Subculture Anime Blog

Clannad Shmannad….

Summary:

The drama club is officially established, so the usual group celebrates and congratulates Nagisa. Finding that she is still worried about the future, however, Tomoya gives Nagisa some final encouragement towards her dream. Despite Tomoya’s suggestions, a teacher plans on visiting Tomoya’s father at his home. Running into Nagisa, Tomoya attempts to leave to go home. Nagisa persistently chases after him, however, finding that he is lying and trying to avoid things. Tomoya is forced to accompany his teacher to his house, but he again tries to leave when his father is not home. Nagisa catches him again, however, leading him to his house. Tomoya finds that his father is already talking to his teacher, insisting that everything is up to his son. Walking away with a disappointing face, Tomoya recalls how he and his father do not act like a family.

Nagisa suggests that Tomoya go to her house, believing that such problems are sad but could be helped in different ways. Tomoya no longer believes that his own home is one he would always return to, packing his things and passing by his seemingly sleeping father. Tomoya’s father surprises him, however, wondering where he is going as he steps out of the door. Tomoya only states that he is going to stay at a friend’s house for his own reasons, before leaving his father. When Tomoya reaches Nagisa’s house, he is welcomed with two different reactions from her mother and father. Settling in for the night after being introduced to the home, Tomoya is still unable to calm himself.

Tomoya tells Nagisa what he thinks about her family while heading to the school the next morning, then wishing her luck with the activities they are soon to do. The drama club is introduced to quite a bit of equipment from Komura-sensei, so they begin testing some of them in interesting ways. Tomoya brings up what Nagisa wants to do for her drama, but finds that she has not decided on this. When the two reach Nagisa’s house, Tomoya discovers that Sanae actually teaches young students from their home on a regular basis. When Tomoya discusses this with Akio afterwards, he finds that Sanae actually used to be a full time teacher. He wonders why she quit, but Akio does not give Tomoya a clear answer.

Nagisa visits Tomoya in his room later, describing how strange it feels with him staying over. Tomoya agrees that it is strange for him as well, especially with the circumstances he is used to at his own household. Nagisa brings up that even though her parents treat her well, she always feels like there was something that she did in her childhood that was bad to them. She does not know what it was, but she realizes that her parents seem to be hiding it from her whenever she brings it up. Nagisa believes that it is something she must apologize for, before apologizing to Tomoya for making him listen to this.

Tomoya leaves shortly after to Youhei’s house, who realizes that he has been staying at Nagisa’s house. Tomoya accidentally reveals that he is living with Nagisa, discovering that Youhei did not suspect the full story. This of course annoys Youhei, as he brings up Tomoya’s usual ignorance. In the other world, the robot boy begins trying to build something else. The girl suspects that he is lonely by himself, but the boy actually only thinks that it would be more fun if there were more things around. The girl sits down to help as well, as the two begin working on this project.

Preview: Can you keep a secret?

Impression:

I was kind of waiting for a “THE ONE I LIKE IS TOMOYA!” but unfortunately that didn’t happen. Maybe it’s because Clannad was away for a week, but I kind of feel like this episode came out of nowhere. Sure, they were hinting at Tomoya’s family problems, but why have him leave now? It’s also been awhile since we’ve seen Nagisa, but it was pretty cute to hear her scolding Tomoya for his actions. There were some really nice shots in this episode, particularly when Tomoya left his father at the house. I really love how they used the TV’s noise to a dramatic effect as well. There were some funny Youhei parts in this episode too, but for those who haven’t played the game, it seems like we’re just going to be waiting for them to reveal the answers to the questions that have been brought up in this episode. Either that, or I’m too busy trying to beat Zelda to come up with anything interesting to say this week…Faster, better review next week. I promise?