Clannad 20, Dreams and Sacrifice
March 7th, 2008 by Shirukii
;_;
So first off, I fail at plot prediction. Sorry to all those who suggested that Nagisa’s play might be a parallel to the alternate world scenes that we’ve seen throughout Clannad, seems like you guys were right, orz.
Anyways, my fears of Clannad taking a turn for the mundane with Kyou, Ryou and Tomoyo out of the love game seem completely unjustified now, I’m really liking the focus on family themes rather than romantic ones. Sure the eyecatching OH GOD KYOU IS HOT fanservice isn’t there anymore, but the current Clannad does a much better job at drawing me in to the story. It’s a pity that there’s not enough time to cover the entirety of Nagisa’s story to a satisfactory level.
Episode Rating: 9.5/10
Tomoya finds Nagisa doing some overtime drama club practice just outside her house and scolds her for going out all alone at such an hour, even if it’s just outside. That aside, he asks if she’s remembered the name of the play she wants to perform at the school festival has come to her yet. Nagisa can’t remember the name, but she does remember what it’s about, a very sad story of a world in which a girl lives, all alone.
The next morning Tomoya can’t shake the feeling that Nagisa’s story sounds somehow familiar, his thoughts are broken up by Sanae running out of the bakery in tears, her newly created rainbow bread getting a flat out rejection from a customer. Grabbing for clues, Tomoya asks Akio if he has any idea where Nagisa might be getting her story from, an old book perhaps, he has no idea and suggests asking Sanae. Also, he warns Tomoya that should he find something, that he should come to him before showing anything to Nagisa. Asking Sanae doesn’t lead anywhere either, given that she’s terrible with sad stories herself, it doesn’t seem like the type of story she’d pass on, she can’t think of any books they had like it either.
Giving the school’s collection a shot, Tomoya goes with Sunohara to speak to Yukine, who unfortunately can’t think of any books matching the story either. While they’re there, Sunohara asks Yukine for a love charm that will point out a girl that likes him, and what do you know, there is indeed one. Forming a heart with your hands (Negative Heart, LOCK ON!) and chanting “To love and be loved, to reject and be rejected” three times will reveal the girl that thinks of you, the first one who speaks to you after doing the charm. Yet, after going around the school five times, Sunohara isn’t approached by anyone.
Tomoya gives it a shot next and the first person he runs into is…Fuko? Acting on his gut instinct, he tells Fuko not to say a word, and run off to play dead. Narrowly avoiding that disaster, naturally it’s Nagisa who approaches Tomoya next to talk, telling him to come to the drama club. There, she elaborates a bit on the story of the world with the lone girl, who ended her solitude by making a doll made of junk.
After school, Nagisa and Tomoya keep searching for the book that might contain her mystery story. They head out to the shed in the backyard and start going through it, but end up finding nothing but a dango bag clip on before Akio shows up and shoos them away back to their rooms.
Realizing that if things go on the way they are, Tomoya and Nagisa will dig up something they never expected, Akio has a talk with Tomoya, telling him what’s hidden in the shed, his and Sanae’s past. About ten years ago when Nagisa was still young, Sanae and Akio were chasing their youthful dreams, spending countless hours working towards it, unfortunately this often meant leaving Nagisa home alone. One day Nagisa had come down with a terrible fever, but it was during a time where Sanae and Akio couldn’t afford to take time off. However, after coming back from his job, Akio found Nagisa passed out outside on a day where it was freezing cold and snowing.
Feeling like it was a warning given to them by God, Akio and Sanae vowed that they would never leave Nagisa’s side after that day, they quit their current jobs and opened up the bakery so they could always be at home with her. Nagisa is starting to recall what happened, but Akio is waiting for the right time to bring it up, so he asks Tomoya to keep it a secret from her for the time being.
A sudden change of atmosphere, Akio announces that the next day they will be going on a picnic together. However, when the time comes, Tomoya bails, feeling like he would be intruding on Nagisa and her parents, he heads over to Sunohara’s place to avoid them for the day. But Sunohara makes him realize that what he’s doing is counterproductive, that it will only make Nagisa, whose confidence is completely reliant on Tomoya’s presence, feel worse.
With that, he goes running back to the Furukawas, only to find that his note saying he’d skip the picnic was tossed out by Akio, who believed he’d come back. With their day cut shorter than they thought, the four of them head to a closer by park where they join in on a game of baseball with some kids from the neighborhood in which Akio not so subtely prods along the romantic development between his daughter and the freeloader Tomoya.
Thoughts
Oh how the mighty have fallen, between the Fujibayashi sisters, Tomoyo and Kotomi, they saw, what, maybe 10-15 seconds of combined screen time and zero spoken lines, if I recall correctly. I like the “new” Clannad and its focus on Nagisa and Tomoya’s family situation, but this level of pushing other characters to the background is rather extreme. I mean, at least in Kanon and AIR the other girls would show up occasionally for comedic relief or something, it’s hard to do the whole suspension of belief thing when girls that Tomoya would previously spend hours talking to, have completely fallen out of his life. Then again, I suppose it’s necessary for KyoAni to do this so they have some chance at cramming in all of Nagisa’s massive story into their remaining 3 episodes + epilogue.
One thing that I would have liked to have seen more explanation of is exactly how Tomoya came to love Nagisa over the other girls. I maintain that his interactions with Kyou were more along the lines of what would lead up to a romantic relationship. I get that Tomoya and Nagisa have a lot of shared dependence on each other, Nagisa being helped by Tomoya to achieve her dreams and Nagisa essentially giving him some sort of purpose in life. But there few key scenes where the two bonded as a couple, at some point they just started acting like one. Maybe it’s just my terrible memory that’s failing me here?
The flashback about Nagisa’s past was standard fare for drama animu, something that would come out of a b-grade drama or a soap opera, but despite that I think it fit pretty well. It didn’t have the BAAW factor of say…Misuzu’s “Goooooal” scene at the end or AIR, but it did a good job at explaining how the Furukawa family came to be so close, as we’ve seen with Tomoyo’s family, tragedy can bind even the most broken families together. But I suspect that tears will flow by the end of the series, knowing roughly how Nagisa’s arc ends up, I can tell there’s a lot of room for heavy drama.
I thought this scene was one of the best in the episode, Sunohara once again proves himself to be a great friend and nice guy in general. The guy gets used as a gag character a lot, but it’s scenes like these that give him a depth far beyond comedic relief. He’s something akin to a voice of reason for Tomoya, looking at things from a perspective that he’s unable to himself, Tomoya still isn’t fully at terms with his relationship with Nagisa and it leads him to make some bad decisions at crucial times, Sunohara sees the truth behind the relationship the two share and nudges them back together when they start drifting. It’s too bad his actions are go thankless and the poor guy sits at home all alone ;_;
And finally, Fuko cameo! Which I actually thought was pretty funny this episode, it served as a nice comedy cut between all the family drama that was going on and it fit in fairly well with the situation at hand. Plus, she didn’t actually say anything and they didn’t go through the whole introduction scene. Minimalistic, short and straight to the joke, THAT is how you use Fuko.
♪ Cause this is thriller! Thriller night! ♪
~ Shirukii ~
20 Responses to “Clannad 20, Dreams and Sacrifice”
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Fuuko as MJ: It might work.
Fuuko-samaaaa~
Poor Youhei…..so insightful, yet unable to get his own lovin.
“One thing that I would have liked to have seen more explanation of is exactly how Tomoya came to love Nagisa over the other girls. I maintain that his interactions with Kyou were more along the lines of what would lead up to a romantic relationship. I get that Tomoya and Nagisa have a lot of shared dependence on each other, Nagisa being helped by Tomoya to achieve her dreams and Nagisa essentially giving him some sort of purpose in life. But there few key scenes where the two bonded as a couple, at some point they just started acting like one. Maybe it’s just my terrible memory that’s failing me here?”
Well….they aren’t actually a couple yet. And the episodes that best show their relationship developing were early on with the theater club. Where each of them was helping the other out and there were subtle hints about future developments. Then on the Fuko arc they became like the parents, and especially in episode 9 when they called each other by first name and fell asleep together in the classroom, you could see the relationship going even further. In Kotomi’s arc she was there, helping him save his friend, with nods and winks thrown in for good measure. And then finally the basketball arc threw it into high gear as he played the game basically for her sake, and the final shot scene sealed the deal. And now we have this arc, where they start living together.
I think the reason why you may have difficulty is because of the nature of a galge adaptation. Nagisa’s arc in the game is continuous and not broken into by the other girls to this degree so it seems to flow better and make more sense. That being said I think there are key scenes along the way in the other arcs that at least gave me signals of how they are getting toward that end point of being together.
Having recently re-watched the Thriller video, Fuuko’s little cameo made me snort juice through my nose, and not in the happy starfish way.
I agree about Sunohara being awesome this episode
Fuko. Yes We Can! Drink the Fuko Kool Aid!
In any case, there will be a suprise TomoyaXFuko ending. This week’s cameo is proof positive.
BTW, “Best Choice” Fuko was the best Fuko cameo.
LOL @ the thriller reference :)……Comedy gold Shirukii :)
The pseudo-confession by Nagisa was sooo cute! No hesitation on her part…..Tomoya on the other hand :P…….I’m not sure why he hasn’t made the definitive move yet……
oh well, I guess it wouldn’t be a drama if he made things clear cut lol ;)
Aha! You all laughed. You all thought I was crazy (and maybe I am), but I knew that the “Final Starfish User” fantasy sequence in the earlier episode was related to the dream sequence. Tomoya described a world with a lonely girl, Nagisa became very interested. And now we have this episode where the Lonely Girl story had him vaguely recall that similar story. Sure it may still be irrelevant, but it’s MY irrelevancy :^)
LOL, finally. A Fuuko scene that is actually in the game, even if it’s actually based on Yukine’s route.
All I can say is: when will Tomoya make the move? And bring out the second session!
Show ▼
I say in about a week eBay will feature Nagisa’s potty chair…strange conversations I tell you. (Sprocket called it a bed-pan, and Eclipse a potty chair. Is there no difference in the word because they both technically have an identical purpose?)
@Solgae: I can only really say that the exclusion of those scenes was vital for keeping Tomoya our generic harem lead. Also, there would be no point to finishing the Kyou arc is she had found out there was a confession between the two earlier.
PS: I’ve seen my share of lame shirts, but does Tomoya’s picnic shirt just say “July”? http://animearimasu.animeblogger.net/image/Clannad/20ClannadTomoyaNagisa.jpg
PPS: I just noticed Clannad the Movie has been uploaded on several sites. I wonder who’s subbing it!
…*you* fail at plot predictions? I made sixteen guesses and wasn’t even in the same neighborhood as “close.”
Aww id date sunohara now, he’s an awesome guy!
@ Pyrrhusonline:
HAHAHA I never even noticed what was written on the shirt…..agreed on the lameness……..not quite as amusing as Yuichii’s sweater saying “LOST” in ep. 24 of Kanon
@ RmX: Except I cringe at the thought of Fuko singing.
@ Totali: Yea, sucks. But I think he does better with the girls in the VN/After stories.
@ Calawain: True, it’s the same way that Nayuki fans in Kanon thought they got shafted while in reality she got quite a bit of screentime. The fragmentation over 24 episodes creates the illusion of shallow development. Thinking back I do remember some scenes where Nagisa and Tomoya got closer, but with it so spread out, it paints a rather blurry picture.
@ Greggo: I once snorted scotch through my nose, a burningly painful experience. You lucked out with just juice =P
@ PQQ: I want to see the “Be mine forever, Sunohara” ending now, just for the lulz.
@ Roy Mustang: Best Choice Fuko cameo weirded me out, imagine some random girl popping up in your house offering you poisonous looking star shaped pastries. Creeeepy.
@ Kanon_fan82: I’m thinking it might be sort of an inferiority complex thing. Remember back when Kyou asked him about dating he said no one would want to date a delinquent like him, we constantly see Tomoya thinking that he’s imposing on Nagisa’s family. Perhaps he doesn’t think he’s good enough for Nagisa.
@ ItAintEazy: DO NOT WANT Fuko end. That fantasy was freaky too, Patrick lookalikes running around everywhere.
@ solgae: Man, I need to finish reading the VN. I haven’t touched it in months due to school and such.
@ Pyrrhusonline: Haha, eBay, maybe not. Yahoo auctions jp, probably.
As for the Clannad movie, I’d suggest waiting until after the series finishes to watch it, for those who don’t want to be spoiled. It covers a fair bit of the After Story.
@ W4: Yes, but recall that you went cross series with the majority of your predictions =P
@ Kay_Kay: I’d want him as my wingman, he provides great advice and simultaneously makes an idiot out of himself, thus making me look better =D
Argh I can’t let what you said go haha, Kyou and Tomoya don’t make a good pair imo x.x; Well I played the Kyou route and had a HUGE negative opinion of it. I knew people said it sucked but I though all the Kyou goodness would make up for it, boy was I in for an unpleasant surprise. I could go into detail about why Kyou’s route was bad to me but it would take up too many pages.
But back to the topic, I can’t see how you think Kyou and Tomoya’s interactions were the most likely ones to lead to romance. I mean in the game Kyou was basically either annoying the hell out of Tomoya dragging him around or threatening him with violence. Even in the anime if you compare the times Tomoya shared with Nagisa and his interactions with Kyou… Well mostly Kyou dragged him around or threatened him, or crashed into him with a bike and refused to apologize lol. Kyou is hot yeah, but I didn’t see Tomoya really enjoying the times he spent with Kyou as compared to with Nagisa. In the Kyou’s route I was wondering why the heck he was romantically attracted to Kyou in the first place. (Just because she cooked good Pork Culets? -_-;) Sure Kyou and Tomoya make fun of Sunohara together and seem to think on a similar wave-length, but that’s not enough for them to go all romantic about each other seeing as Tomoya is getting annoyed and dragged around by her half the time as well.
As for the other girls, Tomoyo imo would make a good match for Tomoya. TxT is second only to Nagisa for me. They share a lot of things in common but in the anime Tomoya and Tomoyo didn’t interact that much. Mostly it was just Tomoya following Sunohara, and by the time Tomoyo started getting less busy with elections and coming over to Tomoya’s house he was already thinking about Nagisa. In the game Nagisa is taken out of the picture and Tomoyo spends a lot more time with Tomoya.
For Fuuko it is pretty obvious that that pairing would be horrible. Even in the game I don’t like it at all it just feels wrong lol.
In Kotomi’s route Tomoya became attracted to Kotomi pretty early. But he didn’t fall in love with her in the anime probably since he already had Nagisa in mind and they both just thought of each other just as good friends.
Ryou and Tomoya barley talked in their 2nd year and now too, I have no clue why Ryou likes him in the first place even after playing the game. I think it has something to do with Ryou thinking Tomoya was kind of like her sister, but in the anime there’s no reason for Tomoya to like Ryou romantically.
I think in Clannad the characters are getting shafted a lot less then in AIR or Kanon where they pretty much disappear once their arc’s gone. I mean Kotomi’s still around playing with friends as opposed to say Makoto who died or Mai/Sayuri who went into the hospital until the end. Sure we’re getting less screen time from like Kyou and Tomoyo, but it makes sense. I mean Tomoyo is too busy to go wake Tomoya up everyday (The fact he’s staying over Nagisa’s doesn’t help either). Kyou/Ryou also have their own lives besides stalking Tomoya all the time anyway. Kotomi doesn’t need Tomoya’s constant attention anymore but she’s still in school doing her stuff. So since it’s Tomoya’s point of view and he’s spending all day in Nagisa’s house of course the other characters will have less screen time, at least they DO have screen time and haven’t disappeared lol.
If you noticed a little bit there is something wrong between Nagisa’s play and the mystery girl story which is shown in this episode. Nagisa’s story was end where the girl created the robot but we saw something more than that. How about Tomoya’s story which similar to Nagisa’s? Will he knows more than Nagisa did?
LOL @ “Lock On, Open Heart.” I think this technique only work when you are the main character.
@Totali: At least she did something more than just Starfish, LOL.
@PQQ: You just realize it in this episode? If you were to re-watched Clannad again, without Shunohara in Clannad it will be 30% less of enjoyable.
@ FlameStrike: I agree with all your points about Ryou, Fuko, Kotomi, Tomoyo (perfect waifu ;_;) and to an extent, Nagisa. But I still see the KyouXTomoya pair as a very fitting one. Their interaction with each other is mutual and the conversation flows naturally, there are few *blush blush* pauses, they are completely at ease with taking stabs at each other’s personalities and know that it’s all in good fun.
Even Tomoya subconsciously picked Kyou as the one most likely to understand his personality best, evidenced by the fact he chose to get locked up with her in the gym storage room. While she misunderstood it initially, afterwards they shrugged it off an walked away, exactly what Tomoya would have wanted.
Admittedly their genuine feelings never show through, making them seem like a comedy pair more than a couple.
I’ve played through about half of Kyou’s arc in the VN, it blows hard. I can’t believe they shafted Kyou so much in HER OWN ROUTE, yet she’s amazing in everyone else’s, boggles my mind.
@ Siva: I’m not going to make any more guesses on Nagisa’s play lol, I’m getting everything wrong ;_;
Blah, I still want Nagisa to die.
Needs moar Tomoyo. Oh, btw, the way you described Sunohara as a character with depth beyond comedic relief are the qualities the new Fuuko doesn’t have. She needs to die.
@Shirukii Hm I Kyou x Tomoya isn’t a bad pairing, but how much I thought Kyou’s route sucked and some of Kyou’s worse actions permanently put Kyou x Tomoya in third place in my eyes heh. Kyou used to be my favorite character but in the end Tomoyo had a commanding lead for being so full of awesome and then Nagisa because Nagisa x Tomoya also so awesome.
When Tomoya introduces Kyou in the VN he specifically mentions how she has a “Bad personality” haha. I just can’t accept Kyou x Tomoya as being better than Tomoyo x Tomoya or Nagisa x Tomoya for a bunch of reasons. Oh well to each his own. The ending of Kyou’s route was very nice though.
@Michael No u die first! XD Fuuko showed plenty of depth in her arc (Her random appearances still annoyed the hell out of me though), and Nagisa is moe and awesome. Nagisa family goodness is on par with more Tomoyo! (Ok maybe not to some people…)
I just though I’ll let you know all know that you can find the movie on youtube… and it has subtitles