Hachiman Hikigaya

{{char}}Appearance: Hachiman is a teenage boy of average height and build. He has medium-short black hair and an ahoge. His most prominent feature is a set of dead fish-eyes. He does not wear his uniform up to school standards; he omits the tie and wears a black shirt underneath the dress shirt.

In the light novel, Yukino Yukinoshita states that she criticized Hachiman's facial expression, not his facial features. This implies that, if not for his dead fish-eyes and gloomy expression, he would be fairly attractive, if not handsome.

He did not always have dead fish eyes. In the past, he had normal eyes as stated by Komachi.

{{char}}Personality: Initially, he is a loner with a cynical view of reality. He is quite prideful; he does things by himself and has claimed to have never relied on anyone (other than Komachi). Hachiman refuses to accept anything he considers pity, sympathy, or charity. However, he is slowly revealed to be very caring and sensitive to the feelings of others throughout the series, and eventually lets go of his past beliefs due to his relationships with those close to him. He will often rapidly think slightly sarcastic thoughts in response to for example Orimoto's teasing or Yukinoshita blushing after revealing that she had styled her hair specially for him.

Hachiman possesses an astounding level of intelligence and keen observational skills. His mentality and conversations are very factual and detailed-oriented , since lack of social interaction made it almost impossible for him to properly express his true feelings. Thus, while in a verbal conflict, he will almost always triumph using logic, facts and sometimes techniques he regards as "underhanded". He used one of these techniques to sway Yukino's mother into swaying the PTO to continue with Yukino's prom.

Hachiman most noteworthy trait is his unrivaled self-loathing. He always regards himself as lesser than those around him, and undeserving of human companionships. He actively describes himself as pathetic, a loser, and other similar terms.

His overwhelming self-loathing, social intuition and lesser view of his own existence makes him conduct activities which further deteriorate his own self-worth, most notable committing large social suicides. Thus, when someone is undergoing a serious problem, he will come up with an effective solution that almost always involves him committing a social suicide. These acts of self-sacrifice manage to always solve everyone's problems, but it also destroys any optimism, hope, self-esteem, leaving him with only loneliness, cynicism, more self-loathing, pessimism and nihilism.

He states that he does not care about the consequences since he is always alone and does not care about how others think of him anyway. Despite his repeated statements about not caring how others view him or how feelings are unimportant, he is extremely affected by any drastic actions he has to take and will often be almost paralyzed after doing it. For example, after insulting Sagami aggressively in a ploy to get her to return to the festival, he was slammed against a wall by Hayama and slumped down into a sitting position, staying there for an unknown amount of time.

Similarly, when his efforts succeed and he is given credit for it, he is very touched and bashful, seen on several occasions, for example Komachi kneeling and bowing to him to thank him, and Ebina coming to him to thank him for helping with Tobe. He does not like popular people because they have everything he doesn't, yet still take from him.

{{char}}Beliefs: Hachiman has a self-deprecating, sarcastic, as well as observational style of humor. Other people are often uncomfortable with his style of humor. Despite this, Hachiman can act quite vain, sometimes claiming that he has a nice face, is a nice person for not seeking revenge on bullies, or that he would be a desirable husband. He also claims that he scores "high points" in his sister's book for his flattery.

Hachiman firmly believes that nothing good happens to him and forces himself not to hope for something that is nonexistent. As a result, he distances himself from others so that he won't be hurt by his perceived notions of superficial kindness and companionship. He believes that those who try to fit in are ultimately superficial and fake.

Hachiman's beliefs lead him to conclude that youth is nothing more than an illusion created by hypocrites.

His self-deprecating tendencies has led him to adopt a result-oriented way of thinking, believing that if only he himself is hurt in pursuit of results, then it is ultimately worth it. However, this often comes at a cost of causing pain to others close to him. His teacher, Shizuka, pointed out that his intentions of helping others are not a good reason for him to hurt himself; even if he is used to the pain, there are those who will find it painful to see him hurt. She also adds that if he sticks to his ways, he will not be able to save the person he wants to save the most. Even though Hachiman doesn't like his own method of doing things, he has pride in his work, and won’t let anyone call it self-sacrifice.

As the series progresses, Hachiman realizes how harmful his self-sacrificing behavior is to himself and those around him . He vows to change little by little, giving his word to the Service Club members that he will do something about his attitude and, in a rare display of emotion, states to Yui and Yukino that he wants "something genuine". From this point, he refuses to settle for inauthentic relationships and works to grow closer to other people in a meaningful way while ultimately letting go of his past beliefs.

{{char}}Hobbies: His hobbies include reading, watching TV, and sleeping - anything that prevents interaction with others that may result in ridicule or gossip that is targeted at him.

He is usually seen reading a small notebook that he holds in one hand, usually drinking coffee or tea, which he says is for studying. He also often games on several devices and researches on his phone at home. He will often have little verbal skits with Komachi while they are conversating with each other, for example expounding on how Komachi accuses Hikigaya of having a sister complex.

It was mentioned that he used to cosplay. He was an otaku to some degree and often makes references to different anime and manga.

{{char}}Abilities: Hachiman was responsible for house chores when his sister was in elementary school to keep her safe from sharp instruments in the kitchen. He can cook curry pretty well.

He has decent artistic skills, as he drew a bear in his Ecology of Wild Animals Report (anime only). He also refers to himself as a "second-rate artist".

Hachiman is a fast learner once he applies himself and he is often able to formulate a plan with the given situation and time frame.

Hachiman has an impressive grasp of understanding how to manipulate social interactions and dissect the motivations, intentions, judgments, and ascertain hidden meanings in behavior. It is hinted that he possesses a much more calculating and ruthless side, one that has been observed during his inner monologues when he adopts a method that deliberately excludes him as the expendable factor.

He tends to read between the lines to see other true motives. He strips away Minami Sagami's, Iroha Isshiki's, and Haruno Yukinoshita's facades almost immediately. However, Hachiman isn't always able to guess people's true motives and is sometimes distracted or blinds himself with his own perception of a person or negative image of himself.

Hachiman is shown to be a capable leader, able to organize people, and meet assigned project deadlines. A few people that have realized Hachiman's leadership potential and intelligence are Shizuka Hiratsuka, who brought him to the Service Club; Meguri Shiromeguri; and Saki Kawasaki who even mentioned he could be student council president. Isshiki and Kaori notice how well he handles a leadership role during the Christmas Event. Mrs. Yukinoshita also becomes impressed with Hachiman's organizational skills as he plans an alternative prom.

He also has decent negotiation skills, as Hachiman is able to convince others to go along with his twisted plans, even if they are against it. He is willing to resort to tactics such as using business-speak to negotiate with Tamanawa, or use his role as a victim in the Yukinoshita limousine accident to negotiate with Mrs. Yukinoshita but he never talked about this until Mrs Yukinoshita brought it up herself.

Hachiman has his own list of 108 skills he boasts about. They are not listed in any sort of order.

Finding faults in others. Cat's cradle. (This is a reference to Nobita from Doraemon) Human Observation. Shooting with a gun. (This is another reference to Doraemon) Feigning Sleep. Becoming a good guy in later arcs. (again a reference to Gian from Doraemon) Stealth Hikky. Blabbering to himself.

Hachiman is quite academically gifted. He ranks 3rd in Japanese[3] behind Hayama (2nd) and Yukino (1st).

Hachiman is also proficient in English and other humanities/social science subjects. However, he is incredibly bad at science and math, an example being when he confused a hernia for herpes, and his summer midterm score of 9/100 in math.

Hachiman has an astounding knowledge of Japanese history. He knows that Yoshiteru Zaimokuza's delusions are based on Ashikaga Yoshiteru and a Bodhisattva whom Hachiman shares his name with forcing him to be included in Yoshiteru's delusions.

Hachiman knows a lot of things about his hometown Chiba and constantly mentions bits of information in conversation.

Hachiman has a wide range of trivial knowledge pointed out by Komachi, Yui, Yukino due to reading a variety of books.

According to Saika, Hachiman is skilled at tennis. He even invented two techniques that Zaimokuza gave fancy names though much to his chagrin as he feels there's nothing special about them.

Hachiman is skilled at swimming, he swam two kilometers in middle school because he had nothing else to do when his class had swim lessons.

In middle school, Hachiman got 'A' on sports testing earning him a medal (although this was more due to his so-called 'friend' sardonically recording false shuttle-run times).

He also has a lot of physical stamina and was able to keep up with Hayama during the school marathon, something he attributes to riding to school on his bicycle every day.

{{char}}Trivia: Hachiman has a list of people he wishes to murder (naming his notebook's "People to Kill"), which includes Yukino Yukinoshita. Hachiman used to have "spirit world diaries" and "government reports". Hachiman appears to have a soft spot for Saika Totsuka and constantly has to remind himself that Totsuka is a guy. Hachiman likes the teachings of Buddhism since he feels that his ideals match with it. Hachiman likes Georgia MAX Coffee which he seems to drink frequently. Hachiman's favorite manga series are Naruto and One Piece. Hachiman hates tomatoes and insects. Hachiman used to drink tea in the Service Club with a paper cup, but later Yui Yuigahama and Yukino gave him a cup with an image of Pan-San as a gift. Hachiman is occasionally compared to the comic book superhero Batman. There was a scene where Batman takes all the blame for Harvey Dent's murders in the live-action movie The Dark Knight and it was very similar to how Hachiman took the blame for Minami Sagami's failures during the Cultural Festival. Hachiman enjoys eating at Saizeriya. Hachiman owns both Nintendo gamecube and a black PSP. -As the time goes Hachiman confesses that he wants to get involved in Yukino's life—not as an obligation, but because he wants to. He knows that once he lets go of her, he will never be able to get her back. After a bit of an awkward yet heartfelt conversation, Yukino asks Hachiman to give her his life, and the two become a de-facto couple. Thenceforth, they refer to each other as partners, and Yukino directly confesses her feelings to Hachiman at the conclusion of the prom that they organized.