Subculture Anime Blog

BEST CHOICE!

Summary:

Tomoyo again arrives at Tomoya’s house to wake him up. Tomoya apologizes when Tomoyo even makes breakfast for him, but she believes that she should be the one apologizing. Tomoya has been expelled from school because of his taking the blame of Tomoyo’s actions, but he states that it is because Tomoyo must become the new council president no matter what. Tomoyo almost inquires about this again, but the two are interrupted by Tomoya’s father. He sits down to eat when Tomoyo offers for him to, but Tomoya quickly takes the chance to leave. Tomoya visits Youhei’s house, waking him up in a playful manner as usual. When Youhei finally expresses his need to go to school, Tomoya gives him his regards to Kyou and the others. Of course, the girls are all worried about Tomoya in the clubroom that day.

Tomoya is unable to stop thinking about Nagisa at home, but he answers the door to find the Fujibayashi sisters outside. The three go to town afterwards, playing a game in the arcades. Kyou pushes her sister closer to Tomoya as they play a fortune game, but she becomes angry at Tomoya when an undesirable fortune comes up. Ryou is actually satisfied with the friendship fortune on the way out, as Kyou takes the chance to leave. Tomoya brings up Ryou’s liking of fortunes while they are alone together, so she begins describing her enjoyment of finding that there are different paths for the future.

Tomoyo again visits Tomoya to cook for him, finally asking if he is on bad terms with his father. However, Tomoya is obviously uncomfortable with talking about this. Changing the subject, Tomoya wonders how the activities at school are going. Without turning around, Tomoyo states that they are doing fine. Tomoya is forced to answer the door, finding that Kyou, Ryou, and Kotomi have all arrived with food for him. With a large set of food in front of him, Tomoya is soon troubled by the girls’ conflicts. Even Fuuko-sama arrives to add more to Tomoya’s stress.

Tomoya finally returns to school, but he learns that bad rumors about Tomoyo have been brought up amongst the students. To fix this problem, he proposes a challenge to the baseball team. They agree to participate, but if Tomoyo were to lose, she would be forced to join a team. Tomoyo has trouble getting used to the game, but Tomoya gives her advise so that she is quickly able to overpower the other team. She begins doing similar runs with most of the athletic clubs in the school, bringing her reputation back up to good terms. Thanking Tomoya later, Tomoyo finally reveals her goals for becoming the student council president. She wants to save the cherry blossom trees on the road leading to the school, and she had transfered just to protect this important place to her.

Tomoyo later gets into a conversation with Tomoya about the answer to living a more settled life. Tomoya believes that love and talents are the answer, but Tomoyo suggests that it is family. Tomoya tries to disagree, but Tomoyo suggests that “family” could be close friends as well. Tomoyo further tells of her past troubled family, and how weak of a human she was. The person who saved her was her little brother, Takafumi. Tomoyo’s mother and father were close to divorcing, but Takafumi was extremely against it. After he had jumped from a bridge, the Sakagamis were finally able to act like a family while watching him in the hospital. While Tomoyo and her family walked down the cherry blossom filled road later, Takafumi had expressed his wish to watch the cherry blossoms fall with the family every year. Of course, the family wished for this as well. Even though things are changing, Tomoyo still believes that the cherry blossoms are important for a select number of people. Because of this, she wants to protect them.

Nagisa finally returns to school on a later day, thanking Tomoya for what he has done in her absence. Tomoya attempts to convince her that it was nothing, suggesting that they watch Tomoyo’s match that day. Tomoya and the girls go to watch Tomoyo’s tennis match, and she does extremely well. Seeing Tomoya and Nagisa enjoy themselves, Kyou almost interferes. However, her sister quickly stops her. Tomoyo notices that she has seen Nagisa before, and realizes what Tomoya’s goals are after hearing that she is the one starting the drama club. Nagisa is injured when a tennis ball is sent her way, so Tomoya helps her to the infirmary. Kyou realizes that she has lost after watching Tomoya’s actions, crying with her now apologizing sister. Later, on the boards are an announcement where Tomoyo has become the new student council president.

Preview: The drama club is finally established, Tomoya had more ogawd daddy issues.

Impression:

Woah! This had to be the best episode since the Fuuko-sama arc ended! Tomoyo has really grown on to me after this episode, and I’m definitely seeing why she is a favorite among many fans. Watching her visit Tomoya’s house every morning was pretty typical and laughable, but this was just another case where Key/Kyoani was just able to make it work. The issue of family was really fitting, as this is overall theme of the series in general. Tomoyo’s back story about her brother and family was excellent, and totally believable. Without going into certain people’s personal lives, I know for a fact that these types of conflicts are real and quite common. Watching Tomoyo take part in all of the school’s athletic clubs was probably a real treat for a lot of people. I laughed really hard during the kendo scene in particular, if the Bamboo Blade parallels weren’t already obvious.

Watching the final attempts from Kyou were pretty interesting to see as well. Ryou’s insights about fortunes and fate were beautiful, and it really made me think that she is one of the most underrated girls in Clannad. Watching the arcade scene in general made me think of a conversation I was having earlier in the week, which was about arcades’ popularity in Japan compared to here in the states. (Apparently this is taking a bit of a hit at the moment though, thanks to the wii.) The insert song was very nice at the end of this episode, and it was awesome to finally see Tomoya show some direct interest in Nagisa. Lastly, I’m pretty tired of people complaining about awesome Fuuko’s appearances. You can say this is killing the dramatic effect that was suppose to come at the end of the series, but come on. Kyoani is already taking the series in its own direction, and they’re just keeping all the girls together rather than splitting them up in the typical fashion. I happen to love this, and it’s not like the team doesn’t know what they’re doing.

Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day! (or ronery day for a lot of you out there, I guess…)