CLANNAD / First Impressions

Summary:

With Kouko’s wedding coming up next Sunday, Fuuko is making one more push to get people to come, but more people than ever are now ignoring her. Tomoya remembers how Sunohara had said that people are forgetting about her, however he tells himself that it must have been Sunohara’s imagination. When the three run into Tomoyo in the hallway, Nagisa reminds Tomoyo that they first met during the festival when Fuuko gave her a carving. Tomoyo doesn’t remember the carving until Tomoya shows one to her, and she finds it strange that she forgot about it. A little later, after teasing Fuuko some more, Tomoya notices Mitsui walking by and calls her over. She doesn’t recognize him, so he tries to remind her of who he is by using one of the carvings, but she doesn’t recognize that either, nor does she recall saying that she’d celebrate Kouko’s wedding. Tomoya tries to tell her that they’re talking about Fuuko, who’s right beside them, however it soon becomes clear that Mitsui can’t see her anymore. After Fuuko runs off by herself, Tomoya tells Nagisa the truth about how people are forgetting, and he suggests that Fuuko’s existence itself is starting to disappear.

In front of Fuuko though, Tomoya pretends that Mitsui was just joking or had misunderstood something. Despite Tomoya’s efforts to cheer her up, Fuuko remains depressed. She is noticeably happier at the Furukawa house while they’re all working on more carvings later that night, and it is now Nagisa who can barely keep back the tears. She confides to Tomoya that she’s worried about what will happen and wonders if the two of them will forget about Fuuko too. He pats her on the head to reassure her that it won’t happen and tells her that they have to support Fuuko until the end of her dream. After leaving the bakery, Tomoya heads to the dormitory and gives Misae a starfish carving as an invitation to Kouko’s wedding. He then goes to Sunohara’s room and finds out that Sunohara had taken off from school in order to investigate Fuuko. Sunohara has connected Kouko’s wedding with Fuuko and now knows that Fuuko’s family name is in fact Ibuki, but since Ibuki Fuuko is currently in the hospital, he questions who Fuuko is. He is considering going to the nearby town’s hospital to confirm Fuuko identity, and although Tomoya warns Sunohara to stop this, he doesn’t reveal that he’s worried that Sunohara will forget about Fuuko if he sees her.

Sunohara comes in to school during lunchtime the following day and tells Tomoya and Nagisa of how he found himself at the hospital with no memory of why he was there. Tomoya and Fuuko then try to give him a starfish carving, but they get interrupted when Kyou shows up to yell at Sunohara for his attendance record. Kyou notices the carving, and although she no longer remembers what it is, it triggers something faint in her memory. Tomoya tries to get her to see Fuuko, but no matter what he does, she isn’t able to remember. This leads him to realize that he might also forget about Fuuko someday, but he reassures Nagisa that she won’t forget because she’s so close to Fuuko. The next day, Sunohara is trying to get Tomoya and Nagisa to come to lunch with him when he inadvertently addresses Fuuko. They immediately catch onto this, but Sunohara struggles to remember anything more and can only say that he feels that there was someone like that. Fuuko is able to hand him a carving, but he immediately wonders why he has it and what it is. Unable to remember Fuuko’s name until Nagisa tells him, Sunohara admits that he doesn’t think he hated her, and Tomoya lets him go because he’s struggling with this so much.

On the way home, Tomoya asks Fuuko if she’s going to the wedding in her school clothes, and Nagisa thinks that it’s okay since the ceremony will be at school. Tomoya suggests buying an accessory for her, but he laughs after seeing her with an earring. They eventually buy Fuuko a birthday party set consisting of hats and streamers that she really likes. Because of this, Fuuko starts to think better of Tomoyo, ranking him just above sea slugs (which she likes a good deal). She also smiles when she sees Nagisa and Tomoya watching a lake fountain together. Unfortunately, when the three return home, they discover that Nagisa’s father has forgotten about Fuuko and can’t quite see her anymore, but Tomoya is nevertheless convinced that Akio hasn’t completely forgotten yet – just like Kyou and Sunohara haven’t. Nagisa’s mother meanwhile appears to still remember Fuuko, however it soon becomes clear that she can’t see Fuuko anymore. In tears, Sanae admits that she had gone to the hospital to find out about Fuuko being Kouko’s sister, and ever since then, she’s started to forget about Fuuko. After being reassured that Fuuko is still there, Sanae tells Fuuko that she can stay in this house and that they think of her as family. That night, Tomoya, Nagisa, and Fuuko decide to go to the school.

Preview:

With everyone forgetting about Fuuko and her disappearance seeming like it’s imminent, I assume next episode will be the final one of the Fuuko arc. It still hasn’t been quite as touching a story as I hoped it’d be (my personal indicator is if it makes me really sad or feel like crying), but this episode has come the closest to that out of all the ones so far. I was a little surprised to see Sunohara struggling with himself in such a serious way since he’s normally the butt of the jokes. Both he and Sanae (and their respective voice actors) really got across how painful it is to forget about someone like that.

Anyway, like I said, I think it’s pretty much guaranteed that Fuuko is going to disappear. Everyone having a faint memory of her gives hope that she won’t be just forgotten completely, and I suspect that either they’ll remember Fuuko through the starfish carvings or else she’ll make her return through a miraculous recovery of her real body. I guess the former is similar to Makoto and the latter is like Ayu (from Kanon), so maybe they’ll surprise us with something different.

47 Comments

  7. “It hasn’t been quite as touching a story as I hoped it’d be, but I’ll reserve judgment until the arc is over.”
    Reserve it until the series is over, you never know if she could play a role again later.
    Personally I think it’s a very touching story, it just remembers me too much of Makotos arc in Kanon.
    “i guess most key anime’s are like this”
    Key makes the games not the animes. How they handle the content they have is all business of KyoAni.

    mutio
    Reply

  12. Good riddance, I say.

    As cute and adorable as Fuuko is, I was starting to get tire of her. Whether she’s going to pull a Makoto or a Ayu, it needed to be done yesterday. I still want to get back to Tomoya and his relationship with his old man.

    Remy
    Reply

  21. 24 episodes are planned, so assuming KyoAni will do the After Story part separately, I think we have plenty. Some arcs just don’t mix well enough with Nagisa, so I guess their focus would be much smaller.

    Fuuko arc is probably the only one that blends well with Nagisa’s in the original game. There are two versions of Fuuko’s story in the game: one when you don’t end up with Nagisa (Good end and True end) and the one where you do (Good end). Probably that would be why KyoAni devoted 6 episodes for her.

    solgae
    Reply

  24. Suprisingly I don’t feel sad at all to see Fuko disappear (if she ever does). Sure I’ll miss some of the comedy (dango vs. hitode XD) but Sunohara is there to fill the gap. I feel sadder when I see Nagisa cry compared to the thought of Fuko disappearing. I don’t why but I wasn’t really attached to her character. Call me heartless but that’s how I feel…

    anonimus
    Reply

  29. I just finished the whole game and I gotta say I am really skeptical how Tomoyo, Ryou and Kotomi’s story will go in this pile. Origanly none of theirs actually match’s in Nagisa’s storyline apart Fuko’s. THey happen in different parallel worlds. Although it’s deffinitly true that the anime director isn’t exactly following the game. If that was the case then this episode would have be solo Tomoya and Fuko episode, unless this plan to do this in the next episode.

    Jubei Himura
    Reply

  33. @Arashi-chan It might not soung good but it’s done very well to me. Compare it with Kanon that had 5 eps of introduction and 5 for Makoto’s arc (About that much right?) and that still turned out great, well atleast I think so. I’m really likeing how they are slowly building Nagisa’s and Tomoya’s relationship. It’s alot diffrent from Ayu and Yuuichi suddenly kissing.

    @Jubei Himura I’ve read 1 character’s part of the game and just knowing that much is enough to see how they don’t fit togheter. Still Kanon’s storys didn’t exactly fit togheter either, but if they go the 1 girl 1 arc and forget the rest format I’ll be really dissapointed.

    FlameStrike
    Reply

  34. Makoto had maybe 3 episodes (8-10) and half of ep 7 to devoted to her only.

    Fuko and her condition has had almost 80% screen time since ep 5 so far and there haven’t been nothing else (if you take out jokes)… It’s been like repeating “Dozo” over over and “Dozo” came dull already in ep 6.

    Even though most jokes have been funny, you can’t really depend on them too much. Sure they want to resurrect jokes from game but is it necessary really, if they take time and brake rhythm of story. I don’t think all of jokes have blended naturally so well and some of didn’t really need second appearance (Beating Sunohara, Tomoya learning skills from teasing Fuko).

    In Kanon it felt that everyones arc has already started in some way before Makoto arc kicked in full speed and there jokes felt more natural.

    Sure I look back when this is over and may adjust overall score. But I think there’s just so much more story to flesh out than Kanon had…

    Anacone
    Reply

  35. If there was that much Fuuko emphasis, I really wonder why Kyoani decided to run this route first. Not to forget that it shows a lot of Nagisa with Tomoya usage. Episodes after the Fuuko route may very well be distorted.

    Shrug, something about Kyoani’s segmentations particularly irk me. The company’s directions seem fine when the original source is clearly chronological in terms of sequence of events (like a light novel), and even though the routes of key visual novels are fleshed out, it also nets really awkward momentum.

    Amoirsp
    Reply

  36. Especially if you compare it to the Makoto Arc of Kanon, I think the Fuuko Arc here is absolutely no match for that. When I watched Kanon about episode 9-10 I was crying almost the WHOLE DAMN TIME because it was so goddamn sad. And I’m not usually the guy to shed tears, but damn, that made me cry a lot. I guess if I’d watch those episodes again right now my eyes would get wet again in a minute.
    CLANNAD right now is nice just the way it is, and it might be a little sad too but right now I’m nowhere near crying or such. If I’m honest I’m not even interested in Fuuko anymore (or maybe I was never interested in her to begin with). She was quite funny in the beginning but right now I’m a little bored by that, although it most like will end up next episode or so where we’ll either not see her anymore or maybe she’ll awake from her sleep (Ayu anyone? Though Ayu was adorable, who’d actually adore damn Starfish-Fuuko :> ).

    elba
    Reply

  37. i mean nothing from Clannad really draws me in, I’m just following the blog right now til something really catches my attention but I agree with Makoto’s arc I was bawling the entire time, it was beautifully done, she’s my favourite character!!! >.

    ally
    Reply

  38. i think nagisa is next for at least 5 to 7 episoles then after story with the other girls 2 to 3 epidoles each, then comes back to nagisa for the final few episole. btw, fuuko is critical for tomoya and nagisa’s relationships.

    The kai
    Reply

  39. The fact is that Clannad (the game) is NOT depressing as Kanon or Air, it is very sad, but not “depressing”. It’s just supposed to break your heart, but the approach is very different from Kanon’s one. More mature and realistic I think… Well, it is my opinion and feelings ^^”

    Ep 8 was very nice, I didn’t feel anything for Fuko but Sanae, Nagisa & Sunohara just broke my heart…

    Katua
    Reply

  40. It is just that they made Clannad’s comedy so well that it is hard for people suddenly expect a sad mood. They were trying to setup the sad mood throughout the whole episode which made things kinda awkward. Maybe if they went directly to something shocking then the comedy mood would die instantaneously and people would take it seriously.

    banzemanga
    Reply

  41. this was heart rinndering. it doesn’t really hit you until the part where they get home from school and Sanae was talking like she still know Fuko until she said that she’s can’t see Fuko no more. the way it was done was heart breaking. it lik hget the news that a love one is dying and trying to put on a brave face

    vesper_nova
    Reply

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