Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo - 19

"Home Is Where Sakurasou Is"

How ironic that a flashback episode should prove to be exactly what Sakurasou has been missing lately.

I will say it again, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka is at his best as a seiyuu when he's portraying comedy rather than drama. He may not be the best seiyuu (far from it, actually), but when he's acting the tsukkomi, he sounds like he really gets and enjoys what he's doing. For the first time in weeks, Sakurasou has finally made me laugh, and I'm incredibly happy that it has.

I had a lot of hope for this series going in, and not necessarily for the reasons most people did. Yes, I did see a bit of Toradora in it, and I did think it was interesting that there was a potential for drama, but honestly, the draw for me was that this series was funny. Actually funny. Sure, it portrayed plenty of conventions that normally annoy me, but during the first cour that bothered me very little because, ultimately, I got a good laugh out of nearly every episode. I don't usually find manzai comedy that funny, but here, it was always well executed and downright entertaining every time. The banter between Sorata and Mashiro especially won me over; with the exclusion of this in the last few episodes, the series has become a bit of a chore to get through. There's just not much else that's particularly special about the way Sakurasou handles itself, and throwing away its comedic flavor in exchange for the lackluster drama we've been getting has, I feel, been a huge mistake.

Even for an episode without Shiina in the spotlight as the flat-voiced boke, this one thankfully went back to its comedic roots by actually going back to its roots. The purpose of the episode, however, is actually a dramatic one; with the impending demolition of Sakurasou scheduled soon, Sorata explains to Mashiro how it is that he came to become a member of the dorm, and why it's personally worth saving. We're given a flashback account of Sorata's first day in Sakurasou after he was kicked out of the regular dorms for taking in a cat, during which Sorata meets the original members of the dorm and realizes why everyone says it's bad news: they're kind of insane. But of course we all knew that already; what made this episode good was that it didn't take itself too seriously for the most part, and that it was funny. It gave us an actual reason for why Sorata, as well as us as viewers, should care about the dorm's demolition, and that reason is sentimentalism.

That's not to say the only focus is on fun memories. Sakurasou is an interesting place; in terms of social organization and layout, it feels more like an American student-run co-op than it does a traditional dorm. All the students have more responsibilities than normal dorm residents do but they're given a lot more autonomy in exchange. Instead of asking permission from Chihiro-sensei, they make their own decisions as a group and don't have to worry about being supervised all the time. Chihiro herself even makes the point (albeit humorously) that making someone do something they don't want to will make their lives unpleasant, and thus she lets the students do what they want, so long as it's not too insane. In a sense, the kids (Sweet Hylia, I'm old if I'm calling high-school students kids now) really create a community through their freedom, and that's what's worth protecting. In the dorms, everyone will be split up, and as Mashiro notes, that's a problem; there's all sorts of sentimental value in the place you live in, especially when you value the relationships you've built up with the people there. That's why that old expression "home is where the heart is" is still around, and for Sorata and the others, that home is Sakurasou.