Yukine is a no-bias humanitarian figure who will never fail to care for anyone regardless of their history. She is reputable between both dominating clans, and is seen as a mothering figure. If you haven’t noticed already, one of the biggest themes in Clannad is the need and result of having a family. Tomoya moved out because he was having problems with his father, Nagisa had that incident where her parents reformed themselves for her sake, Kotomi is orphaned, Tomoyo was on the verge of having a broken family, and now we find out that Yukine is assuming a parent-like role for her brother and his entire gang. The theatre club is just a family within the student body as a substitute or supplement to their blood family; the members aren’t there for the theatre but for each other.

Likewise, with a gang, they aren’t there for the fights or parties, but for each other. It’s natural for different groups of people to have disputes with each other regardless of whether we call them “gangs” or not; the Theatre Club had a conflict with the Music Club over the issue of the teacher-supervisor. Gangs are generally comprised of male members, and males are generally less sensitive and easily aggravated, so they are more prone to physical solutions. Regardless, disputes, physical or not, are the main reason why people join hands and team up, and the way these disputes are resolved is what strengthens or weakens the bonds between the members. With Yukine’s brother in the hospital, Yukine is the keystone for her brother’s gang as a primary caregiver and role model, much like how Tomoya was the key member to the theatre club during its founding days.

Currently, the theatre club has no particular figure of dominance, and judging by the next episode preview when Yukine’s monarchist gang runs into leadership issues we will learn why an even-authority status is best in family relationships. It’s my bet that Tomoyo Sakagami will play a big part in this arc due to her experience with gangs and family problems, and that she and Yukine will be on anything but good terms with each other.

Never underestimate how much your friends trust you.

Dear Tomoya,
I must stress that you cannot rely on deception as a method of communication. It may be alright to do this just for fun, but this isn’t the approach you should take when dealing with family issues. If you had just brought both Youhei and Mei to me I’m sure we could have settled this quickly and promptly. You put Mei in a lot of danger by involving her with the school affairs, and it’s not like you didn’t know what kind of attitudes they have. Somewhere along the way you forgot that you are a better friend to Youhei than to Mei, underestimating what he thinks of you and only looking at things in the shoes of Mei. Of all people to provoke Youhei you would be the last he would respond to. Youhei had absolute faith in you, whether it was in taking care of Mei as her boyfriend or something else. You thought he was heartless but he was worrying the whole time; you thought he wasn’t paying attention but he was silently watching the two of you the whole time, to make sure you lived up to his expectations of his best friend. You should try to learn more from your girlfriend, you have taught her many things over the last year but you seem to be unwilling to listen to all her concerns about you. As her boyfriend you should be taking into serious consideration her opinion of you, in a relationship it is not enough for only one to be changing and the other to be making the changes.

Yours,
Yukine Miyazawa.

Would Youhei really want to play soccer with those people?

Why Yukine? Of all the characters in the show, Yukine seems to be the one who is most capable of looking at social situations from a very broad point of view, being able to understand all parts of the situation simultaneously and objectively. Aside from her, Ryou Fujibayashi is the only other in the main cast that also excels at this, but her naïve nature would bias her opinions and suggestions (Maybe Sanae too, but we don’t know enough about her to say for sure). After even a short consultation Yukine was able to understand Youhei’s reasoning for leaving the soccer club, and his reservations against joining them again. She did address this, but Mei and Okazaki were both too stubbornly single-minded to pick up on her hint.

That aside, the supporting characters in Clannad just keep getting stronger and stronger; the curiosity around Yukine and her brother (I’ll assume that the guy that she was harbouring in episode 02) is building, but at the same time I really wish KyoAni would slow down with the character introductions and focus solely on Tomoya’s past and/or his relationship with Nagisa. At this point we don’t know how strong Tomoya and Nagisa’s relationship is, and the matter between Tomoya and his father is still unsettled. It’s strange how both of those are unaddressed since if Tomoya was still staying at the Furukawa’s the relationship should be more intimate; else he would be staying back at home meaning he settled the matters with his father.