Subculture Anime Blog

HYPER RAINBOW BREAD.

Summary:

Tomoya and Nagisa see that Yukine is quite sleepy when they meet her at the library reference room, so after discussion of charms and ways to get good sleep, Nagisa allows her to sleep on Tomoya’s lap. Yukine eventually takes the chance to do so, and despite the slight awkwardness both Tomoya and Nagisa feel, they notice that Yukine was certainly tired from the previous night’s events. Youhei, Yuu, and Sudo eventually arrive at the room, followed by Tomoyo who Sudo flees from. With this, Tomoyo requests to hear the details about the situation. Tomoyo had actually been mistaken for the Miyazawa leader because of the previous night’s events, making both groups uneasy. Upon hearing Kazuto’s name, Tomoyo recalls her hearing about him during her more violent days. Tomoyo eventually requests to have Yukine stop the fighting between the two groups, but she cannot give a clear answer to this.

Tomoya and the others see that the Miyazawa group is still uneasy when they reach the bar that night. When Yukine rushes out with hopes of speaking with the other group, Tomoya quickly follows her. Yukine denies Tomoya’s suggestions of other ways to deal with the situation, leading them both to the center of the rival group’s members. Yukine attempts to convince them that the police among other troubles would appear if the fighting got worse, but the majority of the members refuse to do anything but bring about an all out war. The leader Sasazaki finally calms everyone, however, bringing up the injuries Yukine had also healed for him. With this, he suggests a single match between he and Kazuto to decide everything. The Miyazawa group is later surprised to hear that Yukine agreed to this, but they are still troubled that Kazuto would probably not appear in person. This brings Yuu to suggest that Youhei go in his place, convincing the group that his previous fibs were true.

Both groups meet the next day, but when Youhei suggests an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach, Nagisa presents some special bread that Sanae had made for everyone. Combining this with some very special jam, all of the ignorant members of the Miyazawa group are instantly knocked out upon eating their meals. With this, Tomoya volunteers to fight Sasazaki instead. Sasazaki easily displays that he has more fighting potential than Tomoya, but Tomoya refuses to give up for quite a long time. When the Miyazawa group members finally wake up, the two groups almost get into a large fight. However, this stops when what appears to be Kazuto shows up. When this person approaches Sasazaki though, it is quickly revealed that this is only Yukine in disguise. Unable to realize why Yukine would do such a thing, Tomoya angrily makes everyone realize that she did it to stop the fighting.

It is later revealed that Yukine’s brother had passed away quite some time ago. Before his death, he had always wanted to stop the fighting between the groups in the city. Despite this, the Miyawaza group’s conditions made them decide on keeping his death a secret. After hearing about Yukine’s experiences, first being scared for Kazuto’s friends before finally realizing how nice they were, everyone pays their respects to her brother at his grave. While this happens, Tomoya notices a small ball of light floating above him. Thanking her friends on the school rooftop later, Yukine brings up the existence of a wish granting ball of light. Nagisa and Tomoya guess that this is Misae’s, but this does not change Yukine’s thoughts. Recalling how many wonderful friends she has, Yukine gives her thanks to everyone and Kazuto.

Preview: Botan’s emo radar detects a disturbance in Tomoya.

Impression:

Loving that Ryu cosplay, Yukine. Even though I still felt like the majority of this arc felt quite out of place in the Clannad universe, this week’s episode was a lot more enjoyable for me when compared to the last. The appearance of Sanae’s absolutely ridiculous and shiny rainbow bread paired with the cameo appearance of the infamous Akiko jam was probably enough to make any Keyani fan roll around in their chair. And speaking of production, the fight between Susazaki and Tomoya was quite fluid and enjoyable to watch. It’s awesome how Kyoto Animation puts in so much effort into shows that don’t even really need it (Am I watching fighting anime?). Hearing Daisuke Ono playing a stereotypical gang member was pretty humorous too, just because I didn’t see it coming at all.

I do feel like the end of this episode succeeded in giving me a new attachment to Yukine (the funny facial expressions and yawning helped too), but this arc still wasn’t as strong to me when compared to the last two. The episode preview didn’t reveal a whole lot, besides implying that it would be more related to Clannad’s main story and Tomoya’s struggle with his future, but it does seem like I should be looking forward to an epic Botan adventure!