This definitely looks like a Sunohara arc to me. It'll probably be a short one, since we have 3 (or 4) girls to still give full arcs to.

But that aside, Sunohara deserves special praise for his role in this series. Unlike the last two KEY series, instead of being completely worthless comedy relief, or a largely passive protagonist, Sunohara fills both roles and more. In addition to being excellent comedy relief (Tomoyo's punching bag, east target for Tomoya, acts like a fool all on his own, etc), Sunohara adds a lot to the series.

His very vocal reaction to Nagisa being pushed around through sympathy, the effort he goes through to try to get some that shows he really is considerate of others, and he always has Tomoya's back on things without asking too many questions.

I would not hesitate to say that Sunohara is probably the best supporting character in at least a decade of anime. Not only is he a good supporter of the main character, he has his own storyline, and he performs nearly all the comedy relief in the series by himself.

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Shameless fangirlism for Sunohara aside, I loved how just as Sunohara would have gotten the sense that something was a little off in his conversation with Nagisa, she drove him off by declaring Tomoya to be her boyfriend, firmly giving her the idea that he was gay for Tomoya. Tomoya's plans are perhaps a little too devious.

Yay for Yukari Tamura. Her voice fits characters of Mei's image perfectly.