クラナド Episode 06

SPOILER Summary:

Okazaki is over at Nagisa’s folks place/store where Sanae-san is there with her new creations — bread products in the shape of starfish. Okazaki is not impressed which naturally leads to Sanae-san feeling depressed. Even her husband, Akio-san, is not impressed with her latest creation. Not to be completely out of the game, she quickly recovers to offer Okazaki a chance to try one of them. He refuses and again she’s depressed, saying she can’t go on. So she leaves to go find her husband.

Meanwhile, Nagisa and Fuko-chan come into the store area where Fuko reports there was a phone call for Sanae-san. She reports there was a lot of panting and “I love you” being said but the caller employed her to stop with the starfish bread. Okazaki realizes it was Akio-san but then sees Fuko has zoned out, having seen the store filled with starfish-shaped bread products. He then relays a story of the terrible consequences of this in the future, which Nagisa really enjoys. He then gets “revenge” on Fuko-chan by taking a boxed juice, inserting the straw into Fuko-chan’s nose, and squirting it, shocking her to awareness and wondering why her thirst was quenched.

At school, Fuko-chan again attempts to hand out her carved starfish despite rejections she gets. Nagisa heads off to gather more scrap wood for the project and Fuko-chan ends up running to Okazaki to find some cover since she’s being chased by people like him. Three guys from the high school approach and ask if Okazaki and Fuko-chan are friends. Fuko-chan, hiding behind Okazaki, loudly denies this, saying he’s an enemy. The guys want to form the Fuko-chan Fan Club or at least be her body guards. She rejects it and the trio promise Fuko-chan and “Oniisama” they will work to win her approval.

Fuko-chan, Okazaki, and Nagisa meet in an empty classroom and are joined by Sunohara, whom Fuko-chan reacts to as the guy with the weird hair color. Fuko-chan doesn’t want another weirdo associated with her, so Sunohara challenges her. This time, instead of fighting, they will have a wood carving contest. If he loses, he’ll back off and if he wins, Fuko-chan will allow him to help. They have to carve a “nue” — a beast with a monkey head, racoon body, snake tail, and tiger limbs. Fuko-chan agrees and quickly finishes, though all she carves is a frog. However, Sunohara is out for the count when he injures himself with the knife.

After school, Nagisa and Okazaki part company with Fuko-chan so they can invite Ibuki-sensei to the school festival. They hope that the two sisters meeting will do some good. They meet the guy Okazaki helped in an earlier episode, Yusuke, who turns out to be Ibuki-sensei’s fiancé. He hears of their plan to invite her to the festival and thinks it is a good one. They proceed and make their invitation to Ibuki-sensei, who accepts, remembering her promise to her little sister to attend the school festival together. This causes Nagisa to tear up.

The following day, Okazaki goes to Nagisa’s place to find Fuko-chan sleeping, having spent the night making her wooden starfish. So he carries her on his back to school as he walks with Nagisa, predicting that when Fuko-chan awakes, she’ll think this is horrible. She does just that…sorta, using the Japanese term for “vaguely horrible” instead of “horrible.” She states she had a dream that she was on the beach with a starfish making a sandcastle when Okazaki-san came to take her to the Starfish Festival. She asks what that is, but naturally Okazaki doesn’t know.

At the school festival, the Fuko-chan Fan Club has a booth with starfish items for sale. Naturally, this sends Fuko-chan into a happy spaced-out condition and when she comes to, she’s in a maid costume in classroom with no idea how she got there. Kyou and Ryou are there to greet her and give her a chance to hand out starfish at their cafe. Nagisa even helps out and Okazaki compliments her on her looks in the maid costume. She tells him that Fuko-chan has taught her some things about not giving up, and she’ll put those lessons to use in recruiting members for the Theater Club.

Sunohara arrives and starts to flirt with Nagisa until Okazaki distracts him with a passing girl. As he tries to flirt with her, he’s interrupted by someone in a teddy bear costume. Challenging the person, Sunohara gets his keester kicked, leading Okazaki to surmise that this is Tomoyo. Sure enough it is. Fuko-chan offers her a starfish and though Tomoyo normally doesn’t accept gifts, seeing Fuko-chan’s bandaged hands lets her know it is hand made and thus she accepts. Mitsui arrives and though she’d been cold to Fuko-chan before, this time she’s not and when offered a starfish, she accepts.

Okazaki and Nagisa take Fuko-chan outside so that they can meet Ibuki-sensei when she arrives. Fuko-chan continues handing out starfish and when Ibuiki-sensei arrives, Fuko-chan looks sad and says nothing. Ibuki-sensei speaks with them, but soon it is clear — she cannot see nor hear Fuko-chan. She only sees and hears Okazaki and Nagisa.

Thoughts:

Uh oh. Ibuki-sensei couldn’t see Fuko-chan and methinks this does not bode well. Granted, we could still get some miracle happenstance, but I just have an ugly feeling for some reason. At this point, I really do want Fuko-chan to somehow recover for the wedding, but with her spirit apparently wandering the Earth out of her body, who knows. Fuko-chan is so funny with her frank statements and zoning out at the sight of starfish, only to become aware again and not know what the heck happened. Well, I guess we’ll wait and see what episode 7 holds in store.

I like how Nagisa is coming along as a character. Her interactions with both Okazaki and Fuko-chan have really brought her out of her shell. I like Nagisa and Okazaki as a couple and I’m guessing that’s what we’ll see at the end of the series.