Shameful Otaku Secret!

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.

Apparently you get soccer or something instead. That is all. Now’s your chance to get caught up.

I’m sure everyone is sad, but go tell it to your hug pillow.

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.

‘Is this fun for you?’ ‘It is.’

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.

Au contraire. He made up his mind. It’s just not any of you.

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.

Sunohara’s supposed to be dumb, but even he gets it.

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.

Finally, the hamster wheel in Tomoya’s head turns.

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.

Don’t cry, Kyou. There’s a Million Fanboy March organizing to comfort you now, and they don’t plan on stopping until they figure out you’re a cartoon.

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.

In the intersection of tame content and Kyou-worship that is the Clannad world, I’m pretty sure this qualifies as fanservice.

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.