Subculture Anime Blog

A Fuuko fanclub!? Sign me up!!!

Summary:

Tomoya enters the Furukawa bread shop to find that Sanae has made all of the bread in the shape of starfish. Tomoya honestly expresses his distaste with all of it, putting Sanae in despair. She leaves to find Akio soon afterwards, as Nagisa and Fuuko appear in the room. When Fuuko sees the starfish shaped bread, she goes into a state of euphoria. Warning of the consequences this would bring, Tomoya tells Nagisa a ridiculous story. Nagisa wishes to hear more of the story, even when Tomoya puts it off as a joke, but he has other objectives. While Fuuko is vulnerable, Tomoya sticks a drink up her nose. Later, while Fuuko is distributing her carved starfish to passing victims, Nagisa leaves to the clubroom. Fuuko uses Tomoya as cover soon afterwards, as there are boys who would like to create a Fuuko fanclub. These boys are disheartened when they find that Fuuko does not want a fanclub, but they do not give up quite yet.

After this awkward encounter, Tomoya and Fuuko meet Nagisa in the clubroom. While discussing their plans, Youhei appears to join Fuuko’s alliance. Fuuko denies Youhei’s offer, as he is a strange person, so this makes Youhei challenge her instead. The two agree on a carving contest, but Fuuko’s result is not what is expected. She wins anyways, however, when Youhei injures himself. After their school activities, Nagisa explains to Tomoya her plan to have Fuuko meet Ibuki-sensei. The two have Fuuko go home first, while Nagisa expresses that she and Tomoya look like her parents. This causes an awkward silence, which continues as they start walking home. The two run into Yoshino Yusuke on the way, and Tomoya becomes shocked to find that he is Ibuki-sensei’s fiance. He thanks the two when they offer their encouragement, and the two meet with Ibuki-sensei afterwards. They discuss the planned event with her, and Nagisa is moved to tears after mention of the hospitalized Fuuko.

Fuuko is so exhausted from preparations the next morning, so Tomoya is forced to carry her to school. Fuuko wakes on the way there, expressing that she saw a very strange dream. This consisted of her playing with starfish, and a very out of character Tomoya. The three stop at the theater upon reaching the school, before going to see the rest of the festivities. When Fuuko sees the starfish items her fanclub has made, she goes into a state of joy as usual. This causes her to come back to reality in a waitress outfit, along with Kyou and Ryou. As Nagisa and the other girls serve customers, Fuuko takes the chance to give out her starfish. As some girls accept Fuuko’s presents, Tomoya, Nagisa, and Youhei overhear how highly they think of her actions. Nagisa expresses that Fuuko has become famous because of her efforts, and wishes to follow her example for the drama club. Yohei offers to help as well, but he is easily distracted by a passing girl.

A person in a bear suit stops Youhei’s harassment down the hall, resulting in his being kicked out of a high story window. The person under the bear costume is, of course, Tomoyo. Fuuko offers Tomoyo a carved starfish, which she accepts after seeing how hard Fuuko must have worked on it. Fuuko runs into Mitsui a second time shortly afterwards, but she accepts Fuuko’s offered starfish this time. Mitsui says that she may be able to make it to the undecided wedding, and walks away with a smile soon after wishing Fuuko luck. After Fuuko gives away more starfish later, she is taken back to find that Tomoya and Nagisa have called her sister over. Ibuki-sensei is only able to see Tomoya and Nagisa in front of her, making the two realize that she cannot see her younger sister Fuuko.

Preview: A cat is fine too.

Impression:

Ok, the end of this episode was about to move me to tears. Not quite though, so let’s move on to happier things. This episode was absolutely hilarious! The mood was set as soon as the episode started with Nagisa’s mom in the bakery, but the hilarity just didn’t stop after that. The story Tomoya presented was genius, and I almost fell out of my chair when he succeeded in sticking milk up Fuuko’s nose. Fuuko’s orz pose during the carving competition was just too good. I remember how careful we had to be with those carving utensils in high school art. That also reminds me of the time my Japanese friend got his finger cut open by some idiot, but that story is for another day. I laughed really hard on the small jokes like Tomoya putting Nagisa’s crying off as needing to go to the bathroom as well. By the time I saw Fuuko’s dream, I was laughing so hysterically that my room mate gave me various funny looks.

Clannad is doing very well to make us feel attached to the characters, though I may be biased because of my love for Fuuko. People call this a moe anime, and I guess I’m just falling straight into the trap. I’m probably going to cry in a few weeks, or become very angry if not that. Expecting this makes it even worse (Ah, memories of Air). Small things like Fuuko’s little hops across the crosswalk just had me rolling around my chair in joy. I really loved Nagisa’s embarrassing comment about herself and Tomoya being like Fuuko’s parents too. It’s all so cute….too cute. I’m not really too into the maid/waitress thing, but I’m sure many of you will be happy in the pants about Kyou and Ryou in their outfits. I expected Tomoyo’s appearance as a bear because of the OP, but I still laughed when I actually saw it. “Only YOU can stop forest fires.”

As far as the actual story goes (oh yea, this anime has a story), things are just moving along for Fuuko. I was really happy to see the students finally accepting her, especially Mitsui. Her accepting of Fuuko’s request the second time around was so touching, and I couldn’t help but have a smile on my face during that scene. One thing I didn’t really care for was the Fuuko fanclub. It just seemed so over the top and unnecessary. Those raging otaku really need to go away. I don’t think I even need to talk about the end of this episode. That was just heart wrenching. I am preparing myself for the conclusion of this arc, which I know will probably be impacting on me. That also brings up the question of how long this arc will actually last. Man, it feels like it’s been forever since I watched this show. I love Clannad! Oh well, being busy with life and all that is fun too.