Clannad 10 - Ijimekko ;_;?
December 7th, 2007 by Shirukii
Nande ya nen!
This episode is a prime example of why the episodic progression of KeyAni works is rather hit or miss, or perhaps an acquired taste? We went from the climax of one female lead’s arc, a dramatic and bittersweet passing on sequence, to an episode made of moe and manzai comedy. While I knew it was coming and quickly adjusted, I can’t help but think of viewers who haven’t watched anything like Kanon in the past who have just went from the verge of tears to the verge of laughter. But aside from that, great episode. However, while Kotomi is the main subject in this arc, I can’t help but notice it’s Kyou who’s stealing the show.
Episode Rating: 9/10
With Fuko unintentionally forgotten, Nagisa and Tomoya shift their focus back to the drama club, Tomoya saying that he has another invite prospect in mind. Suddenly, they hear a warning scream behind them, it’s Kyou barreling down the sidewalk on her scooter. She nearly runs over Tomoya, who over dramatizes the impact until Kyou threatens to leave him lying there. He asks Nagisa (using her given name now) if she’s alright, Kyou picks up on that and notes that the two have gotten pretty close, suggesting that maybe they’re going out. Of course they deny it for all their worth, Kyou not looking exactly convinced but accepts it and continues on to school. With Kyou’s accusation in mind, Tomoya asks Nagisa when he started calling her by her first name anyways, a vague shot of Fuko pops into their mind, a nostalgic memory, but one they can’t seem to fully recall.
At school, Sunohara offers to help Tomoya with the recruiting, but Tomoya thinks he’ll just get in the way. Killing two birds with one stone, he sends Sunohara to flirt with Kotomi, which of course results in him being completely ignored no matter what he tries (ie. knocking over bookcases), in the end he gives up and goes off to do something else.
Tomoya goes through the normal dance of having to use “Kotomi-chan” for her to notice him, at which point she finally notices the collapsed bookshelves around her and blames Tomoya for it.
Tomoya tells Kotomi about the drama club and asks her if she wants to check it out, she agrees as long as she won’t get bullied. When Kotomi and Nagisa come face to face, it becomes apparent how dismal Kotomi’s social skills are, only just fumbling through a lame self introduction. But surprisingly, the two are on a similar wavelength, going through their likes, dislikes and hobbies in a yaritori (back and forth, give and take) type word game.
They finally get to talking about the drama club when Kotomi learns that she may have to cry during plays, but she doesn’t want to cry and wonders if Nagisa might be a bully for trying to force her to do so. But then she notices Nagisa’s Dango Daikazoku poster and the two find more common ground in their love for it.
After school, Tomoya offers to walk Kotomi home, the two talking about how kind Nagisa is. Before going home, they stop off at a book store where Kotomi does some light reading on quantum physics. But when she ends up in a daze, about to cut some pages out of the book, Tomoya stops her, forces her to buy the book if she finds it interesting and gives her a lecture about needing to interact with more people.
And so the next day Tomoya starts to introduce her to the rest of the cast, trying to get her some friends. First up is Kyou, probably not the wisest first choice, Kotomi gives her awkward introduction which is returned by Kyou’s usual sarcastic expression and rhetoric, which Kotomi, naturally, takes as bullying. But in the end, despite her sarcasm, Kyou cheerily introduces herself and says she’ll see her around.
Next in line is Ryou. Rinse, lather, repeat Kotomi’s self intro. Ryou’s a little confused, but offers to tell Kotomi’s fortune as a start. But that doesn’t go so well, as Ryou’s fortune reading ends up saying that Kotomi isn’t the type of person who can make friends. Etc etc “Are you a bully?” etc. Ryou says that she’s not trying to bully Kotomi and even tells her that fortunes can be wrong, that if a person puts in the necessary effort, they can change their future.
Seeing a need to change their approach, Tomoya prepares a proper introduction speech for Kotomi and tells her to memorize and use it whenever meting people for the first time. They walk around school looking for someone to test it on and luckily bump into Tomoyo, who happens to be in her bear costume again, for some odd reason. Kotomi gives her introduction speech and Tomoyo agrees to be friends with her, Kotomi seems particularly attracted to stuffed bears as she bypasses Tomoyo’s handshake offer and gives her a hug instead.
Sunohara, who sees the scene from the inside the school notices Tomoyo in the bear suit and recognizes her as the person who beat him up during the cultural festival. He charges downstairs and launches an attack, not knowing that it’s Tomoyo inside the bear suit, one swift kick from her and Sunohara is sent flying (no more combo counter?)
It’s a little early for lunch, but Tomoya and Kotomi head to the bread stand to buy some food. The lunchlady is surprised to see a girl skipping class along with Tomoya, but soon recognizes Kotomi, who is apparently famous throughout the city because of her parents who are well known professors. Tomoya asks her some questions about them, although it seems to be a bit of an uncomfortable conversation topic as Kotomi shies away more than usual. Luckily, Kyou interrupts them and starts to hug and pet Kotomi, assuring her that she isn’t a bully. Kyou suggests that they take Kotomi somewhere fun along with Ryou. But in the end, they end up in the drama club room, not exactly what Kyou had in mind. But it works out for the best, everyone getting a chance to introduce themselves publicly.
But when Kyou’s intro comes up and Tomoya makes a wisecrack about her hobby being bullying those weaker than her, Kyou gives him a kick in the face, Tomoya noting that her timing is what they should all strive for as tsukkomi.
Although Kyou and Ryou don’t plan on joining the drama club officially, they do think it’ll be fun to join in occasionally and practice their tsukkomi timing. Suddenly, Kotomi is distracted by the sound of a violin coming from the music room. They make their way over and the music club offers Kotomi a chance to play the violin. However, despite how elegant she looks readying the violin to play, Kotomi is absolutely terrible, bringing everyone to the room to their knees, ears ringing, with her playing.
Insert random shot of unknown old dude standing outside the school, aaand we’re done.
Thoughts
Long summary is loooooong. But I digress…
Pretty good opening eisode for Kotomi’s arc. As I mentioned, I still think that the transitions between arcs are far too abrupt, but I suppose that’s something that you have to come to terms with if you plan on watching any of KyoAni’s Key adaptations. The episode was more comedy centric than anything, I lol’d so hard when Kotomi busted out the Osaka-esque “Nande ya nen?”, complete with full kansai accent. Although, her “Ijimekko?” is already starting to wear off, much like the early overuse of Tomoyo’s combo counter, they’re just killing the joke by using it far too much. It’s cute, and Mamiko Noto does a great job delivering Kotomi’s lines, but the whole shy genius girl act is already beginning to wear thin for me. I love the genius aspect of Kotomi (who wouldn’t want a girl that could hold an engaged conversation about quantum theory for hours on end?) but her social skills, not to mention her violin playing, could use some work.
But enough about Kotomi, we’ll surely get to know her much better over the course of the next few episodes. The real star of this episode was Kyou, who remains at the top of my Clannad girls list, and with good reason. She’s such an awesome character with her blunt, straightforward and sarcastic tone of speech but the underlying feeling that deep down she’s a genuinely nice and caring person. And of course there are her awesome facial expressions.
It’s interesting to see the subtle hints towards her arc that are being dropped here and there. But things remain largely ambiguous as to what her feelings and intentions towards Tomoya are. Last episode they had a scene together where Kyou invited Tomoya to go shopping with her and Ryou, which made me think that she was interested in him personally. However, this episode suggests that she’s not trying to hook up with Tomoya herself, but rather is trying to pair him up with Ryou. During the drama club meeting she tells Ryou that she worked hard to get her this opportunity so she better take some action. And when she saw Tomoya hanging around Kotomi, she had an aside cursing the appearance of a new rival.
But I’m thinking that it may just be a farce, and that Kyou really does want Tomoya for herself. In the preview for the next episode there’s a brief scene where the two end up alone and Kyou gets a little flirtatious with him. However, I guess talking about all this is futile anyways, it’s clear that Tomoya is going to end up with Nagisa. I guess I’ll have to play the game to find out how Kyou’s arc is really supposed to play out. One day…one day.
One more noteworthy point about this episode is that it saw the return of the alternate world sequences with the unknown girl and her robot companion. I can’t wager any guesses as to what the symbolism of these scenes are, they’re just way too vague to interpolate anything. But everyone I know who has experience with the game says that in hindsight, it’ll become clear just how well they outlined the coming events. Well, hindsight is 20/20, but foresight is just stabbing in the dark, so I’ll refrain from making any guesses at this point.
And finally, the results of the starfish/dango/star alliance votings.
Star Alliance vs Starfish Alliance
Star Alliance = 10 (Shirukii, Siva, Nightingale, Fuzzims, ItAintEazy, Levan Polkka, Hopey, Kei-clone, Chou, Shipon)
Starfish Alliance = 8 (Kanon_fan82, Totali, We be anon, Agis, kenshin514, hazy, Michael, Crisu)
Starfish vs Dango
Dango = 12 (ItAintEazy, Pyrrhusonline, Siva, Levan Polkka, Shirukii, Michael, Nightingale, Kay_kay, Orange-kun, We be anon, Kei-clone, Kanon_fan82, Shipon)
Starfish = 4 (kenshin514, Totali, Avisch, Hopey)
Stars are victorious! (Unless I missed some votes)
Damn, I wish I were that bear
~ Shirukii ~
31 Responses to “Clannad 10 - Ijimekko ;_;?”
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Well, I wish I was that metal bear :P
How nice, we move on from the moetard to the autistic girl. If the “are you a bully?” line is getting old, at least it doesn’t induce the painful facepalms as her constantly introducing herself first to Tomoya upon every encounter with a new character.
Still, it will be interesting to see if Kotomi will show some actual agency in her personal development, or if she turns out to be just another retread of a typical female character from Kanon.
And finally LOOOOL @ Starfish alliance for being WTFBBQPWN3D
aha, “ijimekko?” is gonna be my favorite phrase for these few days. Kyoni really did a great transition from Fuku’s arc to Kotomi, which remind me a lot of when they switch from Makoto’s arc to Mai in Kanon.
As far as for Clannad to have 52 episodes, I talked to a lot of people and they all said the same thing that it ain’t gonna happen. They all said that Kyoani won’t be stupid enough to make Clannad longer and extend the release date for Haruhi 2. It makes sense since it’s all about business. I mean Haruhi is Kyoani’s most successful series so far. I like Haruhi, but not as much as Kanon or Clannad. Damn you, Haruhi. Yeah, I’m weird and I know that. lol
So better question is how they gonna put everything into 24 episodes. Many people said that after story in Clannad game is superb, but I don’t think they can put it in at this rate. So far, I notice that Kyou and Ryou’s screen time are increase significantly in this episode. They also hint that both Kyou and Ryou have feeling for Tomoya. So many people conclude that they may combine Kyou/Ryou arc into Kotomi’s arc as well (Just like when they did with Ayu and Nayuki).
Man, that would be suck because Kyou is my favorite character and to combine her arc with other heroine is not acceptable to me. Don’t you think so too, Shirukii? Remember how Nayuki got less screen time toward the end of Kanon. I hope that’s not happen with Kyou.
Shirukii: To answer your question, I am a first year of graduated student going for MS. I actually don’t want to tell other people through because I feel like I’m way too damn old =(
nandeyanen??
This is an outrage. orz Oh well, it was a close race!
” are you a bully?”
Hmm…I think that since Ryou was choosing the place to go, wouldn’t it be a twist if Ryou was actually after Nagisa ever since the ‘incident’? I mean, Kyou (At least in the preview) ends up being alone with Tomoya in a room and asks if they should do anything, it’s quite possible. Then again, this would be dismissing the fact that everytime Kyou invites Tomoya to do something, Ryou is her primary focus, and Ryou looked disappointed when Tomoya told her that Kotomi and he were class-ditching buddies.
Maybe both Kyou and Ryou like Tomoya, but Kyou is looking for Ryou’s happiness?
We shall see.
@ Pyrrhusonline
seriously dont open this tag if anyone values their innocence:
Show ▼
@ Shirukii
Me think KA is putting a lil hell too much FPS in the alternate world scenes O A o
@Chou: I take it you’ve read / played / done something with the visual novel? Or you think my opinion is right on track? I really wish I could get it…but oh well @_@
What do you mean by FPS in the alternate world scenes? I don’t know what the acronym stands for…pardon my insolence ^_^ ;
If there’s anything I know at least a bit about, it’s the alternate world story. It really is full of hints, like Kanon’s dream sequences were, but I won’t / can’t say anymore…it’d be unfair. Just pay attention =)
Well, an arc is always win with Mamiko Noto in it. It will be an epic win if you add up Kotomi + Kyou + Military-grade yuri goggles + Disc X Solitary Wave… OK, I’ll stop.
“What the heck?”
@ Pyrrhusonline
Let’s just say I’m a victim of a demon called “spoiler without tag”……. ;_;
Omg I didn’t spoil anything did I? Now I’m going to read all of my comments….delete whichever post it was!!!
OOOOOHHHH I get it now. You read a spoiler somewhere and the person who posted never tagged it. lol You worried me to heck and back…last thing I want to do is spoil.
Sorry it got spoiled…but in a sense, I like a little bit of knowledge. For example, that’s why I sought out spoilers on the alternate world. It gives me a general idea of what to expect…I have no idea what the references are, or what they mean, or how they tie in with the story.
But that’s the fun! I DON’T know what will happen, but it gives me material to think about.
Yah go Mamiko Noto!
Killer violin. So far the transition from arc’s is just fine.
kenshin514:
“Remember how Nayuki got less screen time toward the end of Kanon. I hope that’s not happen with Kyou.”
Yeah I hope so too. Nayuki losing screentime actually pissed me off (did they even formally end her arc?).
and just something random:
Mamiko Noto will be voicing my favorite character in the 3rd Kara no Kyoukai movie. I look forward to that.
Damn! I wish i could build a big library enough to keep Kotomi lives in there for the rest of her life XD
OMG! I love how she has her own password “Kotomi-chan” her AI only accept that password LOL
Kyou in this episode was like “what the f*ck” her character is still impress as usual and everything about her is still haven’t unfold as usual. They did hint us that Kyou is tsundere but they never said she is going to take it seriously. But who can say that for long?
I can’t see why Clannad need a 52 episodes. I think that KyoAni already planned everything that 24 episodes is enough for them to unfold everything is needed. The length of the series you extend doesn’t mean the better it will become. Just look at how retard Naruto anime is and how many people criticize about Fuko arc is way too long.
I know that Nayuki arc was cut short but I think it was still a good combination. In Kanon, Nayuki was my #1 fav character and my fav phrase is “Usotsuki”
I can’t see that Kyou is going to get less screen time but i am afraid that Tomoyo is the one.
@Chou: And now you become a victim. How much did u got? It would be good if it was Kyou arc only.
@Avisch: thx for the movie. It looks good.
@Pyrrhusonline: FPS “First Person Shooter” ?
“Ijimekko?” “Nande ya nen!” LOL and what is next?
@ Pyrrhusonline
no no no it wasn’t you who spoiled me it’s somwhere else….
@ Siva
thankfully im still clean of Kotomi’s arc and the afterstory arc, and Fuuko beforehand. Should i say yay?
-
By the way by FPS i meant frame per second.
@ Michael: But then you wouldn’t be able to feel the warmth of a hug ;_;
@ ItAintEazy: You have to remember, this is Key, they thrive on psuedo-retarded moe girls. And to be fair, “Ijimekko?” hasn’t been used as much as DOZO just yet, but the way things look…
@ kenshin514: I would really hate to see Kyou’s arc shortened, but the fragmented screen time she’s getting is reminding me of how they handled Nayuki, so I’m beginning to think her arc will receive the same treatment =\ Oh well, that’s how things go, I’ll look to the visual novel for her full story if I must.
Agreed about the 52 episode issue, it doesn’t make sense to extend Clannad that long. Though, I’m hoping they do something other than a second Haruhi season, (ie. FMP)
And you’re still in Uni, that’s not too bad age wise XD There are a bunch of bloggers well past that.
@ Totali: For stars vs starfish yea, but dangos crushed starfish.
@ KayKay: Hai ^_^
@ Pyrrhusonline/Chou: I will lol so hard if Ryou is after Nagisa.
I think Chou means “frames per second” for FPS, which if only half true, the scene is rather still discounting the floating lights everywhere, but that could easily be done with a separate layer, not animated frame by frame. What is impressive is that the little robot dude seems to be animated using entirely CG.
@ SHiN_aKuMa: lol, military grade yrui goggles, nice.
@ Avisch: Haha, so many Noto fans. And no, they did not formally end Nayuki’s arc, because they couldn’t. If you want to know more on why they couldn’t, let me know, I’ll throw up the explanation in a spoiler tag.
@ Siva: I’ll be fine if Tomoyo’s screentime gets cut, I actually like her the least out of all the Clannad girls so far. As I said before, KyoAni’s treatment of Kyou is looking too similar to Nayuki’s, not a good sign.
52 does seem too long, but 24 seems to short, given how long they took with Fuko, if they give each character that much time, 24 definitely won’t be enough.
And please don’t compare Naruto to Clannad ;_; it’s just not right, actually, don’t compare Naruto to anything, except maybe Bleach and One Piece, those shows are in their own level of fail.
@Shirukii: Well, everything is still far from what we can guess who will got less or more screentime. As for now I will bet that Kotomi arc won’t be last long than 3 episodes and if i lose the bet i will resign myself from this war.
Please enjoy this song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isk_rweuyyY
A great episode as usual by KyoAni, I hope they will to continue to this line.
24 episode is short but it worked for Kanon, why not Clannad? Enven if Nayuki arc ending don’t suit me, I would like to watch her endind in the visual game.
And I definitely join the Kyou fanboy band! :p
+1 for Dango and Star Alliance ^^
Siva: I know it will be good. It’s been called the best adaption of a TYPE-MOON work.
on your other post. I prefer Mosouka but thanks :)
Shirukii: Let me take a guess. But Yeah I do want to know please explain.
I’m going to assume it’s because Nayuki’s route stands on it’s own by ending Yuuichi and Nayuki falling in love. and Kyoani couldn’t end it because Ayu had “main heroine” immunity from the start. and therefore they had to just have Nayuki miraculously recover from her depression.
Ryou totally has the hots for Nagisa ever since Nagisa fooled her into thinking she had different…intentions…I mean, who couldn’t adore her?
Her response time when Nagisa asked the question was relatively quick….Hmmm..
Hey, Shirukii, think you could give your spam filter a look? I seem to have had all 6 of my past comments eaten while trying to comment recently on your last two Clannad posts, and I’m wondering what the hell’s going on. D:
http://animearimasu.animeblogger.net/image/Clannad/10ClannadViolin.jpg
Top left:
Boke 3 nin gumi da ━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━！！！
@ Pyrrhusonline
Ryou is bi~~~
@ Siva: Really? Three eps? That’s some prediction, we’ll see how it goes.
And thanks for the song…kinda random, but thanks anyways lol
@ Shipon: Yessss, more Kyou fans, excellent.
@ Avisch: Yea, that pretty much sums it up…Show ▼
@ Pyrrhusonline: As much as I would love to see KyoAni break out the yuri, if it’s not canon, they probably won’t =(
@ Owen S: I upgraded Akismet versions, so hopefully that does the trick. If your comments continue to get eaten, give me a quick e-mail and I’ll dig deeper into the problem (or more specifically, get Soda to do so XD)
@ Nightingale: lol, is dat sum double entendre
lol, I figured they wouldn’t. But they sure have been adding plenty of references. I saw a person who compiled a 10 minute-long video of different scenes from Clannad hinting to Yuri references. It’s somewhat subtle sometimes, like when Tomoyo first receives the starfish sculpture from Fuko, but then you have the blatant Ryou + Nagisa action.
I just find it interesting…maybe it’s part of the comedy in the series? I don’t THINK any yuri is in the visual novel, and it would be interesting if there was……..
V V V Spoiler includes information on the visual novel V V V
Show ▼
We’ll see what KyoAni decides to do =) It would be cute if it were at least a crush, even if Ryou does end up truly liking Tomoya (Which I am not denying or confirming, I don’t know myself).
@ Nightingale
Nice song u intro der! Thx ^_^
@ Clannad 10
Argh the Arc transition again! Plsss don’t ditch FUKO - *completely*!!! Hope they make it a lil more natural like KANON, not AIR TV!
@ Shirukii: Hey, Bleach and Naruto may be of fail I actually like One Piece. The adventures are fun, engaging and way the friendships are built up in that show are solid and believeable. :P
Now to Clannad!
It warmed my heart that Nagisa and Tomoya remembered that little sliver of Fuuko at the beginning. Gives me a little hope she’ll be back. Kotomi was pretty cute, especially when hiding behind Tomoya but I have to agree Kyou really stole the spotlight. She’s just so cool! I am intrigued to see what develops next. :3
btw, Kotomi’s violin playing sounds eerily similar to my own long long ago. ^-^;;
@Avisch: LOL I guess can’t listen to this song “Hiru No Tsuki” from Outlaw Star ED.
@Shirukii: we wil see how was my training in these past years was all in vain or not.
About the song, I just want to show how this song can only be sing by Suara.
Even with ur spoiler about Nayuki’s arc I still see the anime arc was still good. I am a big fan of Nayuki but why didn’t i complain about it?
@Kari: Even you said One Piece was the better one out of those 3 but I still like Naruto more and the truth is the 3 of them have its own good and bad points. It just the matter of taste which one you like the most.
(Just finished FMP Fumoffu, Sousuke = Lame = FTW)
@Siva: Point taken. Bleach I only like in manga version, Naruto I’ve slept through every consecutive time I’ve watched it. ^-^;; To each their own. :3
Know what? I -really- want plushies of all the Clannad girls :3 especially Fuuko.
Clannad is a very good serie! I love it. It is very interesting!
Aw, starfish was so close!
I thought it was a good start for a new arc. There were still some hints of Fuuko to aid the transition and we get a lighthearted intro to Kotomi-chan. =)
Kyou’s interaction with Tomoya is really fun to watch. I’m looking forward to her arc (probably after Kotomi’s?). Besides her, I assume Tomoyo will probably have her own arc too. ^_^