As you expect from the preview from last week, things went south for Yuzu as Nina tries to hook her older sister up to Mei.
I have to admit that the Tachibana arc gives me mixed feelings. Sure, Matsuri is a trickster and manipulative, it’s understandable. After all, she is Yuzu’s childhood friend. However, I feel that the Tachibana sisters are worse than Matsuri. It’s mostly because Nina manipulates Yuzu so Sara can realize her dream of having Mei as her girlfriend. I have to admit that this feeling happens when another rival butt in. It’s like a Groundhog Day loop, just with someone else attempting to derail the relationship between Yuzu and Mei. Then again, it’s understandable given that it’s a romantic drama and Mei’s stoic personality that haven’t melted fully yet. Still, it’s a minor annoyance.
Either way, something actually happens that causes Yuzu to become upset. While Yuzu is with her friends visiting a shrine, it started to rain. Nina talks to Mei revealing that her older sister, Sara loves her. Mei rejects the possibility before Sara came and successfully confesses to her. When Yuzu tries to talk to her, she says that someone confessed love to her. Obviously, this upsets Yuzu since she couldn’t do it just because she wasn’t ready before Sara came along.
While it’s funny to see Yuzu drink her sorrows away with soft drinks, this makes me realize something. Sara is obviously making the same mistakes that Mei made that caused her to become distant with Yuzu. Sara is obviously advancing her relationship with Mei so quickly it’s not funny. This is despite Mei not having romantic feeling towards her. With Sara asking for a kiss during the so-called date, will Mei realize the mistake she made with Yuzu when Yuzu wasn’t ready?
Either way, when Yuzu goes bath and saw Sara, they talked. This is when Sara finds out that Yuzu also have romantic feelings for Mei but couldn’t confess her feelings. From this, we see Yuzu fighting on as she sneaks into Mei’s hotel room to continue her talk from before. Of course, Mei is not having it, until they hid under the blankets after Himeko came in. Yuzu without realizing it hugs Mei and almost kissed her before Mei kicked her out. It’s worth a shot.
Despite having mixed feelings towards this arc, I think it will be better in the long run. Maybe Mei will realize her mistakes and decide to give up on Sara. Perhaps Sara might change her mind in the last-minute to help Yuzu out. Either way, I hope Yuzu is able to convey her feelings for Mei so they can become an actual couple. When that happens, I think it will be one of the greatest moments, at least in the adaptation so far.
Citrus is such a good manga, I highly recommend you also read it while watching. The manga has come further than the anime (obviously).
Maybe in the future, but given that the anime covered like four volumes, it will be easy to start where the anime left off.