[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Clannad 10-12: bishoujo cake
“Don’t cross the road, you’re under a spell/Of broken violins…”
With Fuuko’s arc more or less wrapped up, we seem to be in an arc centred around Kotomi, the bookish prodigy with a disproportionately keen interest in the violin. While Clannad still has that bishoujo vibe clinging to it like an overpriced cologne, there are enough ‘clever bits’ to keep my interest and actually care about what happens next. Actually, I’m holding out for Tomoya and Nagisa to get together but if Fuuko was anything to go by, that resolution will be towards the end of the series if it does indeed pan out that way. She managed to bring the two of them closer together but as for Kotomi’s role, I’m not yet sure. The detail thrown in at the end of ep #12 suggests that some past connection between the two of them will influence Tomoya’s life in some way or another so I’m looking forward to learning more about that.
The strange thing is that I’m not as interested in Kotomi as the circumstances surrounding her - she’s an intelligent but somewhat dull character who is in the middle of something much more interesting. Although the reactions of the people at the recital - especially the comedic double act that is Nagisa’s parents - were great fun, Kotomi has yet to get much of a reaction out of me. The scene of the bus crash certainly gave another hard-hitting emotional moment (kudos to her seiyuu BTW), but it’s falling a bit flat as far as her personality is concerned. Of course, I could be treated to a genuinely heart-tugging finale as with Fuuko…it could happen, and I hope it will. After all, this is near the midpoint of the show’s broadcast run, which is often either a turning point or a filler section in many cases.
As for the cameo of everyone’s favourite starfish fan, I’m still in two minds about it. It was funny in the sense of Fuuko as a comedic character, but was it really necessary? Unless it becomes a recurring joke or plot device, I’d fall on the latter impression. I found Fuuko’s character role to work better as a dramatic rather than a comedic one anyway, so scenes like this one didn’t do as much for me as the marvellous wedding scene at the end of her own arc.
The two characters of Kyou and Ryou are more interesting to me at this point, especially that intriguing scene in which Kyou interrogates Tomoya before she boards a bus. Although she does have a matter-of-fact attitude at the best of times, her complete lack of shyness at that point suggests that, rather than being interested in Tomoya, she was enquiring on the behalf of someone else. Ryou perhaps? I’m not sure. It would certainly make sense to me since Ryou is probably too timid for up-front approaches such as that when dealing with romance and whatnot. Perhaps because I look up to gutsy females more, I’m actually quite looking forward to the prospect of a Kyou arc when the story is done with covering Kotomi’s situation; similarly it would be nice to see Tomoyo get a bit more screen time. The scene in which Tomoya imagined Kyou doing some sort of magical girl transformation raised a smile…she obviously figured out what he was thinking!
Schoolroom comedy and drama aside, the midpoint of Clannad’s run throws in some hard science fiction of the Place Promised variety, which piqued my interest just when the moe-ness was getting a bit much. It seems to be markedly different from Fuuko’s more fantastical astral projection: as in Shinkai’s movie, there were murmurs of ‘the other world’ which finally offers something resembling an explanation for those pre-op sequence scenes that crop up every now and then at the start of some of the episodes. The nameless girl looks *a bit* like Nagisa, but I couldn’t figure out how it could possibly be relevant to the rest of the show; if there is a pervading sci-fi element, these bits would tie in and add a bit of variety to the mix. It certainly gives me a bit more of an incentive to keep watching, because when the pretty visuals are taken out of the equation it’s pleasant, easily digestable but not particularly filling. I guess you could think of this show as a piece of light, fluffy cake to accompany a more serious main course…there’s a lot of truth to the old saying hana yori dango. ^_^
Posted on January 2nd, 2008 @ 9:26 pm
To quote myself, ‘I remain a Clannad recusant’. But I’m glad you’re enjoying it and your cake simile is apt.
Posted on January 2nd, 2008 @ 10:11 pm
I totally agree about Kyou and Ryou stealing this arc. ep 12 made Kotomi slightly more interesting but ironiclly this whole arc has turned Kyou into my favourite character. Kotomi is too dull, Kyou acts more or less like a normal girl. She’s also brave. I think what sealed it was when nagisa was trying to stop that man from getting to Kotomi. Tomoya pulled Nagisa behind him, Kotomi hid behind Ryou and Kyou just stepped in front of all of them and demanded if he had anything to say, to say it though her. I’m glad she didn’t cower along with the rest.
Posted on January 3rd, 2008 @ 9:29 pm
@IKnight: you may join Epic Win in steadfastly refusing to join the Key fanboys and lavish praise on it. Oddly, I’m still enjoying it, if only for the ‘contrast’ factor. It’s keeping my watchlist nice and varied!
@Senefen: I’m glad you brought up that scene featuring Kyou - that tomboyish gutsiness sums up why I think she’s such a cool character. Nagisa is kind-hearted and all (as is Fuuko, given her motives for making all those starfish) but somehow the likes of Kyou are more fun to watch.
Posted on January 5th, 2008 @ 1:25 pm
[...] official: three out of five blogs approve of Fuuko’s reappearance in episode 12. The other two were just grumpy old men who couldn’t stomach a little of KyoAni’s signature humour (it [...]