[musouka]

Sorry, but I find no issue with "defending" Miyuki, as a character. Defending isn't the same as justifying. Even if he has better reasons than I've put forth, it's pretty obvious that his way of expressing them are wrong and unhelpful (at the very least).

When I finished watching the episode, I had enjoyed it a lot, in large part because of the interplay between the two of them. Miyuki is right when he says that wanting to change isn't the same as actually changing, which was an interesting juxtaposition from the equally true stance that Izumiko cutting her hair was an immensely brave act on her end. Ogiwara's works are usually about nuance, where no one is ever fully right or wrong, so I find the persistent insistence on flattening one of the two leads into a villain to be pretty irritating.