Clannad ep.03

October 20, 2007 | 12 Comments

I am not as happy about this one mostly because I don't think there's much development happening in the episode. And although I understand that it's futile, I wish the writers could be less obvious about which girl Tomoya will end up with. Oh well, at least the series still maintain some of its comedic trademark. I think it really makes a big difference from other dating-sim based series. I am not too sure about the amount of supporting characters featured in the series though. I guess Kyoto Animation simply want to cover all grounds but some of the characters that have appeared so far seems extraneous at the moment.

The episode opens with the boy saying that he's born into this world to seek her. He sacrificed all things he'd gained from a life in a new world. As it turns out the boy is the junk robot the girl made from scraps she collected from somewhere. The robot claims that his memory is stagnant and therefore he can't recall anything even if he tries hard. This includes where he had been and where he was trying to go. Although he can't speak to the girl, she's the only warmth he seeks in this world even though he can't feel warmth. In the present time, Tomoya comes to visit Nagisa but he ends up getting the wrath of her father. Nagisa's mother informs him that Nagisa only suffers from light fever but due to her weak condition, it's best to let her sleep today. Nagisa's father decides to punish Tomoya further by giving him the bread that his wife, Sanae, has made. This made Sanae sad so she runs out of the house crying, forcing her husband to chase her and apologize.

After the husband and wife left the shop, a young woman enters the shop looking for the two of them. Tomoya explains that they just left and proceeds to give the breads that Nagisa's father gave him. The woman thanks Tomoya and decides to leave the shop. After this, Tomoya left the shop but gets dragged by a man who wants him to be a witness who'll testify that a construction worker dropped a tool on top of his car. The construction worker, however, claims that he didn't drop any tool and starts rambling about how people tend to not trust one another. Tomoya takes a look at the car and informs the owner that it's probably a cat. That must be one giant cat. Wow, true enough, a fat cat comes out from underneath the car. The construction worker thanks Tomoya for vouching for him and gave Tomoya his business card. Later on, Sunohara freaks out when he sees the card because the man is a famous musician called Yoshino Yuusuke.

Sunohara then proceeds to play the tape recording of Yuusuke's performance that his sister made. Sunohara then babbles on about how Tomoyo (the girl who kicked his ass) is actually a guy and is set to prove this. He sets to trap her by asking if she has a razor that he can borrow. Tomoyo, however, asks him why she has to lend her possession to him. Moreover, she thinks it's rude to ask a lady such question and proceeds to give Sunohara 743 hits lightning kick. Later on that day, Tomoya meets Nagisa again and Nagisa apologizes for what happened yesterday. When she claims that she's a fool, Tomoya tells her that she might be one but there's nothing wrong with that since he's one as well. He also tells Nagisa to look for him if she feels like crying because he has a lot of free time. Sure. Their conversation comes to a halt when Tomoya feels that someone is groping him. The groper turns out to be knife girl aka Ibuki Fuko.

Knife girl demands that Tomoya returns her knife since her hand is no longer in pain. Tomoya proves her wrong by shaking her hands, giving her a high five, etc. In the end, however, Tomoya relents and returns the knife to her. Fool, don't blame anyone if she starts going stabby. Anyway, as a thanks, knife girl decides to give Tomoya the star that she carved the day before. In Japan, that must be like 2nd base or something. When Tomoya returns to class, he finds Sunohara still sleeping so he decides to scare the guy by claiming that the world has ended and he is only a hologram. He later changed the claim and tells Sunohara that he's a cyborg before admitting that he's been lying. From the class, Tomoya sees a small animal resembling a piglet so he and Sunohara go after it. When Sunohara tries to grab the animal, however, he gets kicked by Kyou. Sunohara, the ever opportunist, claims that he got a good glimpse of something with light blue color.

For that comment, Sunohara gets another kick in the face. Kyou then informs Tomoya that the little oink-oink is her pet, an urinko (a boar piglet) or uribou called Botan. Kyou thinks it's a cute name while Tomoya thinks it sounds delicious. He, however, decides to retract that comment when Kyou asks him to say that again. Tomoya then meets up with Nagisa again in an old library to help her looking for instruction on public speech. A girl then comes to the library and asks the two if there's something she can do for them. Tomoya asks for a coffee and much to his surprise, not only she makes it for them, it actually tastes good. The girl introduces herself as Miyazawa Yukine. Yukine explains that she runs this old library. After introduction, Nagisa decides to do what she wanted to do: practicing her opening speech. Unfortunately, it soon becomes apparent that Nagisa is too shy to do the job. Moreover, it seems she never act in a play before.

This causes Tomoya to ask her what sort of play she wants to do. Nagisa claims that it's funny but it's not comedy. The next question is about the little blobs that she draws in the flier. Nagisa explains that it's "Dango dai-kazoku", nationally renowned characters that any Japanese should know. Tomoya then ask her why she wants to act and Nagisa claims it's because she thinks it'd be fun to do it with everyone. Ever since she was a kid, she couldn't be in school plays because she always got sick during the day. She'd also be absent from school so she doesn't practice that often either. Despite this, she still wants to do her best and give acting a try. Upon hearing this, Tomoya suggests that she said exactly what he told her during her speech. Later on, the two find out that their fliers have been taken down since they didn't ask student council's permission. The episode ends with Nagisa being called to come into student council's office.

Impression:

I don't think this episode flows as well as last week. There are too many random plots which don't seem to have any relevance to the existing storylines. Maybe we will find out about it in future episodes but at the moment that woman who came to the bakery and the weird musician look like they came out of nowhere. I'm also getting bored of Nagisa's storyline at the moment. When compared to the other girls, she seems to be the least interesting, character-wise. On a more positive side, her father is still funny and his interaction with Tomoya is hilarious. Tomoyo and Kyou continue to be the most entertaining girls in the series thanks to their short-temper personalities. I'm not that impressed with knife girl though. I just think that her behavior is extremely childish for someone who's supposed to be in high school. I am also not sure what to make of the story of the little girl and her robot. Unlike Ayu's narration in Kanon, it's hard to see how this symbolic scene relates to any of the plot.

Preview

On next week's episode: Sunohara proves that he's a man. No, really.

© memento 2003