CLANNAD / First Impressions

Summary:

Kotomi wakes Tomoya from a nap one day with some of her horrific-sounding violin playing, and it attracts the attention of the other students in the class. After Kotomi introduces herself to them, Tomoya deadpans that her weapon is the violin and that she’s defeated a countless number of people with it. The noise brings Kyou, Ryou, and Nagisa to the classroom too, and although Kyou initially gets frustrated trying to have a conversation with her, she eventually is able to find out that Kotomi has been lent the violin by girls from the music room. Tomoya later arrives at the drama clubroom and is greeted by Kotomi trying to use some comedy lines, but, as Kyou quickly points out, it isn’t funny because her timing sucks. Kyou makes Kotomi practice the lines by herself, though her real motive for this is to keep Kotomi from playing the violin. Ryou and Nagisa soon arrive at the clubroom too, and the girls decide to look through a box of props. When Kotomi becomes curious about a magical wand, Ryou explains that it’s supposed to make you transform if you twirl it around and utter an incantation. Kotomi attempts to try this out by reciting some foreign words, but of course it doesn’t work.

Watching the other three from the sidelines, Kyou comments to Tomoya about how well the girls are getting along. This causes him to suggest that she join them, so Kyou questions if he can even imagine her twirling a wand and saying such words. As it turns out, he can. She’s ready to punch him for thinking about her like that and laughing out loud over it, but she never gets the chance because Kotomi suddenly starts playing the violin again. Because Kotomi explains that she wants a lot of people to hear it and wants to play the violin a lot before she has to return it, Kyou decides that Kotomi will have a violin recital on Monday. However, she forbids her from playing the violin here in this room until then. Kotomi thus has to go elsewhere to practice, and Tomoya is about to join Nagisa and Ryou in going with her, but Kyou keeps him back because she feels Kotomi should spend time with other people since she’s already so close to him. Alone at the bus stop with him a little while later, Kyou asks Tomoya if he’d go out with a girl who’s hopelessly in love with him. Tomoya thinks that he’s a delinquent bum, so the girl would soon lose interest in him, but Kyou then claims that a delinquent can be the object of admiration, especially for an honor roll student. This leads to Tomoya pointing out that this would include Sunohara too, and that makes Kyou laugh.

On the next day – a Sunday – Tomoya gets up in the morning and finds his father still asleep on the floor of the living room while the entire apartment is a mess. Tomoya wants to go see Nagisa, but he doesn’t think she’s up yet. When he hears horrific noises coming from the school, he heads there instead and finds Kotomi practicing the violin. Tomoya also learns that she’s an honorary librarian since she’s there so much, so she has the key to the place. Kotomi had actually anticipated that he would come, so she baked an apple pie and brought it with her. She claims that it’s her first time making it, and Tomoya is surprised to discover that it’s delicious, causing her to become really happy. Kotomi then opens the nearby window and comments on how she saw a rabbit the day before yesterday, a deer yesterday, and him today. She eventually sits back down and wants to read a book together with him, so he suggests that she just read it to him instead. While she’s doing this, Tomoya drifts to sleep and dreams of Kotomi practicing the violin so that she can get into a comedian training school. The dream also has Nagisa cooking dango, Ryou transforming into Botan, and Kyou in a nurses’ outfit dissolving into moths. Kotomi eventually wakes him from the dream, and on the way home, she tells him how happy she was that he came today.

The following day, the group puts a flier up on the bulletin board announcing the recital, and Kyou gets to work roping people, including Sunohara, to come. Even Misae shows up, and she’s approached by Tomoyo who identifies her as the legendary student council president. Tomoyo aspires for that position too, so she requests the chance to talk with Misae later. Nagisa’s parents have also come for the recital, and as Kyou gets things going, Sanae gets the feeling she’s met Kyou and Ryou somewhere before. Once the recital begins, it becomes clear that Kotomi hasn’t improved any despite her practicing. Several people even fall unconscious because of the noise. Fortunately, it eventually ends, and Nagisa claims afterwards that the last song was played very well. On the way home, Tomoya wonders aloud why they work so hard for Kotomi, and Kyou suggests that it’s because Kotomi has a child-like side. Ryou agrees, but Kyou then quietly points out that Kotomi is Ryou’s rival in love. When Tomoya overhears this, Ryou claims that it’s nothing. The three then notice Nagisa holding off an old man in a suit who is trying to get to Kotomi, and they all rush to help her. Seeing all of them, the man vows to try again on another day and walks off, leaving Kotomi clearly afraid of someone she calls a bad guy.

Preview:

You know, the series already looks great, but sometimes you get moments like this that you’re just kind of left speechless. I don’t think it’s well suited for the entire series, but when they do bring it up to that level, it’s quite impressive. The only problem is that I’m not quite sure what that scene was supposed to mean, particularly given the context of Kotomi talking about seeing the rabbit, the deer, and Tomoya. Maybe it was just to show him being stunned by her beauty.

This episode also had plenty more Kyou screen time, including her asking Tomoya if he’d go out with a girl who really liked him. They’re not exactly keeping it a secret that it’s for Ryou’s sake, but there was at least one moment during the bus stop scene where I wondered if it wasn’t for Kyou’s own self too. All of the sudden, there seems to be a lot of girls who could have feelings for Tomoya. I still don’t think they’d try to do two arcs at the same time, but this is a lot more buildup for the Kyou/Ryou arc than I would have thought – not that I’m complaining. For the time being, my main question is who the old man is, and next episode title suggests that there’s some hidden world of Kotomi’s that we’ll find out about. On a related note, CLANNAD will not be airing on December 27th or January 3rd. Episode 13 will thus be airing on January 10th, 2008.

62 Comments

  14. Mutio: Even the 16:9 shows are not HD. I don’t know whether the ultimate source material is HD or not, but when it hits BS-i’s viewers’ screens, it’s upscaled from a smaller frame size. I guess KyoAni needs to make their money back SOMEhow. 😉

    However, there are raws out there which use a much nicer upscaling technique (which we favor for our 16:9 prints).

    –IJ.

    IJ
    Reply

  15. as i was seeing the pictures i could honestly picture in my head the violin recital part as soon as i saw kotomi with the violin and then the blue pictures showed up and i just started cracking up. lol

    VIceral
    Reply

  19. lmao what the… looks so good though =D
    blushing tomoyo is cute =]
    and lol i really cant wait for this just looking at these screenies. really nice animation in some parts by the looks of it (the kotomi scenes) and lol i just LOVE kyou’s expressions XD!!

    Furuba
    Reply

  21. First it’s Myself;Yourself ep 11, then Night Wizard goes full throttle, and Kyou shows up earlier than expected: what a great week!

    BTW, that photo of Kyou “disappearing” is interesting; it looks like it is foreshadowing something…

    Dm
    Reply

  22. Wait a minute here, why was Tomoyo blushing like that?! Dont tell it’s because of Sunohara!!!! Cuz of it is then I would say “That’s impossible!!!” She never blushed or anything yet, no matter how much Sunohara abuses her. Anyways IMO Kotomi’s arc is starting off pretty awesome! Especially the animation, really KyoAni deserves the credit to be the best producers in anime!

    X
    Reply

  26. Great episode. As always, there are lots of funny moments and very important moments for Kotomi arc too, including the preview. Can you spot those? =D

    Show Spoiler ▼

    solgae
    Reply

  27. @X

    As long as he has his mind set up that he’s a “delinquent” and a “useless person”, I doubt he will =D.

    Then again, he already has three girls who have feelings for him. Guess he’s still has that “male protagonist from a bishojo game” ability, huh?

    solgae
    Reply

  39. “I still don’t think they’d try to do two arcs at the same time, but this is a lot more buildup for the Kyou/Ryou arc than I would have thought – not that I’m complaining.”

    Although the time with Kyou&Tomoya was exclusive to Kyou/Ryou’s arc, all the other stuff in the episode that is related to Kyou and Ryou is actually part of Kotomi’s arc. So we’re still very much set on Kotomi’s arc, but those occasional Kyou and Ryou stuff inside Kotomi’s arc does build up the story about them nicely.

    solgae
    Reply

  51. @ taelrak: I read Dandelion Girl, and I know what you’re talking about (but I didn’t recognize the reference until after you pointed it out). If the show is symbolizing anything by having Kotomi say those lines…then all I can say is “Wow!” o___o It sure as hell explains a lot.

    Anyway, Clannad’s immensely cute and doesn’t annoy me as much as Kanon did for much of its duration. I think this is in part due to the fact that I love Clannad’s male protagonist far more than I like Kanon’s. Tomoyo’s got a nice personality (by nice, I mean interesting and well made, with a complex past to boot).

    Can’t wait until mid-January. I guess I’ll have to find something else to make use of my time until then…x__x Blerrg.

    asterisk
    Reply

  56. That dream sequence was totally freaky. XD Again, disappointment with the bad violin playing. I was really hoping to hear her play well, especially after Nagisa says how much better she’s gotten. My bad for believing her. ORZ Also, I was blown away by the Kotomi scene just before the eyecatch. That was a beautiful yet confusing scene. o_o

    Neo Horizon
    Reply

  58. I wonder if Kotomi was reading something from the DSM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnostic_and_Statistical_Manual_of_Mental_Disorders) and that just mixed in with the weird stuff that Tomoya would have already been thinking about at the time resulting in the weird dream. Don’t y’all have days like that, where your dreams make absolutely no sense?

    What’s with this guy? https://randomc.net/image/CLANNAD/CLANNAD%20-%2011%20-%20Large%2034.jpg

    Her father? A tutor? Serial rapist? o.O

    cbhl
    Reply

  60. Starfish > Tomoya > Deer, sea slug, rabbit
    or something.
    This ep did nothing for Kotomi for me, she’s not a particularly interesting character for me. Fuko was fun and weird, Kotomi is just meek and moe to the extreme. However this episode made me really like Kyou. She’s now my favourite character. I loved the end where that man was trying to get to Kotomi. Kotomi hides behind Ryou, Tomoya pulls Nagisa behind him and Kyou just steps out in front of them and demands if the man has anything to say say it though her. Not only is she the only one (except maybe Tomoyo to some extent) who acts like a normal girl she’s brave too.

    Senefen
    Reply

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