Review – Rate – Recommend

CONTAINS SPOILERS

I admit I never finished Clannad ~After Story~. It’s not that I didn’t like it. In fact, the first few episodes were entertaining. Moreover, it was a chance to see what became of the characters that I have sympathized with in the first Clannad. The main reason I only just picked up the anime now is because I was lazy. The reason of all reasons.

Well, defending myself aside, I’m glad I re-watched it from the beginning and this time actually finished it. I’m glad sem-breaks exist. It was one of the saddest things I’ve watched in a while and I cried a couple of times. Anyone who can watch this anime without crying is seriously lacking in the emotion department.

I knew that Nagisa was going to die and that they would have a child but what comes after that I was totally unprepared for. I guess it’s good that I didn’t read any spoilers on that part although I still ended up crying more on Nagisa’s death scene compared to Ushio’s even though it should have been the other way around because I should have been prepared already. I guess it’s because I have more time to grow attached to Nagisa compared to Ushio. Ushio is an adorable little kid but I don’t like what they did with her voice. It was annoying. After Nagisa’s soft, cute voice, it just pales in comparison.

Now I’m not much into reviving scenes. Remember my indignation towards Code Geass’ many, many, many revival scenes? I think that sad endings are what make shows unforgettable. We got all sorts of happy endings and well-done sad endings are well, sad but also leaves you with this warm feeling because you do not regret watching the anime in the first place. So when makers reverse the course of events and revive characters, it kind of puts me in a foul mood.

Not this time, however. I truly felt that Tomoya had too much sufferings too last him a lifetime. He had a fairly bad teenage life with his dad and then he loses Nagisa, AND THEN he loses his only daughter. That’s just too much for one person to handle. So the change of events made me happy more than anything else. I think Tomoya deserved that much. And it was done in the most surreal way that I can’t help but be fascinated and in the end love it. The mystery about the other world is finally revealed (it’s one of the scenes that I’ve always been wondering about and it pissed me off that I couldn’t figure it out) and what can I say? It was in every way perfect.

I know this is a very poorly-done post and my thoughts are all over the place but I just loved the anime so much. When I love something, it’s impossible for me to put into words what exactly made it beautiful. I seem to only have the ability to write when it comes to insulting.

Nonetheless,

5/5