Hitode shoujo Fuko-chan. Somehow just not as awesome…

This will probably be the last lighthearted episode of Kotomi’s arc, with Tomoya’s memory of their childhood meeting bleeding back into his mind things are sure to get drama heavy really quickly. But again, I must note that I’m seeing a lot more love for Kyou than Kotomi here, perhaps that’ll start to change next week, unfortunately.

Episode Rating: 9/10

With Kotomi’s violin recital over and done with, she reluctantly returns the instrument to the music room. The girl who was playing it before tells Kotomi that it’s actually not school property, that it was actually left by a graduate some years ago. The violin is very old but both she and Kotomi agree that it’s a fine instrument and will convince the teachers not to discard it. Before leaving, Kotomi gives her standard introduction and befriends the girl who introduces herself as Nishina Rie.

On the way to school, Nagisa tells Tomoya that Kotomi’s social skills are leveling up quickly, she no longer camps out in the library but actually goes to class where she has made a few friends whom she helps with homework, a few of them even heard her violin recital the other day, jokingly inferring how terrible it was.

With violin out of the way, Kotomi’s back to practicing her comedy routines, Kyou frustrated at her utter failure in timing and delivery. Ryou and Nagisa vow to help her out but Kyou notes that adding two zeros to a zero is still zero. Cornered, Kotomi declares that she will now pull out the ultimate joke, a recent one that she just heard on TV, turns out to be lame, Kotomi being the only one who cracks up at it, Kyou almost in tears at how bad it was.

But one thing that Kotomi does seem to have down is her cooking, having brought enough lunch for the whole club. While eating the topic of what everyone does in their spare time comes up, after hearing their sorry excuses for social lives Kyou suggests a group date this coming weekend, even better since Kotomi’s birthday is coming up soon, they can grab her a present.

Despite having the title of group date, Tomoya ends up being the only guy there, Kyou immediately rejecting his idea to bring Sunohara along, reasoning that one idiot in the group is more than enough. After doing some random shopping, the group comes to a game center where they find the gift they want for Kotomi, a huge anteater plushie in a crane game, so big that it doesn’t even budge when grabbed. After many repeated efforts they’re down to their last try, and who better to do the honors than…Fuko?

With a random cameo appearance, Fuko buts in and brags that she is the master of crane games. However, despite managing to grab a prize, Fuko’s instincts pull her hand away from the anteater and towards a small star shaped plushie instead, which she then proceeds to run off with, leaving everyone confused as to who she is but with a feeling that they’ve met her before.

Splitting up at the end of the day, Nagisa, Ryou and Kyou head off one way, Kotomi and Tomoya the other. While walking, Kotomi suddenly gives Tomoya a book and tells him to hold onto it, not necessarily to read, just to have for the time being. But their calm walk alone is cut abruptly short by the “bad guy” who approached Kotomi days before. Grabbing Tomoya, she makes a run for it, the two hiding out in the bushes until the man is out of sight.

The next morning, Tomoya wakes to a weird dream, quick flashes of a fire, a crying girl and a strangely familiar looking old man…

On the way to school, he’s suddenly attacked from behind by Kotomi who does the whole “guess who” bit, but it ends up being slightly awkward as Kotomi’s boobs push up against Tomoya’s back. After identifying her as Kotomi and she backs off, rather embarrassed. Then Kyou shows up and identifies herself as the one who put her up to it.

Suddenly, Nagisa comes running up to them with a terrified look on her face, after asking Kyou if it’s around this time that Ryou takes the bus she tells her that there has been a terrible bus accident at the intersection below. The wreckage is indeed quite horrifying, but thankfully Ryou was on the bus after it and the one that got hit only had the driver inside, who made it out fine, as did the car driver. Just as everyone breathes a sigh of relief Kotomi sees the wreckage and breaks down, falling onto the floor in tears screaming.

They get her to the school nurse’s office but when they go back to visit they find out she left shortly after to go home, due to privacy reasons the nurse can’t explain the details of what happened, but does give them her address so they can go visit her, but tells them not to force her to meet with them if she doesn’t want to. When they get to the house, no one answers the doorbell so they assume that she must be sleeping and call it quits for the day. However, Tomoya feels something strangely familiar about the house and goes back to give it another look, there he finds the old man that has been following Kotomi around recently.

The two talk and the man introduces himself as a colleague of Kotomi’s parents, telling Tomoya about their research into a world born in parallel with our own universe which had never had any evidence of existing before Kotomi’s parents began to study it. However, there appears to be a darker side of the story, one which the man can’t tell due to privacy reasons. He asks Tomoya to pass on this message to Kotomi “I don’t expect you to forgive us, but we still regret what happened on that day”. And with that, excuses himself.

When Tomoya heads back to Kotomi’s house he suddenly remembers that he’s been here before, but never entered through the front door. Almost as if being guided, he makes his way through the garden where images of its former state flash through his mind. Making his way inside and upstairs, remembering Kotomi’s speech about seeing a rabbit, a deer and then himself, he finds Kotomi sitting inside her room staring out the window, surrounded by news clippings of stories about her parents deaths. Then he remembers it clearly, he had met Kotomi when they were just kids…

Thoughts

Haha, so the old dude wasn’t a stalker/her father after all, once again my theories fail to deliver. Well now we know why Kotomi is so reluctant to talk about her parents, they’re not abusive or distant, they’re dead ;_; Judging from the newspaper clipping subs, they died in a plane crash. And from the way that Kotomi reacted to the wreckage of the bus accident, there’s a subtle suggestion that she was there to witness it first hand. But then there’s the whole imagery of the burning house that seems to run contrary to that story. In any case, I’m quite intrigued by Kotomi’s background, moreso than I ever was with Fuko’s, so I’ll probably enjoy this coming drama fest much more. And my goal to make it through Clannad without crying is so far right on track! Though I hear that if the “after” stories don’t make you baaaw like a little girl, then you’re probably a heartless bastard.

Gotta love the date scene in this episode though, it made Tomoya look like a major pimp, walking around with four hot girls. The whole scene itself was kind of weird though, taking Kyou’s labeling of it being a group date, it was awkward at best seeing Tomoya hang out with all of them at the same time. And speaking of awkwardness, the hell was with that random Fuko appearance, it was so out of place. It was basically “BAM, sup guys, you don’t have to remember me now, I’ll be back later, I’ll just win this crane game for you in the meantime. Oh crap, I got the wrong thing, oh well, starfishes are awesome, kkthxbai.” While I’m sitting there wondering what in god’s name was going on. I suppose this was KyoAni’s way of silencing the “Will Fuko come back at the end of the series?” debate, to which the answer is now obviously: yes.

Speaking of good old KyoAni, their self referential whoring ways never cease, this time with their blatant Kanon reference using Sayuri’s gigantic anteater plushie. Although I made that sound really bad, I actually like when they throw in random things like this, it’s not exactly subtle but it gave me a nice laugh. Much better than their “BUY TEH HARUHI DVDs!” viral marketing they did throughout all of LS, making it a huge commercial instead of subtle visual cues.

Lastly, again, I’m soooo sorry for being late with this. Previously it was because of exams, but having finished yesterday, the wondrous state of drunkenness kept me from forming a coherent post yesterday and the aftereffects felt this morning weren’t very pleasant either. But it worked out well as SS-Eclipse’s version of the episode was late anyways. School’s all done for the winter break so things should return to normal from now on, thanks for being so patient guys!

~ Shirukii ~