Nagisa admits that it's not always but sometimes that's the case. Kotomi wonders what if she doesn't feel like crying but Nagisa tells her when she has to act like she's crying then she should cry. This causes Kotomi to wonder if Nagisa is a bully. Despite this minor misunderstanding, the two end up becoming friends over their fondness for Dango Dai Kazoku. After school, Tomoya and Kotomi go to a bookshop together and Tomoya manages to stop Kotomi from using scissors to cut the page out of a book. He explains that she's not supposed to do this and she should socialize more. Because of this, Tomoya introduces Kotomi to Kyou. Kyou is annoyed to see this, thinking that this means there's more 'opponent' for that person. Because this attempt didn't work, Tomoya decides to introduce Kotomi to Ryou, who's far more receptive at becoming Kotomi's friend. She even befriends with Tomoyo (who is wearing her stuffed bear costume).

Later on, the two meet with Kyou again, who for some reason, suddenly becomes friendly towards Kotomi. She suggests that the three of them plus Ryou go somewhere fun to get to know each other better. Tomoya agrees but instead of taking them to Karaoke or a cafe, he takes the girls to Nagisa's drama club. He sure is a master at how to build a harem. Despite Kyou's disappointment, she tells her sister to use this opportunity to her advantage. Tomoya suggests that the girls join the drama club. Although Kyou is not interested, Kotomi and Ryou agree to join the club. Their conversation, however, comes to a halt when Kotomi hears a violin sound coming from another room. The girl who plays violin offers Kotomi to play it. Kotomi clearly loves the idea but soon it's obvious that she can't play the instrument without hurting everyone's eardrum. While this happens, an old man wearing a hat and an overcoat can be seen looking at the school from afar.

Episode 11

The episode begins with Tomoya awaken from his sleep inside the class thanks to Kotomi's violin playing. Later on, the group opens up a box containing items from previous drama club. Amongst the item is a Card Captor Sakura-esque wand. This causes Tomoya to imagine Kyou as a mahou shoujo girl which leads to him laughing hysterically. Because Kotomi can't stop playing her violin, Kyou decides to tell her that she can have a recital tomorrow. Because of this, Kotomi decides to practice away in the rooftop with Ryou and Nagisa while Kyou and Tomoya stay in the class. Later on, Kyou asks Tomoya what he'll do if there's a girl who likes him so much. Tomoya claims that he's a bum so sooner or later the girl will get tired of him. The next day, Tomoya wakes up looking upset upon seeing his father drunk as usual. Since he thinks Nagisa is not awake yet, he decides to go to school and finds out that Kotomi has been practicing her violin inside the library.

Kotomi has just made an apple pie for herself and Tomoya despite not knowing whether or not Tomoya will come. Tomoya tells her that despite this being her first attempt at making the pie, it tastes really good. Kotomi seems happy to hear this but then she stands up and open the window. The next day is recital day. Much to Tomoya's surprise, Kyou managed to gather (read: force) a lot of students to attend Kotomi's recital. It is here that Tomoya finds out that Misae used to be a student body president and Tomoyo aspires to be like her. Unfortunately, despite the practice, Kotomi is still a bad violin player and almost kill all of her audience. After the recital, the group walk together along the street when the mysterious old man appears and tries to grab Kotomi. Tomoya and the others manage to fend him off but the man claims that he'll come back. Kotomi trembles behind Ryou upon hearing this and tells her friends that he's a bad guy.

Episode 12

Since her recital is over, Kotomi decides to return the violin to the school. Kotomi, however, asks the girl who takes care of the violin not to throw the violin away even though it's an old item. Kotomi also makes a progress in terms of friends because many students are impressed with her intelligence. Inside the drama club, Kotomi has brought with her lunch for everyone so the group sit together to eat the boxed lunch. While talking about what everyone does in their free time, Kyou comes up with a suggestion for all of them to go on a group date. Because of this Tomoya and his 4 harem go out together. They decide to buy a present for Kotomi since it's close to her birthday. Unfortunately, Kyou's idea of getting present for Kotomi involves using UFO catcher to get the present. After several fail attempts, all of a sudden Fuko appears and offers to help. No one seems to recognize her but Fuko assures them that they'll be reunited again one day. However, since Fuko being Fuko, the item that she gets is the starfish.

Fuko then goes away again, leaving everyone confused. Despite this, everyone had a great time. That night Tomoya decides to accompany Kotomi back home when they meet the mysterious old man again. The two manage to get away from him but that night, Tomoya dreams about how when he was a kid, he was with Kotomi and her house was on fire. The next day, Nagisa panics and tells Kyou that Ryou might be in a bus that got into accident. As it turns out, Ryou took another bus so she's safe. The accident, however, cause Kotomi to become hysterics. She falls over crying while saying that she'll be a good girl. Later on at school, the others find out that Kotomi has gone home on her own. When the others visit her home, however, no one is around. Although a mysterious black butterfly seems hovering around Tomoya. Tomoya, who feels that something is not right and decides to go back. In doing so, he meets the mysterious old man who claims that he was a friend of Kotomi's parents.

He informs Tomoya that Kotomi's parents undertook a research about a world that was shed and sealed away while this one was taking form. Kotomi's parents found evidence of this hidden world or rather, they used to have it. When the man wonders what Kotomi thinks of him, Tomoya tells him about how she calls him "the bad guy". The man sighs and admits that in a way that's how they appear to her. Because of this, he asks Tomoya to tell her that the man and the others don't expect her to forgive them but they still regret what happened that day. After the man left, Tomoya returns to Kotomi's house and realizes that he is familiar with the house. Upon entering the back door, Tomoya begins to get flashes of memory about the house. When he enters Kotomi's room, he finds out that the wall is pasted with articles about her parent's death. Tomoya finally remembers that he and Kotomi already met each other when they were kids.

Impression:

I'm glad that there's actually more to Kotomi's story than her wanting to make friends with many people in the school. I just think that was too fluffy for my taste and the solution was a bit too easy as well. It's annoying how all of a sudden everyone becomes her best friends. As a result, I was about to give up on this series around episode 10 and 11. Much to my surprise, episode 12 turns out to be intriguing. I can't help but noticing how there's a black butterfly hovering around Kotomi's house. Considering Noto Mamiko's previous role as Jigoku Shoujo, where black butterfly is one of the visual representation of the Jigoku Shoujo, it feels right that she plays Kotomi. So it looks like Tomoya used to know Kotomi but for some reason he forgot about her. Maybe due to the traumatic accident that happened when they were kids? Also, the research that Kotomi's parents undertook sounds rather sinister. I wonder if they are talking about Hell and if Kotomi feels that she is cursed because of the research that her parents were dealing with?