Clannad After Story

	Original run	2008-2009
	Episodes	22
	Watched	22/22, English subbed
	Director	Tatsuya Ishihara
	Studio	Kyoto Animation
	Based on	Key's visual novel
	Review date	Oct 8, 2012

I was less than impressed with the first season of Clannad, but since the second season got such good ratings I still decided to give it a try as well. That turned out to be the correct decision, since After Story had a lot more to offer.

A lot of spoilers in this one, highlight to read.

After Story continues where the first season left off. The main characters Tomoya and Nagisa have started dating. The first eight episodes were similar to the first season: a side character gets the spotlight for a few episodes, and other than with the flashback story Tomoya and Nagisa end up helping them with their problems. It didn't interest me in the first season and now it interested me even less, and as much as I like Sunohara his arc couldn't get me interested either even if I've seen other people call it brilliant.

However, starting from episode ten everything got significantly better. I've seen plenty of teenage romance dramas where in the final episode after a lot of blushing and misunderstandings the main characters finally confess their feelings and start dating. But what about after that? If we're lucky we'll see a time skip epilogue where they're happily living with their children, and that's that. However, in Clannad the characters actually graduate from high school, and we see them finding a job, getting married and moving together! The shift in themes from teen romance to more... mature themes was much appreciated to me.

Fuuko was as annoying as ever. Luckily she was absent for most of the series, but her antics at the last episodes annoyed me even more than in the first season, and most of the time they felt like unnecessary waste of time when the plot didn't move at all while she was acting all bratty. Giving her an important role (?) with Ushio's story didn't sit well with me either since I would really have wanted to enjoy it but it was difficult when Fuuko kept popping up as Ushio's new BFF.

(also, how is it possible that she supposedly is 25 years old, but has the mind of a high schooler? She acted like she wasn't old enough to be even in grade school.)

Akio on the other hand continued to shine, and I even liked Sanae a lot more than in the first season. It's surprisingly rare to see a character whose both parents are alive and relevant in the story, and actually decent people instead of aloof jerks who ignore or abuse their children. I really liked how they treated Tomoya as their own family even after Nagisa's death. Tomoya himself got excellent character development.

Also, not enough Sunohara. Where did he disappear in the After Story arc?

I gather from forum discussions that everyone and their mother knew about the twist in episode 16 since apparently the Visual novel is pretty popular, but it really managed to surprise me even if it made a lot of sense with Nagisa's weak health and all. After spending some thirty episodes with crazy fluffy happiness where rivalling gangs make peace because of a cute girl and his legendary deceased brother and magic cats deliver feelings of affection even from beyond the grave I had no idea they could actually kill the main heroine just when they were about to start a happy family together. At that point I finally understood why After Story ranks so high in "best anime" rankings.

The ending, however, ruined the whole thing for me. The fantasy aspect was always there and since the wish granting aspect of the light balls was introduced of course they had to use the plot element somehow, but I was absolutely certain that it'd be used to revive Ushio. A complete reset button for a 100% happy happy ending where Nagisa survives and they relive everything after Ushio's birth as a idealistically perfect family managed to undermine all of Tomoya's great character development to me. Originally he learned to understand his dad after noticing he was in the same situation, and it was a great moment when he learned to be happy with his daughter and accept Nagisa's death. But I guess those don't matter now since Nagisa never dies. As much as I like seeing characters suffer Tomoya really deserved a happy ending, but this was not what I had in mind. Nagisa could have... come back as a spirit for a moment, revive Ushio and have a mushy little conversation with Tomoya before going back to being dead, and Tomoya would again be very happy with Ushio. Or something.

Before the ending I was ready to forgive the boring beginning and even Fuuko and give this a full 3/3 for managing to stand out in its genre and get a strong emotional reaction out of me, but the ending made me change my mind. It still deserves a better score than the first season though.

	Best	Worst
Episode	16	22
Character	Akio	Fuuko
Pairing	Tomoya/Nagisa got further than any other pairing I can think of right now	Uhh... Sunohara/Sanae was unfunny and unnecessary fanservice to me
Final judgement 2/3 Could have been so much more but unfortunately wasn't.