Summary:

In the Illusionary World, the robot and the girl have left the house, and the girl warns the robot not to go too far or else they won’t be able to return home. They are looking for junk they can use as tools for living, but the robot sees a sheep-like creature and follows it back to the girl. The girl is already holding another one of the creatures, and as the two watch the creatures trot away, the girl comments on how there was a gentle smell. Meanwhile, in the real world, Mei is still staying at the Furukawa Bakery and refuses to go home because she’s worried about her brother’s future. Sunohara, however, hasn’t thought about that much – he feels that higher education is impossible, so he’ll have to find work. He suspects that if he had a girlfriend who is strong and stable, then Mei would feel relieved. Tomoya jumps on the idea of getting Sunohara a fake girlfriend to accomplish this, but Sunohara unfortunately first chooses Ryou. Doing something like this is impossible for her, and just thinking about it causes her to start crying. Kyou rushes in to save her little sister, beating up Sunohara and slapping Tomoya in the process.

With Ryou and Kyou out, Nagisa suggests asking Tomoyo, but Sunohara is afraid of her and considers her a rival. When he sits down beside her, she first ignores him and then treats him like a wild animal. He manages to get her to say that she doesn’t want to see him to get beaten by anyone other than her, but she ends up just kicking him like she always does. Sunohara, Tomoya, and Nagisa then visit Kotomi, and she agrees to help, but it leads to her playing the violin again. Since Sunohara doesn’t have the willpower to withstand such a sound, Kotomi is out as a choice as well. Tomoya’s next idea is to ask Yukine, however she’s already occupied with helping a guy who doesn’t take kindly to Sunohara. They do some more searching, but nobody seems to be suitable for being a fake girlfriend until Sunohara and Tomoya run into Sanae that evening. To the boys’ surprise, she offers to help and is willing to use a disguise to keep her identity hidden from Mei. Nagisa isn’t particularly happy about her mother doing this, but Sanae goes ahead and tries on a variety of outfits that night in preparation for the date. Sanae explains that she had been worried about Sunohara since the baseball game, and since she knows he’s a kind person at heart, she wants to help start him down a good path. Tomoya doesn’t object, but he does convince Sanae and Nagisa not to tell Akio about all this.

Sunohara is incredibly nervous during the rehearsal date, but Sanae gets him prepared, and it’s soon time for the actual date. Tomoya and Nagisa bring Mei to meet the girlfriend, and everyone is shocked when Sanae shows up dressed in a school uniform. Tomoya’s face even turns red. Mei, however, isn’t too happy to see her brother’s girlfriend.

Preview

That was probably the funniest episode of CLANNAD I’ve ever seen. After Sanae offered to be Sunohara’s girlfriend, I just couldn’t stop laughing – the the entire scene where she was rehearsing with him was comic gold. Unfortunately, next week looks a bit more serious. Then again, I probably shouldn’t say “unfortunately” since I’m curious to see what the the first serious parts of AFTER STORY will be. I thought they’d jump right into Tomoya and Nagisa stuff, but it looks like the Sunohara/Mei story could turn out to be interesting as well.

All the talk about Sunohara’s future reminds me of what happened with him in the Tomoyo chapter. Specifically this. Come to think of it, I see Tomoyo differently now that I’ve seen that episode. I keep thinking that she has some tinge of regret that she’s not with Tomoya, but maybe I’m just imagining things there. In contrast, it’s pretty clear that Nagisa is currently still very insecure about her relationship with Tomoya. I wonder if that insecurity will ever be eliminated or if it remains a part of their relationship.

61 Comments

  1. Is it just me or the animation quality of this episode is lower than the others? Girl from the dream doesn’t look so.. “dreamy” like it used to. And Sanae looks awkward at times.

    Anyway! Still curious about this ep, sounds like fun! More curious about next week’s, though. I want to see Mei’s arc~

    lhy
  2. Oh hooray, another Sunohara (Might as well be John Dore) has meltdowns and gets beat up sounding episode. I keep thinking I’ve finally seen the last of this desperately unfunny character, but apparently he’s popular enough to practically have the focus of the show more then he damn well deserves. If this really is a Sunohara Arc then I’m probably going to be skipping over it. I seriously just do not find his antics funny in the slightest.

    By the way, is it just me or does the character art look a little different this week.

  3. Awesome episode. Sunohara is one of my favorite characters of Clannad, its good to see he in action sometimes.

    For Omni or Divine
    You gonna blog TYTANIA? The 1st episode came out.

    Matheys
  4. Kaioshin: It’s just you. Only Nagisa had any change, since she put a clip on her bangs that exposed more of her forehead (and in the process made me think of Personal Color’s rendition of Koakuma from Touhou).

    Plus, this is more or less a modified version of Mei’s path in the CLANNAD game, one of the better side-paths in my opinion, since it fleshes out Sunohara’s character more than a little bit.

    Myssa Rei
  5. wahhhh!! sanae so kawaii!!! and 2 straight episodes for mei-chan!!! definitely the best comedic episode for clannad!

    offtopic:
    hey is there someone here know how many episodes kannagi have?

    Animeniac
  6. I’m just too afraid to like this series. Everything I read months ago said this was going to be a romantic trajedy. I guess no one knows for sure but I just hate sad endings. Looks like I have to see this episode.

    Irie
  7. Kaioshin: Oh, you meant Yukine. Come to think of it, her hair does look darker this time around.

    Irie: This is a KEY adaptations. People coming into their series pretty much EXPECT sad themes, expecially veterans of the games (like myself). Stay clear if you’re not the type who can’t take getting their proverbial heart ripped out emotionally; waterworks are NORMAL.

    Myssa Rei
  8. Myssa Rei: I actually had no idea what this series was when I marathoned the first season right before After Stories was due to come out. I just saw that Omni had it as guaranteed, so I wanted to see what was so good about the first season to make it worth a second one, but I didn’t want to spoil it for myself, so I just watched all of the episodes. Anyway, after the first six episodes I decided I was going to need a couple boxes of tissues if I wanted to be able to watch more. :p

    Man, I’ve never really liked Sunohara, he’s pretty much a typical slapstick comedy character that’s there purely to get beat up for our enjoyment, but even still, I felt kinda bad for him. I know Tomoya is just trying to help him not look like a total loser to his sister, but I’m not sure pretending that Sanae is Nagisa’s sister is the right way to do it. in b4 disaster~

  9. Nazarielle: A few of us ‘old hands’ joke that KEY games have this built-in ‘Cry! NOW!’ trigger in them, though thankfully this is toned down in their animated adaptations. Depending on how much of a tough guy or girl you are though, parts of After Story (in the game) WILL make you react emotionally. I never teared up in Fuuko’s route for example, but I did more than sniffle during the first run through After Story (Ushiooooooooooooooo!!).

    Again, the ‘Heart-SQUEEEEEZE!’ methaphor applies here in spades.

    Myssa Rei
  10. Forgot to mention anything about the episode…
    This is arc certainly central to the story, so it is pretty much filler, but very well done and entertaining filler material nonetheless. Greatly enjoyed the episode.

    Quen
  11. hahahaha you guys always expecting sad endings… unlike me i’m tough… i don’t cry… but, i don’t ate for 2 days straight after watching episode 9 of clannad season 1… but i don’t cry… depression lol!!!

    Animeniac
  12. Myssa Rei: Yeah, I made it through the entire first season and the first episode of After Story before reading any blogs or comments on it. That’s when I found out that Clannad was actually a video game. I’m almost scared now to read comments after finding out that the information on what happens in different arcs is already out there, as I’m trying to not spoil myself. But yeah, even in the anime, it seems like they have a lot of “This is when you cry” moments. I’ve never really watched an anime like this, so I’m actually enjoying it, even if it does really rip your heart out over and over again :p It was just really unexpected at first, the only other time I’ve cried as much was Episode 13 of Code Geass R2 :<

  13. every time Sunohara’s has substantial time in an episode. i always somehow end up on the floor laughing. he’s the most funniest character i’ve ever seen (consistence wise). but like someone wrote before me, i wonder if there gonna used the game ending, the movie ending, or an anime original. But since i’ve seen the movie ending already, im hoping for an anime original

    reggie
  14. “Lol figures. They’re not even related.

    Imouto-san was probably adopted. Rather cliched.

    Should’ve knew that they weren’t related by looking at their hair colour.”

    You’d be wrong then, they’re full blooded siblings and Sunohara dyes his hair to be that color. It’s not noticeable to the viewers since the Fujibayashi sisters have purple hair, Tomoya and Kotomi have dark blue, etc- but it visible to the cast as being not his real hair color. Fuko called him out and made fun of him about it back in season one actually, she said his hair color was unnatural.

    Me
  15. what’s that ?? is sunnohara getting jealous and vice versa mei ???

    they are sister and brother just as you mentioned, right? so is this a incest or what? wuah …disgusting…they should clean it quick, that’s so disgusting, if something like brother/sister complex developes

    tommykn
  16. Sanae-san tops the (my) saimoe list with the glasses, the uniform, the costumes, the err… ponytail/braided hair…. hmmm.. another week of restless waiting….

    —-omni that wasn’t just you imagining…. we all (KNOW)..err..hope Tomoyo will be the end girl…. Show Spoiler ▼

    cy-kun
  17. Hahaha, Sunohara actually looks pretty cool during the preview. Seems like they changed some hair… Nagisa had the clip… I’d say Mei and Sunohara’s hair looks better….
    Kyou moment was the best.

    linkthe2nd
  18. Sunohara is among the greatest butt monkeys ever… you can only laugh at his misfortunes… such as the possibility of her husband finding out (massive lulz ensures)

    He should have went with Kotomi (the sound I doubt would be as bad as Aiko maiming him)

    Duran
  19. Oneechan is too much WIN.

    I need to check her roles to see if the costumes she tries are on purpose (ex. teacher outfit for Mizuho in Onegai Teacher). If she says her trademark “I’m 17 years old” line while in cosplay, the universe might implode due to the reality-warping awesomeness.

    kazekaeru
  20. @OMNI: You’re not the only one who feels that Tomoyo may have a regretted not being with Tomoya. Since after after watching the episode, IMO it looks like she wasn’t accepting Nagisa till she was dating Tomoya, especially since it was weird that she never addressed her with her name at all from the prequel.

    X

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