CLANNAD / First Impressions

Summary:

With Nagisa now two months pregnant and Tomoya vowing to protect the child, Sanae is reminded of how Akio had said something similar a long time ago. Tomoya knows that he’ll have to work to support a family of three now, and he wonders if his own father thought about this stuff before he was born. As the days pass, Nagisa becomes bed-ridden with morning sickness, and Tomoya does his best to take care of her. When she starts feeling better, she brings up the topic of giving birth at home instead of at the hospital, and although Tomoya is unsure about it, he wants to go along with her wishes. Sanae introduces the couple to a midwife named Yagi, and they all worry about Nagisa’s weak body, but Nagisa tells Tomoya privately that even if something goes wrong, she wants to give birth to this baby. Nevertheless, things seem to be going well, and the entire family even sings the dango song to the unborn baby at one point. One night, however, Tomoya returns home to find Nagisa sick again after having collapsed earlier, and she hadn’t called him because she didn’t want to bother him at work. She doesn’t want him to worry and is confident that they can make it through this together, with him protecting her, but Tomoya can’t help but worry more and more.

One day after work, Tomoya runs into Sanae, and the two go to a family restaurant to chat. Sanae reveals that the doctors told her that there’d be some risk to Nagisa during the birth, and they worry about the worst case scenario since Nagisa is prone to get sick. In such a case, Tomoya wonders if they should give up on having the child, and even though Sanae can’t answer that for him, she advises that if that’s what they’re going to do, then it’s better to do it sooner rather than later. Upon hearing about all this, Nagisa still insists that she wants to give birth, but for the sake of a safe delivery, she’s willing not to do it at home. Tomoya knows that Nagisa is anxious about this even though she doesn’t show it, and when he discusses all this with Akio again, Akio decides to take Tomoya to the secret playground that he always runs off to. It is actually currently a construction site for a new hospital, but the area holds special significance to Akio. Back when Nagisa was deathly ill as a child, he had run out here with her in his arms and had prayed for her to be saved. As the sun rose, Akio felt that the greenery wrapped around Nagisa, and she soon woke up.

Ever since that time, Akio has been coming to this place, and he thinks of it as like Nagisa’s other self. He now tells Tomoya that it’s impossible to always get a wish granted by praying, but if he gives it his all with his own power until the end, then the result won’t be that bad. Still, Akio notes that he can’t decide for Tomoya and Nagisa whether or not they should have the baby, and the person who should make that decision is the one who suffers the most. Addressing Tomoya by his name for once, Akio warns that there’s a lot of pain and sadness in the future, but he’s confident they can overcome it together as a family. Afterward, Tomoya and Nagisa go for a walk by the river, and Nagisa can feel the baby moving inside of her. She proposes thinking of a name, and the two settle on Ushio which would suit either a girl or a boy. Since the meaning of the name revolves around the rising and falling tide, they start talking about the ocean and how they weren’t able to visit the beach over the past summer. Nagisa admits to having wanted to go see the ocean with him, so Tomoya decides that they should promise to go next year with Ushio, and Nagisa eventually agrees.

Preview

I got a very bad feeling about the way this episode ended. The whole promise thing feels like something that’ll either be a final happy scene of the series (which is unlikely given how many more episodes there are), or something that will be broken and be the source of a lot of sadness because Nagisa or Ushio or even Tomoya won’t make it to that point. That along with Nagisa’s insistence on having the baby plus her history of being sick every year makes me think that bad things are coming. Having said that though, I’m sure that there’s a lesson to be learned in Akio’s story about Nagisa’s past. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tomoya has to pray for a miracle similar to that, and perhaps related to that is the legend of the wish-granting orbs of light that seems to keep popping up. For the time being though, it appears that the birth is coming next week, and it doesn’t look pleasant. Here’s to hoping Nagisa will be okay.

On a different note, I found it rather coincidental that this episode implied the option of abortion while airing on the same day as the anniversary of the landmark U.S. abortion court case Roe v. Wade. I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, but it makes for an interesting bit of trivia.

61 Comments

  3. Animation is a bit off during this episode… There’s a quite a bit of foreshadowing throughout the entire episode, as well as the preview.

    I wonder how they will end the series, as well. Will they go with the bittersweet/tragic ending, or go for the good end? Eh, most likely will be the good end, but I don’t want to jinx anything…

    Overall, a pretty seriously toned episode.

    Phocus
    Reply

  10. wait didn’t she die in the movie so… she’s going to live the TV series then?
    well if you kill nagisa off i don’t think there will be that much of a plot left.
    PLEASE DONT KILL HER OFF!!!!!!
    I WANT TO SEE MORE DANGOS!!!!!

    Gundam 00
    Reply

  12. well.. how bout this ending for a thought…–> Nagisa gives birth to a healthy baby but due to her weak body she cant recover and is going to die so tomoyo brings nagisa to see the ocean with him and nagisa dies there!!! juz a though.. dun throw a 100pound tnt bomb on me.. >.<

    padfoot135
    Reply

  16. just add 1+1 and u know she DIES, but there are those mysterious light orbs ! (watch episode 8 if u havent played the game). They going to do 48 Episodes so u can be damn sure it will have a happy Ending they wouldnt bother with those Light Orbs and stuff if they just going to do the very bad Ending 😀

    cheers
    Reply

  19. What can I say. This was perfect Kyoani. With the last two scenes, for the first time they managed to produce an episode that is better than the corresponding part in the game.

    If they can keep this storytelling quality through the Ushio’s arc we will have a truly memorable anime.

    Steelman
    Reply

  24. I wish I hadn’t seen the movie, even worst, I wish I hadn’t read spoilers about the game on wikipedia (just after watching the movie lol).
    Air tv was hard to take, but now Clannad !? 🙂

    Archadias
    Reply

  27. “That along with Nagisa’s insistence on having the baby plus her history of being sick every year makes me think that bad things are coming.”
    You doesn’t seem to know the game – but that much I give you: You are pretty close to the truth~

    mutio
    Reply

  28. @Sad People
    Show Spoiler ▼

    So heads up, also I wouldn’t compare everything too much tot he movie~

    mutio
    Reply

  29. -spoiler-

    well seeing as how many episodes there still are im guessing that it’ll prob follow the visual novel, where it does go very depressing. The scenes in this episode was very nice though

    flixt
    Reply

  30. @Avy
    I think… there’s no way he’ll end up with another girl at this point, this is Nagisa´s route..If kyoani do something like that clannad will be something like.. kiminozo, maybe…
    and I’ll be sad T_T

    perv
    Reply

  31. So wait a minute…yall ppl who are talking about the silly spoilers KNOW NOTHING about Nagisa dying. Hell, she already died anyway if you’re actually following this junk. Geez, I wish they would do the ‘perfect’ bag ending with Show Spoiler ▼

    How is that for a spoiler…but I bet most of yall knew about that one anyway 😛

    Why can’t yall “harden” yourselves to this stuff. Life is about the 3 B’s: birth, bitching, & buying it. The way Key loves to make the subject into such a glorified process is just phenomenal…& yet I love anime which put life on a high wire.

    Megas
    Reply

  44. Nothing surprising in this espisode again -_- very predictable, it seemas thar KyoAni is trying to surprise us with Nagisa life/health/die …whatever. Remember my words “Nagisa don’t will die”.

    Haseo
    Reply

  45. People who’ve only seen the movie shouldn’t make any predictions and assumptions beforehand. Toei butchered the AIR movie, and they butchered Clannad’s movie as well. As a few alluded to in the previous comments, the orbs Okazaki has been collecting WILL HAVE A MEANING, not to mention all the legends and hints dropped throughout the series about orbs and wishes. So stop going WTF OMG when the only source of that assumption is watching a second-rate movie made by Toei. Go play the game if you want to get truly spoilered.

    jblah
    Reply

  49. The movie was BS. It only covered what it wanted & stopped halfway.

    Tomoya & Ushio got back together while she was still young, but she reminded him of Nagisa too much to the point that he ran away from her again (what a male bitch). Then they accidentally run into each other when Ushio turns teen & she convinces him to start the family thing again. But she then develop the same GD mess as Nagisa & dies, then Tomoya goes crazy & dies. THE END!

    …That would have taken another hour to animate at the most. I nearly busted up laughing at the end of the game because of the pure coldness of that ending. They tried to make it seem like a punishment for not finishing the game arcs. Bah, who in the hell gonna spend all that time on those pointless boring arcs. I had my cat finish them for me while I caught up on my beauty sleep 😛

    Megas
    Reply

  50. I kinda have an idea of the ending…and its not an happy ending…well, this is my thot, its just something that has been poping up in my head while watching Nagisa suffers…TwT”, anyways here some spoiler…i hope i did the spoiler thing correctly
    Show Spoiler ▼

    YohJay
    Reply

  53. Ugh, Kaisos, do you really think they’ll take that route in the anime. Its been fine until now but if they do that It’ll be like a silly reset – But they do have that the kind of time to do that since these last few episodes have been running along compared to the first 10.

    I really don’t care if they do that or not but I’m sure they’ll cause many folks to stop watching in the process. However, I’ll welcome such a ending with open arms, since they’re staying true to the game & all. Why should they stop now just because a few fans will get “upset”. They never cared about “upsetting” ppl before.

    BTW, I actually love all main deaths, alternate universes, resets, mindfucks, etc…Deus Ex Machina is great in all forms. Atleast it won’t be boring.

    Megas
    Reply

  57. Spoiler alert ahead:
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Good episode. And looks like the next episode will set up for the events about to happen.

    Dan
    Reply

  58. @ both of you.
    1) clannad is slice of life with bits of supernatural so it will be entirely plausible for a go back to happen and possibly will happen in this series.
    2. I got freaking annoyed by having to play through all the extra routes but laughed my head off at the crappy manga/all the storeroom variations.

    3. I would laugh wholeheartedly if they took that way out megas but something tells me they will remain uber true to the story which means we will get to see tomoyas Gram-ma ma (don’t ask)
    Also, if anyone hasnt been connecting the two worlds up to this point then /wrists

    Dan
    Reply

  59. One of the great things of this series, and about CLANNAD as a story, is that… only the determination of Tomoya will bring a good or not so good outcome. So, spoiling would be worthless in this kind of situation. I wonder how will it end…

    Xanathos
    Reply

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