Clannad Episode 22
Two Shadows [Final-ish episode]
[last link to Clannad Info Page]
Sorry, but huh? Am I a terrible person for wanting unspeakable tragedy to befall the characters of these Key/Kyoto animated abominations? I waited a couple days since everybody in the universe who wanted to see this probably has now. So…
The Last Recap
Nagisa is pretty bummed about finding old man Akio’s photos and diaries.
Yes, but he’s still perfectly crazy now, just like a real actor. No need to worry.
But Okazaki pushes her on, after all they can’t quit the play now. Too many sidekicks, tsunderes, and space cadets have put too much effort into it. Okazaki tries to distract Nagisa by taking her around the school festival, which looks suspiciously like… a date?
Apparently the “student council president” role does not supercede the “bear suit” role
But when they get separated, he finds her in Miyazawa’s resource library watching tapes of her dad acting. Now she’s worse than before.
Well, she probably could have picked a worse tape to watch, but I don’t know what that would be.
The play goes on though, or at least it starts to. Nagisa sees Sanae sitting in the audience with an empty seat next to her and the buildup of guilt explodes in front of the whole school auditorium. Okazaki, behind the scenes, can’t just jump out to talk her through it this time, so his finger just hovers over the curtain control button while Kyou yells at him to push it.
And the blobby gelatinous tears flow
But there he is, running in to save the day at the last minute like some kind of crazed, antennaed Superdad — Akio. Obviously meant to be the crowning achievement of the series, he delivers a heartfelt monologue across the room for the whole theater to hear. And he does indeed save the play, and the day.
Well, I mean I feel like — Wait, who are you talking to?
Afterward, back in the theater club room, it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Sort of. Okazaki whips out his confession of love, and the wall around the rough heart of the charming delinquent comes tumbling down and all that.
A kiss would have been nice. But instead we get more blobby tears.
What We’ve Learned
That the writers are totally willing to make a show out of loose ends. Or else they’re just trying to sell you some OAVs.
I didn’t really see much of what the girl in the empty world, her high-framerate tin buddy, and the play about them meant to the story. Why didn’t that together in some way?
And Okazaki’s dad — while he showed up at the end, obviously invited by Nagisa, there was zero resolution on that front. For a story that ended up being about the importance of parents and family, I expected more.
“Some stuff happened.” I contemplated using that to summarize the whole show.
However, there is a preview for a postscript — I don’t know, however, if it’s on TV or an OAV. Guess I’ll find out soon enough. And I’ll be wrapping this present up as soon as I further collect my thoughts.
- otou-san out!
March 25th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
The way you guys(or whoever is responsible for making this review and preview on what is happening in this current episode) review japanese cartoons is very witty and innovative. Unfortunately, episode 22 in clannad now closes the series. Actually(well I guess you are already aware of it) this series is just based on a game and when if we follow the nagisa path you know what you’re gonna get,
Show ▼
Although episode 22 doesn’t seem to be a very good conclusion for the series, the extra episode is the to save the day(which will be aired tomorrow, march 27, 2008). If this series will remain faithful to the game, we all know what will happen; Show ▼
or maybe a far more different ending(although the chances of having a different ending might be possible, dont get your hopes to high though…) so we will just have to wait for the extra episode(they actually planned on releasing this as a 24 episode series and the OVA is planned to be released on july 2008) to be aired. No matter what happens, all those who watched the early episodes of clannad should not miss watching the the finale.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
I made a typo. “the extra episode is the to save the day” should have been
“the extra episode is here to save the day”
March 25th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Thanks for the info, although it’s a bit on the spoiler-heavy side.
Hope you don’t mind me throwing spoiler tags around some of that.
also, thanks for the good word. It’s just me at the moment, and I just started up recently.