Clannad ep.04

October 29, 2007 | 13 Comments

It looks like the plot is finally moving and from the look of things, the first character arc will be given to Ibuki Fukou. I think it makes sense since judging from the storyline, she along with Ichinose Kotomi are the two characters who are most removed from the main plotline. I guess after dealing with these two, we'll either get Kyou's story or Tomoyo's story. I wonder how many episodes will be given to each character. The reason I'm asking is that I've just read a brief summary of the story and it seems there is more to Nagisa story in comparison to the rest of the girls. This means the majority of the series must be devoted to telling her story. If this series is only 24 episodes like Kanon, then the story can't possibly spend too much time on the other girls.

The episode begins with Nagisa telling Tomoya that the student council told her that she can't recruit members because the drama club is closed now. Therefore, no club activity should take place. This means they can't put up recruitment fliers. Nagisa explains that she tried her best but the student council told her that rules are rules. Tomoya thinks that there must be a way around this and thinks that it's stupid for her to throw away her dream just like this. Unknown to Tomoya, Sunohara has been observing their conversation from a far. Later on, Sunohara asks Tomoya if he's dating her. He believes that Tomoya has no interest in drama club he thinks Tomoya has other motivation. In response Tomoya claims that the truth is Nagisa's parents run a bakery and the bread that her mother makes is really good.

He even goes as far as claiming that you'd get addicted once you've taken a bite. If one is friends with Nagisa, then one can eat as much of that bread as possible. Tomoya claims that this is the reason that he joined the drama club. In response Sunohara tells Tomoya that on second thought, she doesn't match Tomoya well because she's boring and diligent. The next day, Sunohara tells Tomoyo that he's just there to see her since she's beautiful. All of a sudden he tells everyone that he forgot his breast. Uhm, yeah. Because of this, he asks Tomoyo if he can borrow hers. In response, Tomoyo asks him why he would do that, prompting Sunohara to become happy because he thinks this means Tomoyo's breast is detachable. For his rudeness, Sunohara gets lightning kicked again. Later on, that weird girl with a knife recognises Tomoya while he's walking with Sunohara so she calls him 'strange man'. Tomoya pretends to ignore her until she approaches him.

Tomoya tries to introduce himself but knife girl ignores what he said and instead tells the two that she wants to talk to "weird guy". Because of this, both Tomoya and Sunohara follow her into the park. When the girl sees this, she's unhappy because she just wants to talk to Tomoya not the "weird guy with weird hair". The girl eventually introduces herself as Fukou and asks Tomoya if there's something he'd like to say about the present she gave him the other day. Tomoya quickly realises that the girl is talking about the wooden star. Fuko uexplains that her sister is getting married and she wants Tomoya to come to the wedding. Tomoya is weirded out by the request since he doesn't know Fukou's sister so Fukou explains that her sister was an art teacher in this school 3 years ago. This is why she wants students to come to her sister's wedding. She thinks by giving out the wooden stars, the students will come since she thinks people love cute stars.

Fukou immediately goes to her la-la-land after saying that, prompting Tomoya to play a prank joke on her. He puts the straw from his boxed juice up into her nostril, hoping to squirt her with the juice. Wow, this sounds porny for some reason. Before Fukou can see what he did, however, Tomoya pulls out and hide the juice box. Wow, I keep coming up with wrong choice of words but whatever. Tomoya then tells Fukou that it'll be hard for her to invite anyone to the wedding since her sister was a teacher 3 years ago. That means most students here don't know her and the seniors will be too busy with exam. Despite the put-down, Fukou tells Tomoya that she won't give up. Later on, Sunohara tries to harass Tomoyo again. Tomoyo instinctively kick him to the wall but feels sorry for him. Sunohara uses the opportunity to lead her to the men's bathroom Tomoyo who realises this, kicks Sunohara out of the bathroom's window and into the nearby tree outside.

After kicking the jerk out of the window, Tomoyo asks Tomoya why they always harass her. Tomoya explains that Sunohara just wants to prove that she's a guy because she's so strong. Much to his surprise, Tomoyo is not angry but a bit disappointed. She explains that all of these times, she thinks she behaves just like other girls. She's been trying to change her image but now realises that she's still the same. Tomoyo then walks out looking disappointed. Later on, Tomoya tries to cheer up Nagisa, who's depressed because she can't even handout the fliers. Sunohara, who overhears this, offer to help but his idea of help is to beat up the head of student council. Nagisa disagrees with the idea but thanks Sunohara for wanting to help. Upon hearing this, Tomoyo thinks that if this situation were RPG, Sunohara will be the guy who wants to join a group. Nagisa, however, assigns attack on him instead. She slays, uses smoke bomb, and causes him to disappear using magic.

Sunohara then gets another great idea: to invite other students so they can do more things together. Their first target is Kyou and Ryou. Since Tomoya doesn't want to get beat up by Kyou, he tells Sunohara to inform Ryou that someone wants to 'ask her out'. Ryou is surprised when the person in question is Nagisa and she starts to stutter. Sunohara, on the other hand, becomes excited at the idea of girl-on-girl action. Unfortunately for him, Nagisa then reveals that she just wants to ask Ryou if she can help her set up the drama club. This shocks Kyou, who apparently has been hiding behind the rooftop door. In her anger, she tries to kill both Tomoya and Sunohara because she thinks they're making fun of her sister's feeling. Eventually Nagisa explains the situation so Kyou wonders if she'd like to hang out with them instead of with the two losers (Tomoya and Sunohara). Nagisa thanks the offer but refuses to abandon the losers.

Ryou points out that if they want to set up the drama club, they'll need at least 3 members. Kyou points out that they actually have the members if they count Nagisa, Tomoya, and Sunohara. Sunohara protests the idea since he's not interested in acting. Tomoya, however, decides to help Nagisa, claiming that he wants to get his free breads. I'm sure you do. Not wanting to be left behind, Sunohara decides to do the same as well. The next day, Sunohara decides to use a new tack on Tomoyo. Apparently he now wants to be her best friend. Tomoya thinks it'd be difficult since she hates Sunohara's guts. Because of this, Sunohara wants Tomoya to help him figuring out the right things to say. Tomoya decides to make fun of Sunohara by giving him some embarrassing pick-up lines, including "Please make my breakfast every morning" - always a charmer on any girl. Not surprisingly, this earns Sunohara a lightning kick from Tomoyo. She then volleys Sunohara to Tomoya.

Tomoya, however, is shocked to see this and reflexively kick Sunohara back to Tomoyo, creating a chain-combo with a total of 1013 hits. Before Tomoyo left, Tomoya asks her if she'd be available for drama club. Tomoyo thanks Tomoya for the offer but she doesn't have the time because there'll be a student council election soon. Later on, Tomoya decides to recruit Ichinose Kotomi. After a while and some bentou, however, Tomoya gives up. Later on, after a conversation with Nagisa, Tomoya decides to recruit first and second years and decides to recruit Fukou. Fukou, however, tells them that she's busy making the stars all day long. She also claims that she doesn't go home. Upon hearing Fukou's name, Nagisa realises that Fukou is Ibuki-sensei's sister. The thing is, Ibuki-sensei's sister has been hospitalised after an accident. Because of this, Nagisa wonders if Tomoya has heard a rumour about a ghost of a girl who got into an accident.

Impression:

The episode was pretty slow until the big revelation towards the end. I guess it's safe to assume that Ibuki Fukou is basically an astral projection of the girl who's hospitalised? In other words, she's basically like Ayu in Kanon. I wonder what's the explanation for this though. The city doesn't look like it's a center for all kind of magical incidents. On a more lighter note, I like the way Sunohara keeps getting bashed by both Tomoyo and Kyou. He really is a persistent pest and deserves every single beating. That 1013 hits chain-combo between Tomoyo and Tomoya was awesome. Speaking of Tomoyo, I feel sorry for her when she said that she's trying to be normal. Personally, I don't see why she bothers trying to be someone that she's not. But I suppose it's hard when there are people like Sunohara and Tomoya, who make fun of her just because she doesn't fit the stereotypical image of a girl. Plus, Sunohara totally deserves those beatings.

Preview

On next week's episode: Ghost Girl

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