See, what I thought the issue was was that Youhei was being a complete and total asshole. He’s an idiot, sure, and he’s always been an idiot. But as you step into this route you start to see just how self-centered he is. And that is something that I believe they wanted to and were able to fix by the end of the route.
AWWWWWWWW DAS A GOOOOOOOOD ROUTE
Sunohara’s Character
Fucking idiot. Spineless dickhead. But shit dude cherishes his relationships and that’s tight as fuck.
Mei’s Character
Man I don’t remember Mei being like this at all, Mei is fuckin’ leeeeeeeeewd. Pretty standard stuff though, she’s got the contrast with her brother, she’s mature unlike him, her flirtiness with Tomoya doesn’t feel out of place and they have absolutely excellent banter because of it. She’s an extremely strong character thanks to this making her personality shine hard.
The Route
What the fuck do I say about this route when the route is written in such a way that it says everything I want to say itself?
Sunohara is a fucking IDIOT, the FUCKINGEST IDIOT OF ALL, the route says this, the route parades that fact around. And I see a lot of people embedded that message above all else and came out of this route with more a disdain for Sunohara than ever. But it didn’t act like Tomoya and Mei’s actions were the perfect course either and made sure to let those characters know that whenever they fucked up. But I don’t dislike Sunohara after this at all, Sunohara is a fucking dickhead idiot of a tool, but he’s a harmless idiot dickhead of a tool, his dumbass escapades are usually small and often just centered, like his ego, around himself.
…for the most part.
He done fucked up when he let Mei go off with some strange man in his 30’s. That’s not cool dog, and I could even argue to defend him with he was having an internal conflict until Tomoya went in his place and then choose to trust it to Tomoya, I do believe he isn’t slimy enough that he wouldn’t have gone if Tomoya didn’t go first. I mean, that IS what happened later, when the FOOTBALL Club were being the dirty Chavs they are, he was trusting Tomoya to protect his ‘girlfriend’, I can almost get behind his logic for not jumping in there, trusting Tomoya to make the first move(Unless he was there while they were outright hitting her, then he’d be a total piece of shit, but the writing didn’t seem to imply that to me, I took it as he only showed up after the practice had finished).
But NO DAWG, when she was off to meet this random dude, I don’t care if Tomoya went, you fucking don’t ignore that, you piece of shit.
For real though, the bro levels are absolutely great, his sheer trust of Tomoya in letting him take his sister even when Tomoya was saying all sorts of sketchy shit, and trusting Tomoya to protect Mei even with the shit flinging she was getting, that’s just so tight as fuck.
Overall
Just read the route if you wanna know anything I have to say about it, nothing that needs to be said goes unsaid. Absolutely excellent in all regards, Sunohara is a dense piece of shit/10.
7 Likes
It’s not the football club, it’s the soccer club! 
I know what I said.
3 Likes
Not sure how to feel about this route honestly.
Characters were all good, situation and overall scenario was a bit silly for me so that’s going to have to be something I can’t ignore. The whole Sanae thing is just really out there lol.
That said the highlights here for me are Sanae and Tomoya, with a great broment and a lot of perception playing.
I’ll agree to a 4/5 for me at best, but it’s certainly great in a lower caliber than other greats, but I guess it doesn’t really need to be. SHRUG.
Didn’t have much time this week, so I’ll make it short.
Choosing to have Sunohara ask Kyou out, I really wanted to see Kyou’s expression when Sunohara stormed into her classroom, shouting “KYOU! YOU’RE CUTE!”
Even if it’s just Sunohara getting the wrong idea, she should have appreciated that moment more. I mean, did any other guy ever say that to her?
(Not sure if this counts as an After Story spoiler, but:) Sunohara stays out of his sister’s business just like how Tomoya’s dad stays out of Tomoya’s business.
2 Likes
Or perhaps Youhei is too much of an idiot to even notice something like that :kyouevil:
I’m having a hard time strictly calling this Mei’s route, because this route has just as much, if not more, focus on Youhei’s development and character. Thus, I’ve decided to split this post in two for the sake of keeping discussion for each character balanced. To see Youhei’s side of the character discussion, look here.
Mei is a character toted as a stark contrast to her older brother, although she has her own quirks. She’s quite playful and girlish, but a large part of her is no-nonsense and intent on correcting her brother’s mistakes. She genuinely cares for Youhei, and wants to do as much as she can to set his life straight.
The route itself reminds me a bit of Kyou in terms of how the conflict is set up, namely in that there’s an established paradigm that shouldn’t exist in Mei’s eyes. Like how everyone notices how unnatural and wrong it was for Steve to remain in a relationship with Ryou, most everyone, including Youhei himself, understand how it doesn’t seem right for Youhei to act like the loser he is. It pains her to see her brother acting like a delinquent, even if in reality he’s only doing what he does with the best intentions. Even though almost nothing comes out of what she does, she does gain an assurance that her Onii-chan is still the person she remembers. In fact, no one experiences a significant change in this route, but I’d be a liar if I said everyone came out the experience without learning something important about each other.
I’d be doing Fuko next, but I’ve already read the route and written a post about it, so…
Next up is Koumura! 
I found myself liking this route a lot. This route really hit me with its rollercoaster ride of emotions. And MEI man she’s now an addition to my list of best girl candidates in Clannad now, I just like her and her no-nonsense personality so much!
I like to think that this route is rather a character exploration of Youhei Sunohara, in which Tomoya and Mei slowly understands who Sunohara is. He’s dumb, really freaking dumb, but he does care about the people around him. But he’s so dumb that this kindness doesn’t show well. He lets Tomoya date Mei because he trusts him? Comes off as him not caring about his sister lol. I’m not sure if there’s any indication of this being the case, but it’s also possible that his faking a girlfriend is simply him not wanting to worry Mei.
Sunohara starts dumb and ends dumb, but that wasn’t what the story was trying to develop out of him. In the end, Sunohara was at least finally able to show his innate kindness that has been obfuscated by his stupidity. And we also realize that he does cherish his high school days, even if it doesn’t look like it.
On Tomoya’s side, it’s him realizing that Sunohara really is his friend, no matter how much he wants to deny it.
And I agree that the comedy is gold! Seeing Tomoya go full lolicon was hilarous.
4.75/5, solid route imo.
5 Likes
