Proving once again that animals are important in any Key-game (from the standpoint of not having played Little Busters, Tomoyo After, etc. ^^;)

WARNING: This review spoils some Visual Novel-only content that was omitted from the episodes.  The overall plot is the same, but there are certain minor plot points you might have wanted to see yourself.  You’ve been warned.

;_;

Definitely one of my favorite arc of the series so far, if not my favorite so far.  Though Shima’s true identity lacked the surprise that Makoto from Kanon did, I similarly find myself tearing up when it gets to that point in the story where you’re expecting him to disappear; and unlike Makoto’s fate (unless you count the real Makoto showing up), the ending isn’t entirely gloomy, with Shima reverting back to a cat and indeed spending the rest of his time together with Misae;  Tomoya’s little speech about Shima’s desires adds tears to this as well, which I felt was a nice touch.  Now, one could over-analyze things abit:  this does make things harder for Misae to ever try and move on to another person (a bit of info on this later),  since she’s realized by now that Shima is her cat.  I don’t think, however, believe it should be looked at that way, and instead should seen as  a beautiful little romance side-story set inside a bigger one.

…*fap fap fap*

As I said before, I’d be comparing and contrasting a bit for this arc:  as Tomoya pursuing Misae romantically, you end up spending time in Misae’s room a lot, hiding in her bed when the dorm members come asking for advice (they make it apparent to you that they have problems with you having good terms with Misae early on), and the mentioning of the good qualities Misae has are added with your confession, making her cry in the proces.  Shima, of course, and the minor characters like Saki, Yuki, and Igarashi are actually depicted in drawn form.  Also,  Igarashi was a bit more of an asshole:  originally, Igarashi sends Shima to talk to Misae about Igarashi having a relationship near the school, but instead of Misae seeing for herself, Igarashi actually calls out to the two, girlfriend in hand, asking if the two wanted to go on a double date with them.  From what I can tell, Shima, Yuki, and Saki actually take up Shima’s mother’s offer to take an incense stick and pray for the real (dead) Shima.  The biggest change is the setting when Misae states her wish:  as opposed to it being the Fall Festival, Misae instead talks to Shima after making preparations for the School Festival that happened waaaaay back when (same setting as Tomoyo Chapter), stating her wish the day before the festival starts;  she waits for him to show up the next day, but he doesn’t come in his human form.  The episode seemed to imply that Misae met him when she moved into the dormitory, whereas the cat kept meeting her and her friends at school until she decided to take him in.  Tomoya’s revelation to Misae is also a lot different:  after completing the Misae Route, which ends when Tomoya wakes up from the dream, you have to proceed down Tomoyo’s Route where you’re given a few options to help Misae find her cat, and the entire scene is played in an empty classroom as opposed to near some bushes and a tree.  At this point, you also get the light ball for completing Misae’s Route.

excuse me, did u ordur teh stuft crust?

Oh, and this guy didn’t have a girlfriend.  He had constipation.  Seriously.

Yoshino Yusuke still being a student, however, is a surprise.  Misae’s Route does not mention him at all when Shima is parading as a girl student, which now leaves me bamboozled on how old the guy really was, and that Clannad seems to be catering to the teacher-student lovers crowd.  Sure, it’s not Kodomo no Jikan, but it makes you wonder when Kouko’s relationship with him started.  Astonishing.

And to further Kanon connections, I think of this doll as Clannad’s version of a snow bunny.

The Illusionnary World is shown once again, with our mech-protagonist questioning the source of the lights that are constantly floating.  As implied at the end, the lights appear whenever happy events or memories come, or at least the blue-ish ones do.  The baseball game, however, focused on a yellow one near the end, so either that one didn’t count or maybe all lights don’t just represent happy memories or events.

PREVIEW

We’ll be diving into Yukine’s route next time, which I predict won’t take longer than 2 episodes; a lot of the content in the route requires romancing her, so I’m interested in seeing how they’ll get there when Tomoya is dating Nagisa.  Those certain plot points probably won’t come to fruition until the next episode after this upcoming one, but I’m still very curious:  there seems to be some sort of haunted or abandoned building involved as well, which wasn’t in the VN either, as well as a river being important as well.

Misae Route light GET!

And apologies if this turned out to be a big “But in the VN…” fest.  ^^;

-Jay