I thought more note-worthy was how much parts of this episode looked like Lucky Star.

The fifth cap in particular – Tomoya looks like he’s been possessed by Konata.

Quick search in Wikipedia revealed that this episode’s animation director, Horiguchi Yukiko (堀口悠紀子), also acted in the roles of chief animation director and character designer for Lucky Star. It’s pretty interesting to note how the episode animation director can influence the looks of a show in such small ways. Now I know some of the things that an animation director can bring to the table.

I really liked the art and animation in Lucky Star (particularly the OVA), and I like what Horiguchi did with this episode. Whether it is some kind of signature style for her or not I’m not sure, I never noticed it in any of her previous works (she is also the animation director for Haruhi episode 5 and Kanon 2006 episode 6 and 12, amongst others). Either way, I will be keeping an eye out for any involvement by her in the future!

Where the hell have I been? Stuck in a hotel with no internet for over a week! No excuses, I know, so I’ll get right to it. I did some thinking while away, and I have decided to give something a try. Rather than keep on with the episodic style I have been employing for my coverage of Clannad, I think that my writing style would be better served by focusing on the arcs as a whole; I often find myself wondering how to analyze the middle of a story beyond simple predictions. Though those can be fun, I much prefer looking at how the characters change over a little bit of time, even if it’s only 3 episodes.

I kind of started this with my last post, where I talked more about Youhei’s attitude in general than about the episode specifically. So, starting now, let’s talk about the last arc!

To be honest, I was underwhelmed by the conclusion of this arc. I felt that, despite Youhei’s triumphant return as the big brother hero, nothing about his attitude or demeanor actually changed. How was Mei able to return home? I though that she was determined to stick around until confident that Youhei was doing alright. The little show he gave when the soccer team was harassing Mei was nice, but showed only that he thought that he could trust Tomoya. Heartwarming, yes, that he trusted his friend so much, but completely separate from any emotional evolution on Youhei’s personal plane.

I’m not sure if KyoAni is purposefully using the “renewed friendship” device to obfuscate the fact that they had no real conclusion to this arc, but that ended up being how I felt about it. I admit, I did have a little tear in my eye at the end when Tomoya and Youhei started laughing at each other, just like old times. But when the ED came on and I realized the arc was truly through, I felt robbed of the closure I needed. I want the “after story” to start as much as anyone, but I need to feel good about every one else’s futures before I let them go. At the very least, I want to be sure about their future, even if it’s bad or contrary to what I would have wanted for them.

This is my problem with the latest arc: I have no clue what Youhei will do now. He has not changed – not even a little – and I am worried about his future. Will he give up? Lay down and become the bum everyone thinks he will be? At the very end of episode 4, Tomoya plays a little joke on Akio at Youhei’s expense, meaning that Youhei was still unaware that Sanae was not, in fact, interested in him. I’m sure that after all the talk of marrying into the same family as Tomoya, Youhei would be heartbroken that his new plans – ill conceived as they were – have shattered so soon. He never got a chance to think about what he truly would become, and it seems to me that now he has just as little incentive as ever. I know that this show has turned a bit to comedy recently, but at its heart it’s still a drama show, and I demand serious attention given to dramatic aspects!

So who is the victim here? It’s Mei, of course! It’s not just that I wanted closure about Youhei’s future for my own personal enjoyment, but Mei is as much a part of this show as anyone else, and I don’t think that she can be truly happy with the way things ended up. How can we be expected to let her just go back to her life without any change at all in her brother? I know I’m dwelling, but this is the most glaring omission I’ve encountered in Clannad – the complete lack of acceptable resolution to a major arc.

Allowing that Mei is gone now, there is still the business of Youhei’s future. Let’s assume that he gets over being played by Sanae. Let’s also assume that he and Tomoya have patched things up for good. What now? He said it himself, there is only 6 months left in the school year – and he has no idea what he will do. His personality has not matured enough to handle reality, and in all probability Tomoya is going to be too busy with his life with Nagisa to deal with him later. This goes back to Youhei’s lack of goals: the brief moment where he talked about his future life with Sanae remains the only time in the show that he has professed an interest in the future.

So what do I need to be happy? At the very least, I am going to require an “Animal House” style montage before progressing on to the after story part, but even them I won’t really be satisfied. I hope that Youhei remains a prominent background character in the next few episodes, with KyoAni subtly changing his mannerisms to reflect some kind of growing-up. I don’t think it would be too hard to add a minute or two of conversation with him, or an off-hand comment by another cast member that lets me know he is on some kind of path towards his future. I actually feel worse about his future than I did before this arc started – after devoting so much time to his well-being, the omission of development seems all the more glaring. Here’s to hoping the next arc is a little better.

Another week, another Sunohara-centric episode. I know that Mei has been on a lot of people’s minds, but I’m going to go ahead and skip that discussion, as it kind of weirded me out. I’d rather focus on Sanae’s insistence that, at heart, Youhei is a good person. I know that last week I was feeling sorry for Youhei, but the events this week have changed my opinion of him. I haven’t really seen this supposed good side, and though the flashbacks show a boy doing “what he should” for his little sister, everything we’ve seen of Youhei so far in the series suggests that he is a different person now – one who has grown up, essentially, into a bad person.

Can people, once down such a path, change drastically and instantly? That is apparently what Mei wants, though Tomoya seems willing to trick Mei into thinking everything is alright – kind of a shitty friend if you ask me. The choices made by Sunohara, his reputation, and his own acceptance that he will not further his education but rather assimilate into the workforce paint a bleak future for him, but with only a few months of school left, can we really hope that he will make a life-altering change, and that this change will have an effect on his prospects?

Yes, I think so. Such redemption is possible, but will be difficult to obtain. Sunohara is walking the path of lifelong unhappiness, because – as the whole of Clannad is testament to – family is the most important factor in lasting happiness; the realization that there is something greater than the self to which we must cleave is often regarded as the defining moment of adulthood. The authors of Clannad are directly pitting Sunohara’s disdain for his family, especially his little sister, against what he “has become.” More than any stupid pranks, fights, or social retardation, Youhei’s treatment of his sister, and by proxy all others with whom he has a relationship, is the reason that my attitude toward Youhei has transformed from pity to disgust. Tomoya was always a man looking for something, though he didn’t know what it was until he took a real interest in a makeshift family with the Furakawas. Youhei, in stark contrast to Tomoya, has never searched for anything other than a very temporary happiness – his problem is his short-sightedness.

This short-sightedness is evident in all of his actions, and is the character flaw undermining all of his efforts at even temporary bliss. It is what makes even the smallest effort on his part an unthinkable exertion – even at the end of the episode, when he was visibly angry with the situation surrounding a relationship between Mei and Tomoya, he refused to make a comment or reaction. This lack of reaction to such a forceful stimulus pains Mei and Tomoya as well, as they can see just how far removed Youhei is from his own emotions.

Youhei exhibits several other despicable traits, none so blatant as his complete failure to understand the mind of a potential love interest. The difference between love and lust, a major point in literature that can be endlessly dissected, is moot here. I would argue that Youhei has no actual desire for Sanae as an individual – she could be anyone, although the fact that she is beautiful certainly doesn’t hurt. Rather, Youhei is in love with the idea of himself as a part of a relationship with a beautiful woman, a relationship where he is cool, suave, and all the other things he assumes himself to be – but it is crucial to recognize that he knows that he needs another half. He is actually so in love with himself that he believes all this is not only possible, but actually happening. That he would be so clueless on a date would not normally be something that would make me irate – it can be quite endearing in the right situation. The problem is that Youhei is so convinced of his own merit that he cannot question whether or not someone else might have an opinion of him that differs from his own.

The day after the date – the one that went so horribly, terribly wrong – Youhei is in the best mood he has ever been in during the series. Totally lovestruck, it is one of the first times he is actually plesant to be around. However, we know that this happiness stems from a faulty assumption on his part – that the date went well, even exceptionally well. He has probably already forgotten that he was supposed to try and impress this imaginary girlfriend and has moved right along into thinking that they are an item. Hell, he starts talking to Tomoya about future plans – pipe dreams, as I like to call them – revolving around Sanae as a lifelong companion.

These plans, silly as they are, reflect the fact that Youhei is capable of thinking ahead, just that he doesn’t know how to do it properly. He has no idea of the work that needs to be put into a goal, probably because he has never had a real goal in his life. After leaving the soccer team, he lost his single focus and failed to find another. As we saw in this episode, he also lost a family – a group of people that relied on him and that even liked him. With Sanae’s help, hopefully he can regain that support group to help him through the time ahead, but more importantly I hope to see him regain a desire to do something, anything, with his life. Once that happens, I am confident that the rest of the pieces will fall into place.

Wear your hair like this all the time, please. I will love you forever.

After last week’s one-off baseball episode, it looks like the show is settling into a new arc focusing on Sunohara. It’s about time! He spent last season as the butt of every joke, and deservedly so most of the time, but with Tomoya’s attitude change towards the end of last year I was hoping for just a tiny bit more respect for his friend. Plus, with graduation just around the corner, I am curious to see what Sunohara does with his life. As anxious as I am to get to the after story portion, I would still have been upset if they had jumped right in and left the fate of all the rest of the cast in question. Thus we arrive at this week’s episode: Clannad ~School Comedy~

Summary

This episode starts with another look at the dream-girl’s world. The girl and her robot buddy are in the fields looking for junk, and the robot notices that there are some small sheep roaming about. The girl picks one up, but then lets them free, commenting on their sweet aroma.

When we get back to reality, it seems that Sunohara’s sister has come to visit, as she is worried about Sunohara’s life and the direction it will take once he graduates. Wanting more to appease his sister than actually get his life together, he latches on to Tomoya’s plan to fake a relationship in order to trick Mei into thinking he has some sort of direction.

He sets to finding a suitable candidate, someone “obedient” in his own words. After the requisite shut-downs, including a gut-busting one where Ryou startes crying just thinking about pretending to date him, Sanae decides that she really wants to help by pretending to be his girlfriend. Of course, Sunohara thinks that she is Nagisa’s sister, and also that he has a shot with her, which leads him to dress up in a ridiculous tux and act anything but natural around her. The last shot is of Mei looking thoroughly unconvinced…

Thoughts

Who the hell is this guy?

For the first few minutes of this show I was starting to get a bit down, thinking “why does it always have to start this way? Sunohara is kind of a douche, but he doesn’t deserve this.” Just when my pity was at its peak, the situation took a turn for the hilarious. The shift, subtle as it was, came just after Ryou’s waterworks and Kyou’s subsequent ultra-violence; Sunohara recovers immediately from Kyou’s abuse and nose-dives back into his usual, loathsome self. They say KyoAni has access to a /cry switch in our brains, but I think we can safely expand that to a switch for every emotion we posses.

Sunohara’s brush with Tomoyo was awesome, deepening my respect for her flippant attitude. I can totally imagine Sunohara believing they have a “rivalry.” The dream sequence where she comes to challenge him pretty much summed up his knowledge about girls. But these were simple one-liners compared to the joke that will be visited upon Sunohara next time, as the meat of this episode came in the setup of one very huge, very awkward situation. Not only does Sunohara think he has a chance with Nagisa’s “sister,” setting up some serious heartache, but Tomoya reminds us of Akio’s less-than-gentle demeanor. I wonder if he’s going to find out?

Foreshadow much?

Furthermore, how is Mei going to be fooled by a simple schoolgirl outfit and some glasses? Hasn’t she been staying with the Furakawa family every time she’s been in town? I think she should be able to recognize Sanae. This episode, though funny, has left me scratching my head in a few places. Under this comedy, isn’t there supposed to be a drama show? Where could all these plot points be leading? I am glad we got to see so much of the dream world at the beginning, but this episode seemed rather short in the end, like not much happened. I am expecting a train wreck next episode, so I’ll hold my tongue on the criticism.

As for Tomoya and Nagisa, their relationship seems to be coming along nicely. They are still in a rather “new” stage, and it was adorable to see Nagisa’s jealousy when she thought Tomoya might be attracted to her mom. She has become confident enough to call him out on things, like pointing out that he was taking the joke a bit too far with Sunohara. Also, did I mention how cute she was with her hair pulled to the side? I can’t stop thinking about it ;P

About the beginning dream sequence: I haven’t gotten to the big reveal in the VN, so please forgive my ignorance and indulge me for a moment as I try to guess what this is all about. As Nagisa chose that story as the play she would perform, it seemed obvious that this was a dream she had been having for a while. I think, though, that Tomoya shares the same dream with her, but he is the little robot guy. The metaphor of them being alone in the world, but needing each other fits, especially the bit where Nagisa creates Tomoya, but he wants to be born into the world at the same time. At the time in Tomoya’s life that he was at his lowest, hating school and life in general, this dream girl comes into his life, and through the choices he consciously makes, allows himself to be transformed into something new – though he is not yet able to express himself. This parallels the robot’s inability to talk, as well as his stilted movements. When I first watched this show, before I had heard of the VN or anything like that, the brief dream-world interludes infuriated me, but now they are quickly becoming a favorite part of the show for me. With each scene getting longer and longer, I wonder if the conclusion will clock in at a whole episode’s length, or maybe an OVA?

Next week: Hearts that do not converge

We all know that this situation is headed for conflict, and all I can say is that I hope this stays on the light-hearted and comedic side of the equation. Unfortunately, the preview images for the next episode show a very distraught, even depressed Sunohara. I like Clannad the Drama, and I like Clannad the Comedy, but I will be unhappy if the drama starts all of a sudden with the current situation – cruelty is never acceptable, and Sunohara doesn’t deserve any actual heartbreak :’(

And now, a few more shots of super cute magical clippy girl Nagisa:

Another season of Clannad is what kept me going through the mostly lackluster summer shows, and I spent a good part of the summer trying to work my way through the Clannad Visual Novel. I didn’t quite make it to the after story, though, so if you want someone to predict the next episode for you you are going to have to consult another blog. I enjoy that love/hate relationship with weekly episodes, and I want to preserve that wide-eyed astonishment that comes from being truly surprised by the outcome of a cliffhanger. That being said, let’s talk about this first episode!

Summary

This episode starts off with what looks like a memory of Tomoya’s youth, a train trip with his father. Tomoya has been daydreaming about this while out with Nagisa’s family, watching Akio play some neighborhood baseball. After the game, when the family is talking at home, Akio lets on that there is a game coming up, pitting his shopping district team against their rivals from another neighborhood. After a serious losing streak due to an awesome new teammate on the rival team, Akio decides that the next game must be won at all costs. He tells Tomoya that he has to recruit players, and Akio suggests the team from the theatre club (Akio was impressed by how well they worked together during the school festival).

Reluctantly, Tomoya goes about the school recruiting his core group of friends, plus a few other notables from last season’s cast. They gather up on the day of the game, and after a pretty close game, the last inning comes down to Akio’s team lagging behind with Tomoya at bat. Performing poorly all day due to his shoulder, Tomoya has another daydream about how wonderful it would be if he hit a home run and won the game. He hits the ball and watches it fly…

Impressions

It’s been six months since the first season aired, so I guess KyoAni felt the need to re-introduce us all to the main characters. Better than the Samurai Champloo game, but not quite to Haruhi standards, this baseball episode ended up being pretty good, and it served its purpose of familiarizing the viewer with the main characteristics of the cast.

The first half or so of this episode dealt with the recruitment of the players, and Tomoya and Nagisa went around the school convincing all their friends, and a few acquaintances, to join their team. I thought it strange that Yoshino took the most convincing – after all, he did say he owed Tomoya after the falling tools incident in the first season, not to mention the fact that it was pretty much due to the efforts of Tomoya and Nagisa that Yoshino was even able to get married! Well, the level of enthusiasm the teammates had about helping was the first indicator of their personalities, so I’ll let it slide this time.

It was when the game got under way that the real exposition began. At bat, Kotomi calculated trajectories in whatever way nerds are supposed to be able to do to be good at sports, Tomoyo knocked the ball out of the park, but then on her next at bat decided to try to “hit the ball girly.” Tomoya reminded us that his shoulder still hurt and that he wouldn’t ask his father to come see the game (gee, wonder if they’ll reference the fight any more in the series). All in all, a quaint enough first episode, although I think that if the rest of the Clannad fandom is anything like me, they watched the whole series again last week, so everything is fresh in their minds.

The amount of recap was starting to be a bit much at this point in the episode. It wasn’t funny in a comedy sense, though I laughed at times due to the situations these familiar characters were being put into. There was a little forced drama in the uncertainty of Tomoya’s last hit, I say forced because I feel that the outcome won’t be important in the long run. The important revelation of this show came in Tomoya’s daydreams; the fact that Tomoya’s daydreams of winning revolve not around him as the hero/savior of the day but instead focus on the camaraderie of a victorious team shows that he has grown quite a bit as a person since starting to date Nagisa last semester. As he gets older and approaches the end of his academic career – and thus the end of his youth – he is starting to realize that the things that will make him happy for the rest of his life are not the same things he has been pursuing to this point. Even in his courtship of Nagisa he seemed to just “go with the flow” in life, but it looks like he is starting to learn not only the value of new things, but the importance of putting out effort for them.

Clannad, or family (what the author of the VN thought clannad meant in Irish) is going to be a major part of this season if the foreshadowing is any indication, and that is exactly why I will be watching this show. Finding a family for yourself is such a universal theme of transition to adulthood, and the authors did a nice job of including an archetypal family for each main character, that I am really excited to see where this season takes us as far as exploration of that theme. Though I do worry a bit about Tomoya, because with such a tearjerker show something is going to have to come and throw a wrench into his plans…

This first episode was rather light-hearted, though, easing us in to any future shocks. There were a few twists and turns, like Akio’s injury and subsequent choice of Nagisa to pitch in his place – a wtf moment on the level of Goku’s choice of Gohan as successor in the Cell fight. I was also surprised at how much screen time was given to Yoshino, but his scenes were some of the funniest in the episode – I hope this means that we will be seeing more of him in the after story. In the end, however, these elaborations rang hollow as obvious filler.

It’s nice to know this series hasn’t started taking itself too seriously.

The animation was very nicely done, as expected, but the fact that the show aired in standard def was a bit of a letdown. Get with the times, Japan! Aren’t you supposed to be leading the world in technology? Nonetheless, the show managed to remain as beautiful as ever. The imagery at the beginning, when Nagisa’s family is all gathered around the table at their home, makes the summer come alive. Everyone looks hot in their t-shirts, and a fan is blowing on them with the door wide open. If the subtle cicada song wasn’t enough to convince you, we are treated to a shot featuring nothing but a cicada against a blue sky backdrop, complete with fluffy mashed-potato clouds.

Sound, as well, was as prominent as ever. The familiarity of the leitmotifs was like Pavlov’s bell (especially Kotomi’s – that has been my ringtone for the last several months). When the clink of the glasses in Tomoya’s victory daydream turned out to be the clink of the ball on the bat, I realized just how powerful such a simple segue technique could be.

Final Thoughts

Although I enjoyed this episode very much, I concede that it was a fluff episode. It really hasn’t been that long since last season ended, and at the end I found myself glad to see these characters again, but wishing they’d hurry up and get to the drama! Several things hinted where this season might go – Nagisa expressed a real desire to meet with Tomoya’s father, and the emphasis placed on Tomoya’s injured shoulder foreshadowed a confrontation of some sorts. Yoshino had too much screen time not to have a bigger role to play, though I wonder what it could be. Akio, for his part, seems to be perfectly OK that the guy who is dating his daughter is living in their house.

For me, Clannad is trying to truly capture the insecurity of transition into adulthood. Most people do not live the perfect lives portrayed in most shows on TV and in films, and even though this show has quite a bit of fantasy in its harem undertones, the problems Tomoya faces as a boy about to enter adulthood with no clue how to proceed should be familiar to most viewers, and very poignant to a certain demographic. The reality of leaving the comforts of school without a support net are, I think, what subconsciously drew Tomoya to gravitate towards stable bodies in his environment. Though constant labor after school seems a bleak prospect, the things he has learned from Akio about sacrifice make personal suffering seem insignificant. Akio is probably the single biggest reason I was happy that Tomoya ended up with Nagisa – he has a lot to teach, and not in the manner that can be learned in a school environment. Hopefully we’ll see lots more of him as well, perhaps even a showdown with Tomoya’s father?

Episode Preview

Did he get a home run!?! The title of episode two, In Search of a Fake Dream, is very leading – whose dream is fake? Sunohara’s dream of a girlfriend seems far-fetched, but perhaps we are dealing with a larger failure – that of Sunohara and Tomoya after graduation (in a job, maybe?). Perhaps we will skip through the last semester of school and get to the meat of life after school. One can only hope at this point.

I’d like to reiterate my prior point that I have not yet played the after story of the VN, so:
If you tell me what happens next ep I will hunt you down
Till next week!