Clannad – Kotomi’s Arc – Final Impressions

Since I still have a shortage of quality subs and I have watched Kotomi’s arc over again in the first season, why not finish her arc in the Visual Novel? The anime adaptation of Kotomi’s Arc is done the same way Mai’s arc was done in the Kanon (2006 remake) Anime. However, there was a few differences in the visual novel material, so I will explain them along with my overall thoughts. (Contain VN spoilers)

Some Differences

• Kyou hugging Kotomi from behind… Unlike the Anime, the visual novel goes so far by having Kyou saying something about Kotomi’s breast and butt size. This scene exists in the Anime, but toned down.
• Tomoya fixes Kotomi’s backyard himself… with more in depth detail on how he restored it.
• The scene where Kotomi and Tomoya goes back to the school on a break. This scene exists in the Anime, but they were not wearing uniforms. They also broke into the school and it was an actual date.
• The backyard scene towards the end of Kotomi’s arc where Tomoya waits for her after he restored the backyard. The Anime does not reinforce the relationship of Kotomi and Tomoya since the official couple after all is Nagisa and Tomoya. (More detail below)

General Thoughts

People can say Kotomi’s arc is the blending of Mai’s and Minagi’s arc. Even though Kotomi has some similarities to these characters, Kotomi is pretty different. Her parents exist as genius physicists who are tying to find the hidden dimension in the universe. Because of their fame, it was very difficult for Kotomi to make friends. Kotomi was a shy and an extremely smart girl. Her intelligence was one of the reasons why she hardly had any friends until Tomoya came along and helped her. Unlike Mai and Minagi, Kotomi had a weird sense of humor and makes jokes that doesn’t quite work out.

There is a reason why she acts like this. In the visual novel and the Anime adaptation, her parents died in a plane clash on their way to an important conference with their thesis. Kotomi said that she “hates” them for not staying home and celebrate her birthday. This led to her suffering of her Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome since she could never get over the loss of her parents. She became isolated from society, studied hard and cut clippings that mentioned her parents to atone for her sins. Kotomi’s post-traumatic stress syndrome was triggered with a bus accident (no one was injured or killed in) at a time when Tomoya and her friends was fun with Kotomi. This accident triggered Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome because it reminded her of the plane crash.

Kotomi’s story is rather melodramatic, more so than Kyou’s arc since the events felt very sad. Tomoya was the only one that could bring Kotomi out of her isolation and cure her Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. He done this by restoring the backyard as he remembered it, which allowed him to remember his childhood memories with Kotomi.

When Kotomi comes outside,  she said a very dramatic quote towards the end of her arc as if she was remorseful:

I realized, I realized it… Even if I do this, nothing will come back. My clothes are different, there’s no violin, my hair ornaments weren’t like this… Tomoya-kun and I, are no longer kids. Mom and dad wouldn’t come back anymore. No matter how many books I read, I wouldn’t become a splendid person. No matter how many pages I cut up, the things I did wouldn’t regain anything…  This kind of world is wrong. A world without dad and mom is wrong. Why is it that I’m here? Did they just leave only me? I wanted to go as well. I wanted to ride the airplane with mom and dad… and sink together to the bottom of the sea…

After the full understanding of Kotomi’s feeling by Tomaya, he yells “DON’T.” Tomoya yells this not only because he loves her, but he doesn’t want Kotomi to suffer the sad memories and isolation. Tomoya only wants her to be happy even if he is not with her. With this understanding, Kotomi gains the courage to defeat her post-traumatic stress syndrome, break her isolation and walk into the real world.

And of course, in the visual novel…

Kotomi’s arc has to be my favorite arc right after Kyou’s because of the intense drama and the humor. Kotomi just has an odd sense of humor and violin playing that makes me laugh (including the Big Lipped Alligator Moment of Tomoya dreaming about strange stuff). Also, I liked Kotomi’s rather quiet voice performed by Noto Mamiko. It reminded me of some the characters she did voices for like Sawako and Nogizaka Haruka, although this performance topped both of these characters in my opinion. Compared to Mai’s visual novel arc, this one hit harder to me that makes Kotomi’s arc feel like the better arc in my opinion.

Also, nobody can forget the violin playing that Kotomi done… I can’t stop the ringing!

Rating

9.5/10 ¶