CLANNAD / First Impressions

Summary:

In the other world, the boy in the robot body finds himself in a field surrounded by lights. The girl in the white dress appears to ask him if the light is mysterious, and after confirming that it is, the boy realizes that these lights are a part of nature for the girl who’s always been here. The girl concludes that if he feels this is mysterious, then he must know of some scenery that is not. Searching through his memory, the boy recalls that he was in a different world either in the distant past or possibly the distant future. Back in the real world, Tomoya finds Nagisa waiting for him on the way to school, and right as he’s considering asking a certain someone to join the drama club, Kyou interrupts his thoughts by running him over with her moped. Seeing how concerned Tomoya is over if Nagisa is okay, Kyou comments on how well the two are getting along and how he’s calling Nagisa by her given name. Kyou thinks that they’re dating, but the couple embarrassingly denies it. After Kyou rides off, Tomoya wonders when he started calling Nagisa by her given name, and both he and Nagisa suddenly get a vision of Fuuko.

At school, Sunohara goes along with Tomoya to invite someone to the drama club because Sunohara claims that he loves Nagisa. Tomoya of course doesn’t believe him and baits him with the prospect of a mysterious and beautiful girl in the library who doesn’t have a boyfriend. Sunohara takes this bait and rushes to the library, but he quickly gets frustrated over how the girl completely ignores him. When Tomoya reveals that the girl is Kotomi, Sunohara recognizes her as the genius girl who he considers to be living on a different world than everyone else, and he immediately gives up. Tomoya’s secret to getting her to react to him is to call her Kotomi-chan, and he’s then able to talk to her about the drama club. He suggests that she meet the club president and reassures her that this person won’t bully her, so Kotomi comes with him to talk with Nagisa. Unfortunately, Kotomi is rather inept at introducing herself and has to be prompted by Tomoya. After one particular exchange of information between her and Nagisa where each reveals her favorite animals and foods, Tomoya stops them and personally introduces Kotomi as someone really smart who likes books and could be an ideal club member.

Because Kotomi gets sidetracked towards a dusty box, Tomoya suggests that Nagisa tell her about the drama club. Kotomi is more concerned about having to cry in a play, and because Nagisa insists that she has to do it if the scene calls for it, Kotomi wonders if Nagisa is a bully. She then notices the recruitment flier that Nagisa drew with all the dango and reveals that she loves the big dango family. Kotomi later admits to Tomoya that she was scared today just like she always is when she talks to someone for the first time. However, she now feels that Nagisa is a kind person and wonders if she’s Tomoya’s lover. He denies it again, and Kotomi quickly changes the subject to the a place she wants to visit on the way home. That place turns out to be the bookstore, and Tomoya watches in horror as Kotomi pulls out a pair of scissors to clip a part of an interesting book. He stops her before she’s able to do so and scolds her about cutting library or bookstore books. In the end, he decides that she needs to get involved with more people.

To help facilitate this, Tomoya tries to introduce Kotomi to Kyou on the next day, but Kotomi is quite afraid of Kyou, particularly because of the look on Kyou’s face during Kotomi’s introduction. Tomoya explains that he wants Kyou to be Kotomi’s friend, but Kyou points out that friends are made and are not something that’s given. Nevertheless, she does introduce herself to Kotomi before walking off. Tomoya recognizes that Kotomi still has problems with talking to people and suggests a more comedic approach, but that idea falters when Kotomi misses her cue. Tomoya then tries to get Ryou to be her friend, and Ryou offers to perform some fortune telling via a deck of cards first. After reading the three cards that Kotomi chooses, Ryou concludes that Kotomi can’t make friends, much to the dismay of both her and Tomoya. Still, Ryou admits that fortune telling can be off, and she agrees to be Kotomi’s friend. Afterwards, Tomoya writes up a script for Kotomi to follow for when she has to introduce herself, and he finds Tomoyo in the bear costume for her to practice on. Tomoyo also agrees to be Kotomi’s friend after she introduces herself, and this makes Kotomi so happy that she hugs the bear.

Tomoya then brings Kotomi by the bread vendor lady, and it turns out that the lady has heard of the Ichinose family. According to her, Kotomi’s parents are actually great scholars, but when Tomoya asks Kotomi about her parents being college professors or something, there is a pause before she confirms it. The two eventually get ambushed by Kyou who hugs Kotomi and proposes they get to know each other better by having Tomoya take them out somewhere. Unfortunately for Kyou, instead of going to karaoke or a restaurant, Tomoya takes them to the drama club room with Nagisa and Ryou. Kotomi once again introduces herself to everyone – this time using the lines Tomoya wrote for her – and each of the girls follows suit. Tomoya can’t resist the urge to interject that Kyou likes to bully weak people, and that earns him a kick in the face from her. With the introductions over, he suggests that all of them join the drama club so that they can have enough members to convince the student council to accept them. Kyou turns down the idea because she and her sister aren’t interested in performing in plays, but Nagisa still urges them to come have fun occasionally.

Kotomi suddenly hears the sound of music and gravitates towards where it’s coming from. In the music room, she finds a girl playing a violin, and seeing how Kotomi is looking at it, the girl offers to let her play it. The group thinks that she might be able to do it, but much to everyone’s shock, Kotomi’s playing is horrific.

Preview:

Aside from the other world beginning – which we haven’t seen for a while and still doesn’t quite make much sense to me – I thought this episode did quite a good job transitioning from the end of last arc into the new one. The opening moments of the episode were so peaceful, and there was even the reference to Fuuko to show that everything hadn’t been forgotten. As for the new arc, Kotomi was very cute, especially when she hides behind Tomoya and asks about bullies. Based on the stuff this episode focused on, her story looks to be about her making friends/being afraid of bullies, her trying to play the violin, and her relationship with her parents. There’s probably more to it than that, and I’m not sure how significant that last one is, but Kotomi did seem a little depressed after Tomoya asked about her parents. Actually, they also appear to be setting up the Fujibayashi sisters’ story because there were several hints dropped that the main concern in Kyou’s life is Ryou and that Ryou has feelings for Tomoya. It made me wonder if Kyou’s arc is going to run parallel with Kotomi’s or if this is just stuff they needed to introduce relatively early on. Either way, Kyou is playing a bigger part than I would have predicted, and the preview for next week also has her deciding on a violin recital for Kotomi too.

69 Comments

  20. @Newprimus
    LOL EXACTLY! Man I cant help but crack a smile at that pic, man despite Kyou’s reactions that pic just proves Tomoya’s revelation more! Man I wonder what the other’s reaction was from that.

    @KiltMaster
    Ya it seems Kyou’s stealing Kotomi’s spotlight with Tomoya! I do hope that KyoAni would properly give each heroine their own respective arc and well as good as the adaptation of Kanon 2006 was, my only complaint was the merging of Ayu and Nayuki’s arc as if they sort of hurried it up, but overall i loved the show, soooo much better than the old one.

    X
    Reply

  23. Hmm…there seems to be rumors that this show might go up to 48 episodes. It would be great if they did if you consider the After Story part, though I believe 36 episodes would be enough when you include the After Story.

    solgae
    Reply

  31. @Omni: You said that there was hints of Kyou’s concern of Ryou’s feelings to Tomoya, but Ryou isnt one of the main heroine rather it’s Kyou right? Also about your suspicion of Kyou’s arc in parallel with Kotomi, it might be true if the total of episodes of Clannad which is rumored to be just 24. Is this true?

    That would kind of suck, I mean they focused a lot of episodes to Fuko, so at least there should be a decent amount of episodes for each heroin in their own respective arcs. Since I didnt like what they did in Kanon that they focus on Makoto too much that the other character’s arc is shortened, so it’s biased. So I hope they would make up for it by making the total episodes longer.

    X
    Reply

  32. lol, i love Kotomi’s “Nande yone?” during the credits. I couldn’t help but laugh and melt at the same time from Koyomi’s moe while asking “Are they a bully?” for every person, while clinging to Tomoya’s arm.

    lol_matt
    Reply

  33. Clannad is definitely the best show out this fall. Every episode has something new in it even if you played the game it’s still interesting to see how the actual anime turns out. I gotta say KyoAni is gonna bank big of this series. It has all, good looking girls, heart warming storyies and a lot of great comedy. Did I mention a cool main character? Tomoya would win an oscar if this was a live movie, he makes everything blossom with his personality.

    Jubei Himura
    Reply

  34. @Jubei Himura: Time to bring the ol’ routine out of retirement for at least a comment or two, especially for something like what you have inferred. Best show comments should be treated as entirely subjective, but you seem to imply this as fact. It’s not something you can just go flinging around as if it were an absolute truth.

    Ok Firstly: What exactly do you mean by “new” anyway? New as in never seen before, or new as in the series. The latter is not something that should be especially hard to do in a serial. This is a logical approach. The episodes build off of the other ones as the arc keeps rolling along to it’s eventual conclusion.

    Secondly: It’s already a foregone conclusion Kyoani is going to bank on this series. KEY fans will buy it because it features KEY characters, and they are popular. This is the meaning behind big name licenses, it’s called playing it safe.

    Thirdly: Almost every anime on the planet subscribes to the “perfect bodied girl” theory of character design. This isn’t unique to Clannad at all. I don’t even see how this bears mention. Saying there are good looking girls in an anime is like saying that their are lots of good skaters in the NHL.

    Fourthly: Heart Warming and Great Comedy are in the eye of the beholder. I saw the Fuko arc as a modest failure for being unable to make me feel sad over of Fuko’s eventual disappearance. The comedy to me is also very low brow, with lots of slapstick and the guy getting beat up by the girl routine (A variation on the boke routine from owarai kombi where one person hits the other for saying or doing something stupid. It’s timeless, but hardly outstanding comedy. Beat Takeshi I believe put this to good use in his old routines). That’s just me of course, many people can’t get enough of this routine, but you imply as if the statement is definitive and generally agreed upon by all. An “I think the series has great comedy and moving stories” would have sufficed.

    Fifthly: Ok whoa! Tomoya is hardly a cool character at all. This seems to me a grievous misinterpretation of what we’ve seen of him. As far as I can see his personality is dreck (with good reason though), and the same Kyon style character we’ve seen in each Kyoani series for the last 3 or so series minus Lucky Star (although to a bit lesser degree). If you said “Nagisa makes everything blossom with her personality” I would agree because she has that sparkle about her, but if anything, Tomoya makes things worse. If Nagisa weren’t there I doubt he would seem as “cool”. Also you cannot win an Oscar for playing yourself as it’s not an achievement at all.

    Well whatever, I’m not really following this series for now, but some of the things people say about it (like the post I quote) are so strange I just have to come in and debate these inferences.

    Kaioshin Sama
    Reply

  35. Hmm…I don’t know how you can accuse someone else of misinterpreting a character in this context, Kaioshin-dono. I mean, you usually just say why you disagree, not accuse other people of thinking incorrectly. You’ve been using an awful lot absolute statements lately, not even bothering to qualify your opinion at times, which I didn’t really expect from you. Do you honestly feel that strongly about this show? >.>

    Mirrinus
    Reply

  36. I know I don’t speak for everyone, and my interpretation of his character is just that, but “Best Show of….” comments really irk me for some reason. It’s nothing personal, I just get really upset when I see them.

    I do still think this is a very odd interpretation of his character though. To me cool means both in control and charismatic. I find Tomoya to be unpredictable and a bit oafish with odd bursts of empathy and genius (kind of like Homer Simpson). I’m not saying this is the only interpretation and Jubei is absolutely entitled to form his own view on the character. I mostly just wish people would tone down these “definitely best show” comments unless it’s followed by an “I think” because this quote by Jubei does not speak for the laws of nature.

    And if I ever use an absolute statement it’s probably a joke. If not lately, it’s probably because I’m tired and cranky from being overworked at my job. Again nothing personal. Also I realize I’m taking a shooting fish in a barrel attitude to this, but every once in a while like I said I get in the mood where certain things bug me more then they should. One last time nothing personal

    Kaioshin Sama
    Reply

  38. @Kaioshin,

    If such things irk you, learn to ignore them. Just like how so many people are irked by your comments, but they generally try to ignore you.

    If you want people to respect your opinion no matter how biased it might be, learn to respect other people’s opinion, no matter how biased it might be. Give and take.

    Ascaloth
    Reply

  39. Kaoishin: I thought you were gonna just leave the series alone and marathon it when it was finished airing. Give all that tired rhetoric you’ve been spewing a rest. We’re all tired of it.

    –IJ.

    IJ
    Reply

  40. @Ascaloth: You’re missing the point, this isn’t about getting someone to accept or respect my opinion, but about the difference between a definitive statement and a ones own judgement. This has absolutely nothing to do with people respecting my opinion, but to do with my belief that proclaiming something as “The Best” will not hold true with everyone. I chose to showcase this by presenting one that differed from such an idea. Furthermore, Jubei never gave the impression he was presenting an opinion, but moreso a universal truth. I already said if there were any sort of “I think” before the post then I would be more than willing to respect the statement, but there isn’t.

    And yes I can ignore it, but like I said every now and then I get in the mood where I like to comment on it.

    And Ascaloth, as a more direct question now that you’ve commented here, and an end to beating around the bush, and please read this whole thing if you browse this comment section again (even if the first part seems just like a shot):

    Why do you always try to give advice that makes sense (albeit sometimes outside the main point of the discussion), but then add in some nasty thing about my personality, like that I am biased (which I don’t think I am any more then the next guy who says he outright hates the show cause it looks like it’s just cute girls doing cute things, or the guy who says it’s the best show this season) or at other times imply I am untrustworthy. What is the deal with that? A lot of the time I’m inclined to agree with you on things, but you kind of kill the opportunity with an attached jab.

    You do this constantly, but never comment on other comments that appear to contain bias as well, but go along with your beliefs on a series. Is this a bias of your own given your apparent dislike of my comments? Is this a sign of an untrustworthy character or someone lacking in credibility, or does that just make you human? I’ll be the first to admit it, I’m guilty of such a thing too.

    You know, intially you and I had a fairly decent opinion of each other and didn’t always have these silly arguments or disputes. I remember your old sig actually, thought it was somewhat amusing all things considered. Why is it that we can’t go back to that because of a difference of opinion over an anime studio and it’s works? You know, even if we weren’t exactly pals per se, at least we weren’t always sending thinly veiled strikes at one another. Hasn’t this silliness gone on long enough? I really don’t care anymore about the past or studios or any such thing, I just want to put an end to this feud of ours once and for all.

    Kaioshin Sama
    Reply

  41. holy crap, Kaioshin, get that stick out of your back side. Quit airing your dirty laundry out here. If you perceive what anyone says as an absolute truth in any way, you should probably hang around more people.

    Besides, even though being a hypocrite myself, this isn’t a discussion board its a comment section. If you want to call someone out, keep it short or email them.

    On the other hand, I’m kind of missing where you got that Ryou has feelings for Tomoya, Omni. Could someone point it out to me? Maybe I lost it in translation somewhere.

    Julius
    Reply

  42. @Kaioshin,

    I have no wish whatsoever to hijack Omni’s article for such petty talk. Let’s just put it at this; there’s a very good reason why it looks like I’m picking on you, even ignoring other commenters with views similar to yours.

    Therefore, this ends here.

    Ascaloth
    Reply

  43. >> Well whatever, I’m not really following this series for now, but some of the things people say about it (like the post I quote) are so strange I just have to come in and debate these inferences.

    ffs, just ignore what people says. It is not that hard. I swear IF I was like you, I would have been barking in Gundam forums, calling out people over how accurately the whole franchise portray wars and its horrors, especially as someone who is born from parents who has gone through a genocide and has been watching war movies and dramas since I started walking.
    Hopefully, I did not walk that path.

    Sheba
    Reply

  44. @X & Julius

    Show Spoiler ▼

    rev
    Reply

  47. @X & Julius & rev

    Show Spoiler ▼

    solgae
    Reply

  48. @X & Julius

    If you want non-spoiler reasons on why Ryou has feelings for Tomoya, notice the Ryou’s sad look when she sees Kotomi hiding behind Tomoya or Kyou telling her to take the chance and make an initiative, along with Kyou’s comment on how “she” got another rival. Also, on episode 1, Ryou blushes and runs away when she sees Nagisa and Tomoya together.

    solgae
    Reply

  51. Kaioshin Sama
    With all due respect, I thought tomoyas act and actions so far have made him one of the more likable male leads in this kind anime this year (e.g. Makoto (sex nut from school days)).
    I don’t know why but some times when you do write, you make everyone want to hate this anime for not being 100% perfect. IF you don’t like this anime, fine, but for people who enjoy a comedic and nice piece of art please do not make it a painful experience.
    Just because you won’t classify it as an anime of the year, does not mean that you can somehow present your opinion in such a ways as to sour the experience.

    zell
    Reply

  53. Man i finally saw this episode and i finally understand why Kyou was so pissed off at first when she saw Kotomi, dam it was so obvious she was pissed off since she has another rival!!! Man if Nagisa is not the honest type, well i guess that goes double for Kyou.

    Nagasumi
    Reply

  55. @ Kaioshin Sama

    Answer 1: I meant new series of this fall. Unless you saw Clannad anime before September but that would only be you.

    Answer 2: I meant Kyoani is gonna bank on it bigger then their last two sorties. This one has more likable characters, better main character and better looking arts compared to the latter two.

    Answer 3: I was talking about Kyu, Kotomi and Nagisa’s design mainly they look better then Kyoani’s previous sets and better then the other anime series released this fall. The only one that I could match them with is Gundam 00 girls, but then again that’s my personal opinion.

    Answer 4: It’s the best combo of this fall. It has great comedy (even though they don’t amuse you), I mean you really can’t call Tomoya’s franks slapstick compared to what we been getting recently, the sad part is not too overdramatized and each characters are getting thier fair share of screen time. Not only that they aren’t being too dull in them.

    Answer 5: I am sorry to say but I would have to disagree on that. Tomoya is much more fun then Yukito and Yuuchi. He plays his role well you are never bored out with him because you always have an unexpected Tomoya moment.

    It is the combination of all these factors plus good storyline pacing that I am giving Clannad first poisition for this fall series. It’s the only one who didn’t have a long dull moment. I mean sure Gundam 00 has been good and so has Myself;Yourself, SnS2 has been a slow starter as usual, hero tales is the main action pack non-robot series of the season (Kenichi replacer) and tales has been very confusing most of the time. I don’t think the rest really deserve much of a mention really, I could be wrong since I am not watching all of them but there aren’t any other series this fall that have been as entertaining as Clannad has been on a constant base. So yeah it is the best we got this fall season.

    jubeihimura
    Reply

  56. @Jubei Himura: I’m glad you understood I was just asking a few questions to get a better idea of your statement and that I’m not trying to be nasty or anything. Well you sure present more then enough good reasons for why Clannad is your top pick, even if I don’t agree with all of them, the fact you went to such trouble to do it shows your really passionate about it. I like that sort of thing.

    I hope though that as much as you enjoy it and that it’s your top series, that you understand that that doesn’t speak for everyone definitively. I’m afraid I’m not included in your “we”, but we seem to share a common interest in Gundam, which I think is pretty neat given how different Gundam is from Clannad. Thank you for responding to all of my questions, I very much appreciate it and hope I didn’t offend you or anything with my sudden questioning.

    I think we can ignore all the other butt ins and agree to disagree (yet still sort of agree) politely like we’ve done.

    @Zell: I don’t really intend to do such a thing as spoil the whole series for others. There are those that try to do that for popular series on purpose (trolls and such), but I try not to be one of them. Perhaps Clannad and it’s fans are less used to the kind of commentary that I’m used to giving, seeing and being replied to on with series like Gundam 00 or other Mecha series. People have given me reason to believe that I don’t really belong in this group of fans, that my way of looking at things is so different (perhaps even old fashioned) when compared to other Clannad fans that it’s upsetting and jarring to some. Maybe there’s some truth to that and perhaps along with hiatusing the series I should withdraw myself from any and all conversations on the series so as not to be an unintentional spoil sport for fans that are less welcome to my brand of analysis. Re-analysis might be the better course in this case.

    And if you want to go strictly by Visual Novel adaptations then I would agree that in comparison Tomoya is a much more likeable and well written character then Makoto and many others. What’s interesting now that I think of it is that given the large number of such titles this year, that actually does sort of speak for a lot. Strange isn’t it? I guess if people are predominantly into those kinds of titles that would make Clannad a smash hit for many by comparison as you put it. I’ll have to make note of that.

    Kaioshin Sama
    Reply

  57. @Kaioshin:
    Figure out the difference between, “My girlfriend is the cutest in my neighbor.” (supported by majority) vs. “This is the best in this season.” (supported by majority) or “CLANNAD is the best.” vs. “GUNDAM is the best.” That is how I see his message actually. But anyway, I didn’t see anything wrong with his statement since the sentence “it’s his own opinion” immediately registered on my head despite he didn’t really write it down in his post. Well, I’m one of those who thinks CLANNAD is the best in this season. I’m more into shows that concentrate more on relationships, ups and downs of life with some comedy spices and super natural elements that you don’t need to have some factual information since, well… they’re super naturals, and etc. etc…

    CLANNAD is like a mixture of, AIR, KANON, Suzumiya Haruhi and Lucky Star. Anyway, if you got irked by his statement then you probably always gets irk when stumble upon “[put something here] is the best [add anything you want that will make a sentence]”… Hmmm… what if I say… GUNDAM is the best in this season! Will you feel irked with that? Well… I already put my vote to CLANNAD as the best in this season so that can’t happen.

    DGreater1
    Reply

  59. A nice thing about the Kyou arc setting up things is the fact that the things that the Fujibayashi twins have done seen in the episode already exists in Kotomi’s route. So Kyoani gets a huge break by being able to run Kotomi’s route nearly identically, AND set up a later Kyou/Fujibayashi arc without making any characters OOC or any weird implementations.

    Also the things they added into the episode ironically just somehow fits, without taking away anything, making this episode really balanced.

    Aside from minor gripes, one conditional gripe is the fact that the episodes up to 10 don’t really show Tomoya as a class skipper. Now, that’s probably because when he skips class he obviously doesn’t go to it, and because there’s no emphasis for what even goes on in class, there’s no establishment of the contrast between going class or not. So it does make that canteen scene slightly weird because Kyoani didn’t put earlier scenes that has Tomoya go to the canteen/cafeteria to eat lunch, with say, Sunohara (or even Nagisa). Heck, sure it’s clear Tomoya ate with Nagisa earlier in the series, but he did get the food from the canteen. So yeah, strange emphasis since there was no real buildup to the skipping as it’s kind of there but not really because what happens in class in an anime isn’t all that important.

    Amoirsp
    Reply

  61. Great episode. an awesome start for the Kotomi Arc. I really liked the scene where everyone was introducing themselves then Tomoya cuts off Kyou. I also liked the fact that Tomoya and Nagisa are show signs that they have gotten closer not too mention Kyou and Kotomi have also released them being closer. It appears that Kotomi will have problems concerning her parents, but we’ll wait and see what happens. Can’t wait for next weeks episode.

    zero808
    Reply

  62. I think Kotomi’s story will revolve around the fact that her parents are scholars and the expectation that she follow in their footsteps. There are clues that there is pressure as she spaces out and is self absorbed when reading and that her secret dreams is to be a musician instead of studying.

    Kervin
    Reply

  64. ewok: They may not necessarily spend nearly as much time as they did on Fuuko, and not necessarily exclusively on Kotomi. As has been mentioned elsewhere, it looks like they may start working somewhat on the Fujibayashis’ arc at the same time (at the very least, Kyou’s) given the nature of the next-ep teaser at the foot of the show.

    Kervin: Too bad that right now, her music output is the equivalent of a Rolls Royce Trent 900, GE TF39 or any other high-bypass turbofan from those as well as CFM, EA and P&W in terms of intensity. However, all the latter items, while noisy, are far more musical to my ears. 😉

    –IJ

    IJ
    Reply

  67. Here’s a thought… I’m not sure if someone’s suggested this, but I’m not gonna read through all of the comments to find out: Maybe the person that Ryou has feelings for is actually Nagisa and not Tomoya. Remember how she said “yes” to Nagisa’s “proposal” in the almost-yuri scene on the rooftop a few episodes back? Well maybe there was more to that scene than we thought. ^^

    Also, I was massively disappointed that Kotomi played the violin so badly. I was really looking forward to hearing her play after seeing the violin scenes in the OP. So disappointed. XD

    Neo Horizon
    Reply

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