My initial reaction when we got to the part where Haru abruptly kissed Kazuha can be summed up as this:
Once the shock blew over and i started thinking about the implications of this and why it came about, i can actually see, unbelievably as that sounds, why they went about things this way (Though i do think the buildup has been largely insufficient). Thing is, Kazuha doesn't really have that much of a story to tell on her own, and the main focus of her route was her romance with Haru and how that impacted her relationship with Akira. Take out the conflict imposed by the romantic relationship, the later doesn't happen, and we have essentially lost the opportunity to explore Kazuha's character. For a main heroine, there isn't much spotlight for her to stand in without the romance aspect, more so than the others. (Motoka aside, but she is a ...special case
).
Now, obviously the anime could have invented something up to giver her more room to shine regardless, but that is actually not what the show has been doing so far. Despite the liberties taken with the timeline, they haven't actually used much in terms of anime-original material, merely overplayed certain things that were already there for shock value (which, by and large, seems to be working). As such, if they didn't want to shaft Kazuha, but didn't want to go beyond the scope of what VN offers for her character either, there is actually little choice but to go for her romance with Haru. It can be argued there would have been nothing wrong with having her more as a "side character" instead of doing what they did, but the anime loves shock value, so the choice probably wasn't hard to make
That said, i am still sticking with the "Sora's end or Bust" mantra. I Don't expect Kazuha's romance to last for that very reason, and the game scenario already offers a "way out" down the road - the time when Kazuha wanted to break off her relationship with Haru because she felt it is making her neglect Akira more and more. While that didn't happen in the end in the game, it should be easy enough to reconstruct the events for the anime, and have her indeed end her relationship with Haru. The real question would be, how far does the anime intend to go with that relationship before the breaking point. And while i realize they might well be messing with us again, "all the way" seems a plausible answer given a certain scene in the preview, which led to certain events in the game. For once the anime seems serious, so i can actually see them not "trolling" us this time with the preview.
What i am worried about though is what this does with Haru's character (regardless of how far they get with Kazuha) - having him engage in another relationship soon after he is 'done' with Kazuha would probably make his feelings look shallow and many people to question his actual commitment to a relationship. Yes, technically him and Kazuha would be over by that point, and people move on, but i can already see the storm that would rise in the anime thread
(Actually, it is there already for some silly reason, although Haru has yet to do anything wrong ...).
Regardless, we shall see. I don't necessarily agree with the direction the anime took just now, but i can see why it was done. At any rate, this will allow them to add depth to Kazuha's character and help to show just how deep her concern for Akira lies, before diving in to the real meat of the story between the two half-sisters - Akira's path and the events that will transpire there.
After that has been cleared up, they can move on to Nao-Sora for their finish. In the end, it still seems to be largely moving in the direction i expected to at the start, minus the romance between Kazuha and Haru along the way.