I was wrong, as was unexpected
Going into this anime I thought it would be your generic slice of life/romance nonsense. Love triangles, harems, oblivious MC, all your favorite trappings. I did not have high hopes, but I would be mistaken
The anime focuses on three primary characters. Hikigaya Hachiman, our MC, is a self-proclaimed loner and outcast. He abhors “fitting in” and thinks highly of his abilities to judge others in their social circles. He may be bordering on incel territory due to being rejected by a girl in middle school, but thankfully he never quite gets to that degree. Yukinoshita Yukino is considered to be the most attractive girl in school. However, she has grown distant and is a bit of an “ice queen” as a result of other girls picking on her for being prettier. She initially appears to have little empathy for most people and seems fixed on trying to help others overcome their weaknesses. Lastly we have Yuigahama Yui. She could be considered the “normal” one of the three, if occasionally bordering on ditzy sometimes. Her biggest issue is expressing herself and fending off the urge to just fit in with her social group. Most of the plot revolves on these three taking part in the Service Club, which exists to help students who have problems. Hachiman was assigned to the club by his teacher Miss Shizuka, who hoped making him help others and working with Yukino would help improve his demeanor. Yui becomes their first client, and soon after joins the two of them enjoying how they can easily express their true feelings. Each episode centers around helping a new student, usually with relatively low stakes, and the primary drive of the show is watching how their personalities change overtime.
The characters and their dynamic together is really where the strength of the show lies. The plot for the most of the episodes is serviceable, but your enjoyment will depend on how much you enjoy watching the characters interact. I for one, quite enjoyed the writing. I thought I would find Hachiman annoying initially, and still occasionally do, but he grew on me as I watched more. There is also not a ton of fan service, which is a nice change of pace. The relationships are a bit more complex and serious than most anime. There is still the love triangle trope with two girls implied to be developing feelings for Hachiman, but it is handled a bit better than most. For you yaoi fans out there, there is an androgynous male chracter named Totsuka Saika, whom Hachiman often finds himself accidentally hitting on. So if that’s your thing it’s there, I mostly just found Hachiman’s quips about it to be funny. Overall I’d say this is a pretty darn good anime. I’m struggling on if it is really trash or not. It feels like it should be. The setting, the low stakes, lot of the silliness of it, but it’s missing a lot of the major flags (fan service, general lewdness, annoying characters). I’m gonna go against my better judgement and say it’s not, which is great that my search found some good content but a shame that I failed to find good trash.
Is it trash? No
Rating: ★★★★☆