The title is an approximate translation of Kotomi’s oddly-named theme. Etude pour les petites supercordes, anyone? I’m wondering if it’s Flench, which makes it a distant cousin of Engrish, in addition to falling under Japan’s ranguage category. Or maybe it makes perfect sense in the context of string instruments since “cordes” apparently denotes that, to say nothing of how “study” in this case is meant to be a short performance piece of some sort, but I can’t really figure out the “little super strings” part.

Unlike Fuuko’s arc which held its cards closely to its chest and didn’t really let on what it was all about until after the SURPRISE REVELATION (which turned out to be nothing more than Key recycling an old idea), Kotomi’s arc shows its hand right from the start, albeit quietly amidst all the manzai comedy and lighthearted moments. It wasn’t the focus, to be sure, but the understated manner in which it was revealed caught my attention.

It’s also occurred to me recently as to what the dream world really is — hint: it starts with “a”, and has eight letters. I was pleased to find out after confirming with reliable sources that I was right, for the most part at least. Non-spoiler spoiler thoughts (yes, I am aware of the contradiction, but there are spoilers, and there are spoilers) about it after the cut, although if you had even the slightest amount of imagination and watch the OP animation as often as I do — which is every single time there’s a new episode — you could have figured it out already.

First of all, however, there’s the matter of what Kotomi’s arc is going to be. My theory is patchwork at this point, but if Fuuko’s theme was “remembrance”, then Kotomi’s would be “appreciation”. This isn’t as complicated as it sounds due to how it works — Kotomi is a genius girl. It is made known in episode 10 that she has equally learned parents, accomplished scholars who are pretty much the talk of the town. What could possibly drive a girl of such age into becoming a sociopath? Her habit of studying books to excess. What makes her read as much as she does? Here’s where my guess comes in — it could be her parents’ expectations of her; unfair comparisons to a sibling; maybe even her unforgiving standards.

This is “appreciation”. I’m not really sure how prevalent this mindset is in the West (I’d wager it’s not a widespread thing), but I’m sure you know all about the students in Japan who commit suicide due to exam pressure. I’d have to say it isn’t a Japan thing so much as it is an Asian thing, for I remember reading in the papers about a month or so back about this girl who hanged herself over her exam results. This exam in mention wasn’t a particularly important one, but it’s an official evaluation exam handled by the government, that students take as they leave 6th grade, which makes her 12. Multiply this suicide considerably and you have a vague image of just how pressurising Japan’s education system can be.

I digress. What I mean by appreciation is really the means by which society judges a person. A results-oriented, numbers-driven society such as Japan make characters like Kotomi an accurate, if somewhat colourful portrait of contemporary youth in Japan. What is expected of students over there? To study. What are they in turn expected to obtain from all that studying? Entrance into prestigious schools, passing exams with flying colours, the quintessential squeaky clean facade of a dutiful child that maintains the family image. It’s a popular theme in anime and manga with a high school setting, and I’m sure you can guess why.

Likewise, I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this. Like I said before, I’m merely guessing as I have no knowledge of Kotomi’s arc as much as I had Fuuko’s, or the remaining three girls, but if it’s going to stay relevant to “family” then this is how it’s likely to unfold. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and why would KyoAni bother with that little bit of information about Kotomi’s family if not to develop on it in the coming episodes? It seems like a tall order for sure, so this goes under “educated guess” till further notice.

Kotomi’s “ijimeru?” is a cut above Misuzu’s “gao” or Ayu’s “uguu”, but only because it isn’t as artificial or irritating, in addition to it being an actual word

How does this fit into “appreciation”? Kotomi’s parents could be guilty of not appreciating her for who she is, but appreciating her for what she does. Unable to attain affection through conventional means, Kotomi turns to studying obsessively in order to gain her parents’ approval and love, which stunts her social growth in turn and cripples her ability to interact at the expense of spending time with her books.

Her catchphrase, “are you a bully?”, seems to support this theory, as does her habit of only responding to “Kotomi-chan”. Firstly, her catchphrase suggests a history of bullying, which, as far as sociopaths go, fits the bill — surely she would have been teased and/or picked on at some point for being a silent bookworm. She is apprehensive of meeting new people because she fears the possibility of being singled out, and uses this question as a means of identifying people who might potentially cause distress or harm to her.

Secondly, she only answers to “Kotomi-chan” because a bully is unlikely to use the -chan suffix and her first name — i.e., whoever addresses her in that manner is practically guaranteed to be friend and not foe. While it’s debatable at this stage whether she fakes deafness or is genuinely unable to hear anything with “Ichinose” in it isn’t the point; she responds to “Kotomi-chan” presumably due to her desire to have close friends, who would be the only people qualified to talk to her on a first-name basis. What is this, if not an indicator of a person who, lacking care and concern at home, looks for substitutes elsewhere instead?

This leads into my earlier point about the dream world sequences that take place in Clannad at the beginning of the episodes so far: my educated guesses have led me to believe that it’s an allegorical meta-fiction that tells the story of Tomoya slowly coming to discover once again what “family” really is, through his interaction with Nagisa and the other girls. My reliable source has confirmed the allegorical part to some extent, unexplained supernatural element that I wish to be in ignorance of aside.

Just as how the girl builds the automaton from a pile of junk, so too does Nagisa see Tomoya’s self-worth despite his down and out state. He’s a delinquent, to be sure, but a delinquent for a reason. His inability to do anything about his father’s hopeless state, coupled with a home devoid of love, and a crushing injury that took away his favourite hobby only means that he sees his life as worthless, with nothing much to live for, and this can be seen in his attitude towards school where he skips class as he pleases.

But like the girl in the dream world, Nagisa doesn’t care about what he was before. She doesn’t judge him like his schoolmates do, choosing to overlook his faults in favour of his strengths, building him up in the process. The OP animation timed to Meg Mell’s lyrics testify to this, as we see the automaton rising from beneath a bed of snow, just as the lines “I saw a vivid dream of a soft eternity/A faint voice is calling to me like a breeze from high in the sky” are sung.

If my interpretation of the allegory is true, then Clannad possesses a depth that matches ef. The allegory told in parallel with the main story serve to illustrate the extent of how damaged Tomoya is, and fills in the blanks on his past indirectly, without the need for corny and overdone flashbacks that could only invite cheap sympathy for his character, bringing Clannad to its knees in the process.

The dream world sequence in episode 10 supports this idea too, as the automaton is bewildered by the floating globes of light that fill the place. It says, “to her, who has been here all her life, these lights are natural” — what would that be if not the warmth of a family, which Tomoya lacks but which Nagisa has been around since childhood? In return the girl deduces that “…for you to find this strange, there’s some other scene that is familiar to you.” The automaton replies with a nod while remembering the other place he once lived in, and I’m guessing that this place in mention will resemble that of the OP.

Do you see allegory in all this, and what do you think of Kotomi’s arc so far? I’m aware that an episode would be all it’d take to wreck this, hence why I’m neither putting all my eggs in one basket nor counting them before they’re hatched. Kotomi could turn out to be terminally ill with a mysterious illness for all I know, and if that ever happens I swear am never writing about her again. Hopefully it doesn’t have to come to that, for it looks like Clannad still has a few tricks up its sleeve.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 9th, 2007 at 11:06 pm and is filed under Anime. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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