「突然の出来事」 (Totsuzen no Dekigoto)
“Sudden Occurrence”

Episode at a Glance:
After getting praised by Yuusuke for his work as of late, Tomoya is surprised to learn that his boss would like to recommend him for a department head position in one of his old colleague’s company since they’re looking for a young individual. With the huge increase in pay, the decision weighs heavily on Tomoya who thought about sticking with his current job forever, but Yuusuke tells him to think about the future when he’ll have to support a family.

While purposely failing to mention that it’s about himself, Yuusuke tells Tomoya a story about a free-spirited teenager who did as he pleased and was into rock and roll. In his last year of high school, he met a girl (Kouko) who praised him about the lyrics in his love song. Despite being ridiculed by everyone except his teacher about going into music, Yuusuke asked Kouko to go out with him once he becomes a professional musician. Yuusuke only sung songs for himself while working towards his debut, but that soon changed when he came in contact with a lot of kids whose misfortune-filled lives were turned around by his music. With a new refined purpose to singing, Yuusuke found himself unable to write any music and his company put his career on a break. During the next six months, someone he met in show business committed a crime without Yuusuke’s music to calm him. Feeling responsible, Yuusuke made a comeback singing idealistic songs that he thought would help those who listened to his music; however, those songs weren’t well received because they ignored reality. Despite his continued drop in popularity, Yuusuke continued to sing those songs because he feared another incident happening more than anything else. Eventually, he fell out of the spotlight and succumbed to drugs. Returning home after the end of his career, Yuusuke ran into Kouko who asked him if he’s still singing. Recalling how she once told him that his dream will come true if he continues singing, he dropped to his knees in tears, having realized that he lost sight of how he started singing for her sake.

In his efforts not to lose sight of what’s important to him, Tomoya discusses his new job opportunity with Nagisa and decides to go for it. On the following day, Tomoya spends a day with Nagisa and her family in the park, and is excited about heading to the beach tomorrow for a barbecue. That same night, he gets a call from one of his father’s friends telling him that his father’s been arrested. As fate would have it, word of this spreads quickly and costs Tomoya his job opportunity. Feeling cursed by his father, Tomoya tries to convince Nagisa to leave the town with him, but she refuses to do so if it’s just running away from problems and not moving forward in life. The next day, the two of them pay a visit to Tomoya’s father in jail, who only listens on as Tomoya takes out his frustration. Unable to calm his rage after storming out, Tomoya punches a cement wall in tears while Nagisa tries her best to stop him. Out of the blue, Tomoya suggests to Nagisa that they get married. Much to his surprise, she quickly agrees.

 

Next Episode:
「卒業」 (Sotsugyou)
“Graduation”

Impressions:
Well that was unexpected. In what looked to be a fairly laid back episode, we got Yuusuke’s complete backstory as an artist, Tomoya’s father getting arrested, Tomoya losing his chance at a huge career opportunity, Tomoya asking Nagisa to marry him, and Nagisa accepting. Where did all that come from?

Unlike Omni, I’ve seen the CLANNAD movie sometime ago, so I’m aware of what’s (probably) coming up in AFTER STORY. However, when I first heard that this series is going to be 23 episodes long, I (like many people) wondered what they’d fill up such a long running series with. Seeing as the first good half of the series was spent on pre-graduation stuff, that pretty much answered that question. What I’m more interested in though is where things go from here, after graduation. To further develop Tomoya’s character, it was nice to see Yuusuke give him some perspective on life as he continues to tell him not to lose sight of what’s important to him. While we’re slowly getting “there”, I like how the story is focusing on Tomoya more since the movie simply glossed over a lot of this — particularly things with his father which weren’t resolved very well.

As for Yuusuke’s backstory itself, his aspirations in becoming a star, making it, finding a new purpose to singing, and finally losing everything because of an incident was reminiscent of the events in Tokyo Friends, which I recently watched. While I’m still unsatisfied by the ending the movie provided for that drama series, it’s still worth a watch for Otsuka Ai fans. (For those interested, please check out the Yumekui -Tokyo Friends ver.- PV). Given how the same story there “worked” for me, it was fairly easy to take in Yuusuke’s story despite how quickly they went through it all. Admittedly though, the guilt that he felt from indirectly causing someone to commit a crime was a bit hard to believe. In any case, the incident that caused Yuusuke to fall from stardom seems to heavily mirror how Tomoya’s father’s arrest cost Tomoya his huge job opportunity. On the same notion, Yuusuke realizing that Kouko is what really matters to him reflects Tomoya’s realization of how important Nagisa is to him, allowing him to take the next big step and ask her to marry him.

Next week looks like Sanae’s going to be the “family counselor” of sorts for Tomoya and his father, which will hopefully give us some closure between the two of them (or at least work towards one). The episode title “Graduation” still has me wondering if this is meant figuratively (e.g. Tomoya moving into adulthood) or Nagisa actually graduating from high school though.

-divine
…is really sick with a fever and a cough, but excited about Mats Sundin signing with the Vancouver Canucks today.
…is also looking forward to watching the series finales of Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka (no siscon please) and Yozakura Quartet today, so the post for CHAOS;HEAD 11 may be delayed.

43 Comments

  1. […]
    However, when I first heard that this series is going to be 23 episodes long, I (like many people) wondered what they’d fill up such a long running series with.[…]

    If I were you, I wouldn’t take the move as any kind of reference.

    … you know what? Scrap that. Taking the movie as reference is the equivalent of lowering your expectations. A lot. So you diminish the chances you will be disappointed in any form :p

    Proto
  2. Tomoya needs to learn some martial arts if he plans to keep on punching walls like that. Despite my age, I can still drive my fist through a cinder block. Ah, I forgot…if he did do any damage to the wall, he would be arrested like his dad. Kids, don’t become sarcastic like me when you get old, ppl will hate you 🙁

    Anyway, great episode as usual. This series is definitely in my top 5 for the year.

    Megas
  3. “The episode title “Graduation” still has me wondering if this is meant figuratively (e.g. Tomoya moving into adulthood) or Nagisa actually graduating from high school though.”

    In my opinion, there’s a high likelihood that the next episode’s title refers to Nagisa’s graduation.

    Oh, and there’s plenty of material left for them to cover. The After Story’s insanely long.

  4. Proto:
    Lowering my expectations sounds good then, since you seem to think it’ll end better than I’m expecting. =)

    :):
    I was thinking about doing so originally, but I don’t think I’ll have time since I’m covering for Omni this week. Being sick doesn’t help either. In fact, I think I’m going to pass out soon. -__-

  5. Episode 12

    Episode 12 was pretty dramatic. I didn’t cried but my eyes were teared up. Also noticed that they remade a bit scene “Tomoya punching wall” in promo that scene looked otherwise. And Yuusuke’s backstory was pretty damn dramatic too. Young Yuusuke resembles Tomoya.

    Overall for this really good episode 10/10

    SoldaT
  6. O.o it seems like they are skipping a lot of stuff or something? I’m not too sure but I recall Tomoya and Nagisa meeting up with Tomoya’s dad atleast once before and Tomoya introduced Nagisa. If you screw up the choices there you could get a bad end lol. It looks like they aren’t going to have Tomoya and Nagisa Cohabilitate untill marriage, but I’m looking forward to seeing once of my favorite scenes ever next ep.

    FlameStrike
  7. Been awhile i didn’t post here…

    I’m just gonna say one thing…or a few…or…hell, I’ll say it.

    “Our fathers sinned, and are not; And we have borne their iniquities.”
    -Lamentations 5:7, American Standard Version

    Jusuchin (Military Otaku)
  8. C’mon ppl, ain’t this show great enough. Its so deep & thoughtful that you can’t find anything wrong with it even if they are skipping some things. They can’t fit everything in there. If they did try to fit everything in there, it would completely ruin the mood and the pace of the show.

    That said…

    You really don’t need to post anything about Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka. It on the opposite end of hell when compared to this beautiful anime. I’m only impressed at how pissed off I am of that show (yeah, I’m actually pissed off at a anime for the 1st or ~2nd or 3rd~ time). I just ruined 4 hrs of my precious life. I’ll troll it worse than Hudson. Its plain dogshit.

    Megas
  9. Lol, I’m endlessly amused by all the idiots who keep bashing on Akane-Iro, when it’s their own fault for having too high expectations in the first place. That series was obviously never intended to be anything more than a decent series. I kept my expectations right where they were supposed to be for that type of series, and I enjoyed it quite well. 😛

    But that’s getting off topic.

    So yeah, Tomoya proposing to Nagisa in /this/ particular situation was out of left field. (pleasantly so, though) Though having seen the movie, it didn’t come as suprising, as unavoidable as it is.

    What interests me more is that this series is supposed to be 23 episodes like the first…but then there was the special TomoyaxTomoyo DVD episode. Could we be getting another special alternate route episode, maybe? 😀 It seems to be becoming a trend lately, what with an alternate Clannad route, an alternate Da Capo route, and an alternate Kimi ga Nozomu Eien route being animated as well.

    Utawarerumono is also getting an OVA too. (although that seems to bemore of an extra/special/filler type thing than an alternate route…../maybe/ 😀 )

    Shinji103
  10. Please do not post anything about akane-iro ni somaru saka. It made me mad, they ruined the whole anime wasting my time believing that the main character was going to stay with yuki. It just pissed me off. Anyways going back to clannad this was really a great episode and where tomoya asked nagasi to marry him was so sweet.

    freshies13
  11. Now that I saw the preview for the next episode, I’m not too sure anymore if the episode name refers to Nagisa’s graduation or not… xP

    One thing’s for sure though, there should be a really good scene in the next episode. :]

  12. freshies13: Hey I wanted Show Spoiler ▼

    , and I still enjoyed the series so stop complaining. 😛 And don’t be a jackass like Hudson and tell the guy what to or not to post. If you want to decide what does and does not go up on a blog, go make your own where you can be as self-bossy as you want.

    Shinji103
  13. Megas: Does it seem to you like they are doing a good job of covering afterstory to you?
    Cause it seems to me like they have been REALLY extensive.
    Now I am curious about when and how they will approach the akio and sanae routes.
    I dunno bout you but I had to go back after ushio route and do akios route before I could get the true end.

    Otherwise. I am deeply impressed with the progression of the series so far. Even enough to forgive kyoani for fillin a portion of the series with pre graduation.
    Though I am STILL confused as to why Nagisa hasn’t moved out with him yet.

    Dan
  14. Akane-iro was starting to get a little entertaining but then the claws from abyss of hell prevents it from just getting it’s hair out of the pit. DAMN!!! Good thing this episode was awesome. Totally the opposite of what I experienced from Akane-iro. D*MN!!!!! D*MN!!!! D*MN!!!! I’m going to claw out my throat on the corner. Please don’t disturb me.

    megalith
  15. I can’t stop thinking about the cute way Tomoyo proposed to Nagisa, out of the blue he just says “Let’s get married” hehe. It’s not even a question and then he gets surprised that she says yes ^^

    ConfusedGirl29
  16. I am actually enjoying this series at the moment, I felt the first installmant of Clannad lacked any kind of closure.

    The story seems to be going the same way as the movie, and I think I see how this is going to end, but still I am wanting to know what happened inbetween all the events of the movie, since 2 hours isnt really enough to fill all the gaps.

    Rizel
  17. Tomoya’s a calm, rational, kind man, but for goodness sakes, Bloke, grow some stronger fists! Emotions are part of his problem. He lets them get the best of them (if emotions had something to do with getting his right arm injured and distancing himself from Pops, this is understandable). I think no other girl is as pure as Nagisa though. 🙂 I’m so glad they’re finally engaged!

    starss

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