It’s in the VN, at the very end of her route.
“Ototoi wa usagi ga mitan no, kinou wa shika, kyou wa anata”
That’s probably one of my favorite quotes from Clannad.
When I found out it was from Dandelion Girl I immediately read it. It was such a great story, and I usually don’t like short stories.
My other favorite quote is the one where Kotomi’s father talks about miracles and the beauty of the world.
Simply reading this thread seriously made me tear up though. Clannad makes me emotional because it’s just so beautiful.
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Bookclub discussion begins from this post onward!
Maybe I’m over analyzing this, or maybe I’m picking up on things that I know will happen later on, but I think Kotomi’s beginning to remember that she once knew Tomoya
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So I started in on her route yesterday. Back when I watched the anime I hated Kotomi. Like a lot and irrationally. It was so bad that I began to hold it against characters who shared her voice actor.
I am finding I really like her so far. I am still early - I think April 25th or so? - but I am finding her fairly charming and in some ways I even empathize with her. I don’t know how much of my change of heart has to do with me maturing and changing and how much has to do with the presentation of the visual novel being more effective at portraying her character, but I am glad to find myself enjoying this route.
Also her awkward attempts at Kansai gags is really cute XD
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I love Kotomi; she’s so more endearing in the VN. She makes for some nice comedy as well. The passage about the library key is the funniest one I’ve found so far.
Kotomi: “It’s specially made just for Kotomi-chan.”
It’s obviously an official school key and not specially made for Kotomi-chan.
Something about how he replicates her strange phrasing is really funny to me.
The climax is also one that always gets to me. I have a real thing for when stories do a message from a dead person, or a story that never got told. Basically when love transcends death and time. Both the notion of Tomoya and the drama club always being with Kotomi as well as the bear from her parents fits this idea. And as Aspi said, it’s a shame they left the former out of the anime. Still, the most wondrous part of the climax has to be how so many people took care of that bear to no benefit other than self-satisfaction and the gratitude of someone they most likely will never meet. CLANNAD has a lot of stuff about people connecting to each other, but this route draws connection over the whole world.
Another things worth highlighting is how heavy the foreshadowing is in this route. It feels like Suzumoto wasn’t aiming to surprise you, but instead just take you on an awesome journey. Kotomi realizes who Tomoya is instantly and they show it with the remarks about the food and such. The second time we meet him, it’s made clear the old man isn’t actually a bad guy. I guess you wouldn’t assume the Ichinoses managed to throw a suitcase from the falling plane, so that’s the only big exception I can think of. The idea of writing not relying on the element of surprise really appeals to me. So many times, I have seen people complain about how knowing anything about a story before going in ruins the experience; I just think that kind of mentality is insulting to writers. Suzumoto seems to spell out the development of his stories early on very often, and I think that’s really cool.
Don’t know who decides about where and how CGs are used but credit to that guy for managing to put a match cut into a VN
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Some spoilers can dampen the enjoyment, other increase interest for me. Foreshadowing is something else entirely though, and is necessary for keeping the logic of stories tight. Some of the reveals in Kotomi’s route would have been too random feeling if they had not foreshadowed her knowing Tomoya beforehand.
I’m not quite to the end of the route yet! I just got to the part where Tomoya first goes to her house. So tense!
I finished Kotomi’s route this morning. I balled through the whole ending. My dog thought I was crazy.
I am kind of mad at the adults in Kotomi’s life. Her parents are fine, but the man who was appointed her legal guardian doesn’t feel like he tried hard enough to connect Kotomi to the world after her parents death. You get the impression that since she didn’t cause anyone any trouble she was always just kind of allowed to do as she pleases. She needed an adult or someone way before Tomoya to step up and help her find her footing. Even if the person could not have done as much as Tomoya, it really feels like no one tried. I guess we don’t know a lot of the details, but Kotomi is a sweet girl and I think she would have let someone else in.
Tomoya was a kid so I don’t really begrudge him not going back. The way they handle him getting his memories back is kind of weak, but worked with the narrative so I didn’t mind. Childhood guilt is kind of strange thing, and I am glad he faces it with success.
So, I haven’t played any other routes where Kotomi is featured prominently, but this kind of makes it feel like you would be cruel for doing any other route. Tomoyo’s route was sweet, but the relationship that develops between her and Tomoya - well if it were to never form I feel like both of them can still find happiness. With Kotomi you really
feel like it was Tomoya or bust at that point and if you don’t choose her you are dooming a girl to a life of self-hatred and loneliness. I feel like it will be easier for Tomoya to be happy with Kotomi too just because she kind of needs doting on more than Tomoyo so I feel like it will be easier to keep his self confidence up in the relationship.
I agree with @HeliosAlpha that you get a great feeling of connecting with the world in her route. That so many people cherished her parents last message to her and saw it safely back. It is the kind of story that leaves you hopeful for humanity in general.
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Did you go after the Sunohara joke ending? Spending time with Kotomi and suddenly ditching her is actually brutal. You can see it destroys her, and yet Tomoya just removes himself regardless. It’s so SAD.
I haven’t done the Sunohara ending yet >_< Or gotten any of the bad ends. I am going to have to go back and do that, but I am worried about getting too depressed.
I really loved playing Kotomi’s route. It was fascinating with her abilities to be so knowledgeable and at the same time with easy stuff such as starting with conversations with others was very hard for her. This might sound strange but I kind of had a slight crush on Kotomi’s character in the VN because she looked very cute when Tomoya and her starting going out with each other, meeting at the library, and having lunch together. Aside from that, her route was very endearing and made me cry a lot at the end when she was able to find the suitcase that came back from all parts of the world about that single message from her parents. The short story “The Dandelion Girl” that was quoted from before, I have actually read that story during the time I was reading her route made it also special too as well. Kotomi is actually one of my favorite characters in the routes.
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For those interested, The Dandelion Girl has also been remade into a pretty good visual novel, if you can track it down. The text was slightly rewritten to fit into the visual novel format, but the story is the same.
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Having read all of Clannad, there were a lot of tear baits…
However Kotomi’s route is the only that had me crying my eyes out. Absolutely beautiful piece of writing.
One of the more lengthy routes, and definitely one of the best, if not the best in my honest opinion. Worth every second.
To anyone sitting on the fence about reading The Dandelion Girl. Please do so. Personally I cannot recommend it enough. Not only is it a very short read (a great one, at that), but Kotomi’s route draws a lot of inspiration from it which would otherwise be overlooked without having knowledge of it. I genuinely feel that it adds so much quality perspective about the philosophy surrounding Kotomi’s character and the events of her route.
Now on to the route itself.
Dark past, post-trauma affected behaviour, and sad times… It’s always the shy girl huh?
Comes across as pretty generic which I would usually say is a bad thing, but the way Kotomi’s route tackles the issues is superb, and for that I tip my hat.
What did it do so well exactly?
What I liked best about the route is that it incorporates Clannad’s core themes of family and egotism into an otherwise generic character story (boy meets girl, girl is sad, boy solves sadness, boy and girl fall in love, the end)
A lot of people say Tomoya and Kotomi are not really a good match for each other… And I agree. But the romance was done well to say the least, however that is not the core of this route at all.
What makes this route so special is how intersperses it’s own story about a family shattered by tragedy, and the love that parents have for their children into an otherwise overused piece of plot.
It hit home pretty hard, and I think the main things I took away from it is (ironically quite clichéd but…) to choose your words carefully because you never know when you’ll lose someone close to you. Problems in life cannot be solved with rash behaviour. Relating this to the route, be grateful for having your parents and the things they do for you because chances are you have no idea how much they truly care about you even if it doesn’t appear that way on the surface. Being rash and saying hateful things contribute to greater harm to yourself in the long term.
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…this might sound like a sudden question, but would Kotomi be considered an autist?
Or rather, an autist from the perspective of Key, since these guys kinda take mental problems lightly.
I mean, Kotomi seems disconnected from reality at times, some of the things she says and does are incomprehensible, she perceives painful sounds as pleasant, is extremely good at a certain thing (science), etc.
Slightly off topic, but do you think the climax of Kotomi’s route happens even if Tomoya isn’t there for her? Does she still get the message? I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately that the things that fix or help the heroines fix their problems are never directly related to Tomoya, he’s just able to support them through the hard times that possibly lead up to those moments, but for Kotomi, Tomoya was the whole reason she could face her guardian and learn the message. I would hope she can still receive it without Tomoya there to support her, but it makes me sad to think that without Tomoya her broken life would just continue.
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I really don’t think Key would have made her autistic consciously, though I think you could make a case for her being so, and it is the kind of thing they might agree to post canon. I saw this kind of discussion play out in the Death Note fandom too in regards to L, and I really just think most creators make their geniuses quirky and interesting. Which is probably the best way to write an autistic character anyway, because if you are too caught up in the autistic label you are more likely to trip over the character part.
I don’t think she would be willing to meet the man with the suitcase or be ready to accept what was in it without Tomoya and her friends support. She bailed every other time she was called to the staff office, and would basically have nothing to do with him since he is a “bad guy”
Even if he did manage to get the suitcase to her I don’t think she really would have understood the message the same way without the events from the route. I think her feelings about her parents death and self confidence were too messy and dark where she would have instantly twisted it to something terrible. Plus then she still wouldn’t know that the paper she burned wasn’t her father’s paper, so she probably just would have felt more guilt towards that.
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Kotomi’s route always gets me, and I have no idea why. It got me when I wasnt expecting it in the anime. It got me when I told myself it wasnt going to when I read the VN the first time. And it still got me this time.
What can we take away from this route? Or, really, what can Tomoya take away from this? Unlike the other routes we’ve read so far, I dont think theres a glaringly obvious message, or someway in which Tomoya get support from someone. But here’s what I see:
- Tomoya learns what it means to work for someone because you care. And work hard he does. I mean, in the beginning, he’s only hanging out with Kotomi because its a convenient way to skip class and because she’s fun to mess with. But by then end he’s doing physical labor in the garden all night. He doesnt even know whether or not gardening is gonna help anything, but he wants to show Kotomi that he’s there for her.
Cue orb of light. I just love how it describes Tomoya obtaining the light in this route, instead of being at the end. Maybe wanna talk about the reasoning behind that, podcasters?
- The other message I guess is again about perserverance. This time about the perserverance of motherly and fatherly love for their child. It exists way beyond death. Cue teddy bear. The passing around of the suitcase all over the world is far-fetched, but I like to see it more as a symbol of that perserverance.
Only thing glaringly odd about this route is "What the hec happened between the time of the fire and when Tomoya meets Kotomi? Did she just live by herself that whole time? It sure doesnt seem like Mr. Mysterious Man was watching over her the whole time, at least not as close as a kid should be watched.
I dont really think the fact that Tomoya forgot Kotomi was all that odd. I dont think I would remember any of my “friends” from when I was that little either.
@Naoki_Saten she does kinda seem autistic, at least on the surface. Im no expert by any means, but she’s got many of the stereotypical characteristics such as social awkwardness, slow speech, high intelligence, etc.
I wouldnt say ruins the experience, but I really enjoy discovering what a story is about as Im reading it. My least favorite thing is when Im distracted from the story at hand by what I already know is gonna happen. There’s a certain build up to it, you know?
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With my schedule lately I haven’t been able to finish Kotomi’s route, but I have to say that I really love the elements that people here haven’t really talked about, the slice of life friendship parts. Kotomi’s newfound friendships with everyone is really heartwarming, and there’s a lot of comedy too which I always enjoy. I also appreciate that Tomoyo remembers Nagisa in this route and doesn’t completely abandon her to talk to another girl. Not only is he helping Kotomi make friends, he’s helping Nagisa make them too.
Also I really like Kotomi. She’s not my favorite character, but there’s something about her that just brings out my parental instincts. I’m pretty sure both Tomoya and Kyou make similar sort of remarks about her so it’s clearly intentional. Makes sense that she seems so child-like considering her trauma is so rooted in the past.
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I’m a bit torn about Kotomi’s route. I feel it has some of the best SoL segments of the entire novel, and seeing the whole group of five spend time together is really nice especially as a fan of the anime. The scene where Tomoya tries leaving Sunohara behind had me laughing really hard. On the other hand the drama was hit or miss. I’ve seen the “the last thing I said to my parents was that I hated them and then they died in an accident” thing one too many times and by now I can only give a wry smile. The end parts of the route were a strange mishmash of good direction and over the top dramatization. I was moved reading the letter to Kotomi the first time and hearing about how it was passed around the whole world; but when it came up a second time with CG montages I just felt like they were seriously pushing it.
One thing that struck me was the whole business with the old violin. Remember the dialogue between Tomoya and Nagisa at the very beginning of the novel? About how if fun things and happy things go away it’s fine to just find new ones? Yeah this is the opposite of that. The sentimental value of the old violin is brought up a few times and the characters actively reject getting a new one instead. It honestly felt a little off-putting to me. I wouldn’t have minded it in the slightest if they had made some sort of reference to the initial dialogue (or at least the sentiment behind it) and put up a contrast, but there was nothing of the sort there. Then again I suppose you could make the argument Tomoyo route had something similar with the cherry trees? Well maybe I’m just missing something. I’d like to hear the podcasters’ thoughts on this.
Ah and of course there’s the good old “I forgot about this pretty important bit of my life and I don’t know why” bit that has me sigh. I don’t even remember if there is any sort of plausible reason because accepting that he just forgot about it is rather difficult for me, especially given what happened in the end.
But I want to end on a more positive note because while these things did bother me I still overall enjoyed the route quite a bit. Primarily it was great seeing Tomoya actually set his mind on and do something that takes effort. We haven’t actually seen much of this in the routes so far, but even if he lacks the talent Tomoyo has he makes up for it in spades with hard work if he has the motivation for it. Although his pessimism shines through when we’re given the option of giving up three times in just a few days. I like that a lot, using the choices themselves to show us how Tomoya still has to mentally push himself to do something; but that makes the end result of when he actually goes through with it all the more satisfying.
Also I think this whole story is a vital learning experience for Tomoya. He’s helping Kotomi come to terms with and accept her past and not let it tie her down. Tomoya could very much stand to learn that himself. I like to think that looking at Kotomi and her resolve allowed him to eventually accept his father for who he is and was.
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