Clannad: Episode 18
Strategy For Comeback
That’s more like it, people. Not only does this train get back on the fucking tracks, it’s mowing down bodies! I may have said it before, if not I was thinking it: I don’t care about the visual novel, I really don’t think it matters that much if you can’t sufficiently cover every angle of every girl’s story arc, I care about entertaining television. One medium is very different from the other, so let’s enjoy the one we’re in.
Progress… finally
Suspended life seems to be a real picnic for a layabout like Okazaki, who spends his days eating Tomoyo’s cooking at his own house, and endlessly fucking with Sunohara.
Kyou is on fire trying to get him hooked up with Ryou, or at least with herself. But he’s having none of it, and even he still can’t figure out why — but he’s getting an idea through his thick mop. It all culminates in a dangerous showdown at the Okazaki dinner table when Tomoyo cooks lunch, the twins bring their own food offering, and even Kotomi shows up with bento in hand and air in her head.
Oh yeah, and Fuko appears too, much to my uh, entertainment. Yeah, that’s it.
He gets violently called out for not making up his mind, but it doesn’t faze him. Well, it fazes him after he eats all the food and enjoys horrific heartburn on his first day back to school. But girl-wise, he’s seemingly oblivious.
Or is he?
(I love it when I can do that).
Tomoyo is suffering from terrible rumors about gang associations after the fight, so her election isn’t going so well. Not to worry, Okazaki can fix anything! Wait, more sports? Now they’re just trying to prove they can animate sports better than most. Which, in truth, they can. Tomoyo takes on every sports team day by day in a display of her (insert Japanese equivalent of all-American) wholesomeness and great skill, and of course it nets her the election because we’re living in fucking bizarro world.
And the biggest news… Nagisa returns, and throws the entire world of would-be Jezebels off balance. Tomoyo figures out why Okazaki’s so keen for the theater club to start up — even if he can’t — and the Fujibayashi girls see their hopes dashed in a single instant at the tennis match.
The tennis match is certainly one of the best scenes I can think of so far in the series, despite its faults. Tomoyo gets the picture quick, but Kyou’s in wide-eyed denial until Nagisa gets hit in the leg with a ball. The other tennis player reaches out to her, and a way-too-concerned Tomoya smacks his hand away, apparently much to his own surprise. The next shot is actually great direction, with the “camera” mercilessly maintaining on Kyou as Tomoya helps Nagisa walk past her to the nurse. She hides it well for a minute, shrugs it off (”I knew it all along”), but then loses her shit.
The scene is sort of killed by two things: Ryou being equally teary, which would have worked had she demonstrated a personality at any point in the show, and the upbeat dancey music that inexplicably marches on through the entire thing. And those blobby, gelatinous tears… OK, three things. Then — shades of Haruhi — we pan to the sky. Overall, though, not bad work.
What We’ve Learned
We saw Kyou’s armor not just dent but completely break, and I’d actually like to think of Ryou’s tears being more for her sister than herself because I don’t give a rat’s ass about her.
We learned that Tomoyo has her own important reasons for becoming student council president, although it’s a long and only partially believable string of shit.
And. Okazaki digs Nagisa. We knew that, and even he was starting to think that, but now everyone knows that, including some random tennis guy. It’s not who’s hotter, who’s got the most personality, or whose hair is bluest. It’s who’s the most moe.
Final Thoughts
I agree with the visual novel fans on one point: Tomoyo’s story seems to be over as soon as it started. She recounted her childhood and explained the importance of family, which seems to get Tomoya thinking. And that’s nice and all, but she’s fairly transitory. I suppose that’s OK, though.
I would like to have seen just a touch more Kyou, as it seems like the twins are done as well. I’m a little disappointed that she went all to pieces; she’s supposed to be made of tougher stuff. But one way or another let’s bring this thing home right — once more with feeling, kids.
Time to get down to some Real Live Love Time between Tomoya and Nagisa so we can get down to the inevitable dying.
- otou-san out!
