Clannad: Episode 19
New Life
[Don't know your Tomoya from your Tomoyo? Clannad Info page to the rescue.]
After having to wait an extra week after last episode’s bulldozer-of-bodies, I was set up for disappointment. But honestly, at this phase of the show there should be no wasted minutes, and thankfully that wasn’t the case.
Recap: Okazaki’s final mission
First thing’s first, one of Tomoyo’s first acts as student council president is to allow the theater club to share an advisor with those troublesome weak-handed choir bitches. And Nagisa starts to figure out just how difficult it’s going to be to pull a play off before the school festival.
Okazaki serves up a tasty dish: Bitter in flavor, yet subtley demeaning.
After a counselor has a lot of difficulty trying to talk to Okazaki’s dad about his future, Nagisa has to chase O-Town down and force him to meet the guy.
You’ve created a monster, Okazaki.
Nagisa sees just how bad things seem to be between our ever-sloppier hero and his pops. So, much to Sunohara’s jealous dismay, she offers up her guest room for him. Sanae is happy as a clam, and even crazy old man Akio seems to enjoy having him around to help in the bakery.
I SAID tell me about the damn grizzly attack!
But it’s never quite a bed of roses, is it? Not only is Tomoya uncomfortable in his overly-homey situation, but something is amiss in the Furukawa household, and the villain is Key’s standard bogeyman: a troubled but cloudy past. It seems Sanae runs a cram school for kids, because she’s no longer able to teach middle school.
Okazaki, hero to the kids.
Why doesn’t she teach anymore, wonders Tomoya.
“A lot of things happened,” Akio tells him. Later, Nagisa confesses to him that she feels that she somehow wronged them in the past, but they always tell her she’s imagining things.
Yes, yes. Our special little boy. Yes you aaare.
And the robot in the imaginary world that you totally forgot about decides to try to make another robot. The girl helps it. The CG is very conspicuous.
What We’ve Learned
What did I say? I said there was some kind of horrific grizzly attack in the Furukawa’s past, because no one is that cheery in these stories without covering something, especially not when their daughter has the mysterious moe-itis disease. So Tomoya’s Final Mission (should he choose to accept it) will be to discover what the thing is, and most likely in the process repair his relationship with his father. But next episode’s preview shows us Akio insisting that even if Tomoya finds the truth, he’d better not tell Nagisa.
We also learned that the budget might be slipping a tiny bit. Kyoto is not immortal, I guess.
Thoughts
In spite of the heavy subject matter that’s looming on the horizon, there were lots of scenes good for a chuckle in this episode. Okazaki running from the counselor with Nagisa chasing him had great comic timing, even as it showed Nagisa becoming a more appealing character (she’s gonna die, right? I’ll put money on it).
If only pictures could make the awesome sounds in this shot.
The single funniest scene, though, was Sunohara’s improvised melodrama featuring the theater club’s sound effects synthesizer. Yes, Sunohara is usually just comic relief, but at least he’s good at it. And to be fair, he does toss a little sidelong wisdom to Tomoya later in the episode.
Me too. I guess.
Finally. For the first time in a while, I’m looking forward to what Clannad has in store.
- otou-san out!
