クラナド Episode 16

SPOILER Summary: Okazaki and Nagisa take Mei-chan to her oniichan’s dorm room, where they find a mess. So, Mei-chan quickly cleans the place up and even does her brother’s laundry. She’s a bit dismayed and shocked to hear that her brother is apparently in love with Okazaki, but decides to accept it. Sunohara comes home and sees Okazaki and Nagisa in his room and thinks they are making it their love nest. When he finds out Mei is there, the jig is up for Okazaki, who has to confess to his little tales. Nagisa thinks this is mean of him to pull such a trick. Since this is a male dorm, Misae-san can’t allow Mei to stay there, so Nagisa volunteers to have Mei stay with her family. Sunohara uses very proper, formal, and polite Japanese etiquette to turn his sister over to Nagisa, which surprised Okazaki.

At Nagisa’s home/bakery, Sanae-san greets them and Mai thinks she’s very pretty and is surprised to learn she is Nagisa’s mother. Akio-san arrives from the back and Nagisa formally asks for a favor. Akio-san asks if she wants to know about the weird scar on her butt, even offering to confirm it for her. Nagisa is not amused at such an “ecchi” idea and states that her mom can look. Sanae-san assures Nagisa she has no scar, meaning Akio-san has lied. However, looking at Mei, Nagisa remembers her purpose and asks if Mei can stay. Sanae-san formally introduces herself and her husband and Akio-san is won over when Mei-chan thinks he’s cool. At dinner, Mei learns of the basketball game being organized by Sunohara.

The following day on the way to school, Okazaki finds Tomoyo standing and gazing at some trees. He tells her that the future Student Council President shouldn’t be late to school and that his excuse is that he’s a delinquent. Tomoyo won’t hear of this and grabs him to make it to school in a running dash. In class, Sunohara and Okazaki talk about the forthcoming basketball game and during a break, they enlist Kyou’s help. She effectively takes over their three-man team and forces Sunohara to go get her a beverage, which Okazaki adds his order to. After he leaves, Kyou tells Okazaki there’s a price to be paid from him as well in that he’s to wait for her in the classroom at lunch.

At lunch as Nagisa and Kotomi-chan have lunch in the Theater Club room, Okazaki waits and eats pan with Sunohara. Tomoyo enters to talk with Okazaki, wanting him to quit being tardy. Sunohara is not happy with her being there and when he makes a move, she instinctively reacts and he gets a small sausage link up the nose. Since Tomoyo is an kouhai (and not addressing Okazaki with the “san” or “senpai” honorific), her presence in the classroom is not welcome by the other 3rd-year students. She starts to tell them her purpose for being there when an irritated Kyou enters the room, demanding to know why Tomoyo is there. Tomoyo says there’s no rule about her having lunch in this classroom and then wonders if Kyou has a thing for Okazaki. This causes Kyou to be flustered and deny it. Tomoyo asks if Okazaki is dating anyone, which he denies. As such, Tomoyo feels that no girl should feel annoyed at seeing her with Okazaki. Kyou is seriously irritated and Okazaki is surprised that Kyou expected him to eat lunch with her and she drags him out of the classroom. Sunohara asks if Tomoyo has feelings for Okazaki. She says she doesn’t, but then maybe what she’s feeling for him is interest.

In the cafeteria, Ryou and Kyou are on one side with Okazaki on the other. Kyou feels that he needed to eat lunch with them since he’s always eating lunch with Nagisa and Kotomi. Kyou picks up on what Tomoyo revealed in that Okazaki isn’t dating anyone at present, including Nagisa. He demands to know what she means, but she plays dumb about it. When he looks at Ryou, she gets flusters and looks away. Okazaki apparently gets that Ryou likes him and that Kyou is trying to set him up with her younger sister. After trying and failing some practice on the basketball court, Okazaki goes to see Sunohara in his room. Sunohara is happy when Mei comes by to visit (Okazaki suspecting that Sunohara had been lonely) but she’s there to pick Okazaki up for dinner at the Furukawa residence.

The day of the game between the Theater Club and the Basketball Club, Kyou is seriously pissed because of the insults the Basketball Club had tossed her way. She asks if it is against the rules to smash the ball in the face of the opponent, which it is. Because of the aura she’s giving off, Kotomi-chan remarks on how intimidating she can be and Sunohara and Okazaki are afraid of what she’ll do to them if they lose. Nagisa comes to wish Okazaki well as many people from the school, including the Choir Club and Mei-chan, come to watch. Its a 20-minute 3-on-3 match with no timeouts and the Basketball Club is putting its 1st-year players up against the Theater Club.

The match starts and their teamwork along with Kyou’s 3-point shots has the Theater Club quickly in the lead. The veterans of the Basketball Club tell the 1st-years to take the Theater Club seriously. Okazaki knows that eventually, the veterans will enter the game if their club is losing and so they need to make sure to have a wide enough lead to prevent themselves from losing when that happens. Because of Kyou’s shooting ability, some underclass females have a large banner and cheer “Kyou-sama,” which Kyou with both pride and embarrassment tells the inquiring Okazaki that she has a strange popularity among the girls.

The veterans have been observing the game and see that Okazaki can’t shoot and that leaves only two. They replace the 1st-year students and sure enough, start wiping the floor with the Theater Club, quickly taking down their 11-point lead and soon getting ahead by one. With 20-seconds left, Okazaki has the ball and tries to shoot but runs into a player from the Basketball Club. As he falls, he wonders why he’s doing this at all and has flashes of memories to previous events. He hears Nagisa scream at him to shoot and that makes him do so, which eventually makes it through the net after hitting the rim. They’ve won to everyones amazement, but start to scatter when the sponsor for the Basketball Club, Oogami-sensei, comes into the gym demanding to know what’s going on. Before he leaves, the captain of the Basketball Club tells Okazaki that he probably can still play, but Okazaki turns down the chance because of his arm.

Afterward, Sunohara, Okazaki, and Nagisa see Mei-chan off, who promises to come back again. Sunohara can’t believe how quick the visit from his sister was. He wonders if the Choir Club will now give up Koumura-sensei now. Nagisa says they should be off since Kyou and the others are throwing a party for the win. Sunohara is excited until he learns that the party is going to be in his room.

Thoughts: This was a fun episode, even if the basketball story was completely predictable. Looks like Okazaki now knows Ryou feels about him romantically. Tomoyo also wondering if her feelings for Okazaki are “interest” is also fun considering it lead to the conflict with Kyou. Okazaki’s pulling jokes are always amusing to me. It is ironic that when Akio-san does something similar, Okazaki isn’t amused. Speaking of which, it was nice seeing Nagisa’s parents again.

I think I’ve said this before, but I’m really glad this series isn’t forgetting the previous girls like Kanon did. Even though Kotomi-chan only got some brief cameos, she was there and that’s how it should be.