioned about the gender equality and discrimination of females in the less developed countries. She showed us images, and told us stories. Oh, they were gruesome and cruel to the core. But what she mentioned got me thinking: "But what can we actually do?" Nothing. We can't do anything about it. We would watch news on the television about horrible things that happen in the world, and we get sad or depressed about it for a while, and the next few days, we would forget about it and do nothing about it.. That's how life works. 

Let's say, there's someone in your class who's loved one just passed away. At everyone in the beginning would pity him or her just because of his or her situation -- It's like "Oh, that's so sad." and everyone would go "I'm sorry for your loss". That's all we can do to help. There's nothing much we, especially outsiders, can do to help alleviate the sorrow of that classmate. Furthermore, not everyone understands the sorrow that classmates experience and some don't even feel sorry at all since it has nothing to do with them but still says "sorry" as though they mean it. I mean, if you don't mean it, please don't say you're "sorry". Other close friends who want to do something are at loss as to what he or she can do. Haiz. You'd worry over whether you're friend would appreciate it, whether your friend wants to be left alone or be comforted by you. 

In Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru, two of the protagonist are cynics. They are pragmatic to death, and usually don't get along with people.  

Yukinoshita Yukino

Hikigaya Hachiman

Yuigahama Yui

Both protagonists have twisted personalities - Yukino and Hachiman. One is disgusted by the attitude of girls that try to undermine her instead of improving themselves due to jealousy. The other believes that youth is an illusion created by hypocrites, born from ashes the ashes of past failures. He is fine with being a loner and strove to be a loner. On the other side of the coin, you have Yui, who's always overwhelmed by her clique's (the one Hayato's in) 'self-appointed female leader' and has no say in matters. She has an inability to express her feelings for fear of losing friends. 

This anime realistically reflects what our world is like today. This anime explores the concept of human's characteristics  traits and personalities. 

To the people reading this or perhaps people already stopped reading halfway through, I'd admit that i myself am a hypocrite just by writing this post. I'm not trying to undermine people, I'm just stating my opinions and my thoughts. I'm sorry (truly) that i've offended anyone just by writing this post. Optimist definitely wouldn't agree with my opinions, but what the heck, let's just leave it as that.