“KIMI DAKE WOOOOO…”

Totally different than what I was expecting. o_o

Again, there’s spoilers for the Visual Novel here, so if you want to be surprised (especially since the differences here are bigger than Misae’s arc was) when you play the VN, skip the third paragraph.

I have to say though, I didn’t entirely enjoy the arc very much, since it’s primary subject, regarding gangs, is one of my least favorite subjects to bring up. As Miyazawa herself stated, I don’t know why gangs have to fight with each other, and the arc hardly explains why Kazuto’s and the rival group do these things in the first place other than “They’re two groups in a small city, so they feel they must.” (though, they could have left that vacant to reflect a gangs nonsensical nature as well), with it being more nonsensical that “They’re all good people” or so we’re made to believe. I would also complain on how everyone in the story just somehow seems to accept this and go along with it, namely how Akio and Sanae apparently gave their regards to Sunohara’s plight.

Alas, I’m not here to preach that gangs are bad (neither is KyoAni and Key, come to think of it o_o), but I didn’t find the subject matter here to fit too well with Clannad’s “Family is important” theme other than Yukine’s relationship with her brother and how all these gang members have problems with their parents (Go figure -_-), though you could also go with the belief that gangs regard their other members as family, which ties into Tomoyo’s earlier belief of a family-like group. The story doesn’t seem to meet the expectations I had for it either, because despite Yukine being a minor character, Misae’s story had me a bit convinced that it would at least be a bit better than what I was expecting; instead, it’s just different.

Mary Sue of the year? ^^;

I can understand, though, how this turned out to be somewhat more focused on Kazuto and his gang due to how Yukine’s Route originally goes in the Visual Novel: Yu (the kid) does hang around at school with Tomoya, Sunohara, and Yukine for a while, but we’re never introduced to his sister or the rest of Kazuto’s gang and their hideout for that matter; instead, Yu’s mother comes and reprimends the former 3 for allowing Yu to skip his school in order to hang out with them, though Yukine somewhat successfully sorts it out, and he’s scene later in the game as well. The “charm” with Yukine using Tomoya’s lap as a pillow is put into play several times, after the second time being where you can choose to fall for Yukine by telling her that no matter how hard she works that she can always use you (Tomoya) to lean on when things become too tiresome. Eventually, the anniversary of Kazuto’s death arrives, which leads me to believe that he was dead a lot shorter in the anime than the VN, and Yukine indirectly invites you to it; one of Kazuto’s gang members, most likely the one with the white/gray highlights, also breaks the news to you about Kazuto being dead a day before. After that, the endings are about the same, with a few exceptions that I won’t spoil any further. ^^;

Also, Tomoyo wasn’t involved. Thus, I appreciated this arc more when she returned to kick ass again, if only for a moment.

Speaking of kick ass, Tomoyo had his kicked a lot this time around. The fight was pretty awesome, but is it me, or was Tomoya all of a sudden made to look weak in this episode? That, or gang members are made to look a lot stronger and fight like K’ from King of Fighters? Hmm…

And finally some development (sorta) towards main plot of After Story: as stated before, the orb of light comes down once again, this time with Tomoya witnessing it, and Yukine giving some backstory into it as well. Also, surprisingly, I didn’t realize that Misae’s situation was very similar until Nagisa stated it, once again reinforcing my belief that Misae’s Route was excellent. It looks like we’ll finally be heading towards that route now as well…

PREVIEW

Tomoya and Nagisa fighting? What exactly could’ve happened in order for Nagisa, who wouldn’t even get jealous over a lap pillow with another women, to become upset?  Jikai…

 Ahaha, Kanon~

 Did you know?  Minaguchi Yuko, who voiced Minase Akiko in Kanon, also does Ibuki Koko here?  ^o^

-Jay

EDIT: Should’ve proofread this.  Thanks nutcas23 for pointing out that my picture was wrong.  ^^;;