Ugh, this arc really made me hate Sunohara.
This arc really hammers home Sunohara’s preoccupation with appearances. The first portion of the arc is essentially Sunohara trying to come up with ways to seem like less of a loser to his sister than he actually is. Rather than trying to actually improve himself, he hunts for a fake girlfriend to make it seem like he’s got things together. Of course, this isn’t the first time we see this. In the common route leading up to this, we see Sunohara faking interest in guitar for Yoshino, and you can argue that the tough guy act he puts on around school is more of the same.
We also see how, when push comes to shove, Sunohara won’t do what’s right. He won’t stand up for the little girl getting bullied, he won’t step in when he thinks Tomoya is taking advantage of his little sister, and he doesn’t try to prevent Mei from getting beaten and humiliated by the soccer team. Yes, he does get in a fight in the end, but so far as I’m concerned, it’s too little too late.
In fact, I’d say that the only time we see Sunohara willing to stand up for what he believes in is when he picks fights with Tomoyo just to satisfy his own sexist preconceptions about strength. It’s hard to have any respect for a guy when that’s the only thing he’s willing to fight for.
What’s crazy about this is how Tomoya is almost the exact opposite! Tomoya’s lack of concern for appearances borders on the pathological. Throughout multiple arcs we see that Tomoya’s really a very decent guy; he stands up for others, and is willing to help those in need. And yet, he’s perfectly happy to be seen as a delinquent and, in this arc, even willing to pretend that he’s a sexual predator.
I feel like I took the opposite journey of Tomoya on this route. Tomoya eventually comes to think of Sunohara as a real friend, but I came to see why Tomoya feigned non-involvement in the first place. This arc really lets us see just how spineless Sunohara is.