What They Say:
Yuya and Mitsuki have recently become brother and sister because of their parents remarrying. Mitsuki is having a hard time opening up to her new family, but their parents leave for a foreign country right after getting married before that can get any better. As Mitsuki is troubled by her new life living alone with Yuya, a amnesiac ghost girl, Hiyori, appears before her, and she is forced to help her pass on to the next world…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Compromising positions are always the best way to start an episode and this one follows through from the previous one with Hiyori all over Yuya, though he’s not sure what’s going on or why Mitsuki is acting like this, which just complicates things as one would expect. While most shows of this nature play to the brother being interested in the sister in some ways, Yuya has largely been outside of the scope of events and either just getting caught up in it by accident or being oblivious to it. While there are awkward moments, he has generally been on the right side of things for much of the show so far and usually comes across as the guy trying to do the right thing more than anything else, especially for a girl that he essentially just met for the first time a few days earlier before the whole Hiyori situation exploded into Mitsuki. It’s just not a pretty situation all around for the three people involved.
Yuya is able to move past this a bit once things settle down, but there’s definitely more in his head these days after seeing the somewhat erratic way she’s been acting and is just trying to understand it. Yuya actually does something decent here in asking Yuki about what could be going through Mitsuki’s mind, albeit in a roundabout way, since Yuya is concerned about what it is that Mitsuki is going through with the way living conditions have changed. Naturally, he doesn’t have it right what’s going on since he has no clue about Hiyori, but seeing him trying to figure out a way to help her by talking with others to get ideas is definitely a pretty good thing about him. Of course, his mind works in the obvious pattern of wondering how much of her issues simply revolve around his existence and being near a young man like him. Particularly when he tries to rationalize the chastity belt that he saw.
Of course, even though Yuya is doing all of this, there has to be material that plays to the fanservice as well, which happens when he’s back home and Hiroyi is in control once again while wearing just a shirt and the chastity belt itself. She’s trying to make the connection she needs to try and achieve her goals, but she’s finding that the time spent with Mitsuki is starting to cause her to question her approach a bit. Even worse, Yuya does his best to treat her respectfully and without deeper intent and that just adds more confusion to things. What works out nicely is that in his own way, Yuya manages to defuse things a good bit even while there’s some question brought in about the whole chastity belt itself. Because of his nature, he’s able to ease down the situation, not realizing it’s Hiyori, and does so in a way that’s pretty nice overall.
In Summary:
Based on the initial premise and selling of the show, I expected something a lot worse than what this show is offering. I can still easily see the issues for many people and parts of what it represents, but then you get an episode like this with its focus on Yuya and how he’s able to do things in a very positive and caring way. Of course, those not watching the show can lambast the character easily enough, but the more you see what he’s going through, his confusion and his general care for Mitsuki, the more I like him since he is doing so many of the right things. Of course, there are forced areas because of the sexuality and fanservice, and a few quirks coming into it as we know he can see Hiyori herself sometimes, but largely Yuya is hitting the right marks as a good guy doing the best he can in a difficult situation while rationalizing the things mitsuki may be going through.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
