I think it’s fitting that, as I write this, I’m heavily sleep deprived (full disclosure: this is not uncommon). I just really felt for Sorata in all his totally-on-autopilot glory. Yet what could have just been a gag actually gave us some further insight into the main heroine’s stances in our protagonist’s eyes. First there was meido Nanami, who did not draw a comment from Sorata, despite the fact that he clearly sees her as a woman (and how!). Now don’t get me wrong – I don’t blame him for forgetting to compliment her, nor should she have expected anything with how abjectly wasted...

Let’s talk about misunderstandings. A good old staple of the romcom (and comedy) genres, there are times when misunderstandings work, and times when they don’t – but sometimes, they work best of all. The three types of comedy that Sakurasou does best are rapid-fire escalation (when they chain jokes back-to-back in rapid succession), everyone playing the boke to Sorata’s glorious tsukkomis, and misunderstandings. Let’s talk about that third one.

Why do misunderstandings work so well here? In a word, Mashiro. Her character is built to be the perfect vessel for creating misunderstandings,...

To me, the best finales are those that wrap up everything we’ve dealt with so far, but leave the future open to be whatever we, the audience, want to imagine it will be. Clean up the dangling plot threads, but leave endless opportunities ahead. In this, and by the soaring, glorious feelings that filled me for damn near every second of this episode, made this one of the best finales I’ve seen in a long time. Consider me thoroughly biased, but I say it nevertheless. Here’s why:

Symbols of Love

In romantic fiction, a kiss is something to be held back, hoarded, so that they can be deployed...

Matsuoka Yoshitsugu for Tsukkomi of the Year

Say hello to those good ‘ol Original Recipe laughs! The comedy this episode was a nostalgia trip, as we were suddenly getting all the jokes that had me cracking up back when we first met these crazy characters. There were so many good ones that I’m not going to list them all, save to say that Sorata’s seiyuu continues to tsukkomi like few can. His reactions to his new dormmates’ antics cracked me up every single time, especially since this was back when he wasn’t used to Sakurasou and freaked out about everything. With this role, Matsuoka...

Hilarious episode! I do so enjoy the dramatic Sakurasou, but it’s these comedy-filled episodes that lay the foundation that makes the drama work so well. To me. I realize that this is a controversial statement to some – to those, the silliness of the characters in episodes like these makes the drama ineffective – but these are the episodes that make me irrevocably care about these characters, and it’s that fondness which makes the drama work so well.

There were a few things that struck me and made me say “wow…that’s some good storytelling right there.” One was the cutaways that...

Ryūnosuke is the resident of room 102. Ryūnosuke is a second-year student of Suiko. He is a hikikomori who rarely leaves his room, and usually communicates with others with cellphone message or e-mails. To reduce the need to communicate with others, he has written the "Maid" program. He is an expert of computer programming, and contributes lots of useful advice and information to Sorata for the latter's computer game. According to Ryūnosuke, his ultimate goal is to make Maid become a real human. He has gynophobia, and will even pass out when girls touch him, which becomes worse after Rita...

Such is the arrogance of amateurs playing at PR. Because they’re afraid of what people might say about the school, the board decided to move up the demolition of Sakurasou from five years to immediately, all because they think Mashiro should be painting. What right do they have! But more importantly, they’re forgetting one thing – the residents of Sakurasou. They will not go quietly into that good night…

Both At Once and None At All

The choices Sorata and Ryuunosuke faced this episode were of particular interest to me. To help or not to help seems like an easy choice – it should be...

Don’t do it for anybody else. Just do what you really want to do. Sakurasou always strikes me the most when it mixes love and comedy with what it means to be an artist. That’s what we got here, with a romantic resolution (of sorts) to boot.

Jealous, Flirty Mashiro

Before I dive into the meat of the episode, jealous Mashiro sure was cute! Though I’m sure that’ll ignite a shipping flame war (seriously commenters, chill…they’re both good girls, it just comes down to who Sorata wants to be with, nothing else), I found Mashiro irresistibly cute this episode. Her pouting was great, but...

After the last episode, it was inevitable that there would be some fall off, because unlike a certain other series that I need to stop referring to in every other post, Sakurasou doesn’t have so many plotlines going that it can resolve 3+ in a single episode and hardly put a dent in its inventory. No, this week is the start of a new trial for Sorata and co, and that needs some time to build up. Build up it did.

After some amusing hijinks, we were introduced to Rita Ainsworth (Kawasumi Ayako), the busty, blonde-haired babe who was Mashiro’s roommate in England and the former bearer of Mashiro...