Well I’m not really posting this as news, seeing as how plenty others have already commented on this, but since I’m a big Clannad fan and I blogged the series, I thought I should talk about this somehow.

If you didn’t know, Clannad After Story anime has pretty much been confirmed. This is absolute wonderful news because the main thing I kept hearing from people who had a problem with Clannad was that it ended too abruptly. Since After story is essentially the second half of the Nagisa route and the Clannad story, so they are pretty much animating the rest of the story.

I’ve got to say I didn’t expect them to do this, even knowing that After Story is so important I didn’t think they would animate another series to end things like that, but in doing so just makes this absolute wonderful news to me.

So, go ahead and tell me what you think of them animating After Story.

Mei comes back for a visit and tries to get Nagsia and Tomoya to act closer in their relationship.

Impressions:

I do want to say I still consider episode 22 the last episode, since this one is even labeled as “Extra Episode” but this was still a very nice addition. I was really surprised because I thought this would be a lot more of some comedy only OVA like episode but instead it really was more like a 23^rd episode. It wasn’t an OVA, it really was an episode that completely came after the last episode and dealt with the romance they left off with. I’m just surprised and extremely pleased with the amount of romance focus this had and how it really focused on something that affected more or less the whole series and wasn’t just some extremely random and pointless comedy bit.

I absolutely loved Mei to death. She is one of my favorite characters in this show, and this doesn’t even have much to do with her being a loli. I just thought she was absolutely hilarious, the way she got customers to the store by saying there was a cute girl there and then mischievously saying that people will come bringing interested was great. It wasn’t just something where she didn’t know that that would draw in those kinds of people; she knew the guys would fall for something like that. Very cleaver and awesome. Plus her plan and script for Nagisa was great. Although in the end it is better for her to take it slowly and be herself it was still great. The plan thing in general, not even regarding Mei, was absolutely hilarious. I found myself continuously laughing and just kind of chuckling at how Nagisa was acting. It was extremely cute to see Nagisa act that way. She was incredibly cute trying to do these things she was embarrassed about herself and doing several clichéd things, saying she screwed up, and trying again.

I’ll have a separate post talking about After Story soon, so no comments on it being revealed at the end of this episode here.

Nagisa tries to perform her play despite being devastated upon learning the truth behind her parents abandoned dreams.

Impressions:

This episode was incredible. I may be a bit biased since I’m a huge fan of Clannad but I really did love this episode and finale. There were so many great parts to it; I was so drawn into the episode. When Nagisa was standing there on stage and not able to do anything I was so on edge, I kept pausing it, getting up from my chair and turning around, so on. It really had me drawn into it. The episode was great. Although some may criticize Nagisa for being so emotional, I thought it was completely understandable. To find out that your parents had a definite dream that they gave up on because of you would be rather hard to take, especially for someone as kind and caring as Nagisa. Still, the speech that her dad gave and then that Sanae and Tomoya chimed in on was great. It really gave a remarkable conclusion to the focus on “family” this show has. I never really made the connection but the way Nagisa was fulfilling her dream for Tomoya and Sunohara, since they no longer can, was great.

I’m pretty sure I’ve expressed countless times in posts for this series and nearly every other one how much I love romance in shows. One of my main hopes for this entire series was that they would show some definite romance conclusion to the story. While that may seem like a no brainer coming from a show adapted from a game such as Clannad, even with no H scenes it’s still pretty much a game where you end up with a particular girl. Still, so many other shows coming from the same kind of roots don’t conclude that way. This is why I was just absolutely ecstatic at the confession scene at the end of this. I was just…giddy upon seeing it. I thought it was great. The way Tomoya, not a normally spineless coward like many other leads saying the confession shyly like that was great and just the overall meaning of them being together like that in the end was great. It was one of my favorite scenes in any anime ever.

I do have to say something about “After Story” I’m not too sure on the specifics but I know in general of what is addressed in this extra that either came with the game or as an addition or what not but it is some kind of epilogue to Nagisa’s route. Now, I’ve heard several people who have played the game that Nagisa’s route is nothing without this. While I’m a raging fan of epilogues and I would sacrifice several livestock animals in some ritual to get an anime OVA of one or two episodes that dealt with “After Story” I don’t think Nagisa’s route was “bad” without it. It might make it amazingly better but as it stands I thought it was great even without it. This may partially be from me not knowing exactly what it entails but from what I do know I can easily say it would make it better, but it doesn’t make what the anime has shown any less good. I know it involves an epilogue rather far into the future, including a character that has yet to be introduced (I don’t want to say more, as I won’t spoil anything) Even though they have an extra episode as they have previewed, I don’t think it’s the same as After Story because of where in the timeline it takes place. It’ll still be fun to see, but I don’t think it can really be compared to After Story. Anyways, the bottom line is even though it doesn’t seem like they will be showing “After Story” which is an epilogue to Nagisa’s route, what the anime showed was fine.

Final Thoughts:

Clannad has certainly been an interesting run. I came into the show knowing pretty much nothing about it. I was a huge fan of Kanon and Air and knew that Clannad was going to be very similar so a lot of my mindset was comparing the shows. Not really comparing them in quality or in the actual types of characters they had, but more comparing the pace at which the show moved or the kind of content they focused on, and how they shifted focus around form the different characters. Really, it was pretty similar. They had a couple of episodes to introduce the main character and just the kind of personality and situation everyone was in then they spend several episodes on a single character, have a couple episodes of lull, then focus on another character. The formula seemed to be exactly like this for at least two of the characters and although they ended up combining the arcs of some characters that still pretty much fell in the same situation. I am glad the ended up combining the arcs. Although it ended up not giving either much focus without doing that there wouldn’t have been anywhere near enough time t focus on Nagisa, whose arc really was much more symbolic of what the whole show stood for and which dealt a lot with the main character, not just Nagisa herself.

I do have to mention the character’s a bit. Of course in a show like this there will be several cases of personal favorites amongst fans. Giant fan boy raving about a particular girl and mentions about how another one was horrible and so forth, but just looking back on it without any ravaging fan perspective I did like all of the characters. I thought each of their arcs was rather unique amongst each others’. One dealt with someone being a ghost, one with a tragic past involving their parents, one just involved romance towards the male lead and a bit of jealousy amongst family, and the other dealt with trying to redeem herself from a bad past and the harm she caused to her family and although some people seem to dislike Nagisa, again mostly because of raving fan boy attitudes, I’ve yet to see someone intelligently tell me why a particular girl is worse, not that I want to, I actually don’t give a damn, but still a lot of the attitudes towards Nagisa seemed a bit negative when I really liked her part in the story. She may not have been my personal favorite girl as in her personality or just her character itself but I found that her story and her arc were amazing. Definitely befitting of the final arc. While it may seem bland, its deeper meaning definitely carries more weight and the focus on family it brought was very intriguing.

Speaking of family, that is one point I want to talk about as well. I don’t know too many other shows that have the kind of deep focus that this show had. Several shows will end up having some kind of topic about romance and that’s as deep as they’ll go. It will have some kind of drama but it won’t usually end up meaning much more in the long run. However this show really seemed unique in that sense. The big theme was family, in pretty much every girl’s arc. Not only was family important to each individual girl’s story, it was important overall in the main characters story which was just amazing to see. To see something that meaningful and complex be addressed really made this show great.

Tomoyo and the others help Nagisa prepare for the play that is only a couple of days away.

Impressions:

It’s weird, on one hand it seems like this show is ending too soon. After all the next episode is the last one. They haven’t had any huge drama moments or romance moments between Nagisa and Tomoya. Besides them being kind to each other there is no romance really yet, though I know from spoilers in the game that that isn’t’ the case hell since its an H game of course things go further with every girl, but it doesn’t seem like romance is that big of a focus at all in the anime version. Still even though there isn’t a real romance focus and there isn’t any huge drama or arguments and falling out with the characters on the other hand it seems like the pace the series is going at the end is fine. It’s a bit hard to explain but this episode itself was a bit emotional and moving even before the final scene where Nagisa found out the truth. Just he general situation, seeing everyone together and seeing how hard Nagisa was working and how determined she was was touching. The show isn’t horribly tragically sad or anything but there is still a degree of emotion there and it’s really interesting to see.

I think having a conclusion to Nagisa finding out the truth about her past will end up being fine. I almost feel that it’s not enough of a problem but when I really thought about it it seems like it would be great. So many shows have a kind of clichéd situation of romance being a major focus but the focus on family that this how has is extremely interesting. There is a different degree of emotion in the topic of belonging somewhere like that that really makes this show unique in that way.

I am curious as to what kind of epilogue they will have, if any, for the show. I’ve said this before but I LOVE epilogues, I think they are greater then sliced bread. It shows where the entire series you had been watching ends up leading to. Anyways, I hope there is some kind of epilogue that does go into showing some progress with romance on Nagisa and Tomoya’s part. I’m not sure if it will go as far as to show their…..um….ch…Well, no spoilers but I hope they show something.

Tomoyo learns more about Nagisa’s past and what she did to cause trouble to her parents.

Impressions:

This episode was really interesting. Although it seemed like it was pretty laid back and nothing big really happened in it, the information it brought forth about Nagisa was really interesting. I’m sure it will come up again with her though, about causing her parents to quit their dreams. It’s really not something she can be blamed for. Even if it was her going out I the cold that finally changed things, she was just a sweet innocent girl at the time who wanted to wait for her parents, she didn’t really do anything wrong. Still, I’m sure this is going to be the main point of interesting in her arc. However that’s not all that has still to be resolved. There is still the weird story with the girl and the robot which seems to be tied to Nagisa’s story. I’m really thinking it’s just metaphoric for what’s going on with Nagisa and perhaps Tomoyo too. Still, I’m sure that will have a HUGE tie-in to the rest of the story.

I’m really interested in the bits of romance they are starting to really show between Tomoya and Nagisa. Although it had pretty much always been there and had been established they would likely end up together and there was something between them, nothing was really happening. This episode was the first time anything this big happened. There was of course the rather big event during the game, which I absolutely loved. I found it funny and at the same time kind of sweet, since it really did seem to be her real feelings. Her yelling out without thinking that she’s falling in love with him like that was great. Then there were also just a lot of several more subtle cases but they really did seem to be getting closer with a lot more general focus on their relationship.

I’m really curious as to the way the pacing will go for this show now. I recently just found out that Clannad will end at episode 22 which was definitely a shock to me. On one hand its bad news as it means they wont have as many Clannad episodes and if they have to fit an arc into fewer episodes it will leave more out but on the other hand its good because it will allow the arc to be really focused and they wont have to fill time with a lot of fluff. Still, with only two episodes left to go I’m really wondering what’s going to happen as we haven’t really gotten to the point where things have gotten really serious now, we just pretty much know the situation.

After Nagisa learns of Tomoya’s situation at home, she invites him to stay with her and her family for a while.

Impressions:

This episode was alright. It wasn’t really anything huge, at least not yet, but it does seem to be a good introduction and start up episode into the next arc. Even though this episode itself wasn’t anything too spectacular I really have already gotten quite intrigued and interested in the focus of this arc. The big importance being placed upon family like this isn’t what you normally see in many shows. Even though he’ll end up with Nagisa, come on, that’s obvious, her arc isn’t all about romance it’s really about some things that are really deep and rather complex.

I’m not quite sure what to think of Tomoya’s dad. Although they set him up like this bad person whom Tomoya really dislikes I haven’t seen him be that horrible of a person. They mentioned he hit Tomoya when he was younger and things like that do point to him not being the best person but I get kind of mixed emotions seeing him now. He seems kind of pathetic and lonely. As far as they’ve shown now he’s not a horribly abusive father or anything. Thinking of what he went though, loosing his wife and falling into severe depression and having his son end up hating him and leaving him, it seems like quite the sad situation for him. Although he may have hit him before I don’t’ think that one incident marks him as the scum of human life for ever. I felt a bit sorry for him seeing him in this episode.

I’m really interested in what this hidden past Nagisa has. It seems to be the topic, and title, for the next episode but even without the preview it really was one of the big things that had me really wondering. Nagisa says its something that she thinks she did wrong and when I really think about it anything a child at the age Nagisa had to be I, if they did something wrong its not really a huge fault of their own, they’re just kids. So although it may end up being her fault, whatever happened, it’s not like it could really be something she could blame herself for so I think the importance of whatever this is has to be a bit deeper. Doing something back as a kid when you don’t really know any better, especially someone who seems as nice and innocent as Nagisa, can’t really amount to that much drama. I’m definitely thinking it has to do with Sanae and her teaching as Akio seemed rather odd when he said there were several reasons why she retired. She’s nowhere near old enough to retire from age and seems to enjoy doing it. I’m wondering if this topic will really be the main focus of Nagisa’s arc, or at least one of the main ones. She seems important enough to have multiple layers of things going on, such as her arc being tied with Tomoya’s family issues.

Tomoya is suspended for taking the blame from the mishap Tomoyo caused, causing her and the other girls to try and care for him.

Impressions:

Wow…this episode was amazing. It had so many different things going on it was really surprising. They still seem to have been doing Kyou and Tomoyo’s arcs at the same time and in fact seem to have actually finished them. I thought the end of this episode was huge. When Nagisa introduced herself to Tomoyo as the drama club president she pretty much figured it out and gave up on the guy, then Kyou and Ryou both seeing Tomoya and Nagisa together like that gave up themselves. Hell they even cried about it. I thought it was pretty big for the two arcs to end at the same time pretty much because they were smart enough o figure out ON THEIR OWN that the guy likes someone else even if he hasn’t figured it out. It is really quite refreshing to see the girls realize the guy’s feelings on their own and not have to get directly rejected.

Tomoyo’s arc was certainly amazing. Kyou and Ryou’s arc didn’t really get that much focus, they just kind of gave up. There wasn’t actually much drama or anything but with Tomoyo they actually explained her past. Her story was simply amazing. I actually teared up when she talked about how her brother jumped. I thought it meant he died at the time and even though he didn’t it still turned out to be an amazing story.

Even though this episode had some really big important parts I did find the whole food segment hilarious. I was a bit surprised when I thought about it that I found the segment so hilarious. It’s not like it’s a super unique concept. Dozens and dozens of other anime have the same situation yet they really seemed to do this one really well as it was really great.

I do have to say that I am definitely finding Fuuko’s appearance annoying. I didn’t really say anything the last episode she appeared even though at that point it was annoying as well; I just thought it wasn’t really that bad. However after this episode it defiantly seemed to get in the way. I just hope they don’ have too many more of the appearances.

Tomoyo continues to spend time with Tomoya and Kyou tries to get Tomoya herself so he’ll spend time with Ryou.

Impressions:

This episode was pretty interesting. As they kind of showed last episode, they really seem like they are mixing the Kyou and Tomoyo arcs together, doing them at the same time. I’m not really sure what to think of that, as it has its ups and downs. Of course one downside is that if they do them both at the same time they won’t get as much individual focus and it won’t be as in depth for either of them, however it does cut down on time for the main arc, which is obviously going to be Nagisa. I just hope that near the end of this joint arc they at least focus on one girl at a time for the conclusions.

I’m not too sure about what to think regarding the storage locker incident. On one hand it was pretty funny, the charm leading up to it and then the misunderstanding but it really seemed to be weird the way they mixed the comedy part of it with some rather serious parts such as Kyou asking if Tomoya knew the reason she was making him eat lunch with Ryou and so on. It just seems like any of the serious parts that they had were dismissed because of the comedic part of it. It was till very funny, but the serious parts didn’t seem to work out too well.

I really love Tomoyo’s character. They never really included her until recently so before now her character didn’t’ really stand out as much pretty much because we didn’t’ know anything about her. However now that she is involved a lot more I’m really liking her. It’s a shame that Tomoya won’t end up with her since she is a great character, but of course he has to end up with Nagisa. Still, right now I’m not sure what her actual arc will be about. Though as I said above they seem to be mixing it and doing it at the same time as Kyou’s arc, I’m uncertain as to what her arc will e about. Perhaps it will have something to do with why she transferred, as they kind of mentioned in the preview.

Tomoya, Sunohara, and Kyou play basketball against the basketball club in order to show to the choir club their motivation in hopes of getting the advisor.

Impressions:

This episode was pretty good. Its still hasn’t reached full blown drama of an arc but its defiantly setting some interesting things up. They haven’t really had a single girl they’ve focused on for a couple of episodes which does make it different, and a bit interesting. To seem them focus on the guy was something they don’t do a lot. The episode had a lot of humorous parts to it too. I thought the very beginning where they mentioned the joke of last episode with Sunohara loving Tomoya was still funny, and even though it wasn’t a pure humor moment I loved Tomoyo confronting Kyou like that, saying bluntly that she must like him and so on.

This episode focused a lot more on Tomoya himself then I thought it would. I found one of the most interesting parts of this entire episode was when he was knocked down and all those thoughts were going though his head like there’s no point in doing this and he’s pathetic, then having that broken by Nagisa. Kind of metaphoric but also just interesting in its own right showing the kind of things Tomoya is going though.

I’m really interested in where the show is going to go now. I know a lot o people have said that this focus on Sunohara, the basketball match, and then kind of Tomoya fits into Nagisa’s arc but it seems odd that they would have her full arc right now. However when I saw the preview and it really mainly pointed to Tomoya, I wasn’t sure. Nagisa definitely seems like the girl who has the main arc, she’s the Ayu of Clannad in a sense that she’ll be the girl he likely end sup with, meaning her arc will be last. However it seems like if they were to put some kind of focus on Tomoya as the preview suggested such as him thinking about his future and his family, that it would fit with Nagisa’s arc. I was hoping that even if this basketball thing is in Nagisa’s arc that perhaps they moved it up and would still have her arc last, but with Tomoya being focused on more I’m not sure. They are definitely merging and splitting game arcs. I hope they do save her arc for last though; perhaps do about half of it now and then focus on Kyou and Tomoyo and then finish off Nagisa.

Nagisa runs into problems when she tries to revive the drama club, but Sunohara tries to stick up for her and encourage her to keep going, although Nagisa is reluctant

Impressions:

This episode was pretty good. It didn’t really get into any of the serious aspects of anyone yet, maybe a little with Sunohara outburst, but for the most part this episode was a rather layed back episode, kind of setting up the situation. It did have some great comedy though. I laughed extremely hard at this episodes “humor bit” I don’t know how else to describe it; although this series has a lot of comedy throughout most episodes seem to have one joke that is funniest. This of course being the bit with Sunohara being called homosexual. I thought it was great, just the first joke where Tomoya said this to Nagisa, but when she was trying to cover for Tomoya, saying she’s his girlfriend and so on, it was great.

The one thing that interested me is how they don’t seem to be very obvious about whose arc they are going into next. This episode almost seemed to focus an arc on Sunohara, which actually isn’t uncommon for a visual novel game to do, have an arc on the best friend, being a non romantic, arc, but having some drama. It could be his small arc, seeing as how they are introducing his sister. Still, I’m not even sure if it’s an arc concerning Sunohara, as this episode was more about the drama club, which fits under Nagisa’s arc. However I’m pretty sure she’ll be saved for last. So it’ll likely indeed be Sunohara’s short arc that leads into one of the main ones. It’s not bad that they aren’t making it obvious; in fact it’s rather interesting to see.

From the preview, it seems as if it could go into either Kyou/Ryou’s arc or Tomoyo. I really liked the short moment Tomoya and Tomoyo had (why the hell would they name two character’s so similarly damnit) She did show some signs of falling for him, which could explain why she asked if he was going out with anyone in the preview. Then of course Kyou referenced the same thing. Again, I’m sure she’s asking for her sister but there will be some drama from her feelings. Either way, it doesn’t seem clear where they will go but if I had to bet I’d say Kyou/Ryou, as it’s less obvious that Tomoyo likes Tomoya and she’s played a smaller role thus far.