Kotomi is my favourite route of all the Clannad stories, yes it can be argued that it’s not especially groundbreaking and has flaws but I give it 5/5. Kotomi herself would be a little way down the list of my favourite characters. This arc really sold me on CLANNAD as a whole ( I played it after Sunohara before Fuko, so further into the story than in the Bookclub walkthrough).
I was really drawn into wanting to know more about her back story; what had made her so withdrawn and reticent, why she asked everyone if they are a bully, and why she seemed to make a connection with Tomoya. All the first half scenes as she tries hard to integrate socially with the mismatched group dominated by Kyou were both funny and touching. I can empathise with this as i find it difficult to make new friend and I have a no doubt irritating habit of spouting useless facts, textbook style as a conversation stopper…
Like most I suspect I was expecting Kotomi to be a prodigy violin player and enjoyed the overturning of expectations in that mini-arc and her total lack of awareness of the effect on others.
From the shock of (major second act spoiler) her sudden breakdown right to the end I was fighting off tears and not very successfully! I loved how Tomoya went 100% into trying to make things better, and depleting his savings, even though he had no way of knowing that it would make the slightest difference The (apparently) trauma related memory loss is a bit of a stretch but it serves well as a plot device.
The 5 episodes of the anime that covered this I arc were a total delight for me although the VN of course is more definitive.
BTW “Étude Pour les Petites Supercordes” means in music terms “musical composition for the little Superstrings” which neatly relates with both the violin and theoretical physics.
