Kyousuke visits Ayase, who is worried that now that he has a girlfriend, she won’t be able to confide with him about Kirino. When she hears they broke up, she’s worried that she was the reason, but he assures her it isn’t. She invites Kyousuke to Meru-fest where Kanako will be playing. They meet up and hang out with Kanako and Bridget before the show, but Kyousuke gets a call from Kirino saying she’ll be late, and he borrows a pornographic bike to pick her up.
As our favorite character was absent from this episode, we found this episode to be a return to mildly pleasant but comparatively inconsequential events that transpire in the life of Kousaka Kyousuke. Basically, it feels like Kuroneko moved away so that other girls could come in and have arcs: Ayase in the first half and Kirino in the second. Unless there are extra blu-ray episodes like the first season, there are now only three episodes left; not much time to start any fresh romances, but adequate time to touch base with the other women in Kyousuke’s life after the “thieving cat” dominated his summer. We’re not the biggest fans of Ayase because she’s so erratic and unreasonable – often moreso than Kirino.
Sure, she’s cute, but she’s also dishonest about her feelings, and takes it out on Kyousuke. She calls him a criminal and a pervert when in reality it’s her choice to maintain a friendship with him, something she could walk away from if she really felt the way pretends to feel. To his credit, Kyousuke doesn’t really take her seriously anymore. The second half of the episode was Kyousuke picking up his sister in a very inappropriate bike censored by lens flares. Kyousuke in a black suit and tie with Kirino – wearing a torn wedding dress – holding onto him from behind as he peddled up and down steep hills during a particularly beautiful sunset, made for a remarkably bizarre sequence, but we liked it.
Rating: 6 (Good)
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