First things first, the subtitle fiasco ship with Yuzuki-san Chi no Yonkyoudai seems to have sailed.  CR finally pulled the disastrous machine translation for the premiere and replaced it.  And this second episode aired with competent subs from the beginning.  It’s still a travesty that this happened, and a legit worry that it will have hurt the show’s chances to win over viewers.  But that ship has sailed too, and all one can do is hope for the best.  At least we don’t have to talk about it any longer (hopefully for the duration).

As I said last week, Yuzuki-san Chi certainly deserves to not have that nonsense be a factor.  And as I said the premiere was quite good.  This ep was even better.  It was in less of a hurry, not having to try and make some kind of big splash diving into the pool.  Once more the theme is the turbulent nature of sibling (specifically brother) relationships, but it’s even more effective here because it unfolds in a more natural way.  Again the director, Hongou Mitsumi, is both good and very experienced (he directed Outlaw Star after all), and this episode exuded a certain easy confidence in its storytelling.

If the premiere was focused on the struggles of Minato in being constantly overshadowed by his brother, this was more about Mikoto having to deal with Minato’s attention-demanding immaturity.  I do know something about the sibling dynamic, but I don’t have brothers.  And more importantly in this context my two sisters are a good deal older than I.   It can’t be easy for either kid being so close in age – the proverbial “so close and yet so far”.  In a sense they have the worst possible situation in that Mikoto is just close enough to Minato to be in the same grade, but far enough for the maturity difference to stand out.  And Minato was a preemie too as it turns out, which may have contributed to his relatively slower development and his mother’s overprotectiveness (Dad only shows up for about 5 seconds).

The point here is, neither boy is at “fault” here, and neither one is a bad person.  It’s just tough being brothers, especially in their situation.  Mikoto and Minato have every right to feel a bit resentful towards the other.  Mikoto has a ton of expectations piled on him because of those 11 months (and his demeanor), and he never gets to play the youngest card for attention or sympathy.  But while his mother’s eyes seem eternally focused on Minato, Hayato serves as the one for Mikoto to lean on.  He refers to their dynamic as Mikoto being like a “grandson” – which is a very interesting way to look at a big age-gap sibling relationship.

Back to the future, it seems to me as if Hayato still kind of favors Mikoto, which I think is one of the reasons Minato resents him so much.  He’s desperate to get Hayato’s attention just as Mikoto was to get their mother’s.  It’s kind of a rough one, and one of the nice things about Yuzuki-san Chi being a shoujo is that it’s not going to shy away from the emotions inherent in the situation.  It’s complicated, as families usually are but exacerbated by the circumstances.  Minato and Mikoto as the ones in the middle and closest together are the obvious fulcrum of the story, but Hayato and Gakuto are clearly going to have their own stories to tell.