Clannad and Clannad After Story

I can’t argue with Cody or Tonka.

I’ll try to keep an open mind for the rest of the episodes and hope that some questions get answered. Thanks!

I hate to say this, but

They really don’t…lol

Cody -

I kind of figured that was the case! :laugh:

Ep. 22

Will stick to the happy ending that they altered the time line. I want a happy ending even if means being in denial.

Shawn, I couldn’t agree with you more! :slight_smile:

Just remember what we learned from the one show Sci-Fi had on ages ago, and assume that because you saw it, it must be real. We already had one alternate-reality episode at the end of the first series, maybe the way to look at this is both endings are real, just in different universes.

You know that’s a very good point, and really, it’s not a bad way to look at it. If there are such things as alternate universes, then it’s almost a certainty that there are places where both versions of the events had occured.

Ep. 23

spoiler

This was a fun episode set during Tomoya’s junior year. It was interesting to see how he and Nagisa kept passing each other. Akio sure had some crazy idea for Nagisa to make friends. I liked seeing how Tomoya meet Kyou. They sure drove her up the wall but she did like them a little bit. Also got some Fujibayashi sister fanservice. The prank was funny. I wonder if Tomoya ever realized he had done that to Nagisa. Only she would make a friend from that and gain encouragement.

Episode 23 -

spoiler

After the events of the last few episodes, this was a nice, light hearted, funny episode that takes place before Tomoya and Nagisa had ever met.

It is the first day of school and the students are checking the class assignments. Nagisa is worried because she doesn’t know anyone in her class, but is told by her friend, Kimura, that she will make new friends quickly. As Nagisa stands there, Tomoya passes by and literally bumps into her, but she is the one to apologize as he hardly takes notice of her and continues on.

Funny scene of Tomoya and Sunohara trying to climb out of a window during class and getting caught with the result that they get a punishment, with Kyou, the class rep, keeping an eye on them and wondering how she got stuck with them. Loved how she wouldn’t even tell them her name – “I’d never tell a delinquent my name” – but finally does as they walk home together. And it was nice of Tomoya to save her, even if she didn’t appreciate it.

Nice that the episode title page no longer shows the orbs under the tree, but the girl from the other world.

Nagisa goes home and tells her father that she was lonely at school because she couldn’t talk to anyone and I loved the way Akio gave her some advice. When Nagisa says that it might take a long time to make friends, he gives her some more funny advice and by the time he brings up Sanae’s bread, his wife is standing behind him listening and once he gives her bread the usual insult, she runs out crying with him in pursuit. Then it was even funnier when Nagisa sat in class and envisioned the possible results of taking her father’s advice.

Outside, Kyou finds a sleeping Tomoya and tries to wake him up for class. She thinks that he’s actually good looking and wonders if he has a girlfriend, but as she leans over him, Sunohara comes to “save” him. A sleepy Tomoya wakes up and Sunohara tries to explain that Kyou may have been trying to sexually assault him, and I loved the style of “memory deletion” that Kyou uses on Sunohara.

After school, Kimura and her new friend come upon Nagisa and persuade her to go clothes shopping with them. Nagisa is nervous about breaking the rules, but they make her try on clothes. When Nagisa is in the dressing room, the girls play a joke on her and tell her that a teacher is there and that they will run away and let her “take care of things”. Nagisa goes into a panic and gets stuck in the clothes, but when she emerges from the dressing room, the girls are there and say that they were only kidding. Kimura apologizes to her on the way home and says that she couldn’t help herself because Nagisa is “just so amusing” and hopes that she will make some friends in her new class.

When Nagisa gets home, she has to tell her father that she still has no new friends and Akio says something really insightful – “someone you pass by in the hallway might be your lifelong friend or your special someone” – and of course I thought of Tomoya. Sanae shows up behind Akio again as he comes up with a brilliant idea to help Nagisa make friends – he has prepared a tray of his bread mixed with her mother’s bread to pass out to her classmates and enjoy their reactions. He assures her that it’s a prank that will be a sure fire hit and finally notices Sanae standing there. As she does her usual run outside, crying bit, I thought that it was absolutely hysterical that Akio ate the entire tray of bread in one gulp, saying “I luff hem” as he followed her. Poor Nagisa can only sigh resignedly at their antics.

Kyou is in her room at home and Ryou is telling her fortune, saying that someone will “confess his love” for her and I know she must be thinking of Tomoya.

Tomoya is in Sunohara’s room and Sunohara has come up with the brilliant idea of playing a trick on Kyou. He writes her a love letter telling her to meet him in the reference room at school during lunch. Tomoya thinks the letter is “retarded”, but Sunohara continues to plot his revenge as Tomoya warns him that “something terrifying” will happen.

Kyou gets the letter in her locker the next day and is startled to think that Ryou’s prediction might be coming true. Sunohara and Tomoya watch her reaction and Sunohara thinks she has a cute side, while Tomoya thinks the whole thing is awful. Kyou does go to the reference room at lunchtime to find it empty, but there is a message there telling her to go to the roof. When she gets to the roof, it’s also empty, but there is another message telling her to go to the gym equipment storage room. Tomoya and Sunohara are watching Kyou run around and Tomoya thinks that Sunohara should stop, but Sunohara doesn’t want to because he is just too amused.

Nagisa is sitting on a bench, eating her lunch as Kyou is still running around on the wild goose chase. Tomoya and Sunohara are still watching her and Tomoya warns Sunohara that he’s going too far, but Sunohara says that he’s just beginning. Nagisa is a witness to all this and just doesn’t know what to think.

As Sunohara leaves another message for Kyou, Tomoya tells him to make it the last one and Sunohara agrees, but tries to think of a good place to send Kyou to next. A voice behind them suggests hell and Sunohara thinks that’s a good idea until he turns around to find an extremely angry Kyou behind him, looking like a demon with her red eyes and cracking her knuckles. Gee, Sunohara can really scream like a girl!

Next, a very beat up Sunohara and Tomoya are building some kind of contraption as Sunohara decides to take out his frustration on the freshmen. It’s a big ball with a tag that says “pull me” and when the string is pulled, a banner will fall out, but Sunohara can only think of stupid things to write on it, so Tomoya writes something on the banner instead.

The ball is hung at the entrance to the school grounds, right under the “welcome freshmen” sign, but everyone ignores it, thinking that it looks suspicious. As Tomoya and Sunohara watch from a hidden spot, Sunohara notes that no one is falling for it and Tomoya says that anyone that does is an idiot. Sunohara is upset to think the freshmen are smarter than he is and Tomoya can only say that Sunohara is “the dumbest person there is”. Then Nagisa approaches and reads the tag. As she slowly reaches out a hand and pulls the string, the ball opens and a pan begins to fall. Sunohara looks on in joy, while Tomoya looks on in horror as the pan continues to fall and hits Nagisa on the head, knocking her out. Sunohara and Tomoya agree that she’s an idiot as others rush to her aid and take her to the health room.

Nagisa wakes up in a bed to find a classmate watching over her and the ball and pan on the floor nearby. The girl asks how she is and Nagisa says that she has a sore head. The girl explains that it was a prank and that she was behind Nagisa and laughed when the pan hit her. But she apologizes now and Nagisa says that she doesn’t mind. The girl says that she had wanted to talk to Nagisa ever since Kimura told her that Nagisa was a wonderful person and is glad that she finally got a chance. She asks Nagisa to be friends and they both express the hope that they can be good friends.

Kyou and her sister are in the bath and Kyou says that it was a tiring day. She tells Ryou that “there are some guys in my class who cause a lot of trouble” and that she’s busy every day. Ryou says that she doesn’t look like she minds all that much and Kyou agrees that she really doesn’t before changing the subject and asking Ryou if her breasts got bigger.

Tomoya is in Sunohara’s room again and Sunohara giggles, causing Tomoya to ask him what he’s up to. Sunohara tells him all about “operation love letter – round two” and Tomoya sighs, saying that they have too much free time.

Nagisa is home and tells her mother and father about her new friend. Nagisa has kept the banner from the ball as a memento and tells her parents that because of it, she got the courage to talk and reads Tomoya’s message to them – “Don’t give in to the hardships ahead of you by Wazzup” and then Nagisa says “thank you person with the difficult kanji name”. It’s really sweet that this episode shows that Tomoya and Nagisa have touched each other’s lives without even having met yet and how much their fates are already intertwined.

Boy, do I feel dumb!

spoiler

I didn’t realize at first that the events of episode 23 happened a year before the events of Clannad episode 1. It took watching them both (Clannad episode 1 and After Story episode 23) twice for me to completely understand that!

While I usually do not post I have read some interesting thoughts on Clannad now and again so thought I would chime in on the series main story completion and my view on everything.

spoiler

I never thought when watching that had Ushio died. To me when she went limp it was more of a coma/near death experience, which in my line of thought is important to remember later on. Tomoya screaming out for Nagisa to help and save their daughter to me reinforces this belief as you wouldn’t be screaming for help in desperation if she was already dead. Though I must say Ushio going into the coma was a hit in the gut but then watching Tomoya screaming for Nagisa to somehow save their daughter felt like someone trying to yank my heart out.

Later on when Ushio, in the alternate Universe, becomes the balls of light, while this still confusrd me some, to me is all the hopes, dreams, and wishes that had been collected because of Tomoya’s interactions with his friends and family being used to make Tomoya’s wishes come true. Those wishes were for Nagisa to live and be well, along with their daughter. As the story of the city goes, told by Yukine during her story arc, when someone in the city was happy there would be an orb of light and that whoever caught such an orb… then that someone’s wish would come true. Tomoya can see one during that arc (making Yukine wish she could see one) and I believe even earlier he saw another orb. Along with Tomoya, Ushio also saw one entering Tomoya after making peace with his father. Though I wonder if this happiness was his father’s, his own, or possibly Nagisa’s long hope that they would finally settle their long standing issues and make peace with each other while becoming a family once more. When Nagisa tells Tomoya to open the curtains and they see all the orbs climbing into the night I see this as they both, through joy and awareness are open to the happiness that is happening all the time throughout the city that they love (Nagisa always having loved and Tomoya’s having learned to love) and through that special connect from all the trials of their lives can see not just an orb here and there but all of the orbs and see how special their city is to everyone.

On another point, I enjoyed seeing Fuko return but wish there would have had some odd sense of knowing each other when Fuko and Tomoya met once again, even if it was just an odd mentioning of starfish by Tomoya without having to be told what it was :laugh: Fuko could sense Ushio because they had both been at that coma/near death experience (told you it was important to know earlier in the post) and as such had some link to each other and the alternate universe that Kotomi and her parents had studied and talked about through the two series. This is why I believe Fuko could see the older Ushio from the alternate universe and not just the 5 year old version. They both had a special connection which explains to me why Fuko feels so close to her as quickly as she does and wants to take her home with all the time!

In terms of spoiler and such, it should be mentioned that AS ep 23 is completely separate from the other episodes in season 2. It can be considered as episode zero for season 1.

Non-spoiler: It’s OK to watch it before or after season 1 episode 1:

Clannad After Story (sub) (23) “Events from One Year Ago”

It shows what happened during Nagisa’s third year of high school, when Tomoya, Sunohara and Kyou were second year students. Back then, the two delinquents were familiar with Kyou’s anger, but had not yet met Nagisa.

Look for: Different color shields on the uniform for first year, second year and third year students.

A computer is like an air conditioner, they don’t work very well if you open windows.

Episode 24 is interesting, it’s another alternate universe what-if story like the last ep of the first series. This time, Ryou and Kyou are the focus of the story. Which makes for a series of events that feels a little rushed when packed into just one episode, but since it’s a bonus it’s hard to complain.

In regards to After Story episode 24, both the name and description that were sent out are wrong. Episode 25 will be “Under the Tree of Green” with Tomoya talking to Ushio.

Episode 24 “Another World: Kyou Chapter” has Tomoya Okazaki, Youhei Sunohara, Kyou Fujibayashi and Ryou Fujibayashi as they were from Season 1. None of the other girls show up at all.

Nice way of showing how Tomoya would have had difficulties dealing with the emotions of the Fujibayashi twins.

Jut one thing about episode 24 I want to know:

When did Sunohara grow a brain? He was pretty insightful in this episode. That truly made it seem like “Another World”.

I just finished both parts what a excellent series. Like everybody says its a tearjerker.Also one of those series you have to keep watching,its makes you want to see whats in the next episode. :slight_smile:

Tomoya says: “I met Mr. Yukimura through the Chorus Club” but Japanese dialog talks about (Toshio) Koumura-sensei. (I don’t remember what name was used before for him.)

Definite error after the end credits for episode 25, “Under the Tree of Green”.
It says “Next episode: Summary - Under the Green Tree”. Oops, that obviously belonged at the end of episode 24.

Episode 24 -

spoiler

Interesting that Ryou and Tomoya become a couple, but they don’t quite “fit” together somehow.

Kyou shows more of a softer side in this episode. It was very funny when she told Tomoya that he could practice kissing on her, but doesn’t let their lips even touch! Then she asks him if he really wanted to kiss her. It’s sweet that Tomoya calls her “stupid” so affectionately too. But I can’t believe that Kyou rated Tomoya on the kiss without really kissing him and even gave him sixty points for it! And she seems a little depressed when they part – perhaps she likes him as well?

But, someone must have seen their “almost” kiss because an ugly rumor starts at school about them. As Tomoya explains to Sunohara, Sunohara just can’t see Tomoya and Ryou together either and thinks Kyou would be better for him. A little while later, Tomoya still looks depressed and it can’t make it any better to see Kyou kissing Sunohara. I certainly can’t see them as a couple! But Kyou was only trying to date Sunohara to quell the rumors about her and Tomoya to make things easier for her sister. Sunohara can sense that Kyou likes Tomoya and I think Ryou is coming to realize it as well.

It even seems awkward when Tomoya and Ryou try calling each other by their first names and yet Tomoya can so easily say Kyou’s name without any problem. After his date with Ryou, it begins to rain and Tomoya sees Botan and follows her to Kyou in the park. She’s soaked but won’t let Tomoya anywhere near her. She seems to keep pushing him at her sister.

Tomoya is finally able to grab her and she tearfully confesses that she loves him, but was afraid to tell him. If he rejected her, she was worried that they wouldn’t be able to stay friends. If he accepted her, then it would make Ryou miserable. So, she thought it best to say nothing and not get hurt, but now she regrets it and it’s too late – he’s with Ryou now. She says “bye-bye” as she walks away from Tomoya in the pouring rain and I think it was one of the saddest goodbyes I’ve ever seen.

He discusses his problem with Sunohara and Sunohara says to keep both sisters which would be a typical thing for him to say. Sunohara says that he was only joking, but it fell kind of flat. He then tells Tomoya that he’s a wimp if he ends up giving up both Ryou and Kyou, but Tomoya doesn’t want to hurt either sister.

When he tries to talk to Ryou alone, he calls her by her last name and she probably realizes what he is going to say because she ends up doing all the talking. Ryou says that she doesn’t want to lose her sister and knows that her sister likes him as well, but stepped aside for her sake. Ryou regrets it and begins to cry, telling Tomoya that she can be a “stand in” for Kyou and says that she will be more like her sister, even to the point of growing out her hair just to be the woman he wants – just to be with him. Tomoya says no, that he doesn’t want that, but Ryou kisses him before she runs out of the room and Tomoya takes out his frustration on a nearby desk.

Tomoya feels even worse when Kyou doesn’t show up at school, but he finally gets a chance to tell Ryou how he feels and tells her that he loves her sister. Ryou runs to him and it turns out to be Kyou! She cut her hair! Why did she have to go and do that? She cries and tells him that Ryou wouldn’t let her run away from her feelings and that one of them was going to be hurt anyway. There was just no way around it, but Kyou says that this will be the last time they hurt one another – all three of them - and Tomoya agrees. Tomoya later tries to apologize to Ryou, but she won’t let him because she wants to cherish the time they had together – both the good and the bad.

And so Tomoya ends up with Kyou! Now we just need him to date Kotomi and he’ll have a complete set!

Hmmm… there’s a lot going on under the surface her that is not as evident as at first.

spoiler

I’m not quite sure of Kyou’s motivation for cutting her hair. Did she think that if she looked like Ryou Tomoya wouldn’t notice? Or that it was her looks that made Tomoya go out with her? The only real difference in their looks was their hair. But the fact that both sisters were willing to change to be able to be with Tomoya… What can I say?

Someday I’m going to have to get a decent video editor on my computer. I have a great idea for an AMV… I don’t know if I want to say it here, though, lest someone beats me to it!

And it was funny that Ryou said that she’d grow her hair out “to be the woman he wants” - more strangeness. Both sisters were trying to be like the other. Perhaps a great lesson here to just “be yourself”.