Josh’s Anime Blog

It’s episode 12 of CLANNAD, and we delve deeper into the Kotomi storyline. What exactly were her parents working on? And why does Kotomi seem to have a sad or worried expression when they come up in conversation? And who is the older man following Kotomi around?

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The highlights of this episode:

• Kyou, Ryou, Okazaki, Nagisa, and Kotomi go out around town, and while they’re out, Kyou tries to get doll out of a crane game machine, but fails. Kyou cries out if anyone can win it and suddenly shows up….Fuko, declaring that she is a master at crane games. Nagisa finds her somewhat familiar, but Fuko tells her that the day they will be reunited will come naturally. Fuko, instead of getting the plush Kyou wants, grabs a plush star (figures) and runs off.
• Afterwards, when Okazaki walks Kotomi home, Kotomi asks him to hang on to a book which she has already memorized. Suddenly the older man shows up, and Kotomi grabs Okazaki and runs away. That night, Okazaki has a nightmare of a young boy, a bunny, a deer, Kotomi, and a fire in a library and an older man, who looks like the man chasing Kotomi, arriving to try to put out the fire.
• On the way to school the next day, Kyou is trying to harass Okazaki by sending Kotomi to play embarrassing jokes on him when Nagisa runs up and says that the bus that Ryou usually rides to school was in an accident. When Kyou shows up, she starts to yell out to Ryou, who suddenly shows up safe, saying she got on the next bus. When Kotomi shows up and sees the accident, she suddenly breaks down screaming and curls up into a ball on the ground, calling out that “she’ll be a good girl.”
• When the foursome goes to see Kotomi in the school infirmary later, they find out that she’s left, and that the nurse can’t share any information to protect Kotomi’s privacy. The four then see Kotomi’s homeroom teacher, who isn’t able to tell them anything either, but does give them her home address.
• The four arrive at Kotomi’s house, and find the yard a wreck, with apparently no one home, while Okazaki sees a black butterfly flying around. The four are about to catch the bus to go back home when Okazaki runs back to the house. There he spots the older man standing outside. He tells Okazaki that he used to work in the same lab as Kotomi’s parents, who were researching a world which was created and sealed away when this world was young, but says nothing else. He only asks Okazaki to pass on a message to Kotomi: He doesn’t expect Kotomi to forgive them (supposedly him and others working in the lab), but they still regret what happened.
• Okazaki then returns to Kotomi’s house and finds it familiar. He is about to ring the doorbell when he realizes that he never entered through the front door at this house, and enters via a sliding door that leads into the yard. He goes to Kotomi’s room and finds her sitting on the floor in a room covered in book, magazine, and newspaper clippings about a plane crash, something called the Calabi-Yau manifold, and of the death of people with the last name of Ichinose. Okazaki then realizes that they knew each other when they were kids…

Well, I tried cutting down the review to the essential information this time, but it was still a lot because a lot happened. We’re getting deeper into Kotomi’s story, and this storyline has a bit of a “Yuuichi and Mai” feeling to it with Okazaki just now remembering that they were friends as kids.

It seems obvious that Kotomi’s parents aren’t here anymore, but the question is what happened to them. Were they in a plane crash, as one of the articles that Kotomi had collected suggests, or does the fire that Okazaki keeps dreaming about have something to do with it? And exactly why is Kotomi collecting all those clippings anyway? I’m also interested to see what this bunny, deer, and butterfly have to do with things.

The other interesting tidbit was, of course, Fuko showing up again. Nagisa clearly seemed to remember her somewhat, but Fuko definitely seemed to let on that they would get to see each other again. I’m wondering if Fuko showing up like that will turn into a running gag for the rest of the show or something.