クラナド Episode 17

SPOILER Summary:

Because of the basketball game, the Choir Club decides to share Koumura-sensei with the Theater Club. However, the Student Council rejects this proposal out of hand. Kyou is irritated with the bureaucracy but suddenly Nagisa collapses and is caught by Okazaki. They take her home, where Akio-san thanks Okazaki for again saving his daughters life. As Kotomi, Ryou, and Kyou walk home with Okazaki, he reflects on what Nagisa’s father said, feeling that he’s done nothing at all. Since Nagisa will be out for some time, their attempts to get the Theater Club going will have to be suspended.

The next morning, Okazaki is awakened and finds Tomoyo is the one who did it. He’s surprised at her being there, saying it is rude to just enter someone’s home. However, she assures him she didn’t just enter as his father let her in. She drags him to school to ensure he’s there on time. However, Okazaki tells her he’s not the only one with a tardiness problem. As such, next stop is Sunohara’s dorm room. He too is shocked by their arrival. Tomoyo spots a magazine sticking out from his bed and pulls it out to Sunohara’s horror. Its porn and she says its expected since he’s a guy, though he’s not happy at it being discovered. She leaves them at their classroom where both guys look exhausted and Sunohara comments on how only five-minutes before, he’d been in bed.

Having been tagged by Kyou to meet her for lunch, Okazaki does so. Kyou, Ryou, and Botan are there and Ryou informs Okazaki that Kyou made the bento. Kyou pushes Okazaki over to Ryou, where he brushes against her and causes her to “steam” and get flushed. As they eat, Kyou wonders what Okazaki is going to do once he graduates. Kyou plans to be a kindergarten teacher and Ryou wants to be a nurse. After lunch, Kyou tells Okazaki that Ryou will make tomorrows bento before he leaves them in the hall. Kyou tells Ryou to follow him into the classroom. Ryou wonders if it is OK for her to do this since Nagisa is gone. Kyou reminds her little sister that Okazaki isn’t dating anyone, including Nagisa and that if Ryou doesn’t get in gear, Tomoyo will make a move on him.

After school, Sunohara asks Okazaki about his possibly dating Nagisa, which Okazaki assures him he’s not and that he has no plans to get a girlfriend. Tomoyo arrives and wonders why he doesn’t want a girlfriend. He tells her it is because he’s a delinquent to say nothing of his worthless father. She didn’t think his father that bad though. She asks him to go home together and Sunohara jumps in, telling her that asking Okazaki is asking him. So all three are going home together (to Kyou’s annoyance when she sees it) and Sunohara gets them to come with him as he runs some errands. He goes through an area of town that makes Tomoyo uncomfortable. When the teenaged thugs in the area see her, they run off in fear. Realizing what Sunohara is doing, he brings it to a stop and provides him cover by stopping in a cafe, supposedly at his request. Since Sunohara is now paying the tab, Tomoyo tells him he can consider her his friend from today forward.

When they complete their journey and part company with Sunohara, Tomoyo thanks Okazaki for his part when dealing with the thugs. She finds it fun being with them, especially Okazaki. The following morning, she again wakes Okazaki up. Again, Okazaki gets them to come by Sunohara’s room to “share the love.” Sunohara is not happy about this as Tomoyo has just woken up a senpai. She tells him she didn’t know he cared about the senpai-kouhai hierarchy common in Japanese schools. Sunohara takes a different tact, and starts commenting on Tomoyo’s body, even calling her “neechan” to stress his leering. She tells him that if he’s interested in her body, she’ll let him touch her if he begs for it. He begs, so she takes his hand, reminding him that the hand is also part of the body. Sunohara leaps at her, but takes a kick-beating instead.

At lunch, Kyou, Ryou, Botan, and Okazaki are ready to eat Ryou’s lunch. Botan sneaks some omelet, but then keels over after eating some. Afterward, Ryou aplologizes for the bad food and Okazaki tells her the spring rolls were good which makes her happy. Botan comes back to life and so Kyou takes the opportunity to exit stage right, leaving the flushed Ryou and Okazaki, who knows what Kyou is up to, alone. Okazaki heads to the Theater Club room where he sits alone. His thoughts go to Nagisa and all the times they’ve shared since he met her. He then finds himself writing her name on the chalk board.

Feeling depressed, he decides to pay Miyazawa a visit and share a cup of coffee. She suggest making a charm and has him stand two ¥10 coins on top of each other, which seems impossible but he does it. She then has him chant “Ritafuni Kousoku Iita” three times. He does so and is told this spell will get him locked into a gym equipment storage room with a girl. She tells him to imagine someone. He immediately thinks of Nagisa, but remembers she’s out. In the end, he settles on Kyou due to her personality. However, he doesn’t believe this will work. Miyazawa tells him that to break the spell, he’ll need to say “Curses are nothing to me” three times after stripping to his waist. He doesn’t want to continue this line of conversation and so they talk about the Student Council where Okazaki is reminded of the forthcoming elections. If Tomoyo is elected president, the Theater Club will finally be officially launched.

His thoughts are interrupted by Kyou, in her gym clothing, who’s dropped some balls and asks him to help her. They carry them into the gym storage shed when Mitsui-san notices the door to said shed is open and so she closes and naturally locks Kyou and Okazaki in. Remembering the spell, Okazaki begs for forgiveness. However, Kyou thinks that he staged this so that he could be alone with her. She backs away from him and conveniently falls back onto some bed-sized, thick pads. Laying there, she thinks that Okazaki wants to have sex with her and she contemplates it, since he’s a boy and naturally would be interested in such a thing. But she also has to consider Ryou’s feelings.

Okazaki tries to get her to understand about the spell and she’s not buying it. He didn’t believe it either but here they are. She asks why he chose her and he tells her he thought she would be the best one to be locked in the shed with. This touches her and she asks him if he knows why she’s been pushing him and Ryou together, which he does. After a long pause, she asks if what she’s doing with Ryou is bothering him, which it isn’t. Her mood is such that it appears she might want him to go all the way. Okazaki remembers how to break the spell and starts disrobing. Kyou thinks it is because he’s going to make love to her for sure. She stammers a bit and he asks her to turn around for a moment, which she does. Getting his shirt off, he recites the phrase to dispel the charm and sure enough the door opens and a female classmate looks to see Kyou standing alone, Okazaki having hidden behind a shelving unit.

Afterward, Kyou and Okazaki meet up on the school grounds. Okazaki is glad they were able to get out. Kyou apologizes for her unusual behavior, saying she was worried about what would become of them. She asks him to forget everything she said there and is called away on school business. Tomoyo arrives to walk home with Okazaki. However, when they get to the gate, a large group of teenaged thugs from earlier are waiting. Tomoyo isn’t happy about this, but is planning to kick all their butts. Okazaki can’t let this happen since he wants her to become president of the Student Council for Nagisa’s sake and a fight could ruin that for her. Fuko-chan arrives to stop the fight, but no one goes for her starfish ploy, so she leaves. Sunohara arrives to help with the fight, but Tomoyo doesn’t want the help. He’s insistent, so she kicks him aside and launches into the thugs. Some teachers come running to the gate and the thugs, who were beginning to take a beating, flee. The teachers demand answers and Tomoyo is about to explain her role in this when Okazaki takes the rap for her. As such, he’s now threatened with expulsion based on his other delinquent acts.

Thoughts:

Well, I guess they had to move Nagisa aside if they wanted to try to advance any sort of romance between Ryou and Okazaki, to say nothing or Tomoyo and Okazaki. I liked that (1) Okazaki goes to the Theater Club room alone, (2) he thinks only of Nagisa when there, and (3) when offered a charm to be trapped in a storage shed with a girl, Nagisa is the first girl he thinks of. I think it is pretty safe to say that in the end, he’ll end up with Nagisa, assuming she doesn’t die of course. Egad, can you imagine what a tear-jerker that would be? Still, it was funny to have him trapped with Kyou.

Fuko-chan came back again. I like Fuko-chan but she wasn’t funny this time, which was unfortunate. I gather that Fuko-chan does something similar in the game where she just pops in from time-to-time.

What was funny was the food joke. Since Kyou’s lunch was good, I figured that Ryou’s lunch would be awful. So having the piglet Botan steal food and keel over was funny to me since I hadn’t seen the food joke done quite that way before.