English Dub Review: Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister “The Scales That Hold Wishes ~Going Back~”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Asahi and Uryu try staying home for the festival to see if that breaks the loop. It does not. To be concluded!

OUR TAKE

We’re at the middle part of a three parter, where nothing can begin and nothing can be resolved, so already it has that working against it. But it’s a necessary stepping stone to get us from the start to the finish, so let’s see how it accomplishes that. As mentioned, doing the marathon again didn’t get them out of the loop as they hoped, so naturally the next option is for Asahi to help with the festival instead and see how that goes. And while it ultimately isn’t the solution they need, it does give us a look at how the Tanabata festival was supposed to go if all of the sisters got to be there, as well as another appearance by Shirahi, Uryu’s childhood friend from the orphanage who very clearly has a crush on him, but since she’s not one of the main girls, her dreams of love are doomed to failure. If she’s going to make appearances like this, I’d rather she try getting to know and befriending the sisters, much like I would have liked for Makoto to be friends with Uryu, but this story has a weird hang up about women who are close to Uryu either being a mother figure or a love interest, which…I shouldn’t have to tell you is kinda messed up.

Putting that aside, I mentioned last week that this episode and arc are already a step up from the one with Yae since Asahi is an active participant in the things going on, and indeed she has her own development and emotional journey to go through. Uryu’s main takeaway so far is that, while his willingness to stand by someone is well intentioned, as seen when he tries to give Asahi ideas on what to do to break the loop, he needs to step back sometimes and let people make their own decisions. For Asahi, it’s the dilemma that comes with making those decisions, as she goes back and forth in her mind regarding whether she wants to be independent of her sisters or stay with them forever, which is a hard choice to make for anyone who wants to stand on their own two feet but love their family dearly. Plus, there’s also her rival in track whose wish didn’t come true because Asahi didn’t compete, meaning that by choosing not to be in the race, she stopped that wish from coming true. That rival ends up sneaking into Asahi’s room and found by Uryu in a needlessly compromised position, but I guess that just leaves us to find out how this all wraps up in the final part next week.