Yuzuki-san Chi no Yonkyoudai. hasn’t been totally averse to fourth wall-breaking, so it doesn’t come as a huge surprise to see a bit of it here bookending the episode.  Like clockwork the hands on the dial find their way back to Mikoto, and he’s the main focus here.  Although as it usually the case with the two of them, when Mikoto is around Minato is not far away.  As different as chalk and cheese, these two, and that’s just the way Mikoto likes it.

I hadn’t thought of either of those two as expressly brocon, but it is a logical extension of what we’ve seen in the story so far.  A lot of this ep flashes back to when Gakuto was born, which sees Minato throwing a tantrum and Mikoto being the one to talk him off the ledge when Hayato is unable to.  This is a pretty classic co-dependent relationship, though that casts a more negative spin on it than I’d ascribe to.  For all his complains, Minato relies heavily on Mikoto to look out for him.  And Mikoto (who almost never complains) enjoys being needed.  Almost as much as he enjoys being the special one.

With his whole Bodhisattva persona Mikoto has cut something of an aloof figure, to be honest.  So it’s nice to see his relative dark side.  If you’ll notice, Mikoto doesn’t ever really try and improve Minato’s behavior – he just helps him out of whatever mess he’s gotten himself.  He tells Minato that’s how it will be for him and their new brother, but (as we know) Gakuto turns out to be much more like Mikoto.  That doesn’t stop Minato (loving not being low man on the totem pole, in part) from doting on him relentlessly.  Or Mikoto from bouts of jealousy up to and including intimidating Gakuto face to face.

That was the most striking part of this ep for me – seeing Mikoto so transparently resentful of Gakuto for stealing Minato from him.  That scene where he confronted him and closed with “no matter what, I’ve known him a lot longer than you” was pretty edgy.  I think Gakuto was quite freaked out by it (how could you not be at that age), but enough of a resolute personality to mostly mask it with a forced smile.  Whether it was intended that way or not, it came off as possibly the darkest moment of the series so far.

Aside from the brocon tutorial, the other meta passage of the episode was the omake, which saw Ladybug and Stag Beetle (well, Stag Beetle) admit that the reason some episodes have omakes is because they’re too short and need filler.  I mean, that’s basically true and I don’t think most fans are unaware of it, but it’s still pretty rare to see it acknowledged openly.  Having an old-school director who doesn’t really give a toss can lead to stuff like that, not to mention some of the Avant-garde animation sequences we’ve had with this series.