CLANNAD / First Impressions / OVA/Movie

Summary:

Spring has turned into summer, and that means it is time for supplementary lessons for the third-year students. On their way to school one morning, Tomoya suggests to Nagisa that they skip and go to the beach instead because he feels that studying for exams is pointless since he doesn’t intend to go on to a university. Nagisa, however, insists that they follow the rules and cites how this affects their school records. Hearing that she’s worried about him because he’s important to her, Tomoya asks to hold her hand, but before the two can do so, Kyou suddenly drives between them on her moped and teases them about what they were doing. Later during lunchtime, the other girls comment on how Nagisa still refers to Tomoya as “Okazaki-san” even though they’re now dating. At the same moment that the girls are questioning Nagisa on how far her relationship with him has gone, Tomoya is at the dormitory telling Sunohara about how he and Nagisa haven’t even held hands yet. Sunohara questions what they’ve been doing up to this point, but before he can dwell on it for too long, Misae comes by his room to tell him that there’s a cute girl wanting to see him.

Much to Sunohara’s disappointment, the girl is merely his sister Mei. She helps clean up his room again before heading with Tomoya to the Furukawa bakery, and Nagisa’s parents are more than happy to let her stay with them. Mei and Nagisa end up chatting for most of the night about Tomoya, and fortunately Nagisa doesn’t have supplementary lessons the next day. Instead, she, Tomoya, and Mei take care of the bakery so that her parents can have some time off. Business is slow though, so Mei decides to go outside to try to attract visitors to the store. Tomoya eventually notices that something strange is going on after various guys start showing up at the store door both surprised at the fact that it’s a bakery and happy that there’s a cute girl there. He rushes outside to see what Mei is doing and finds out that she’s been telling people that the store has a cute girl, but he doesn’t get a chance to stop her because Nagisa calls him back into the bakery to help. Mei thus continues advertising the cute girl, and a small riot soon develops in the bakery as tons of people come in and try to buy bread.

The result of this is a day of record sales, though what surprises Akio the most when he gets back is that all of his wife’s bread also sold out. Sanae notices that he’s implying that it’s natural for her bread not to sell, but Akio changes the subject by declaring that he loves her. This in turn causes Mei to suggest that Tomoya tell Nagisa that he loves her too, but both of them get embarrassed and avoid the topic. After seeing this, Mei tracks down Tomoya the next day and announces that she’s going to be a cupid of love. Tomoya thinks that she’s referring to her brother because she’s worried about him, and this leads to a pair of misunderstandings: the first of which has him imagining Sunohara and Mei in a incestuous relationship and the second of which has him imagining himself and Sunohara in a relationship where they run happily together wearing matching underwear. Mei eventually clarifies that she’s talking about Tomoya and Nagisa and how they’re not being honest with their feelings. She starts by asking him what kind of person he wants Nagisa to be and is happy to hear him answer that he wishes for Nagisa to have more confidence in herself.

When Nagisa then shows up at the door, Mei acts like it’s a big coincidence. Mei quickly gets out of the two’s way, and Nagisa surprises Tomoya by referring to him as “Tomoya-kun” and by asking him out for a walk. He’s even more surprised when she says – albeit uncomfortably – that he’s super-lucky to be walking with a cute girl like her, and it doesn’t make sense to him that she decides to head back to the bakery. There, she insists on acting like a customer and paying for the bread, though she actually wants Tomoya to pay for it. Nagisa’s odd behavior continues when they head to the park to eat the cinnamon roll that she got, and she makes him say that he wants to eat it too, only to then deny it to him. She claims to want to have him enjoy it in a different manner and exhales in his face so that he can smell the cinnamon roll instead. Tomoya finally figures out what’s going on after he sees Mei peering at them from behind a nearby tree, and knowing that her plan has been exposed, Mei excuses herself and runs off.

Since Tomoya now knows that Mei was responsible, Nagisa admits that Mei had convinced her to take the lead in the relationship due to how she’s older than him, and she did what Mei planned out for her to do. She thinks that Tomoya might not like her anymore because of this, but he takes her hand and suggests that they go for a walk. When he asks her where she wants to go, Nagisa confesses that she doesn’t care where as long as she’s with him, and she promises to always stay with him.

 
 
 

This was a very cute and funny episode that captures a lot of the charm of the series. It doesn’t do much to contribute to the overall story, though I think any of us were really expecting it to. I see it as a way to show Tomoya and Nagisa getting closer that bridges the gap to After Story. I kind of wish they had done more to make this episode feel special or significant (maybe with some sort of milestone in Nagisa and Tomoya’s relationship), but it was still pretty enjoyable to watch. It also makes me curious what extra they’re going to animate on the final DVD when that comes out in July.

Final Thoughts: It doesn’t feel quite right doing writing up final thoughts for a series that hasn’t really ended yet, but I wanted to assess what we’ve seen so far. By itself, this first series has been merely good – nowhere near bad, but also not great. To be able to compare with past KyoAni/Key shows (mainly Kanon), it needed more episodes to develop Kyou/Ryou, Tomoyo, and even perhaps the main Nagisa story. However, I also think of what we’ve seen so far as an incomplete story since (as I’ve been repeatedly told) a lot of the best stuff is yet to come in the After Story. That’s why I feel it’s useful to view things in the perspective of the larger series, and I’m looking forward to seeing if After Story is really as good as some people say it is.

54 Comments

  6. https://randomc.net/image/CLANNAD/CLANNAD%20-%20Extra%2001%20-%20Large%2011.jpg

    Devious Loli. What evil are you planning you trickster?

    https://randomc.net/image/CLANNAD/CLANNAD%20-%20Extra%2001%20-%20Large%2032.jpg

    Commencing operation loli buzzoff

    https://randomc.net/image/CLANNAD/CLANNAD%20-%20Extra%2001%20-%20Large%2007.jpg

    There’s the rainbow that failed to make it into Dragonaut eh.

    https://randomc.net/image/CLANNAD/CLANNAD%20-%20Extra%2001%20-%20Large%2030.jpg

    Now I haven’t seen this episode obviously but before this shot he appears to be hanging out with Sunohara alone in a field of daisies and now he’s wearing this shirt…..I don’t know……

    Kaioshin Sama
    Reply

  12. Hi, all this is my 3rd time posting in this Blog, I am going to try to post more :P, anyways looks good cant wait for the episode to come out. About the Octopus bread, that’s very imaginative but very gross 😛

    LJkAze
    Reply

  27. Did you see the announcement after the ending? Looks like we won’t be seeing Little Busters anime anytime soon. And judging by last of the sneak-peeks they showed, it seems they’re heading towards the saddest ending of all. But, I bet they are going to pull a Higurashi and show the super-happy ending at the same time.

    Bellamy
    Reply

  28. This episode was awesome! Altho the last episode of the S1 was dissapointing it just shows how watchable and loveable this season is… can’t wait for the after story ^_^

    Kyi-chan
    Reply

  30. Nagisa’s surprised face in the opening scene is the best I’ve ever seen (by not having it in your screens is a crime!)

    Also, how the hell does that fag stay in Pops’ mouth?

    FX102
    Reply

  32. Nagisa calling Tomoya “Tomoya-kun” was long overdue.

    Still this episode brought some much needed TomoyaXNagisa romance. As much as I get tired of romance very fast, it was frustrating to see KyoAni blowing out two crucial moments of their romance during the previous episodes down the drain.

    solgae
    Reply

  33. What a waste of an episode.

    I know that most anime is shitty, because they can not develop a plot outside the realm of a 13 year old understanding, but the only thing that happened in this episode is …. well… nothing.

    they only held hands and said the same thing all over again (i want to be with you forever)

    i hate anime targeted at 13 old audiences…. and i had expectations… BLEH

    dan
    Reply

  38. @setsuke:

    Actually, while Tomoya’s imagination scenes were pretty funny (especially the one with Sunohara chasing after him in matching underwear), I think the funniest scenes for me were:
    1.) Akio saying that it’s not normal for Sanae’s bread to sell out and then him quickly changing the subject with “I love you Sanae!” and…
    2.) Nagisa getting Tomoya to say he wants her bread only for her to deny him right after doing so.

    divine|s
    Reply

  39. Man everything is becaming a shounen action anime like….in the sense of:

    ” HEY LET´S GO TO ANOTHER SEASON FELLOWS!! ”

    Just for simple sake of making money!!!

    are the japanese producers that HUNGRY!?? by the point of even killing the main original stories to just fulfill their CAPITALISM STARVERY!!

    are they THAT MUCH GREEDY???
    Thanks god I never buy anything from no one!!! 😀

    ” BRAZILIAN MOVIMENT STOP THE CAPITALISM ANIME COMPANIES HUNGER FOR MONEY “

    TESAI OTAKU
    Reply

  40. No one listens to you Tesai, so just can it, will you?

    DukeTheGold: Wishful thinking, that, since KyoAni’s been pushing the ‘my family sucks, why does everyone else have it better?’ theme for the series and Tomoya. We WILL be getting a DVD-exclusive episode though, but it’s going to be unrelated to the main plot of After Story. I mean, a BEACH EPISODE? In CLANNAD?

    Myssa Rei
    Reply

  41. So I’m a bit confused. Is this suppose to part of the two extra episodes that were originally planned (24) or are they sort of OVA that come in a series? I heard somewhere that the movie was techically two episodes long so it could become the two additions to the 22

    Shut up ~Desu.
    Reply

  42. Dan,
    I don’t think Clannad is a shitty anime (in fact, I liked it), you are just watching the wrong one. If you are trying to watch some mature anime, just check the wiki information before you suffer all 23 episodes, and I think by episode 3 you should know what kind of anime you are getting in to. Go for seinen anime or adults, and you will get more than ‘a holding hands ending’

    key05
    Reply

  43. It also depends on what how you define a “mature” anime. Clannad is written on two levels, or put another way, two layers. The “outer” layer is something that can be enjoyed by almost everyone, and yes, that includes 13 year olds. Comedy, obviously, is a large part of this, as well as some of the character and drama appeal.

    The “inner” layer, on the other hand, holds the more thematic ideas and literary devices that provide the meaning behind the plot and characters. In reality, I expect that this layer is something that university-level viewers would understand and appreciate more. You don’t need to see this layer to enjoy Clannad for what it is, but if you can, then Clannad’s quality does go up another level. Which comes back to your comment – Clannad can be a very mature anime if you choose to see it that way, it’s just that this isn’t necessary for someone to think Clannad is good.

    FF
    Reply

  44. I love how many people don’t seem to understand that Clannad is based off of a rather long game, and therefore needed a second season from the very start.

    Also, I love seeing angry sociopaths from /b/ troll on blogs like these.

    Kaisos
    Reply

  45. ff,
    when I said “mature”, a mean adults anime(if you know what I mean) because Dan was complaining about the holding hand part and having more expectations in the end.
    I think you misunderstood my comment because I like this anime a lot, and I think it was well done. Looking forward After Story. Sorry about my grammar, english is not my fist language.

    key05
    Reply

  47. @Kaioshin Sama, that was a good one, made me laugh!

    Well just to be safe, this is my last post in this site, is just everything that I trying to say I have to translate in english and I think is not working good. Well I will keep reading yours reviews and comments,
    Have fun guys

    key05
    Reply

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