Ryou Fujibayashi (藤林椋, Fujibayashi Ryō) is a secondary main character. She is Tomoya's classmate and his class representative. She is the younger and less known one of the Fujibayashi twins.

Appearance

Ryou looks very similar to her sister, Kyou, but with a few differences.

Unlike Kyou, who has hip-length hair, and sharp, purple eyes, Ryou has short-cropped hair and droopy, blue eyes. She wears her hairpiece to the right, while Kyou wears hers to the left.

Like Kotomi, her breasts are sometimes emphasized in scenes from the anime, although she is flat-chested in the visual novel.

Personality

Unlike Kyou, she is timid and doesn’t cook well (but is otherwise good at chores).

Ryou doesn't talk very much and is usually seen with her sister. She does have friends outside the Drama Club, however. Because Ryou also had her own social group, she is quite knowledgeable about the school system.

She is very keen about fortune telling, but her predictions, while incredibly specific, usually manage to be either somewhat skewed or extremely wrong. Only once, in Kyou's route, her fortune turned out right.

Anime

The Fujibayashi twins are average students in Hikarizaka Private High School. They both liked Tomoya since junior year. However, since Ryou is too shy to talk to him, she could never bring herself to ask him out so Kyou took it on as her mission to get Tomoya to see Ryou, even if it meant separating him from any romantic interests (such as Kotomi and Nagisa). However, over this time, Kyou fell in love with Tomoya, but kept her feelings quiet for fear of hurting Ryou. Near the end of season one, Kyou witnessed Tomoya helping Nagisa to the nurse's office, and she suddenly realized that he was in love with Nagisa, not her. Kyou turned to Ryou and tried to apologize for not being able to get Tomoya to like her, but Ryou stopped her and said, "Onee-chan...I'm so sorry..." Kyou then looked at her, shocked, and said, "Wh-What are you ta--" Kyou then stopped when she felt tears well up in her eyes. She tried to hold back the tears but couldn't and started sobbing in front of everyone. The two sisters hugged and sobbed as they realized that Tomoya would never like them.

In Another World: Kyou Chapter, it is set in senior year and Ryou finally worked up the nerve to ask out Tomoya. He says he hasn't known her long, but he agrees to go out with her. They start going out on dates, but they don't show any affection. As this is happening, Kyou tries to forget about her feelings for Tomoya by kissing Sunohara, but he saw through it and asked if she really loved Tomoya. Tomoya overhears this, but Kyou quickly makes up an excuse and leaves. Later, Kyou finally admits that she's in love with Tomoya. This leads Tomoya to break up with Ryou because he realized that he was really in love with Kyou. Kyou then cut her hair in sacrifice to hurting her sister, but Ryou assured her that it was okay, and that she couldn't help who she fell in love with.

In Clannad ~After Story~, Ryou attends a nursing school. Her job as a nurse is proven when she is seen working as a nurse.

Visual novel

However, her "true" story in the Clannad visual novel is very different. If you decide to avoid Kyou's scooter on the right side, you will eventually encounter Kappei Hiiragi. Off-screen, he was hit by Kyou's scooter and Ryou helped him recover before quickly leaving. She unknowingly left her handkerchief behind and he tried searching for her. Making the appropriate choices, he will eventually find her and become Ryou's boyfriend. However, it is later revealed that he suffers from osteosarcoma, a type of cancer, but refuses to get cured. His reason for not accepting the treatment is that it would mean amputating his leg, which he has a deep attachment to since he used to be an athlete. After talking with Yusuke Yoshino, an upset Ryou manages to convince him (one of the methods she uses is threatening him with getting pregnant with his baby while he sleeps, which proves just how deeply she cares for Kappei) to get cured. In the end, they manage to get him cured without amputating his leg (through the use of a new treatment, a rapid freezing technique that utilizes liquid nitrogen), and he and Ryou are shown five years later (Ryou is working as a nurse, just as in the anime's After Story), happily married (as of three years previous) and without a trace of the illness, though Kappei will still need more time to fully recover from therapy.

Etymology

The name Ryou means "type of deciduous tree, grey starling" (椋).

means "type of deciduous tree, grey starling" (椋). Ryou's surname Fujibayashi means "wisteria" (藤) (fuji) and "forest" (林) (hayashi/bayashi).

Notes