Discussion topic for CLANNAD -Hikari Mimamoru Sakamichi de- Episode 03: Male Friend, told by Kyou Fujibayashi as written by Kai. For general character discussion of Kyou, please visit her character discussion topic.
Spoilers for the vanilla CLANNAD are permitted, but please tag references to other Side Stories with the [spoiler] tag, providing adequate context in parenthesis.
How would you rate this episode?
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We finally get to learn when Kyou first developed feelings for Tomoya in second year! There was a lot of significant character development in this episode, especially with how her relationship with Tomoya and Sunohara began. Itâs nice to see things from Kyouâs perspective for once. Also interesting to see how Kyou came to use her dictionary.
I imagine that if Kyou never met Tomoya and Sunohara, sheâd probably end up being a perfectly diligent student just like everyone else. Through that relationship and their idiocy, she was able to continue enjoying her life as a student. Iâm sure theyâre the reason for her violent side; without them she wouldnât have any reason to be violent towards anyone. Interesting to think how much of an impact theyâve had on her personality.
I loved this episode, though I wonât give it a 5 since it didnât quite reach After Story or Refrain, sooooâŠ
I really wanted to see more from Kyou in this Side Stories. Her route was great in my opiniĂłn, but I still wanted to know how all her feelings began, since in CLANNAD we are just told that she loves Tomoya but wants to leave him to Ryou.
Therefore, seeing not only how she develops her feelings towards Tomoya, but also hearing her thoughts on the Male-Female friendship concept was interesting. This also gave Kyou some carĂĄcter development.
I also enjoyed how in this episode Ryou practically out of the picture and what we saw was just Kyouâs actions. Perhaps the fact that the episode was told from her perspective helped achieve this sense of Kyou being a unique character with unique thoughts (even though one might classify them as a bit Tsundere-clichĂ©).
Overall, I really enjoyed it. It was a very pleasant and refresing read.
This episode was pretty good.
It was kinda hilarious that Kyou got Sunoharaâs name wrong. The whole time, youâre thinking âHaruharaâ? Whoâs that?
I liked seeing how the relationship between Tomoya and Kyou began. Actually, if Nagisa didnât come into the picture, itâs very likely that the two of them would have gotten together. Guess bad luck for Kyou. But, itâs an interesting friendship that they develop and probably the reason why Kyou is able to express her real self.
I found it weird that Ryou would chase Tomoya later on eventhough she knew Kyou already had feelings for him. In fact, Ryou was already doing KyouxTomoya shipping in the *ahem bath scene . So with one inconsistency out of the way, it was a good read.
My experience reading this episode was kind of spotty. I absolutely admire Goto-Pâs artwork in this episode, but I had to skip half the bath scene because it was making me uncomfortable. I shouldnât have missed enough to impact my opinion on this episode, though.
I feel like half the reason it was hard for me to understand Kyou as a character in CLANNAD was because I didnât know what things were like in her eyes. For that, Iâm grateful that this chapter makes Kyou the focal character, making it much easier to understand where sheâs coming from. In this story, Kyou is coming to terms with why she canât be friends with boys her age. She tries her best to convince herself that she doesnât like men because they think they have to be lovers with her in order to be together. For that reason, she uses her anger to distance herself from them.
Then she starts developing feelings for Tomoya, and thatâs when things start getting complicated for her. To make matters worse, while talking about it with Ryou, Kyou receives a fortune from her saying that someone will confess to a wonderful person the next day. Since Ryouâs fortunes never come true, this obviously never happens, but Kyou still holds on to the hope that it could happen. For the moment, however, she intends to play things safe until the right moment, staying friends until the day someone wonderful does confess to her.
I thought this route worked well as a supplementary for Kyouâs route, something to help justify her behavior in CLANNADâs common and her route. Unlike the previous chapter, though, itâs interesting and enjoyable to read, which is a nice bonus. If I could expect this from the rest of these short stories, itâd make the whole experience pretty nice. Weâll just have to wait and see⊠
Another story that was mostly integrated into the CLANNAD anime. This was a pretty fun one. Itâs pretty tropey tsundere stuff, but it makes sense, and it really helps understand Kyou better, especially in the common route.
I felt so bad for her when Sunohara pranked her. Heâs way too good at picking up on stuff when you really donât want him to 
This was enjoyable. I preferred the way the anime went about this same story, but like @Aspirety said, it was interesting seeing a story told from Kyouâs perspective. Discovering that she had a bad experience with love in her first year helps elaborate why sheâs so hesitant to come forward to Tomoya in their third year. Itâs also interesting to see Ryou totally at ease in her conversation with Kyou in the bath. I liked the dynamic that scene presented.
Itâs interesting, though. Ultimately, Kyou resolves to take things slow with Tomoya, but when she decides to set Ryou and Tomoya up, she rushes through the important step of getting to know each other in an attempt to hide her own feelings on the subject. Quite the irony thereâŠ
I absolutely loved this episode! Kai really knows how to get you to empathize with the characters that he writes. Seeing everything from Kyouâs perspective just opens your eyes to her personality. That cheerful, albeit a bit shy; strong-willed, but scared to lose side of her that we never really got to see in the VN nor in the anime. And we even got a little bit of character development! I felt it would have been better if the final monologue pointing out that development wasnât there, but it didnât ruin it or anything.
One little nuance I picked up is that the intro really connected why Kyou was being, well, so hesitant in her route. She experienced, first-hand, what taking the first step into a romantic relationship can do to friendships; and she didnât want to risk losing her own friendship with Tomoya. But she still has a hard time denying her own feelings. Kind of fun to see, but at the same time, quite sad⊠But yeah, I think knowing this info will make me appreciate her route even more, the next time I decide to read it.
Or âWhen Kyou met Tomoyaâ or âMen and women canât be friendsâ.
I enjoyed this, itâs a good revelation to hear things from Kyouâs POV going back in the past. I could imagine it being inserted into the main Clannad Kyou route as a background flashback ]as it gives more insight and context into her feelings towards the end of that route as her true feelings are revealed.
The artwork has a neat slightly dreamy soft focus effect almost as a counterpoint to the aggressive side of Kyou that we see much more of in the main story. The bath scene, thankfully fairly tastefully done does show how comfortable the twins are with each other.
And yes, the way she talks about the infamous dictionary as projectile does make me think that Haruhara, sorry Sunoharaâs prank may have been the catalyst for her aggression.
I really like this episode, one of the reasons probably is because Kyou is my favorite heroine in Clannad, so this story made me love and appreciate her more.
It was fun to read in Kyouâs perspective and I was able to get to know her character more and itâs great to see a different side of her personality before she got closer to Tomoya and Haruhara. It gave me more idea to her actions, reasons and struggles towards her relationship with Tomoya, which I was able to empathize with. Itâs nice, because I already understand her actions on her route, and this episode expands it more which I really love.
It was kind of exhausting to read the part when Haruhara prank her, itâs because I really feel sorry for her, knowing that this is a bad joke. Even though she knows Ryouâs fortune telling is not always accurate, she still has this anticipation. Reading her thoughts and seeing her wait for nothing makes me sad. And thatâs how the tale of throwing dictionary was born.
Overall, I really like how Kai was able to write Kyou in a way that I can connect with. Kyouâs thoughts and actions felt natural for me. And very nice to see how the Kyou, Tomoya and Haruhara relationship was develop. This episode satisfies me as a Kyou fan.
