Kurogane’s Anime Blog

Kyou - 0 ; Tomoyo - 1

The basketball match episode, Kyou is the chosen 3rd member. Well, I guess from the OP, it’s pretty expected already.

Quite a lot of fun stuff happens this episode, too. Mei gets invited over to the Furukawa house to stay for a while, and she mistakes Sanae for Nagisa’s sister, lulz. Tomoyo’s starting to show her interest for Tomoya… albeit in a way that she herself doesn’t even realize yet. There was an epic showdown, between Kyou and Tomoyo… and Tomoyo actually mentally defeats Kyou and makes her blush, LOL! Looks like Tomoyo isn’t just strong physically, but orally too, hahaha.

Basketball match itself was pretty okay, with the trio of Sunohara, Kyou and Tomoya leading at first, then getting pwned, with Tomoya finally dealing the gyakuten point right at the end of the match, SLAM DUNK-style. Gotta love Kyou’s multiple 3-pointers. She also has her own fangirls too it seems as well, not to surprising, heh heh heh. Too bad Mei leaves right after the basketball match ends, would’ve loved to see her stick around for another episode :P.

Kyou: /facepalm

So far, I’m really appreciating the current flow of events in the past 2 episodes of CLANNAD, as it really portrays the “school life” theme perfectly without actually focusing on one character only. I suspect the next arc would possibly be Tomoyo’s arc, thanks to her increased appearances lately. One thing makes me wonder though… would they be able to include the “After Story” in 26 episodes?

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Rewatching this episode, I just felt like pointing out some things that I kinda missed mentioning earlier.

…Perhaps it was because of the way she was standing there in the afternoon sun, her dandelion-hued hair dancing in the wind; perhaps it was because of the way her old-fashioned white dress was swirling around her long and slender legs…
-Excerpt from The Dandelion Girl, by Robert F. Young

I don’t know if I’m the only one who noticed this, but the girl in the dead world, really resembles the description of the Dandelion Girl, when she first appears. I’ve actually noticed it since I first read the story halfway through Kotomi’s arc, but her appearance this episode reinforces that impression a lot. Wonder if this is another sign of how big an influence the Dandelion Girl was on the production of CLANNAD.

Another thing I want to say is how much I now like Nagisa as a character, after this episode. Initially, Nagisa was the CLANNAD girl I was least interested in, probably due to her characterization archetype of being the “weak and shy” one of the lot.

But going through this episode again, Nagisa really had a lot of character development this week and I’ve started to like her a lot after this, especially with the scenes above, after she decides to make way for the Choir Club and the later part where she covers for Tomoya by declaring herself as his girlfriend. It shows how fragile she still is at points, but yet how stronger she has become as well.

“YOU BETRAYED MY FEELINGS!!!”

Going back out to the main storyline, Kyou and the rest decide to put their names down for the Theater Club, so the only thing remains is getting an advisor. They approach Koumura-sensei, but discover he’s already agreed to become the Choir Club’s advisor. Nagisa decides to give up after hearing Nishina Rie’s story, but Sunohara’s against it and decides to challenge them in a basketball competition, but Tomoya refuses. In the confusion, Sunohara’s imouto, Mei-chan arrives.

There was some pretty awesome moments this episode, especially at the end with Tomoya claiming Sunohara’s gay for him, and Nagisa proceeds to help him out by declaring herself as Tomoya’s lover, causing a huge shock to Sunohara. Poor Sunohara, XD.

Can’t wait to see more of Mei-chan though…. she’s pretty cute and there’s a definite tsundere air around here, hehe. LOL at Tomoya for assuming that she’s a demon child like her brother at first, the shock on his face when he sees her for the first time is really that of regret? Thankfully, she doesn’t take after her brother :).

Kawaii!!!

Tomoya finally remembers his past with Kotomi. Kotomi recovers from depression and comes to school, where she is given her father’s suitcase, containing a teddy bear that she had asked back then. It seems the suitcase managed to float and wander around the world, to finally arrive back at Japan with miraculous timing. After coming in to terms with her parents deaths and their wishes for her, Kotomi finally recovers from the trauma. The episode ends with Tomoya and the others coming over to Kotomi’s house for a party.

A pretty wonderful ending for Kotomi’s arc, even if her story was rather weak in terms to jerking out the tears from me. The part about the suitcase traveling around the world was more funny than touching to me actually. Still, I’m happy for Kotomi and I’m so going to miss her being the main focus, but thankfully it seems she’ll be sticking around instead of disappearing :).

I think the most touching thing of Kotomi’s arc is still her quote from The Dandelion Girl, which, although rather meaningless, but if you have read the story, it becomes a very powerful quote. Not to mention it’s Noto-sama saying it out (=w=)~~.

Next week; Start of Nagisa’s arc?

This scene more than deserves the trouble.

Well, in the meantime, I’ll pray that the cover of Volume 4 DVD of CLANNAD will be this scene or pose by Kotomi.

Kotomi reveals her past out to Tomoya. They first met when Tomoya got lost into the Ichinose garden, and Kotomi, who was distant from her other schoolmates, first had a friend in Tomoya. Kotomi’s parents later had to leave on that fateful trip, with her father promising to buy her a birthday present but they never returned.

Kotomi then believes that her father’s work was the reason why they were taken away, and burns the only copy of his work left at home, thinking that God will return them for that. But she realizes she did a bad thing and decided to study hard to atone for that sin.

Tomoya leaves the Ichinose residence, but Kotomi doesn’t appear at school at all after that, and he hears about Kotomi transferring to America for her studies. He decides to restore the garden to its original state, with Kyou, Ryou and Nagisa plan a surprise party for Kotomi’s upcoming birthday.

Hmm… what can I say? This was merely a placeholder episode before the real deal of the Kotomi arc comes in next week. I rather feel that KyoAni’s weakest points are always the episodes right before the conclusion of any particular girl’s arc, but I just can’t seem to pinpoint why.

Nothing much else to say for this episode apart from Noto-sama’s wonderful performance as Kotomi, especially when she recites the famous lines in the preview for this week. ’tis rather sad to know that Kotomi will be leaving in so soon.

“Envious position there, mate.”

I’m so late this week I watched SS-E’s release ;_;.

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This is Kotomi. Her hobby is reading. Her weapon is violins.

Awesome beyond belief, this episode was.

A laugh fest from the start until the last 3 minutes, this was a pretty awesome episode that was Kotomi-centric, but still had time to develop up Kyou’s story as well. I especially loved how Kyou made a chance for her and Tomoya to be alone, and then asking him if he would consider going out with someone who loves him a lot. Ahh~~ Kyou. Oh, and Mahou Shoujo Kyou made an appearance too lulz.

Then there was also some nice cinematography shots of Kotomi herself, plus that weird, weeeeeeeird dream Tomoya had, which was truly fucked up.

Best of all, has gotta be the violin recital. There was this really cute moment where the orange striped cat tried to run away and bumped in to Botan, and the both of them exchange some words… before dropping dead XD.

Mahou Shoujo Kaleidoscope Kyou!

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Kurogane approves of this.

God, I just can’t get enough of this scene. Oh Kyou, why are you so awesome?

Disclaimer: It’s a joke sub.

“Nandeyanen!”

Kotomi arc, yay! A tennen Noto Mamiko is fine too. KyoAni wastes no time to come back with it’s comedic awesomeness, with this episode of CLANNAD.

Best parts:

• Kyou running over Tomoya again, with her scooter. Oh man, Kyou is so deadly.
• Kotomi and Nagisa’s “conversation” ^^;;;
• Kotomi Friend-making Attempt #1: Kyou; who totally scares Kotomi off.
• Kotomi going “Nandeyanen” in that deadpan voice. Even Osaka would find it hard to match that up.
• Kotomi Friend-making Attempt #2: Ryou; who predicts that Kotomi won’t make friends orz.
• Kotomi Friend-making Attempt #3: Pedo.. I mean, Tomoyo; instant friends due to kigurumi outfit.
• Kyou’s admirable tsukkomi of Tomoya.
• Kotomi’s violin playing is a deadly weapon.

Aside from Kotomi’s story, there’s also hints of Kyou and Ryou’s arc as well this episode, with some of Kyou’s off-hand comments. Looks like they might merge some of Kyou and Ryou’s story together with Kotomi’s one, and resolve it right after Kotomi’s story is done.

Screencaps gallery after the jump.

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