Clannad 11
December 14th, 2007 by Shirukii
Mahou Shoujo Kyou-chan. She deserves her own spinoff.
First of all, apologies for skipping out on my Myself; Yourself post for the week. Episode 11 was made of lesbians and win, but I couldn’t manage to fit a post into my schedule over the week D=
But anyways, on to Clannad. A pretty good episode, albeit a little shallow in overall plot content, only the end gave us a slight glimpse of what’s to come. But hey, this episode was packed full of Kotomi goodness, if you’re into the whole Noto thing, and if you’re not, there was plenty of Kyou as well. Again, even though this is Kotomi’s arc, I can’t help but notice Kyou getting a whole lot more attention, although…this may not be such a good thing, more on that later.
Episode Rating: 8.5/10
Tomoya’s early morning nap is cut abruptly short by Kotomi and her oh so beautiful violin playing. The shrill sound pierces through the entire school, bringing Kyou, Ryou and Nagisa running from their classes, having a feeling it’s Kotomi behind the racket. Kyou has a fit with her playing and gets even more frustrated when she gets sucked into Kotomi’s slow conversational pace. As she reaches for the violin to start her second number, Kyou dive tackles her, preventing the massacre that would have followed.
After school Tomoya heads over to the drama club room to find Kotomi practicing to improve her comedy timings under the guidance of Kyou, who’s ulterior motive is really just distracting her so she can’t play the violin anymore. When Nagisa and Ryou show up, they take a look through the drama club’s props with Kotomi when they stumble upon a magical girl wand. Kotomi is a little confused so Ryou explains that when you say an incantation and twirl it in the air, you’ll transform, Kotomi takes it a little too literally and recites a passage from the latin grimoire De Vermis Mysteriis. Kyou and Tomoya have a conversation aside, Tomoya suggesting Kyou join in with the other three, Kyou declines, asking him if he could really see her holding that wand reciting magical incantations. Tomoya nearly dies from laughter imagining Mahou Shoujo Kyou-chan, Kyou threatening him for even thinking it.
Their conversation is broken by the piercing sound of Kotomi’s violin, apparently the other conversation trailed off a bit…Unable to take it anymore, Kyou tells Kotomi that she’ll arrange a recital for Kotomi the following Monday and forbids her to play in front of her until then. Kotomi is thrilled by the idea and goes off with Nagisa and Ryou to practice, Kyou keeping Tomoya behind to “arrange the details” of the recital, really just trying to separate him from Kotomi so she doesn’t get too clingy. Later, as the two wait for Kyou’s bus home to arrive, Kyou asks Tomoya what he’d do if there was a girl who loved him so much that she couldn’t control herself. Tomoya, master of conversation hijacking, deflects the question until Kyou has to leave.
That Sunday, Tomoya wanders to school only to find Kotomi practicing in the library. After making fun of her terrible comedy timing, Kotomi invites him to try some apple pie she made, which is delicious despite being her first time attempting it. Kotomi asks Tomoya if he’d like to read a book together with her, but he thinks that it would be a little boring and suggests that she read to him instead. In the end, Tomoya falls asleep and has this weird convoluted dream involving chibi Kotomis, boiling dangos, and a nurse cosplay Kyou. Despite having slept most of the time, Kotomi thanks Tomoya for coming to see her before the two part for the day.
The next day is Kotomi’s long awaited violin recital, advertising poster courtesy of Nagisa, feat. the Dango Daikazoku. When the time of the recital comes, there’s a surprising turnout, but most of the crowd was gathered by Kyou, abusing her powers as class rep, herding in troublemakers, she even makes a bit of money off of it, selling earplugs, lol. In addition, Tomoya invites Tomoyo, Nagisa invites her parents and even Sunohara is tricked into coming by Kyou, who promises he’ll meet a cute girl. The guys from the male dorm and Misae, who apparently was a famed student council president back in her day (now revered by Tomoyo), show up as well.
The outcome of the recital is…well, what you would expect from Kotomi. Seemingly nervous from the crowd, any improvements from her practicing goes out the window for the first song causing several casualties (not literally, obviously) in the crowd, even botan falls victim ;_;
Apparently Kotomi manages to pull it together later on and the last couple pieces end up sounding decent, unfortunately we don’t get to hear them…After the concert everyone is walking home together, Kyou and Ryou talking about how Kotomi is almost like a child who you can’t help but support, when suddenly Nagisa calls for Tomoya’s help while fighting back a random old dude trying to speak to Kotomi. The whole group stands up for her, demanding the man go through them before talking to Kotomi, but he ends up walking away, saying he’ll return some other day, leaving Kotomi trembling in fear with nothing else to say except that he’s a “bad guy”.
Thoughts
A typical “calm before the storm” episode of Clannad, using comedy fillers and subtle plot hints to build up the story and character before diving into the heavier issues of Kotomi’s arc. I think the whole manzai comedy thing is lame, personally, but I do like Kotomi’s character in general. I wonder if they’ll explain her strange fascination with the violin, we know that it’s something that she’s inherently attracted to, seeing as she was drawn to it the first time she heard it, it would be nice to see some background on that, especially since we have to suffer through her playing. I thank KyoAni dearly for not actually recording someone butchering a real violin, it really is an unholy, ear piercingly bad, sound.
As for where we’ll go with Kotomi’s arc, I’m thinking that it’ll be her parents that will be the main focus. We’ve already seen her reaction to people talking about her parents last episode when the bread stall lady tried asking her about them and Tomoya followed up, only to have Kotomi squirm around uncomfortably at the topic. Tomoya’s light tap on the head and Kotomi’s trembling when approached by the man at the end may suggest that Kotomi might have been physically abused as a child, perhaps her parents’ way of pushing her to achieve? Who knows. Not that I’m saying that the guy at the end is her father, there’s not much to build a theory on yet, I’m just throwing out random guesses XD
Speaking of parents, this shot of Tomoya’s broken home really got to me. In an earlier episode Tomoya noted the difference between the warmth he felt at Nagisa’s home and his own, the feeling of a true family has always been an unknown concept to him. A family is something that many take for granted, Nagisa noting that she thought her family was pretty normal, yet there are those who have gone their whole life without such a home call their own. It’s amazing that the guy can keep his outside self so seemingly cheerful, albeit a little sarcastic.
And of course there was Kyou, who remains at, and will probably not budge from, the top of my Clannad favourites list. Though I’m a bit worried about the amount of screentime she’s getting scattered in amongst the other girls. It’s really making me think that she won’t have a dedicated arc to herself. I’ll spoiler tag this next bit, as it’s information from the visual novel, nothing too ruining, but nonetheless…
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So if you think about it, it’s pretty obvious that we’re on Nagisa’s path, so how are they going to integrate Kyou/Ryou’s arc without interfering with the inevitable pairing of the two at the end. While I do want to see the two get the screen time they deserve, I would hate to see some halfassed attempt to keep their story intact only to stop short and screw them over at the end of it all. With Kyou nagging Ryou about Tomoya, we’re definitely seeing the beginnings of their arc, so I’m curious to see how that’ll play out.
Preview doesn’t give me much to work with in terms of guessing what’s going to happen next week, so that’s it for now. Apologies in advance if exams keep me too busy to post! I finish next Friday so things will be back to normal by then at the very latest.
~ Shirukii ~
24 Responses to “Clannad 11”
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Fight-o until the end! Sempaaaaiiiiiii
Clannad’s theme is family and that’s another reason I love it (I posted a small bit about Key’s themes on my blog BTW).
I’m wondering around which arc we will get more on Tomoyo’s issues (I already know the circumstances…I just want to see how the anime reveals them).
DAMN YOU Shirukii! I want to see that spoiler :(
Heh…I’ll control myself for now.
This episode had so many great moments.
Particularly when nearly every character ended up coming to the recital I thought to myself “Damn I love this”.
Damn. If Kyou delivered the yuri goodness added with Hoshino’s hidden desire to the Wakatsuki sister, this would’ve been a good lesbian week. >:(
Oh I almost forgot. Kyou is my new Kagaminnnnnnnnnn!!!!!
Good episode……although you could tell it was pretty much a build up to next week…..
lol @ Botan and the cat keeling over at the violin recital……that was awesome :)
@ Shiruki & SHiN_aKuMa:
Was it me or was the plot of Myself; Yourself totally rushed this week??? It felt like the pacing was all over the place…..Oh well, I guess that’ll happen when you only have 12 episodes to work with :P
….sorry to correct you, but the actual good end of the original game (IE: the one that unlocks the CG galery) is actually Tomoya ending up with Kyou. According to the game, if you end up with Ryou it’s considered as Kyou’s bad end….which isn’t much of one since you end up with a girl in the end anyway *Is shot*.
And I agree with you on the reall Violin mess-up being worse than whatever Kotomi is playing now. It’s worse than nails on blackboard mixed with feedback played at the loudest possible volume….or that could just be me.
P.S.: Kadieoscope Ryou FTW!!!!!
“I saw a rabbit, then a deer, then you”
Foreshadowing of some sort? Or random Kotomi conversing?
Anyone else think it was cute how fast Tomoya ran to help Nagisa with the holding back the old man?
Good to see everything’s going relatively well Shirukii =)
@Alias: He did said how “good” or “bad” he considers them - not actually following the official “good” and “bad” ending.
There’s a lot of important stuff from Kotomi’s arc here, though not many people seemed to notice it. Just so you know, you’ll definitely want to keep that scene in your mind when Kotomi says “Last time, I saw a rabbit. Yesterday, it’s a dear. Today, it’s you.” till the end of Kotomi’s arc. The guy with the black suit is going to be very important as well.
So now, we have at least 4 girls who have feelings for Tomoya despite him being a “delinquent” - a point he himself never hesitates to point it out throughout the series. Is this a privilege for being a “male lead” character?
>>Tomoya’s light tap on the head and Kotomi’s trembling when approached by the man at the end may suggest that Kotomi might have been physically abused as a child
Kotomi did suffer from trauma during her childhood, but NOT because of abuses or anything like that. Her parents were pretty much in the same league as Nagisa’s in term of kindness.
Saying anymore and I will probably have to use the spoil tag. I will shut up now =D.
@ Totali: Uguu~ T_T
@ Avisch: It’s really not that bad of a spoiler haha, especially since they probably won’t address it in the anime version.
@ SHiN_aKuMa: They are quite alike, though I’m liking Kyou even more than Kagamin now. Btw, any luck finding the Higurashi specials? I still haven’t found anywhere that has them =(
@ Kanon_fan82: Yea, Myself; Yourself has been very rushed in the past couple weeks. But despite that, it still remains pretty good, and has a lot of WTF twists in it.
@ Alias: Oh, my mistake. I haven’t actually read the visual novel, I was just spoiled on that particular arc. Damn 4chan ;_;
@ Pyrrhusonline: That line was really out of place, it will probably only make sense in hindsight, so yea, foreshadowing of sorts, only that I can’t figure out what exactly they’re trying to get at.
@ solgae: I did genuinely mix them up, but yes, Kyou’s ending would be considered the “good” end to me.
Yup, male leads, despite having traits that you may think would be adverse to his pimping abilities, give them the magical power to seduce any girl they talk to. I believe it’s done so that viewers can relate to them.
@ zt: Aw, theory crushed. Thanks for the heads up, and thanks for not going any deeper XD Though feel free to if you enclose them in spoiler tags, that’s what they’re there for.
You know there is a Mahou Shoujo Kyou doujin? I know because I got the first volume from WAY back in Comiket 69.
“@ Pyrrhusonline: That line was really out of place, it will probably only make sense in hindsight, so yea, foreshadowing of sorts, only that I can’t figure out what exactly they’re trying to get at.”
The line about bunny and deer is a reference to a romantic SciFi short story, called “The Dandelion Girl”.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/young2/young21.html
The girl in the story said the lines when she met the male character.
The story was popular in Japan, and the anime RahXephon was supposed made because of it.
I have been waiting for long time. Welcome back, man. I hope you did well on the final.
My thought exactly like you. Kyou’s screentime are increased significantly. I’m guessing that Kyou/Ryou will be the next arc, but it will be shorter arc because they kinda combine in this arc as well. Kyou is my favorite character and combine her to other heroine’s arc is not acceptable to me. Also, we need more Tomoyo (she is my second favorite) and she is the only heroine that we hardly know anything about her. Then again, kyoani got only 24 episodes. They can’t really do much. Tomoya’s dream was just pain weird. Does it suppose to represent anything? Kotomi’s dry sense of humor is very funny. I thought in the end she will play violin perfectly, but I guess I was wrong.
Haha, in your face, Shirukii. Didn’t I tell you that Asami doesn’t seem to have any feeling toward Sana three episodes ago and you didn’t believe me. Just kidding, dude. I just had a hunch that she is not gonna have any love romance toward Sana, but I never thought that she will be a lesbian. That came out of nowhere.
Oh well, have a good break while you can, man.
@Shirukii:
Searched and the only special I found was this fan disc special edition 1 of season 1. No luck so far on season 2. ;_;
@Kanon_fan82:
My thoughts are the same with Shirukii.
Oh yeah, I’ll be waiting for those Hoshino x Shuri doujins. XD Japan, don’t let me down.
@ Pyrrhusonline: “I saw a rabbit, then a deer, then you” I have no idea about that line but we know it is a big hint. What i understand about that line is that she finally understand something.
@solgae: I have no idea about that old man. what could he be when Kotomi said he is a bad guy? There is no way we, the non-gamer, know the answer. But why did he stall her anyway?
@zt: Since they mentioned about both of her parents are amazing scholars then i thought how is her parents going have a lot of time with their daughter since they both are scholars. What i thought is that Kotomi lacks of something in her family, warmth?
In this episode, it seems like she never got any praise by doing what she like to do and she went to library everyday even it was on sunday. Did she ever have any good times with her parents at all?
@Shirukii: 1 more episode then i will know my answer about my bet.
De Vermis Mysteriis? That’s what it was?
That was even Latin? *Sigh* those Japaneseses.
And I’m not even going to speculate on the deer, the rabbit, and Tomoya-kun. If anyone here is familiar with Shinto voodoo mysticism, feel free to speak up.
Eh, Shirukii, I see them doing it relay race style, where the baton is handed over from Kotomi to Kyou’s arc pretty efficiently, maybe even during the peak of Kotomi’s arc.
As it is there might not be enough time to animate all the arcs fully, so I don’t know. A simultaneous telling of both Kyou and Kotomi would be double the drama, double the fun.
It is also a fact now after this episode that Kyou is hot. Let it be said that amidst the clamour of opinions about favourite 2D characters, everyone I know of manages to say “but Kyou is hot” in a rousing cry of assent
ItAintEazy:
“De Vermis Mysteriis? Thats what it was?”
It’s from one of H.P. Lovecraft’s work that’s why it sounds wierd. I actually didn’t know until I read a subtitler’s note.
@Siva: keep watching to find out! I’m not gonna type in spoilers even with the spoilers tag as it might tempt you. This is probably the best arc in CLANNAD sans After Story, so you don’t wanna get spoiled.
Already thoroughly spoiled by reading @ baka-tsuki…Kotomi-chan’s path is the best, closely followed by Tomoyo’s
That violin totally woke me up O_o
@ Shirukii’s exams
*Crawls back from piles and piles of coding + graphic projects*
Shake hands, I bid thee best of luck…! *reaches out for textbook, where the bookshelve collapses on nightingale*
Remember, reading Clannad “spoilers” is like reading School Days “spoilers”. If any of the latter was true, then we would have just as easily had a “nice harem” ending instead.
@Avisch: darn, I thought it would have been something actually original. Oh well, her latin still sucks lead marbles.
I have decided that Tomoya’s father is Nagisa’s dad and Yuusuke put together. And the guy stalking Kotomi is Tomoya’s father with a moustache.
ilove kyou chan thank you very mach good bye
بالصراحة انا احب كيو جان يعني احس وجها كيووووووووووووووووووووووووووووووووووووووووت
This is fantastic pictures !!