CLANNAD / First Impressions

Summary:

Surprising Tomoya and Nagisa even further, Kouko had heard the rumor of Fuuko being at the school and running around with her friends. At this point, Nagisa almost tells Kouko the truth, but Fuuko stops her, and Kouko continues on by saying that she knows this isn’t true because she sees Fuuko every day in her hospital bed. She would be happy if Fuuko were surrounded by friends, even if it were just in a dream since Fuuko can’t see anything else right now. Kouko’s question of if Tomoya and Nagisa would be Fuuko’s friends if she attended this school causes Nagisa to start crying. Tomoya tells her that he’s sure that Fuuko is cute and fun to be with, and this leads to Kouko hoping that they can be with Fuuko until the end of the dream. In front of Fuuko, Tomoya then asks Kouko to get married to her boyfriend and claims that Fuuko would want that. He and Nagisa are able to convince Kouko to become happy by getting married, and Fuuko smiles a little. Before they part ways, Tomoya also gets Kouko to admit that she believes her sister will wake up someday.

Afterwards, Fuuko reveals that she didn’t know her sister was hesitating about the marriage and vows to work harder to find people to celebrate it. Nagisa cries again because she feels she’s done something cruel to Fuuko, but Tomoya blames himself since he didn’t believe her. He thinks that her waking up now will make a happy ending, and Nagisa feels that it’ll be soon. The two, however, do notice that there are some people who completely ignore Fuuko when she tries to give them a starfish carving, and Nagisa comments on how it’s as if they can’t see her. Tomoya is then reminded that they haven’t given a carving to Kotomi yet, so he takes Fuuko to the library. Kotomi initially thinks that Fuuko is a bully, but Tomoya clears that up, and Fuuko is subsequently quite impressed with Kotomi’s knowledge of the starfish. Seeing Kotomi accept the carving and seeing the two girls get along well causes Tomoya to comment to Fuuko later on how she and Kotomi are both spaced out and clumsy. Fuuko takes offense and agrees to a tongue twister challenge, but she fails horribly at it.

When Sunohara interrupts their fight, Fuuko warns both guys not to trouble her unless they want something terrible to happen. Sunohara teases her about the consequences, so Fuuko whistles, and a horde of her fan club storms through the hallway and carries him away. After school, Tomoya has Fuuko go home by herself again so that he and Nagisa can visit Kouko to make sure she’s still getting married. To their relief, Kouko reveals that she’s already talked with Yuusuke about it, though she’s having trouble finding a place for the ceremony. She actually wants it to be at the school so that she can get married while surrounded by students, teachers, and her sister. Tomoya then asks her about the kind of girl Fuuko was before the accident, so Kouko tells them about how the two of them had gone to the beach together the first summer after she became a teacher. Fuuko hadn’t played with the other kids her age and had instead stayed behind Kouko, playing alone with a starfish. It was then that Kouko had realized that Fuuko was the kind of girl who doesn’t approach others.

Kouko felt that she couldn’t let things continue like this, so she tried being distant to Fuuko so that she’d have to make some friends. On the morning of the high school opening ceremony, Fuuko had promised to work hard to do just that, and it was after that ceremony that the accident happened. Finished with her story, Kouko wonders why Tomoya and Nagisa are so concerned about Fuuko since they haven’t even met her, and Tomoya tries to explain by saying that they share some resemblances with her. The next day, he and Nagisa talk privately about how Kouko must think that Fuuko sleeps with feelings of loneliness. Tomoya suggests that Kouko will find out the number of friends that Fuuko has made once Fuuko leaves the hospital and starts attending school. As for the task at hand of handing out starfish carvings, Tomoya confers with the others about distributing something else for all the people who are ignoring Fuuko. Although Fuuko doesn’t think this is necessary, Sunohara personally showcases one of the problems with the carving: people don’t know that it’s supposed to be a starfish. In fact, Sunohara had thought it was a shuriken.

The guys don’t like any of Fuuko’s ideas to inform everyone that it’s a starfish, and since Sunohara suggests giving out something cuter, Nagisa starts to offer an idea. Tomoya immediately cuts her off because he knows that she was going to propose the big dango family. He makes the point that it’s not cute, but Nagisa disagrees. Fuuko joins the discussion to say that a starfish is still cuter, and this develops into a full-blown argument between the two girls. Just as Sunohara and Tomoya are thinking that no one can stop this fight, Nagisa gets Fuuko to agree that the big dango family and the starfish can both be the best. The four of them still aren’t able to come up with other ideas, though Tomoya does get to have some fun at Sunohara’s expense by having Fuuko poke Sunohara’s face after she momentarily goes into her happy mode again. Afterwards, he and Nagisa head to the counseling room to meet with an old teacher named Koumura so that they can ask him about letting Kouko have her wedding at the school. Koumura had actually already known about this because Kouko had talked about it when she was still teaching, and he promises to discuss it with the principal and vice-principal.

The two pass along the good news to Kouko, however she has some bad news in return. It seems that Fuuko’s condition changed the other day, and the doctor now thinks that she won’t wake up. Kouko still believes that Fuuko will wake up some day, but she doesn’t know if that will be in a week or in ten years. After getting married, she plans to live in the neighboring town so that she can be closer to the hospital that Fuuko is in and be with her more. Nagisa bawls uncontrollably after they leave Kouko’s home, and even Tomoya gets teary-eyed in frustration. He wonders if Fuuko knew about this and if that’s the reason that the only thing she could do is to increase the number of people attending the wedding. Tomoya later finds out one more troubling thing from Sunohara. Earlier, Sunohara had tried to confront a couple of guys who he had thought were ignoring Fuuko, and he discovered that the two simply couldn’t see her. When Sunohara questions what Fuuko is and reveals that he had heard about Ibuki Fuuko’s accident, Tomoya coldly answers that she’s Isogai Fuuko. Sunohara notes that no one knows anyone by that name, and he’s got another revelation: people are forgetting about Fuuko, including those who got the carving.

Preview:

The episode had some funny moments (Tomoya becoming a Fuuko master), but it was decidely more serious than previous weeks – just look at how much Nagisa cried – so it feels like we’re getting really close to the climax of the arc. Given how Kouko said the doctor thinks Fuuko won’t wake up though, it seems less and less likely that there’ll be a truly happy ending for Fuuko. Maybe she’ll just disappear after her sister’s wedding, knowing that her sister is happy now. The complication is that people are starting to forget about her, so I imagine it’ll be a struggle to reach that point, especially if Tomoya and Nagisa lose their memories of her too. There’s also the question of why some people can see her and why some people can’t, though I’m willing to chalk it all up to the complexities of her being a ghost/spirit/whatever. Anyway, the next episode title (The Wind that Disappears into Twilight) appears to support the idea that Fuuko will disappear since her name starts with the Japanese character for wind, and the episode after that (Until the End of the Dream) looks to be the finale of this arc, so those of you waiting for things to move on won’t have to wait too much longer.

52 Comments

  11. They sure are dragging this Fuko arc a looooooooooooong time.

    I’m not so confident in KyoAni’s style this time. There are a few other harem type shows that seems to progress a bit faster.

    Shippoyasha
    Reply

  30. no, this anime is really good. best anime of the season! but right now its progressing pretty slowly, but it really mixes with humor and seriousness. I hope fuuko gets a happy ending and it gets back on track, and the relationship start to…lol yeah

    Terry-Kun
    Reply

  31. I betcha the whole random noises thing is to indicate that Fuko’s actually some sort of animal masquerading as a human. I tend to think of her as a small dog and it would be in line with KEY’s usual style to have Fuko vanish entirely and then him walk across a dog with the nametag “Fuko” on it.

    Kaioshin Sama
    Reply

  35. Hmm. I really don’t get this arc. It’s way to supernatural at this point. I mean how come people are forgetting about Fuko and how come Tomoyo and Nagisa firmly believe Kouko when she says that Fuko is at the hospital dispite never having a clear visual proof of her being actually there?

    Maybe Sunohara is making all this up to throw us off guard? I mean there is still 2 more episode on it right?

    Jubei Himura
    Reply

  39. “Maybe Sunohara is making all this up to throw us off guard? I mean there is still 2 more episode on it right?”

    Wasn’t Fuuko’s fading away already apparent before Sunohara mentioned it? She seemed to be getting completely ignored by people while Nagisa and Tomoya were watching her near the last half of the episode.

    It's actually a starfish.
    Reply

  41. I enjoy the show, but to me the humor does nothing and the emotion is pretty much off for some reason. I don’t even mind Fuuko, but her story doesn’t phase me. I guess I’m all KEY’d out.

    ann
    Reply

  43. Is it really only going to be 2 more episodes? I haven’t even figured out yet what this series really is about. Just focussing on Fuko and maybe ending with her reawakening due to having made her sister happy as “ghost”? Will we get to see some more romance stuff going on between Nagisa and Tomoya? Right now I can’t even say if I really like this series as one moment I’d be crying tears and next moments I’d be laughing them, yet I can’t even see what it’s all aiming at, not even partially. Makes me confused, but of course then there’s no other way to tell without watching the next episodes.

    elba
    Reply

  44. @ NEMO_N
    Fuko is fading away. the question is is she fading away because she’s about to return to her body in the next city and wake up or is she fading away because she’s dying and
    @ it’s actually a starfish
    I though Fuko’s sister can’t see or hear Fuko becuase she knows the truth of Fuko’s heath and there for can’t see or hear her even through she right in front of her. the kicker for this is where Fuko gives a girl a starfish and not even two seconds later that girl is wonder where she got that starfish from
    now how many of you would agree with this theory

    vesper_nova
    Reply

  46. I’m going to start a running tally of everytime I see somebody get defensive when somebody calls Clannad a Harem anime or anything but a Visual Novel starting now. I’ll post it on my blog when the last episode airs. Better yet I’ll get some people involved in a drinking game for it.

    Kaioshin Sama
    Reply

  48. I noticed that Koumura (the old guy) has the same voice as the chainsaw-wielding old guy from Fumoffu. Though I don’t think he will go crazy here… (that WOULD be fun to see though)

    Chucky
    Reply

  50. Seems like a bittersweet end to the arc is coming…

    Guesses:
    – Tomoya + Nagisa works hard on behalf of Fuuko by handing out more stars (ok, fine, starfish)
    – Tomoya + Nagisa manage to persuade Fuuko’s sister to get married
    – Fuuko’s sis sees many students attending her wedding, each holding a starfish
    – Fuuko’s sis sees Fuuko for a sec before Fuuko fades away…

    1) Fuuko wakes up in the end, bringing a happy end to the arc
    2) Fuuko sleeps forever or dies
    – Might happen AFTER her sister marries the singer (having witness her sister getting married and getting on with life).
    – Or might happen BEFORE, such that her sister won’t have to worry about her anymore, and then we get those guesses above (eg, students turning up to the wedding with starfishes)

    – Or on a sadder note, her sister doesn’t marry the singer.
    – Fuuko fades away/dies
    – And the sad ending then starts spiralling into more sad stuff in whatever arc comes next

    Personally, I would REALY like to have a happy ending (not bittersweet), regardless of how cliche or generic it is (to me, sad endings are the CLICHED way of trying NOT to be cliched). Perhaps instead of trying to be innovative by producing an ending that shocks people, we can get storytellers who come up with new, innovative retelling of generic/cliched endings. Happy endings have been called cliched and avoided for soooo long… I think it’s ok to bring them back.

    Jayars
    Reply

  52. @ Annoy, Kyo-Ani is just animatin’ another of Keys work, Air and Kanon being the first. They’re not necessarilly the same series with differant seasons but I can understand how you’d look at it that way. (Perhaps Little Busters will be airing once Haruhi’s second season is done?)

    In any case, whilst Clannad is going pretty slowly, I don’t think there should be a problem with this. Show Spoiler ▼

    Anonymous
    Reply

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