I must say I rather like Youhei as he is an interesting character that hasn’t been really well developed in the first season (mostly because the focus was mostly on Nagisa and on each of the other girls) but I’m glad we see another side of his character than the funny delinquent bum.

In my opinion, Youhei is one of the saddest characters in the show. Sure, his backstory doesn’t nearly equals that of Kotomi in terms of sadness, but Youhei basically lost everything when he got kicked out of the soccer team and it is still a big scar that has yet to heal. His over-reaction when he confronts the choir club girls in the first season shows this: it is the only thing that has made him react so far.

As a result of losing his dream, he has lost much of his confidence, which may explain part of his behavior today.
We could say that his pain of losing his dream is similar to Tomoya’s, even worse for him maybe since the cause for losing his dream is physical and apparently can’t be healed, but Tomoya had a lot of friends and ultimately found himself a nice girlfriend in Nagisa. I’m not sure many girls of the gang (for example Kyou or Tomoyo) really appreciate Youhei and he isn’t shown to have a lot of friends except Tomoya. Basically he lost his dream, is all alone and isn’t loved by any friends or girlfriend for that matter, unlike Tomoya, who was not that much different from Youhei at the start of the first season. I think that, at least, we can give props to Youhei for not turning completely emo (but that’s Clannad after all… it wouldn’t be really suiting to the mood of the series).

What you’ve written is really right in my opinion, but I think the biggest problem with Youhei is confidence… he hasn’t done anything worthy in the past two years. He is willing to assimilate himself in the workforce because it is the easiest path for someone who doesn’t have any confidence in himself anymore, even to protect and show care for his little sister. The fact that he lacks confidence even shows with his friendship with Tomoya as Youhei is mostly submissive to anything Tomoya says… even if it is mostly done for comic-relief.

Regarding the fact that he is so addicted to his fake relationship with Sanae, I think Youhei just wants a bit of happiness for himself, even if it is fake, which I can sort of understand given his past and his current situation (while I agree he is mostly, if not completely, responsible for it).

Anyway,I’m waiting for the Widescreen version before I decide to comment.

I’m worried about that too, I hope the realization isn’t too harsh…

@ Vin-nii:

The Akio violence could go either way, funny or tragic, I wonder which one it will be?

@ mareo:

I totally agree that even a few little lies can worsen an already serious situation. The ways it’s looking to me is that it is going to cause an even deeper rift between Youhei and his emotions – getting hurt so badly when he thinks things are going well can’t be healthy

@ tai:

I contest the fact that Tomoya is a good friend to Youhei. While a bit of ribbing can be cool between friends, the only affection Tomoya has shown towards Youhei is in trying to be nice to his sister – season one included. A “true” friend would want Youhei to get help/grow up, but Tomoya has treated him like an amusing toy since day one. I like Tomoya, a lot really, but I think he still has lots of growing up to do himself, and the way he treats Youhei is going to be a part of the process.

…though Tomoya seems willing to trick Mei into thinking everything is alright – kind of a shitty friend if you ask me.

Although I contest the integrity of Tomoya tricking Mei, I would say he’s anything but a bad friend. Tomoya is taking a huge risk in his relationship with Sunohara—both for Sunohara’s sake and for Mei’s. It’s not like Tomoya isn’t known for being lewd in his methods—he’s the kind of person that shows others what something is by showing them what it isn’t. To provoke one for the sake of recalling lost strengths isn’t the most agreeable method, but I think only a true friend who has total trust would be able to face the risks associated with such an act. “He has a lot of good traits, but just can’t express them well.”

1 – Tomoya try to fool Mei, in a half-joke and end making she more worrie.
2 – Sanae try to be a good influence by keep feeding the image of love.
3 – Youhei lose interesting on anything outside the fake love, he is adicted to the artificial dream like a junky to a drug.

I think that the moral of these is that a bunch of lies, even for good reasons have adverse effects. The question can be, the lies exposed a real problem or the lies turned indiference to a regular future in to a deeper problem? Is forfeit a sports carrer that terrible? Yusuke turned from musician to electrician and is not that terrible.

Is nice that Mai dont give up on him and try to rescue Yuhei old-self by restore the promising soccer player. But the writers killed so much the comic-loser Yohei by making him fall so low, that if he dont redempt himself enough during or after the resurrection, these can left the feeling that he dont deserve it.