Discussion topic for the Koumura route of CLANNAD, as well as discussion of Toshio Koumura’s character. Please mark any references to events outside his route and common with [spoiler] tags. His birthday is the 27th of August.
This topic also hosted CLANNAD Bookclub discussion from this post onward, and was referenced in our Koumura Route Podcast.
What would you rate this route?
0 voters
Koumura’s route was preeeetty short… But it had a nice message at the end :3 happy birthday, ya ol’ coot!
Bookclub discussion begins from this post onward!
Okay, can someone help me, I accidentally pushed the enter button too fast and missed the text.
The scene outside the bakery when Tomoya and Nagisa talk to Kouko.
Something happens with a light orb. Did it leave Kouko’s body? Or it did it enter her body? I mistakenly pushed the enter button too fast.
I tried reloading the save from a previous point but the light orb scene is locked for some reason… Even though the save was from a point where I hadn’t read that part yet.
So frustrating.
As I wait for a reply.
In other news… Just finished the route…
Clannad you are terrible.
Terrible for making me cry, and making it so hard for me to pick a favourite route.
This is definitely in my top 5 of the 10(11 technically?) there are.
As an aspiring teacher myself. This struck a chord in me so very hard and made me remember the goal I set out for myself back in a time where I was still deciding what I wanted to do with my life.
I don’t care what anyone says. This route is a perfect example of less is more and superbly written in my opinion. Even if it was only like… 5 minutes long.
I know a lot of people don’t really like this route, or consider it very important. But heck. It was important to me and I loved it 
What happens is you surrender a light orb to pray for Fuko. Yeah it only happens once so even if you reload from a previous save, you won’t see it anymore
Whoops no route. For real Aspi, you’re giving this thing an entire week in the bookclub when it’s like 99% Nagisa’s route?
Koumura’s Character
You know what I hate in writing, when the golden rule of ‘show, not tell’ is not followed. Koumura’s route made that mistake, it told me he was this cool old dude, it didn’t showcase that at all.
The Route
I figured I’d skip ahead to this, heard it was short, scene at the end of Sunohara’s route had me craving it, so after hours and hours of Nagisa’s route I finally get there and.
What’s honestly the point of this. That’s not a route, that’s a fuckin’ scene, a fuckin’ scene for a basically none existent character.
Overall
I’m a bit upset because I was expecting a route and instead got a scene. I’m upset because I feel like Koumura SHOULD be this hugely impactful character to Tomoya and Sunohara, but instead I’m just told he totally is with bugger all mention of him in the rest of the game and nothing really showing this role he played. I’m also annoyed because it made me do most of Nagisa so now I need to do THAT asap. At least I couldn’t give half a shit about Fuko so if I end up missing her thread in time there is no loss whatsoever. Disappointment overwhelms/10.
His name is Toshio? Welp, time for a trip down the rabbit hole. First, Toshio makes me think of toshiyori(年寄り), meaning elderly(noun). Next we have the individual kanji:
幸: Happiness
村: Village
俊: Excellence
夫: Husband
So basically everything is emphasizing how Koumura is a great caretaker of everyone around him.
Post route edit
Joining the group of really unconventional route, Koumura route is kinda hard to talk about. I really love the story; my only problem is how it’s implemented.
So Koumura’s character is like hand crafted to be ignored. Other than having a sprite, there is never a reason to think he is special in any way. And that’s the beautiful part about his character. He’s just there, but then you eventually realize how things would just fall apart without him.
Regarding the implementation, there’s the obvious part of having to read so much of Nagisa’s route just to take a sharp turn away from it. It’s not even an easy fail-safe as you need to have met Kouko to avoid a bad ending. So I guess the question becomes, “Should this have been an optional scene instead of a route?” Personally, I’m not really sure. If the ending was more fail proof I wouldn’t mind it being a route, but it also would take much to make it a good optional thing.
Have you considered going through the other characters’ names too?
I usually take a look but most aren’t as pinpoint accurate.
I liked this ending but I agree that there isn’t a whole lot to talk about. And really, while I liked it, it was kind of unsatisfying after having gone through so much of Nagisa’s route. It felt very much like a consolation prize tacked on as an afterthought.
I have to agree. When I say I liked this route I am mostly just say saying I like the emotional note of an old man who has worked hard getting recognition at the end when it seemed like everyone was going to forget him. The actual execution in this route was weak though and mostly involved a lot of exposition glued on to the end Nagisa’s route.
I think this would have been a good way to handle this. It would have been cool if you had to unlock a series of optional scenes in the other routes that showed you how cool of a puppet master Komura was, and once you saw enough this scene became available as the final extra scene and a light orb.
I’m definitely having a hard time figuring out what to post in this topic… Anything I say would be deducting from my points to talk about in the podcast and, considering the length of this route, there isn’t much to talk about to begin with xP
I guess, if anything, I can at least say that, for what it was, I thought it was pretty well-written. This isn’t the story of what Koumura did for Tomoya/Sunohara nor is it the story of his life. It is the story of Tomoya finding out Koumura’s true intentions and thus gaining ths new appreciation for the old geezer that he wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. And for that, I cannot fault it.
There’s definitely huge room for improvement, but I figure that would make it stray from its original intent. Maybe.
I liked it. Koumura seems like a sweet old man and it is nice to see Tomoya and Sunohara have someone like that in their life. To be honest I am kind of burning out on Nagisa now, despite liking her character. She was such a heavy part of Fuko’s route and his route and now her own route. It was sweet though and kind of abrupt, but I liked it
Well to be fair ‘his’ route is just a bad end for Nagisa’s route really. Nagisa isn’t playing a large part in his route, Nagisa is playing a large part in her own route which you just so happen to have to go though to get to his.
Haven’t got much to say about this route either. I feel like the potential was there but the execution was flawed. Like, imagine if Koumura had a little cameo in every route where he does something for Tomoya and/or Sunohara. And you don’t get to know about him bringing the two of them together on purpose by reading Mei route, but it’s a twist in this route instead. If that were the case letting Koumura have a small route makes perfect sense. The way it is now, I kinda have to agree with @Kanon that we are ‘told’ about how Koumura is this cool teacher Tomoya could always rely on more than we are ‘shown’ that he’s that important to them.
What we got was still alright though. I agree with the sentiment that it could’ve been optional, but letting Koumura have this little sendoff is still pretty nice, especially since even though we got fairly little, I still like his character.
I liked this route because we finally get to see a bit more of Nagisa. However, it is supposed to be Koumura’s path, and I have trouble figuring out his role in the story. He barely appears for one scene in the middle of the route, leading the 3 protagonist to the choir club. However, it is the only real implication he had in the whole story. I understand that he may had an important role to play in Okazaki and Sunohara;s past, but the route does not seem to reflect this importance in any way other than the orb of light at the end. I did not even see enough of the character to give a proper analysis of him.
All in all, the route was quite enjoyable, but more it was all thanks to Nagisa, which I find unfortunate, because Koumura had potential as a character.
Pretty much going to have to agree with this.
This route is ‘picture worth a thousand words’ content for me that thematically I think I could discuss indefinitely.
Could have more, sure, but I don’t think it’s needed or intended to have more, thus 5/5.
I see the opinions differ greatly on whether it’s a good or a bad thing that the Koumura route was so short. Here’s what I think:
On one hand, I can appreciate this kind of extremely short route that simply delivers some subtle messages which make the reader think about surprisingly deep stuff he or she wouldn’t normally think that hard about - just like what happened in the podcast. Provoking so much thought with just a little bit of text - that’s definitely art.
On the other hand, I also feel like Koumura’s potential wasn’t properly made use of. I’m not saying I want a huge Koumura route, but, I definitely want to see more Koumura than this. I can’t shake off the impression that this route could have been pulled off with some other teacher in the center. Someone who’s also working in the background, saving Tomoya’s and Sunohara’s asses from time to time but who’s not as cool as Koumura. And then Koumura would get a whole different route where he could properly show off how cool he is (since he was absolutely cool in Fuko’s route). Wait, but the theme of this route fits him perfectly. The old man who saved many young people, now retiring after receiving the thanks and the smiles of his students… Yeah, this route wouldn’t be as cool without him… damn, I’m even more conflicted now >_<
Koumura’s character is about as (maybe less) relevant to the whole of CLANNAD as Kouko was to Fuko’s route, so it’s fitting that his route is one of the shortest in the whole VN. There’s not a whole lot gained from this route either that I haven’t learned in other routes, save that it gives proper closure to his character when it wasn’t really needed to begin with.
I’m not inclined to believe that this route was just filler, though. It’s more like Maeda to hold a deep respect for the people that made him who he is, and that’s the feeling I got from this route. Perhaps Koumura is a personal reflection on how much his high school teachers cared for him, much in the same vein of how the whole VN is about how much family means to him. As I see it, Koumura stands as a father figure to TomoyaMaster in terms of how he guided his life in the short term. (After Story spoilers) Perhaps this route also serves to foreshadow the repairing of relations between Master and his father in the years to come.
Nagisa is the only one that’s left, so hopefully this means I saved the best for last, huh? 
There’s some pretty heartwarming content here, and I get why Koumura is made to be less prominent in the story, but the narrative felt a little too deliberately handled, like it’s trying to get too quickly to the heart of the story without creating a naturally cohesive flow for the build-up. As a result, the route felt much less emotional and striking than it should be. Too bad, because there’s a genuinely good story to get out of this. 3.75/5.
