CLANNAD / First Impressions

Summary:

Back when Nagisa was starting her third year of high school, she found that she wasn’t in the same class as any of her old friends. At the time, she had bumped into Tomoya, but neither of them knew each other yet. Tomoya and Sunohara were still second-years, and they still got into trouble all the time. After failing to escape from class and getting caught, they were forced to help put together a banner welcoming new students with Kyou watching over them. She didn’t know them very well and refused to tell them her name until after Tomoya saved her from some falling boards. Nagisa meanwhile had a hard time making new friends, and although she considered taking some of her father’s advice, she couldn’t bring herself to embarrass herself like he suggested. After school one day, she ran into one of her old friends, and the girl convinced her to go shopping with another girl. The two played a trick on Nagisa while she was trying on clothes by making her think that a teacher was coming, but they apologized afterward. Despite these friends though, Nagisa was still alone in her own class. Even when some girls started talking about the dango character, she didn’t get a chance to chime in.

Around that same time, Kyou had found Tomoya sleeping outside, and she noticed that he wasn’t bad looking and wondered if he had a girlfriend. She had been caught looking at him by Sunohara, but she had punched Sunohara before he could say anything to Tomoya. That night, Ryou’s fortune telling had predicted that Kyou would get confessed to the next day, and unbeknownst to them, Sunohara was crafting a letter to give that very impression. Sunohara’s intent, however, was to lead Kyou on a wild goose chase for his own amusement. He was successful to a point, but Kyou eventually caught him and Tomoya and beat them up. With that over, Sunohara’s next prank was to try to trick a new student into pulling on a string to open a ball normally used to drop a banner. Sunohara had wanted to leave a stupid message on the banner, but Tomoya wrote something else instead. No one was foolish enough to pull on the string until Nagisa walked by, and pulling the string caused a pan to fall on her head, knocking her out. Nagisa ended up being taken to the school infirmary and watched over by one of her classmates. This was a girl who had wanted to talk with Nagisa for a while now, and after Nagisa woke up, the two became friends.

At home, Nagisa told her parents about her new friend, and she attributes it all to the prank. She had kept the banner that had gone with it, and on that banner, Tomoya had written a message encouraging her to do her best and not lose to the hardships to come. Although she didn’t know that it was him, Nagisa had been grateful.

Preview

The preview last week made me think that this would be a Nagisa focused episode, and while it was sort of that, I think Kyou and to a lesser extent Sunohara were the ones who shined the most this week. As always, Sunohara was the source of a ton of laughs (Akio too), especially the European extreme ironing part, though I thought Kyou simply stole the show with how she acted. Maybe it’s because the first series never did a significant amount of focusing on Kyou or Ryou, and this felt like them making up for it a little. It certainly makes me wish their story had been animated.

It was also nice seeing that there was a connection between Tomoya and Nagisa even before they really met and that Tomoya had helped her make a friend. On a more general note, I think having a lighthearted episode like this after all the heavy emotional stuff in recent weeks was a pretty good way to ease us out of the show. I was hoping though that there’d be a commercial after this episode, like there was last year and the year before, for a new Kyoto Animation and Key series, but instead there was a preview for a recap episode next week. It made me curious how they plan to tell all this story in just half an hour, and regardless, I’ll probably still watch it to see if there’s a commercial after it for a new series.

 

Final Thoughts: It felt like AFTER STORY was a little slow to get started since they spent a number of episode focusing on the side characters, but once things got going, it really got good. If there’s one thing the Kyoto Animation/Key team knows how to do, it’s evoke emotion, and they really showed that in recent weeks and months. Now at the end of the first series, I noted that it was pretty good, but nothing too special, however I think AFTER STORY really brought everything together and made it a great ride. The entire forty-something episode show is well worth watching, and at this point – regardless of how a certain tiger/dragon series ends – AFTER STORY has my vote for best romance/drama series of the year.

45 Comments

  3. “AFTER STORY has my vote for best romance/drama series of the year”
    Man I knew you would say this, but I think that there are some decent romance/drama series coming soon.

    “I’ll probably still watch it to see if there’s a commercial after it for a new series”
    Well after K-on whats going to be the next show after this? Little Busters? Or maybe more Haruhi?

    shh227
    Reply

  8. After Story is definitely a good bit better than Clannad which I dropped after just 5 episodes. It may sound a bit unfair, as it’s definetely difficult to put that much story like Clannad provides into a good series – however I still couldn’t get myself to like it. After Story started as Omni points out too slow, but then got interesting as they proceeded to the main story of Nagisa from the game.

    All in all I’d rather recommend After Story to my friends + the extra episodes and the 1st Clannad series as kind of extra if they want to know the prestory of Nagisa and more about the other characters. At this point I feel, that it’d have been maybe better to just start out with Nagisa immediately and to make like 3-4 episode OVAs for the other characters.

    As it’s now, it’s still ok though and if someone really likes Clannad the show can be worth watching. To me however there’s just too much lack of the other characters – add to that, that Tomoyo is my favourite character and Nagisa ranks on no.4 on my list~

    As for the episode next week: WTF?! We don’t need another recap episode. Where’s the whole sense in them anyways? Sounds like another reason to me, to suck out the money of the fans’ pockets. Not cool Kyoto Animation+Key, not cool..

    Now I wonder what Kyoto Animation will announce as next project. When it’s for KEY games, only Planetarian comes to my mind which I wouldn’t watch, as it’s a kinetic novel and has a linear story. The newest title from KEY then is far from being completed.

    So after Kanon, Clannand and the After Story what’s left is Tomoyo After and Little Busters.

    “Now let’s hope KyoAni will do Little Busters next…”
    I could bet, that they’re going to animate Little Buster – however it’s another emo story and to be honest I can’t see those emo series anymore. Having a good bit of drama here and then isn’t wrong. However by gods sake, it’s time for something new. Always animating already existent stories like all the KEY games isn’t original at all as being always in the same series. I’m missing original series like Lucky Star there.
    As for KEY, I really hope, that there next project will be something new. KEY definitely defined the genre of drama visual novels, however recently their games got just boring. Their titles are always structured the same way – being original is something else..

    mutio
    Reply

  10. Would it be too much to ask to animate a Kyou arc? It’s not even that long D8 I mean they managed to cut Tomoyo’s into one episode, they could totally do Kyou some more credit ;A; But I guess i can be remotely satisfied with the amount of Kyou in this episode ;/

    Ragna
    Reply

  13. I so agree. It’s the best romance/drama I’ve ever seen, even outside of anime. Ok, I haven’t seen that much romance/drama, but from those that I’ve seen it’s definitely the best. 🙂

    FrostDMC
    Reply

  14. This was a fantastic series (I still think Toradora is probably the best Romance anime of the year as it is a true romance story). Afterstory is just a great overall anime. It was probably my favorite of this past season and I would love to see another series with these characters.

    Maybe focus on what happens to another character like Kitomi (did they ever really finish explaining what happened to her parents and that alternate reality theme?). Or what happens to her in AMerica? Maybe even a series about Fuuko (sp) and what happens to her after she awakens from her coma. Does she get a boyfriend and find happiness? There are still alot of stories that could be told.

    Splash
    Reply

  15. Christ, I totally didn’t expect them to make an episode based on the Clannad Another Story series.
    Now I just have to wait for them to make a Tomoyo After series (Although I’d prefer a Kyou After series!)

    Zorbon
    Reply

  16. Poor Kyou… joke confessions are really painful when you find out.

    This episode really was a nice touch at the end… and I can see how it wouldn’t really have fit in anywhere else.

    cbhl
    Reply

  17. wait, this episode is made up from kyoani, right?
    but it plays one year before tomoya meets with nagisa, right?

    now they could take a new route, maybe kyou’s route! ^^

    what i don’t get, in the preview they should the boy Ryou ends with, the one with the cancer, why?

    tomtom
    Reply

  18. @Omni: is that the last episode of clannad after story, the recap episode? If so, then that blows! Everyone, or at least the majority people dont really find the recap usefull, I for once, thinks its just a waste time, especially if they include it in the series run.

    I as a kyou fan want an ova for the kyou arc, I mean come on! its kinda unfair that all heroines got an arc, or at least an ova, but kyou gets none. This episode’s highlight was kyou, but still primary focus was Nagisa, why do u keep teasing us kyou fans like this KyoAni?

    X
    Reply

  20. LoL. It was quite suspensive whether the pan was going to hit her.

    I was like: It is going to hit her, Not it is not, Yes it is, No it is Not, Ouch
    And it was funny specially how they animated her fall and the sound effect (specially here 2 strands of hair which showed a waving motion XD)

    banzemanga
    Reply

  22. by the way, this episode and, from the looks of it, the episodes to come, are based off of the second set of clannad “drama albums” released after the game. They are audio expansions to the story and tell something about the history of very nearly every character. just some trivia 🙂

    saxdemigod
    Reply

  24. I totally agree! Best romance/Drama of the year! But i feel kinda sad now since I’ve been watching clannad for a long time XD And now its gone, its like saying good bye to a bunch of good friends D:

    Gundamaniac
    Reply

  25. I’m not quite sure I favor After Story over the first season (though my only real complaint after the end of Season 1 was the lack of Fu-chan returning, and the end of After Story’s last episode…well, there you go), but it’s really got so emotionally stunning, at the end. I didn’t like the way it started out, with the completely irrelevant and, in my opinion, not up to CLANNAD’s usual standards-character arcs.

    It became everything I hoped it’d be and more, though, in the end. Though I’m not sure how I feel about how everything was resolved, in the end…

    And, yeah – definitely hoping for Little Busters! next.

    Story
    Reply

  28. Mmmmmeh, nice episode, sure…….BUT I would have preferred a Kyou Route episode ala Tomoyo Special Chapter from season 1, OR a followup episode to Tomoyo Special Chapter itself. At the very least, they could’ve (and I really think they should have) done that for next week’s episode, intead of a mere recap episode. 🙁

    Shinji103
    Reply

  34. Clannad was good but I can never get into it with nagisa as the leading female. It would have been epic if kyou was the lading female, although I would not have wanted her to die. Anyways, nagisa FTML.

    8ghosts
    Reply

  36. I disagree with 8ghosts. Its because Nagisa was… well Nagisa that her and Tomoya got together in the first place. Kyou with him would have been a series about her brow beating him and him getting PWed. Originally when the first series was airing I was hoping he and Kotomi would be the couple but he ended up with Nagisa and now with Afterstory I see why she was the better choice. Clannad and Afterstory are pretty much perfect just the way they are.

    Splash
    Reply

  37. The ride was fun ever since back in the first episode. Im sad its over but it was just grand while it lasted. Thanks for bloggin the show omni! I enjoyed heading over here to read impressions and comments after each episode.

    Exia
    Reply

  39. A very good lighthearted episode…also enjoyed seeing the little stuff, like seeing Kotomi-chan also looking at the class lists and seeing Yukine among the 1st years.

    *Sigh*…gonna’ miss the casts…

    Apathy
    Reply

  40. Wow, i’m lucky. I started watching Clannad series one about four days ago and finished After Story today (that’s roughly 6 hours of anima a day… I miss sleep). I didn’t even realize that After Story was still being screened until I noticed the date on wikipedia’s episode guide (while searching for any extras, go figure.) Anyway perhaps because it was still fresh in my mind but the ending made perfect sense to me. Clannad had been building up to that point for its entire dam 40 something episodes (dango dango dango dan*smashes head against the wall*go). Even without the orbs you could tell something like this would happen. After Nagisa dies the most obvious end for the series would have been for Tomoya to find meaning in life through Ushio. But that REALLY wouldn’t fit the story (if you disagree then go watch it again. If you still disagree go look up the visual novel. If you still disagree then you’re wrong. Live with it).

    Anyway onto this episode. I’m not going to comment on the actual episode but I will say this. It may technically be a prequel but don’t EVER let someone watch this episode before first seeing the first episode of Clannad. It is a brilliant opening to Clannad. Seeing this episode before hand would taint the experience.

    And they had better be something in the next episode, even if it is just a clip show. There is just to much left unsaid (especially with Fuuko)… Actually why would they even make a summery episode of Clannad. It seems rather pointless.

    Laca
    Reply

  41. IT is unfair to say that Clannad was bad! I dun understand why you would think it is borig.ITs really funny and sometimes emotional. I think you just didn’t get through the slow part of it, that’s all. Go home and watch it and I am positive that you would like it.

    Dango
    Reply

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