Kirino was very nice and pleasant for most of this episode (!), which is certainly quite the change for her, but she had that one
really over-the-top burst of condensed tsuntsun.
I have seen something like this once or twice before, though, involving a tsundere character, so its not entirely unprecedented.
I think the general idea is that Kirino
really is starting to grow out of her excessive tsuntsun tendencies, and is finally mellowing out quite a bit, but the tsuntsun relapse is
exceptionally fearsome because it probably also reflects lingering doubts that she has about letting the tsuntsun mask fade.
This episode does do a lot for her character, in that it also shows that she's a very shrewd planner and good at time management. Her overall plan for acquiring, and being well-rested for, that eroge game, was nicely done. Here we
finally get a good sense of just why she is so good at time management (this obviously being something that you could assume about her character going just by all the activities that she juggles in her life).
I have to say, though... this whole idea of
family members being tsundere for each other strikes me as a bit odd. I can actually kind of get why siblings being openly lovey-dovey with one another could be cause for bashfulness, but for a parent and child to be like that is a bit strange. I mean,
seriously, there is
*nothing* wrong, or terribly out of the ordinary, about a father being openly adoring of a successful daughter. Kirino's dad has real issues.
But... maybe this is a Japanese cultural thing, I don't know.
There are some complaints I have for this episode, but they're mostly ones that apply to the series as a whole (such as its tendency to use characters that we barely even know for important roles - in this episode, that happens with Akagi, who I honestly can't even remember seeing on-screen before; did he show up briefly in Episode 6 AKA the Manami episode?).
On the whole, this was a satisfying episode, and it's very good to see Kirino's character get fleshed out nicely, but some of the tsundere stuff really does seem weird to me. Not too weird to enjoy the episode, though, thankfully.
I'll give it a 9/10.
One thing I wanted to reply to...
Quote:
Originally Posted by DasDingus
It did, however, reveal a fairly interesting tidbit about Kyouske; namely, that he is probably just as tsundere for Kirino as she is for him.
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Maybe he is, but I don't think that this episode proves it. Honestly, I would have reacted more or less just as he did, if I was in his shoes. When you get used to a person behaving a certain way, and that person does an almost complete 180 in their behavior for no apparent reason, that
will make you stand up and notice and wonder what might be driving it. Even for a
pleasant change in character, you can't help but wonder why your sibling, buddy, cousin, etc... is suddenly so different than normal, personality-wise.
Most, if not all, of what Kyousuke did in this episode, can be chalked up to that.