Alright it’s bookclub time, let’s go.
Tomoya Arc is kind of difficult for me to nail down since it’s several things at once; it’s the prologue that’s basically inconsequential to the entire rest of the VN, it’s the common route that introduces the characters and conflicts for the first time, and it’s the first true plot and character arc of the story. Let’s take these in order.
The prologue is boring. It’s fun at times (GYAIAGREIIIIIIBODODODODOOOO) but for the most part it’s just meh. IMO the original H scenes even made more sense, and it was actually more fun to see Takafumi nonchalantly shrug off walking in on Tomoya and Tomoyo having sex than it was when she was just cos- and roleplaying. Either way if there’s one good thing about this prologue it’s that it first establishes Takafumi, and man do I like this guy. But before I get off track, let’s move on. Opening movie is A+ btw. Light Colors is great, choice of quotes is nice and the whole aesthetic just works.
Then we have the common route part of the arc, where everything is introduced for the first time but nothing is resolved yet. As far as I’m concerned this part is nothing short of wonderful. The humor is great, the soundtrack is fucking STELLAR and everything unfolds at a nice pace with no single arc or character getting an overbearing amount of screentime, and oh my god that chemistry.
For real, this group of five people right here? Has probably my favorite chemistry in any Key novel or visual novel in general. They support each other unconditionally and are completely comfortable with one another, even shrugging off being eavesdropped on like it’s nothing and being back to bantering seconds later. They just get each other. They have a bond that feels closer than even the (original) Little Busters. It’s like… they really are a small family.
It helps that we get a lot of random interactions between the group, in part thanks to minigames and Talk events. Stuff like The Panda in the Forest and The Great Detective Tomo is just plain fun and I can so easily buy that all of them readily play along and have fun doing it. I’d say I wouldn’t mind if the common route parts were longer because honestly I could watch these guys do nothing for hours and still have a great time, but the transience of their cohabitation is kind of a beautiful thing in its own. This is a group of people that ended up together through a series of coincidences and will go their separate ways in the not too distant future. But for just the short time they’re together, they’re family.
I think the group’s close relationship is why the Takafumi bad end hurts so much to read; Tomoya clearly oversteps his boundaries as he presses Takafumi on something he’s very clearly uncomfortable about and unwittingly destroys the close and trusting relationship the two share. It’s somewhat vexing that while Tomoya does get that this isn’t the way if you didn’t trigger any bad ends, there’s always the option of giving up on it and his solution is always to do exactly this. When it comes down to it, Tomoya just isn’t good at reading the mood and backing off when necessary. In fact, that’s just it, isn’t it? Rather than being capable of backing off, he’s much better at persevering. And this bad end shows you in detail how that can be an absolutely detestable thing when it’s not called for.
Speaking of persevering, let’s talk about the actual Tomoya arc. Tomoya is faced with some unexpected remains of Tomoyo’s past as a superhuman delinquent who got into fights all the time. And because he falsely projects a connection to a “stalker” he can’t let himself ignore it. Obviously the easiest way to deal with this problem is to leave it to the people who are good at handling it. Be that Tomoyo, who is still the strongest in a brawl, or even the police. But the problem extends beyond something either of those two could solve; that is that Tomoya is facing an internal crisis. This isn’t the first time Tomoyo’s past has caught up to them, and it probably won’t be the last. If he’s really her boyfriend, can he support her when that happens? We might be able to answer with a resounding “Yes, of course you can, Tomoyo can handle that much and just wants you to be there for her”, but the one asking himself that question is Tomoya, and Tomoya’s self-confidence that he’s not just holding Tomoyo back is still absolute shit.
So this becomes a self-imposed trial for Tomoya. He has to prove to himself that he’s able to solve this problem alone. It’s kinda tragic how ignorant he is in regards to how his own little quest affects Tomoyo and how he just kinda expects her to sit there and do nothing while Tomoya very obviously gets into fights but keeps her in the dark about what’s going on. But the two do share a mutual trust that’s not shaken that easily, so Tomoyo trusts Tomoya’s judgment and leaves him to his own devices. She’s gotten a little better at understanding Tomoya at the very least compared to her route in CLANNAD; she gets that interfering now would not be a good idea.
This is also where their bonds as a small family shine as Kanako goes along with Tomoya once she confirms his purpose and supports him when he actually needs it, and Takafumi too doesn’t butt in where he shouldn’t. And so, even though his methods are practically incredibly stupid, they don’t challenge Tomoya on them because they’re important to him and they get that. Also, in true street fight fashion, Tomoya earns the respect of the people he’s fighting the more he does it.
Then however comes the climax. No, not when Tomoya fights and “defeats” his last opponent; just after that. When he’s at his most vulnerable as he’s looking for Tomoyo and Tomo. Right there, Tomoya’s main goal in participating in the fights has just been completely undercut and he’s at risk of losing all the confidence he’s built up over the course of the arc. And then he finds Tomoyo and realizes that all he did was practically useless. But Tomoyo knows how hard he’s been pushing himself (even if that was more for his own sake than theirs) and gives him the acknowledgement he desperately needs. In that moment, everything he just went through gains new value. He can take pride in having done everything he could do on his own. And so he gains that self-confidence that ends up being extremely important in the next two arcs.
You probably won’t know this if you’re just playing through the game, but the 20th of June plays out quite differently if you’ve already triggered a bad end. Normally, Tomoya is the one who tells Tomoyo his thoughts on Kanako and Takafumi. If you’ve triggered a bad end already, it’s the other way round; Tomoyo has to tell Tomoya about it. It goes to show how much the boost in confidence affects Tomoya; having had that experience allows him to pay attention and focus on so many different things. Because really, he is quite a capable person once he gets over that problem. It’s just one step, and he doesn’t take the best path when it comes to making that step, but it’s an important step to take either way.