Discussion thread for Kotomi’s arc in CLANNAD. Feel free to discuss anything from Kotomi’s route, but if you need to reference content from outside her arc or the common route, tag with [spoiler] with adequate context provided in parenthesis. Her birthday is the 13th of May.
This topic also hosted CLANNAD Bookclub discussion from this post onward, and was referenced in our Kotomi Route Podcast.
What would you rate this route?
0 voters
I really liked Kotomi~ She’s my third favorite Clannad heroine (behind Tomoyo and Yukine.)
Her hairstyle is amazing, her personality is adorable, and the story of her route is easily the most interesting of the Clannad routes, especially in the VN where the illusionary world is explored more. Oh, and her theme song “Étude Pour les Petites Supercordes” is my favorite track in the ost.
Bonus points for building the Clannad hype in a lot of anime-only communities. The reactions everyone gave after that one episode aired where she has a breakdown took over the discussion boards everywhere! One of the most memorable moments of the anime.
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While I have not read the visual novel, Kotomi was actually my favorite character from Clannad behind Nagisa and had my favorite arc in the first season. I have an undying love for the dandere archetype, so she gets some points there. I was also touched by her back story in ways the others weren’t able to do…
I actually found it really interesting that Kotomi was the only one who had a past history with Tomoya. I could feel her guilt and and sorrow.
I am really annoyed with myself because I want to say so much more about her, but I can’t think of anything else. It’ll come to me eventually.
Kotomi? NANDEYANEN! NANDEYANEN! NANDEYANEN!
…sorry. Couldn’t avoid it. It’s so adorable when she does that. And her slowness. And that part in the anime when she moves her legs to make room for Tomoya to sit <3
Then there is the Dandelion Girl reference
Dandelion GIrl~ <3
Anyone who hasn’t read that should go and do it now. It’s only like… 5~10 minutes to read it~
Happy Birthday Kotomi!
I don’t have much to say about her route since I didn’t find it exceptionally good nor exceptionally bad.
What is memorable to me is getting her route in the VN. I felt that it was the most enjoyable route to get, game-wise, where you basically had to ignore everyone else and head to the library whenever you could. I guess it felt the most dating sim-ish conquest in Clannad XD
It’s kind of like Masato’s muscle sensation route from Little Busters in a way. You need to be dedicated, and there is no time for anything else~
Yukine’s was like that a bit too~
Oh, that’s what that line is from? Interesting, I’ll give it a read!
Kotomi’s route has a lot of depth to it. The context appealed to my science nerd side, seeing as she was trying to follow her parents footsteps to become a great theoretical physicist. I loved hearing Kotomi’s parents try to explain string theory in a way a child could understand. In the broader context of Clannad, Kotomi’s route was instrumental in getting people to think about the illusionary world and what it could all mean. The science behind it is very vague, but it introduces the idea of how there’s another world connected to ours, which human consciousness could perhaps enter and leave. Together with Ryou’s fortune telling referring to the idea of the many-worlds interpretation (preparing viewers for the ending) and Yukine’s mentioning the lights (preparing viewers for the twist about the lights in After Story), Clannad’s heroine routes were really well written in the broader context of the story. Anybody who calls the ending a deus ex machina wasn’t paying enough attention.
Got a bit off track there, but yeah, Kotomi’s route was quite enjoyable. She’s not my favourite character (I much prefer Mio as the quiet-type character) but her route was very enjoyable nonetheless. I also really liked the ending, of how the teddy bear travelled around the world and passed through many hands before reaching Kotomi, her parents love for them reaching her at last. That was really sweet.
All that spoilered text explains perfectly why I said “her route is easily the most interesting of the Clannad routes.”
It’s like Key are saying “You know… maybe one day we’ll be able to explain Key Magic…”
Like that Simpsons episode with Bobo the bear!
Oh my god you’re right, it’s exactly the same plot. Holy crap XP
I definitely feel like these little attempts at explaining the logic behind ‘key magic’ make the world of Clannad feel a bit closer to reality.
I would never, NEVER remark this enough. Maybe it felt like that in the anime because of the way it was presented. But in the VN… oh, god, so good =u=
Yeah, it definitely felt like that in the anime.
A few friends of mine who only watched the anime pretty much rejected the true ending.
I read all the replies and honestly I couldn’t put it any other way than what you guys just said. Kotomi really holds a special place for me because she represents a part of who I am. Like Kotomi I’m quite innocent ,quiet and I do sometimes live in my own world. She’s very sweet, polite and when you do find out about her childhood relationship with Tomoya and what happened to her parents. it’s heartbreaking and you do feel for her. The scene at the end of her story, where the gentlemen who turns out to be Kotomi’s guardian gives Kotomi a suitcase that contains her Teddy Bear gift along with an affectionate letter from her parents, is both heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. I could go on and explain even more why I like Kotomi a lot but honestly words can’t really put enough reason on why I like her. There’s a reason why I chose Kotomi as my profile picture for this site.
I understand what you mean. I want to say a lot more as well.
When I first watched the Anime I always thought that the event that occurred in the illusionary world was the reason why Tomoya was able to go back in time and prevent Nagisa’s and Ushio’s deaths from happening .
I enjoyed Kotomi’s route, but it did fall into a few bad tropes that I really dislike. Mainly, how she suddenly goes into a mental breakdown and how Tomoya “forgot” about everything before suddenly remembering.
I view that kind of writing as lazy and all too convenient.
I ended up taking a look at the conclusion of Kotomi’s arc in the VN for the first time, and I ended up liking it a lot better than how it was in the Anime. For one, they missed a very important scene that was instrumental to Kotomi’s growth as a character, and it feels like such a glaring omission now that I’ve seen it. Specifically, it was the scene where Tomoya helps Kotomi reconcile with her fear of death by having her confront the reality that he or she could die tomorrow, but promising that he’d remain by her side forever even if he did die. It was a very powerful scene, and really rings in that spiritual side of Clannad I appreciate. Kotomi’s route was especially spiritual in nature, with all the subtle commentary on how science and spirituality can complement each other. It’s refreshing.
Time for random trivia!
Kotomi’s name, by what her father explained, is connected with Koto (stringed musical instrument) and string theory. But, there’s more…
Kotomi’s father name is Koutarou and her mother is Mizue. They both worked on research together and signed their works together with K&M. Kotomi, too, was a result of their “work” together. Hence the name ことみ (Ko to mi = Ko and Mi = Koutarou and Mizue)
This was never translated in the fan-TL as it’s not part of the script… I’ve always wondered what it said… Hopefully in Sekai Project’s release they will have edited the CG to have it understandable…
Does anyone know what the note says?
From everyone to Kotomi.
It sounds better than before.
Is that from Clannad? I don’t remember that.
