Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to dive back into Dezaki’s majestic Dear Brother, whose last episode presented us with a dizzying array of narrative developments and relational revelations. We swiftly learned the identity of Nanako’s alleged brother, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. In the leadup to the reveal of Nanako’s candidacy, we also saw clear battle lines drawn between the school’s three objects of adoration, as well as plenty more evidence that Shinobu will eventually burn this whole place down.
In the midst of all these passionate, larger-than-life personalities, my most urgent question is how exactly Nanako will make herself stand out. Unlike many high school heroines, there’s little that’s remarkable about her, and she’s spent the first two episodes being guided by others rather than establishing her own path. Her persistent use of Cinderella imagery to describe her school life makes it clear that she can’t quite see her Seiran experiences as real, so I imagine it’ll take a disruption of her current fairy tale framing to bring her down to earth. Regardless, I’m certain Dezaki will realize her experiences with decadent visual splendor, and eager to see how Ikeda’s tangled narrative proceeds. Let’s get to it!