Subculture Anime Blog

Isogai Sanako, age 17!!!

Summary:

Sanae introduces herself to Mei as Isogai Sanako, amazing her that such a beautiful person would date her brother. When Mei wonders if they have seen each other somewhere before, Sanae credits this to their living in a small town. Tomoya, Nagisa, and Mei then follow Youhei as he takes Sanae to various places on his date. When Sanae learns that Youhei always seems to be eating at a cheap katsudon shop, she ends up preparing a meal for everyone instead. This again makes Mei feel a sense of familiarity about “Sanako”. After visiting an arcade and CD shop next, Mei and the others notice that Youhei really isn’t doing that well on his date. Despite this, Sanae seems to be enjoying herself. The group passes by a few kids who are bullying a small girl later that afternoon, but Youhei does not believe anything is wrong with their playing. The young girl’s older brother soon appears to defend his sister, which Mei takes a special note of. Sanae checks on the siblings afterwards, then learning that they have lost their way home. The group helps the two find their way home afterwards, but this is only to the annoyance of Youhei. Sanae promises that she can have another date with Youhei later, getting rid of his disappointment, but she also makes him realize that there are other important things to deal with at times.

At school the next day, Tomoya sees that Youhei is completely absorbed in his plans with Sanae. Still believing that she is Nagisa’s sister, he even suggests that he and Tomoya would be brothers if they both got married to their current dates. Tomoya tries to make Youhei realize that Mei is worried about him, but he does not think about this at all. Even when Youhei meets with Mei and the others in his room later, he only suggests that Mei came to play around. In response, Mei states that she also came to see someone who she had come to like after visiting previously. As this was something of love, she leaves to see this person immediately. Tomoya advises Youhei to chase after his sister, but he can only nervously recall that he must make a call to Sanae. When Mei meets with Nagisa and Tomoya outside, she can only be disappointed that her brother did not come after her.

Tomoya wonders if Mei didn’t go too far with her act, but she simply states her dislike off her current brother. She recalls that when she was a child, she was also bullied by older boys frequently. Youhei would always save her, however, making her very happy. As Youhei got slightly older, he became successful at soccer and joined a team at school. Of course, things have changed since then. Mei finally admits her realization that Sanae is not really Youhei’s girlfriend, which Tomoya and Nagisa have no choice but to confirm. While the group meets Sanae as she prepares for her second date later, they are alarmed at Akio’s appearing to see her in costume. Tomoya puts this off as practice for a play, and after Sanae sneaks out of the house, he leaves Nagisa to take care of her father as he follows. Tomoya and Mei cannot find Sanae when they exit the house, so Tomoya instead suggests that they have some fun. If Mei continued to only worry about her brother, it probably wouldn’t be good.

While the two are out in town, Mei states that it would be nice if Tomoya was her older brother. This makes Tomoya suggest that Mei try to address him as her older brother, but this produces disastrous results when several of the girls from school appear to see his reactions. When Mei even has Tomoya treat her to a large crape later, he further sees the dangers she creates. After taking a photo booth picture with Mei, Tomoya sees that Youhei has found them. He wonders what is going on, so Tomoya lies by saying that he was the one Mei has been seeing. This angers Youhei when Mei even agrees, but as the two walk away, they look behind to see that Youhei will not follow. The two tell Nagisa what happened during the day when they return to the house, but despite the current circumstances, Tomoya guesses that it would be bad if Mei did not go home soon. Mei states that she cannot do this yet, however, believing that her brother must play soccer again. Though she does realize why he quit in the first place, she believes this is the only way.

Preview: Yukine saves the day? Fight! Fight! Fight!

Impression:

I’d let Mei call me “onii-chan”, if you know what I mean. Man, I’m really loving this season so far. Even if a lot of the situations in this episode were pretty predictable, it was fun to watch how they all unfolded. Seeing how ridiculous Youhei acted with Sanae, Mei’s general cuteness, and Nagisa’s freaking out about various things were all brilliant, and I don’t know how anybody could keep from laughing out loud after seeing Ryou’s crying face again. I also noticed that there were a lot of “Lucky Star” faces during this episode, whether it came from Tomoya or Mei. I think that’s a pretty clear indicator that Kyoani is really enjoying putting in comedic aspects into this show. That’s not to say that the drama is any less impacting.

Youhei came off as a really big turd in this episode. I don’t have a younger sister, but I do have siblings. Watching him completely ignore Mei throughout the episode, even after hearing the extreme lies that she told, just made me rage inside. What Tomoya did towards the end was pretty asshole-ish too, but when Youhei even denied involvement after that, I could only be more annoyed. Seeing that the arc will be continuing with the next episode though, I’m sure everything will be resolved in a positive way. It’s also worth noting that Mei’s flashback scene made me tear up a bit. I really need to lay off all this emo anime.