Subculture Anime Blog

1.0 You are not alone

Summary:

When Tomoya realizes that he and Kotomi have met before, Kotomi expresses the gladness she had for seeing him again. When Kotomi was a child, she asked her father why he decided to name her Kotomi. He explained the name’s relation to a harp and the beautiful world, while her mother expressed what was really important. This life with her parents was Kotomi’s everything, until she met Tomoya who accidentally stumbled into their yard. Kotomi had lived without knowing the life of typical students her age, but she saw that Tomoya was different. She one day asked her father for a stuffed bear, although she really only wanted something that a girl would like according to a book that she read. Some time after, she found that her parents would be forced to go away on a trip. She was disappointed as Tomoya and some of his friends were going to come to celebrate, but her mother told her to celebrate with Tomoya anyways. She really only wanted to be with her parents, making her exclaim that she hated them.

On the day of Kotomi’s birthday, no one came. She did not even see Tomoya. She became excited from hearing the doorbell ring, but only found the old man. He brought news to Kotomi that her parents had become lost at sea, along with something very important to the world. She was only able to believe that the man was a bad person, praying to god to return her parents. Kotomi finally saw the news talking about her parents later, as she desperately refused to believe that they were gone. Kotomi eventually entered her father’s office to find what she believed to be the important research, but she was only able to see this as the cause for her loss. With this, she set it to flames. Tomoya wonders why she would do that, but Kotomi does not know either. Tomoya notices all the articles around Kotomi’s room, which she confirms are those dealing with her parent’s incident. She then explains how she began studying constantly in order to make up for her parents, because god would not forgive her otherwise.

Tomoya finds that Kotomi has not gone to school the next day, as the teacher he asks reveals Kotomi’s potential for schooling. Nagisa wishes to go with Tomoya to Kotomi’s house, but he tells her to attend club properly. Tomoya begins cleaning the yard around Kotomi’s house, when Nagisa shows herself to him again. He easily guesses that she and the others are preparing for Kotomi’s birthday, but Nagisa expresses that he is the only one that would be able to make Kotomi return to school. Tomoya begins tidying up Kotomi’s yard well into the night, but he finds that he will not make it in time the next day. He decides to research and buy tools, meeting Nagisa and the Fujibayashi sisters in town. They have a violin that they wished to give Kotomi as a present, but it was damaged by a biker. The group visits a shop to see if it could be repaired, but they found that it would be cheaper to buy a new one. Kyou believes that it can only be the violin they have, but they find that it cannot be repaired in time even after visiting another shop.

The group visits Kotomi’s house, and the girls express how impressed they are with Tomoya’s work. Tomoya decides to continue as the girls go home, believing that he feels like he must work hard because of his younger self. The girls return later, however, making him realize that there is nothing to worry about. While the group works together on the yard, Nagisa expresses that she might have seen the curtain in Kotomi’s room move a little. With this, the group continues to do their best.

Preview: What is this english I see here?

Impression:

Eh, this just didn’t meet my expectations after having to wait so long after the cliffhanger from the last episode. I think Shana’s epic vibes are still too strong on me right now. Hearing Mamiko Noto fail at being a loli didn’t help either. I’ll probably get flamed for this, but Noto’s really been failing me lately. She used to be one of my favorites, but she just hasn’t been coming off on me well recently. The actual development with the revealing of Kotomi’s past was fairly interesting, if not very predictable. Kotomi’s childish acts were quite realistic, and it really doesn’t take someone with a sheltered background to see that. I thought it was fun watching the other girls appear to help Tomoya, which further proves how well the anime is stringing arcs together. I kind of joked while watching the episode though, by saying things like, “Nagisa, stop trying to go to Kotomi’s house…leave Tomoya alone while he works on this girl.” I love how these leads always feel the need to help all the girls, and magically have money when they need it. Yes, that was convenient that you had money from that job we have not seen you working at, Tomoya. Haha. I wonder how long Kotomi can stay in her house before going insane. Maybe we’ll find out next week.