Subculture Anime Blog

The conscious Kyou! (My final impression is included.)

Summary:

Upon reaching the new semester, Nagisa finds that she has been placed in a different class from all of her previously made friends. Tomoya and Youhei become busy with chores elsewhere, as punishment from trying to escape from a classroom earlier. Kyou joins the two, though she refuses to introduce herself properly to the two until Tomoya saves her from some falling boards. When Nagisa reaches home, Akio suggests several odd ways for her to make friends. As this eventually involves Sanae’s bread, the typical occurrence repeats as usual. The next day at school, Nagisa actually considers some of Akio’s ridiculous suggestions. She doesn’t pull through, however. In other places, Kyou comes across Tomoya sleeping outside. She initially tries to wake him, but simply observes his appearance a bit after. Youhei mistakes this as her threatening Tomoya, coming to his rescue. When he almost reveals Kyou’s intentions to a waking Tomoya though, he is knocked away by her trademark punch.

After school, Nagisa is invited out by her previous friend Kimura and her new acquaintance. This brings the girls to enjoy themselves at a clothing shop, where the two girls play a small prank on Nagisa. As the girls part, Kimura mentions how much of a waste it is for the class to not notice how interesting Nagisa is. That night, Ryou tells a fortune for Kyou. She claims that a boy would confess to her the next day. Simultaneously in his dorm, Youhei comes up with a trick to play on Kyou. At school, Youhei puts this plan into play by placing a fake love letter in Kyou’s locker. Of course, this causes Kyou to panic in belief that Ryou’s fortune has come true. Nagisa almost calls out to her classmates upon a mention of the dango daikazoku, but she loses her chance when their teacher enters the room. While this happens, a particular girl continues to notice Nagisa.

Kyou starts to become conscious as she walks around school, eventually reaching a note in place of where she was suppose to meet her partner. This leads her from note after note, as the location continues to change. Obviously, this was all only to Youhei’s pleasure. Kyou eventually finds Youhei and Tomoya though, resulting in another punishment. The two boys come up with another prank afterwards, involving a large ball of paper and trigger. No one seems to be foolish enough to bait when this is placed above the school entrance, until Nagisa comes across the trap. This results in a pan falling onto her head after the ball opens, alerting nearby students. Nagisa wakes in the infirmary to meet the girl who had taken notice of her earlier. The girl explains that she had heard about Nagisa from Kimura, and that she actually wanted to make friends with her. With this, Nagisa seems to thank the prank that had been played on her. Nagisa brings the message that was inside the ball home with her that night, revealing that it contained a word of encouragement for her. Unknown to Nagisa, this was written by Tomoya earlier.

Preview: Recap episode? For real.

Impression:

Awesome. This felt a lot like a special or OVA, but that makes perfect sense since the series technically “ended” after last week’s episode. Clearly taking place before the events of the first season, this was much more reminiscent of the first season. The large focus on Kyou is sure to please fans, as even I enjoyed watching her running around the school in a flustered state. (The bath scene towards the end had me rolling my eyes a bit though.) That’s not to say that Nagisa didn’t have plenty of screen time herself. Despite how humorous the last events were, a fairly touching story actually came out of it to foreshadow Nagisa’ later connection to Tomoya. Placing Ushio in the usual opening title was a nice touch too. Other than all that, this episode simply reminded everyone of the fun ride that the series was from start to finish.

Oh….and Nagisa eating an-pan is still the cutest thing ever.

Final Impression:

That’s right. A full year of Clannad! I did it. It may not have been all at once, but still. Being able to cover a show for 47 episodes (not including the recap episode next week) gives me a little pride in my useless blogging self. That aside, Clannad has been an experience all in itself. I was hesitant about taking up the original series at first, but was urged on by the fans. Hey, I’m very glad that I listened to them. I was quickly drawn into the first couple episodes of the series, and though I may have started to lose the initial excitement towards the end of the first series, After Story brought back all the joy I had for the series in every single episode. There was the humor I loved in the initial episodes, as well as stories to much of the minor cast that I loved despite their positions. Once we got to Nagisa’s main arc, I was sold…..upon already being sold.

There have been few series that have made me baw so much, so frequently. Off the top of my head, I can only recall Honey and Clover or Air even coming close. From the loss of Nagisa, to the appearance to Ushio, to the REVIVAL of Nagisa, we were all in for a bittersweet to happy ride for the last few episodes. While this series has always had a slight fantasy element to it, the themes of family and friends have always been pure and believable. While this may have been the longest Keyani work, I can probably say at this point that it has been the best. I do not regret watching at all, I would recommend it to several, and Clannad will definitely be taking a special place in my archives from here on.

I’ll definitely be watching the recap episode next week, but depending on how they go about it, I may or may not cover it. For now, this is the end of a long journey!