It was really painful seeing Fuko passing out wooden carved starfish to everyone in her school, hoping that they'll attend her sister, Ibuki-sensei's wedding. It was even more painful seeing that Ibuki-sensei didn't know what her younger sister had done for her and refuses rumors that Fuko has been in school, and her reason was - Fuko's lying on a bed in the hospital in a coma. It is weird, you know. I was hoping something to happen, something major, something that might change the plot of the story even further, when Nagisa and Tomoya decided to invite Ibuki-sensei to their school's Founder's Day. I had thought, maybe Ibuki-sensei might faint when she sees Fuko, or maybe suddenly Fuko might disappear from the hospital. That was indeed suspense, that was! But what I had least expected happened - Ibuki-sensei wasn't able to see Fuko as if she's transparent. That's making things creepy. Really creepy. So, what was it we have being looking at in episodes 5, 6 and 7? A ghost? A spirit? But if you ask me, I'd say it should be neither. I should have expected something like this seeing that both Key's creation, Air and Kanon, had had supernatural events, and Clannad was going rather painstaking normal, smooth and usual. There's nothing unusual with a girl distributing wooden carved starfish to students in school as she had carved it herself together with the help of Nagisa's parents (it didn't appear suddenly from thin air, right? So-it-is-normal, duh.).Right now we're going through Fuko's story-arc. Fuko's the main focus right now with constant sights of her giving away wooden carved starfish. Ibuki-sensei claims that before the accident which hospitalised Fuko, she was a girl who could not easily blend in with others the same age as her. When they went to the beach, other girls would be playing with a ball together while Fuko would be playing with a starfish, alone. This somehow explains Fuko's fetish towards starfish.However so, the Fuko we see right now is someone welcomed. She easily became close friends with Tomoya and Nagisa and was eventually accepted to stay with Nagisa once they found out that she didn't have a place to go (ghosts have no place to go, duh). By distributing the wooden starfish, she gained popularity and fame among students in the school. Within a few days, she became a household name. She even has her own base of fans who would protect her if someone (like Sunohara) were to harm her! Well, like I've said before, Fuko carved the starfishes hoping that students of the school would attend her sister's wedding. I bet Fuko knew this as well, that Ibuki-sensei had been putting off her wedding to look after her in the hospital. Tomoya and Nagisa almost managed to persuade to continue her wedding when she came to school to attend the Founder's Festival, but as Fuko's condition worsen, she changed her mind again. Ibuki-sensei's fiancé, Yusuke, a former musician, must have been someone really kind, patient and understanding to be able to wait for Ibuki-sensei all this while. I'm getting really impatient with the story's pace. If Ibuki-sensei wanted to marry, she should just go on with it without waiting for her sister's condition to worsen. Tomoya or Nagisa should tell Ibuki-sensei that they've been with Fuko all the while. It's just a matter of time before things like this spill, you can't keep this a secret forever. Well, furthurmore, Fuko doesn't have forever in her condition. I predict that Fuko would disappear suddenly with a harsh farewell and reappear in her original body, just like Ayu did in Kanon, and lots of emotion will flow like a stream. Unless if she's destined to disappear forever like Makoto, then I have nothing to say anymore.
(Read the rest of this entry)