Discussion topic for CLANNAD -Hikari Mimamoru Sakamichi de- Episode 13: The teacher’s memory, narrated by Toshio Koumura as written by Jun Maeda. For general discussion of Koumura’s character, please visit his 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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The image of Koumura sitting out on the porch of his garden brings to mind a scene from the final episode of the CLANNAD After Story anime. Since we have Fuko running around, I guess this is set during After Story… The true ending, it would seem after all. Guess they were referencing this little story in the anime.
It’s really interesting to see Koumura’s past. The story about her wife is really heartbreaking. Man, this one just gives me heaps of deep emotions. Definitely suits as a natural extension of the Koumura route. Despite everything, the man seems very satisfied with his life. Just like Koumura’s route, this is very poetic.
The story of CLANNAD’s Most Valued Character (IMO) is here.
This was really nostalgic. Having Koumura tell us his origins as a teacher was expected, but the fact that he was almost a teacher version of Tomoyo was clearly shocking.
I found very interesting the fact that Koumura explained how he evolved as a teacher, how the society itself affected him and how his own life experience changed little by little the way he dealt with students.
Looking at the final scene, where he reads all the postcards he received, one would think that he regrets the way he lived, but his own reflection makes it clear that he regrets nothing, that he lived doing what he thought that was right and that doing that he achieved being remembered by various people, not only his own family.
I loved this episode. While it wasn’t overly ambitious, it showed a simple story written in a perfectly simple style. The outcome:
This is what it achieved.
5/5 for this route, best one so far. Now, excuse me, but I have to go to the KEY Tears Confessional…
Finally, a story that’s more about Koumura than Koumura’s own route. 
In all seriousness, though, perhaps the biggest flaw I had with Koumura’s route in CLANNAD was that it felt like filler. What we hear about Koumura is told to us by Kouko, which somehow convinced both Tomoya and Sunohara to personally thank him for bringing the two of them together and for helping them graduate. It didn’t feel particularly powerful or relatable to me (in part because I had no clue how to empathize with someone like Koumura).
This story practically fixes that issue, and gives us some Fuko fanservice that I wholeheartedly welcome. Turns out Koumura was brought down by his many years of teaching and wondered to himself if what he did really meant something to the people he taught. It took a great deal of encouragement from his late wife, his students and his relatives to get to where he is now, and his story even moves Fuko to offer to help him.
What I think really nailed the five I ranked this story, however, is the very last scene where he is reading the New Year’s postcards. It reminds me a lot of the current state of my grandmother on my father’s side. It’s a bit of a complicated story, but I’ll sum it up like this: she came to visit us about three or four years ago, and she told us that many of her children have had little success managing their families, and it worried her greatly. However, my father’s family in particular have stood strong and healthy in contrast, remaining faithful to the religion he grew up in and keeping us well-disciplined. She told us that she wanted us to write letters to her as often as we could, since she wasn’t used to email and all those fancy gadgets kids play with nowadays. Since then, we’ve written letters to her during Christmas and Mother’s Day, and she’s expressed her gratitude for those letters on the few occasions she calls us on the phone. In any case, this drew an interesting and relatable parallel, and I suddenly felt like I could relate to Koumura now. But that leaves a different question: if I didn’t have this experience, would I still have been able to relate to Koumura? I might never know. 
Can’t wait for the next episode! 
brb crying
5/5
Enjoyed this one much more than I thought I would, given that Koumura’s route felt very underdeveloped in the main story, more Fuko is always fun but it was Koumura’s backstory itself and the self examination of his life and career that gave a little more weight and insight as to why he tried to help Tomoya and Sunohara in the way that he did. And the final scene is also quite touching.
I didn’t care much about Koumura’s route in Clannad but I really enjoyed this story.
Who knew one 15-20 minute drama CD could turn Komura from a stock character into a 3-dimensional living breathing person? Major props to Maeda.
Funny to see more evidence of Komura’s physical prowess. Maybe Komura could have wiped the floor with everyone had he been chosen to play 3 on 3 in the VN.
God now I want to see that scene.
