CLANNAD / First Impressions

Summary:

After having seen the basketball match, the choir club proposes having Koumura serve as adviser to both their club and to the drama club. Unfortunately, when Nagisa brings this up with the student council, they reject the idea because there is no precedent for this. To make things worse, Nagisa gets sick and has to miss school for a while. Her father specifically thanks Tomoya after he brought her home, but Tomoya feels that he hasn’t really done anything. The following morning, he wakes up to the sound of Tomoyo’s voice and soon realizes that she’s in his room. It seems that she’s here to make sure that he’s not late for school, and she got permission to come in from his father. This last part shuts Tomoya up, though he doesn’t tell her about his estranged relationship with his father. Since Tomoyo woke him, Tomoya gets her to come with him to the dorm to wake Sunohara too, and Sunohara’s not very happy about it. After they successfully get to school on time, Tomoya is approached by Kyou who wants him to agree to eat lunch with her and Ryou again.

Lunch this time consists of a good deal of food that Kyou cooked, and she uses the chance to try to push Tomoya and Ryou closer together. She also asks Tomoya about his plans after he graduates since she’s already decided to become a kindergarten teacher and since Ryou is going to nursing school. Tomoya, however, hasn’t really thought about it yet. Afterwards, when they’re alone, Ryou wonders to her sister if all this is okay because she feels guilty in regards to Nagisa. Kyou thinks that it is indeed okay since Tomoya and Nagisa aren’t dating, and she warns that Tomoyo could take him away. That afternoon, Tomoyo butts into Tomoya’s conversation with Sunohara right as he is saying that he’s not trying to get a girlfriend. Tomoyo wants to know why, so Tomoya points to his bad family situation and his own delinquency. She actually thinks that his father is kind, but she decides to drop the subject and proposes walking home together. Sunohara wants to join them, and he intentionally leads them to a shadier part of town where there are a lot of delinquents hanging around.

These delinquents all recognize Tomoyo and run away in fear, and this pleases Sunohara because these are all people who have picked fights with him in the past. Noticing that Tomoyo is uncomfortable being there, Tomoya salvages the trip by pretending that Sunohara was going to a coffee shop, and Tomoyo eventually decides to let Sunohara be her friend. After Sunohara heads home by himself, Tomoyo thanks Tomoya for realizing that she didn’t want to be in that place and for helping her. She also mentions that being with him is fun. Tomoya later swings by the Furukawa family bakery, but all he does is look up at the light in the second story window before turning around and heading home. The next morning, Tomoyo once again shows up in Tomoya’s room to wake him, and he again has her wake up Sunohara too. Sunohara gets angry at her, but he then notices how she has a nice body, and Tomoyo promises to let him touch her if he bows his head. When it turns out that she had meant that he could touch her hand, Sunohara gets angry and tries to jump her. Several kicks later, Sunohara is all beaten up, and Tomoyo now thinks that he’s a pervert.

Lunch that day is again with the Fujibayashi sisters, though this time, it’s Ryou who cooked. Unlike her sister’s though, Ryou’s food doesn’t taste good and even causes Botan to keel over. Tomoya spends must of the rest of the day idling around in the drama club room thinking about Nagisa, and after a while, he decides to pay another visit to Yukine. Noticing that something is bothering him, she brings out a book of good luck charms and instructs him to stack two 10-yen coins on their sides on top of each other. She also gets him to repeat a phrase three times, but it’s not until after he does that she tells him that this charm is for getting locked up in the PE storeroom with a girl. When Yukine has him think of someone for this, Tomoya’s first thought is Nagisa, but since she’s not here, he decides on Kyou. Yukine also informs him that he can undo this charm by taking off his shirt and repeating a certain phrase three times. Tomoya, however, cares less about all this and more about the student council refusing to let them share Koumura as an adviser, so Yukine suggests that things might change after the upcoming student council elections. This raises Tomoya’s spirits because he realizes that their problems would be solved if Tomoyo were elected.

Right as Tomoya is getting excited over this, a ball rolls towards his feet. It’s from the large pile of them that Kyou is trying to put away in the PE storeroom, and she has him help her. Unfortunately, while the two are inside the storeroom, Mitsui closes and locks the door. Tomoya quickly realizes that this is exactly what the charm was for, but when he tries to apologize, Kyou gets the wrong idea and thinks that he had instead planned this all along so that he could do something to her. It doesn’t help either that she trips and falls on her back, putting her in a vulnerable position. She resists what she thinks is Tomoya coming on to her by saying that she can’t betray Ryou, but Tomoya eventually makes her understand that he apologized because of the charm and tells her about it. However, Kyou then realizes that he felt it’d be okay to get locked up with her, and she wonders if he understands why she was getting him and Ryou together for lunch everyday. Right as she’s asking him if what she’s doing for Ryou is troublesome for him, Tomoya remembers how Yukine told him to undo the charm and starts taking off his shirt. Kyou of course misinterprets his intentions, but it doesn’t last long because someone finds them there just as Tomoya finishes yelling the undo phrase.

Afterwards, Kyou laughs off what happened and asks Tomoya to forget about it. Tomoya is approached by Tomoyo soon after, and she wants to walk home with him. He starts to ask her about the student council elections, but the conversation never really gets off the ground because there’s a group of delinquents waiting for Tomoyo at the school gates. Tomoyo gets ready to fight them, however Fuuko appears first and tries to use a special attack technique against the guys. When it fails, Fuuko goes home. Sunohara then finds them at the gate and wants to help fight, but Tomoyo knocks him out before he can. She starts to take on the entire mob by herself and manages to hold her ground until a group of teachers come and scare away all the delinquents. Realizing that Tomoyo could get into trouble, Tomoya takes all the blame for this and gets suspended from school.

Preview:

That scene in the PE storeroom was great. I didn’t realize what they were setting up when Yukine first explained the charm to Tomoya, but it all soon fell into place in a hilarious way. Past the humor, it also made me wonder if Kyou was acting under the influence of the charm or if those were some hidden feelings she had for Tomoya or if it was a little bit of both. It’s not hard to imagine that if he were truly serious, then she’d have given in to his advances. Of course, Tomoya only really has feelings for Nagisa (just look at how much he thought about her in her absence), so I’m curious what direction the story with Kyou and Ryou will go.

As for Tomoyo, I had been wondering how they’d fit her into all this, and it’s become clear now that focusing on her will be necessary before the story can go back to Nagisa. Her relationship with Tomoya feels very platonic thus far though, despite how much time she’s spending with him (she seems to have a knack for randomly appearing), and I don’t really expect that to change too much, even if she starts to feel guilty about getting him into trouble. Tomoya took the blame for the fight because he’s her friend, but probably more so because he knew that her getting into trouble would mean that she couldn’t become student council president, and that’d prevent Nagisa from officially establishing the drama club. Anyway, I don’t expect them to spend too much time on Tomoyo (no more than a few episodes) because there seems still to be so much left to cover.

69 Comments

  2. you know i wouldn’t mind if they out kyo and tomoyo together. she’s pretty strong and more lively than the rest of the girls. negisa is too nice. kyo’s got more fire so i bet she’ll go well with tomoyo.

    riddle
    Reply

  6. @setsuke
    >Woah i cant wait to see the PE storeroom part and here i thought Ryou is suppose to be the one liking Tomoyo.

    >Ryou is suppose to be the one liking Tomoyo.

    >Tomoyo

    I would like to see that.

    Anonymous
    Reply

  10. Like I said last last week…so bloody clean and pat. A effin’ miracle and everybody all happy and the main chara can have their heart’s content. I think I’ve had enough of Key plots. Too bad and so long.

    Zzz...
    Reply

  23. @DukeTheGold: Fuko is still a ghost/spirit.

    @mutio: Tomoya took the blame for Tomoyo about the fight.

    I would’ve preffered if they kept Tomoyo’s and Kyou’s routes separate, but Kyoani is doing a great job mixing them in together.

    Ignite
    Reply

  27. I hope Tomoya ends up with either Kyou or Tomoyo, and NOT Nagisa – though I don’t expect it. Nagisa doesn’t interest me as a character and comes across IMO as the stereotypical super-nice, selfless, shy girl I’ve seen many times already.

    nobody important
    Reply

  31. @ nobody important

    Yeah, I hear you on that one. But since they’re working the two strong girls at the same time, they’ll probably have them resolved well before ep 25, right? =/ Probably leaving the rest for Nagisa.

    Tenkaichi
    Reply

  32. As Tucker would say “Bow Chika Bow Wow!” Go Kyou! It’s your birthday!…. no wait… NO IT’S NOT!

    My Prediction is that we are going to have a Shuffle! ending where the girl least likly to win the mainguy character will win him. That means Ryou will win Tomoya!

    Hudson
    Reply

  38. I was so hoping that Ryou was the one to open the gym door and find Tomoya without his shirt, thereby causing a misunderstanding between the two sisters. Don’t get me wrong, I love the two of them to bits, but I just feel that a bit of tension is needed to up the drama.

    As has already been said, Kyou in the store room was PURE GOLD, I just love it when “tough” girls let out their cute and innocent personality.

    FX102
    Reply

  40. Normally i’d just lurk around here but this episode is telling me to post! It would be nice if Clannad strays away from the Nagisa ending and gives us either Kyou or Tomoyo coz Nagisa was already the main heroine in the game, why not give other characters a chance for spotlight? But oh well, shouldnt get my hopes up coz I know that the probability of that happening is near 0. =(

    JAm1
    Reply

  45. Dere-dere Kyou is love. It’s gonna be tough seeing the last episodes since Tomoya’s gonna end up with Nagisa. Hopefully KyoAni will pull an M. Night Shyamalan on us and it ends up Kyou x Tomoya.

    Kiro
    Reply

  46. Oh yeah, I’m really enjoying how attached Tomoya is to Nagisa. I mean she’s absent for a few days and he goes off getting all down sitting alone daydreaming about her and writing her name to make him feel better haha. Even his wish to get Tomoyo into the president spot was because of Nagisa. I also heard he DID vist her every day in the VN, well since they were going out by now in the VN I guess it made more sense.

    FlameStrike
    Reply

  53. @Kaioshin:
    Come on now. They already have the movie. What more could Nagisa fans want? Judging from the episode titles, however, it looks like that won’t change (I’m still pulling for a Kyou ending though).

    lollerskates
    Reply

  54. Neo Horizon: The two Fuuko appearances you saw in episode 15 and episode 12 were Kyoani added, but the idea already originated in the game. The one you see this episode actually did originate from the game (whereas the previous two were not originally there whatsoever.)

    Amoirsp
    Reply

  57. In actuality…this recent Fuko cameo is actually the most interesting out of the three thus far. For once, I wasn’t annoyed and actually found it funny, especially the last line:

    Fuko: “May I go home now?”

    Lol

    Why is Fuko wearing the winter uniform? And is she a student or not?

    DukeTheGold
    Reply

  58. every time i see fuko apearing from the nothing its reminds me in tomoyo second when you are playing Dungeons and Takafumis becose Tomoya have a Specia Ability to Summon Fuko to Fight for him xD

    azoth
    Reply

  59. Yeahhhhh….Kyou forever!!! I named my laptop with her name ^_-. I’ll hope that Kyou ends up with Tomoya, but actually is a weak hope because i know Tomoya ends up with Nagisa. I like Nagisa too, but Kyou is the best. Even Tomoyo is very cute. Damn…why Kyoani don’t break the “rules” and do a Kyou or Tomoyo ends? After all there is always the movie with Nagisa ^_-. This is the best episode. I’m looking forward to receive this dvd.

    Kyo
    Reply

  62. To all the people who dont like a Nagisa ending:

    Ya I am with you guys about that. Since well although I dont own a Clannad game, I hear that the main ending was already with Nagisa, also there is another game with Tomoyo as the main character (Tomoyo after). So for me I want the anime to at least be different and would let Tomoya end up with Kyou/Kotomi/Ryou, either one would be fine for me, but I prefer Kyou-sama!!! LOL Kyou FTW!!!

    She hit me hard this episode, it’s been a long time since I replayed a scene like that soooo many times and still cant stop laughing (the last time was with Seto No Hanayome). I wouldnt like a Ryou ending since she wasnt focused enough (well at least not yet, and IMO i just cant love her character), but Kyou/Kotomi/Tomoyo would be fine. I would prefer Kyou or Kotomi, not so much with Tomoyo since there is already a game about her. Oh well just as one of the commentator said, who knows KyoAni could pull a Shuffle like/ Canvas 2 like ending as surprise us all.

    DivineCorona
    Reply

  63. it’s “higher”‘s story preference… personally i still want nagisa to end up with tomoya… maybe nagisa’s arc would be that interesting changing nagisa’s personality onto some strgon girl out there. … hmmm… but i love the sexyness of tomoyo waking up tomoya… thats just hot!!! legs!!! and oh… the kyou part when in the moment she’s about to strip for tomoyo… thats so sexy look!!!… cant wait to see the next episode!!!

    allen walker
    Reply

  64. Lets face it, the only girls that is good and the best for the main lead are: Tomoyo, Kyou, and Kotomi. The most interesting and funny or cute would be Fuko and Nagisa. The supporting character (ie. the character who would love the main character from afar) would be Ryou. The weird girl character would be Yukine. IMO I prefer Kyou to have the ending with Tomoya especially since she isnt focused enough yet, since I heard from people that the reason she fell in love with Tomoya was pretty vague (in the game that is) and that Ryou’s reason made more sense, though my source really isnt reliable, just seen it before as a comment. I would like to know if this was true though, that Kyou’s reasons didn’t quite make sense compared to Ryou.

    PS. That look Kyou had when she fell over the gym mattress was sooooo dam sexy, man Tomoya has no guts or something since he didnt even blush or get flustered from that (asides the fact that he was trying to clear things up)

    X
    Reply

  65. hmmm…comment @X’s “PS” maybe because he simply likes kyou ONLY as a friend… and the reason why he taught of kyou to be in the gym would that they had developed a somewhat close relationship even before nagisa came in the scene….

    allen walker
    Reply

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