Clannad ~After Story~ – Episode 01

October 3, 2008 at 3:40 pm | Posted in Clannad | 17 Comments
Tags: cute~!, fangirling, ROFL

Finally! Nagisa! Oh I missed you so much! I was going to curl up in my closet if it took even one more day to see you. Nagisa~!

…That silliness of mine aside, I’m glad Clannad is back. I’m not sure if this stuff is from the VN (or rather necessary for the story), but since I’m keeping away from the VN until after the anime is over I’m fine. As a fan of Nagisa and just the anime, I am satisfied.

I’m going to keep my Clannad posts nice and loose since everyone and their mom is going to be blogging Clannad this season. I’m keeping summaries, speculation, spoilers, and anything real out of it. Every week is just going to be my thoughts. Done in the regular fangirling way you are accostomed to.

Example: Nagisa~! I love you~! Sing the Dango Daikazoku song! Please?

Of course, later the posts will just be full of baaaaw-ing, but still…who cares? Clannad is back with 50% more Nagisa! Did you see the OP!? Nagisa was everywhere!!! And that’s enough to satisfy me.

—–

OP & ED

Hm…basically, I like them both. But once again, since Clannad is being reviewed by everyone, we’re keeping this “everyone” stuff to a minimum. I’m going to do what I do best…image spam of a cute girl (Nagisa).

You know, there’s about 11 different shots of Nagisa in the OP. Considering how many other characters there are, that’s freakin’ awesome. And yes, it’s just Nagisa.

As far as the actual song goes, it’s called Toki wo Kizamu Utau and it’s by Lia who does…tons of songs for Key really. There were two filler songs for Clannad that she did I think (Ana and Over). If I could redo my Top Ten Openings now, I’d replace Megumeru with this too. There’s nothing too special about it since it reminds me of every other Lia song, but I absolute love all Lia songs and this is certainly no exception. Also…the animation is just so pretty (especially the shots of Nagisa).

The way the animation goes reminds me of both the previous Clannad OP and Air’s OP because of all the sky effects.

I think the whole thing fits the mood nicely for both the light-hearted episodes and the future dramatic episodes. Animation and song are both just, very mellow and I love it. The ending song though…

Another Lia song (Torch). I think it fits fine now, but it’s going to feel odd when an episode ends dramatically. It’s really just a typical ED. Nice song with some typical scenery shots and the characters just walking by. It felt like they paraded every single character from last season by us (I skipped by it all with just the old teacher and NagisaxTomoya shot). But really, there’s nothing much to say except…not enough dango. And of course, I saw that cute little girl in the beginning, did you?

You know, it seems like we saw more of her in the OP of season one than just the quick image in this season’s OP and her running at the beginning of this ED. Seems odd, but whatever.

—–

Thoughts

Even though it felt like this was an odd way to start the After Story, I’m just glad to have Clannad (and Nagisa) back again. I won’t worry about, “Will they have enough time!?” like I did last season and just enjoy the ride.

After all, this episode was incredibly entertaining and that’s what counts. All of the characters got to show their quirks and it was just so ROFL-worthy sometimes. There was so much to enjoy that I, once again, overdid my screencaps and had to delete quite a few. But the best (Nagisa) are all in there.

Tomoya was cute when he was little. I want to see a full non-shadowy image of him when he was little. (Please Kyo-Ani?)

lol, This ended up being so useless. Tomoya caught the ball and even if he hadn’t, Nagisa didn’t push him out of the way and didn’t get in the way of the ball. However, I’m not complaining one bit! Go Nagisa!!!

Ah I missed the mealtime antics at the Furukawa home. Sanae and Nagisa are mostly just spectators, but that adds to all the ridiculous humor. Since Tomoya is the only one who ever thinks something odd is going on in that house. Ah, I love it and I missed it so much!

Eheh. Nothing to say except…^_^ (I’m all smiley and giggly again~!-

You know I think Tomoya is the funniest character in the series. Maybe that’s just because of how my own family works, but still. I love that serious delivery. And of course Yuichi Nakamura gets credit too! He can say some freakin’ ridiculous lines completely seriously (“Neko Ranger Blue!!!” ROFL).

And of course, if Tomoya wasn’t around a lot of other characters wouldn’t even get the chance to be funny! Remember that!

Ah, more Sunohara abuse. Can never get enough of it.

All the people around Tomoya are so gullible. Even Tomoyo fell for it. We’re not making fun of Nagisa because she’s cute, but Sunohara? This is a lie about you! Why did you fall for it?

Misae-san~! Too bad that I don’t think we’ll be seeing much more of her this season. I hope we get to see her beat up at least one person or something. I want to hear Satsuki Yukino’s angry voice…

Ah, this is where all the shipping fans differ in their opinions. I think Nagisa handles Tomoya’s situation with his father the best. She got him out of the house, but tries to gently bring them back together in the meantime. Everyone else…is stupid and wrong. That’s that.

(There is no room for discussion when it comes to Tomoya and Nagisa!)

Cute twin-tailed loli voiced by Yukarin is a go!!! Ah Mei is probably my second favorite Clannad girl (No, I’m not joking) so I’m oh, so glad to see her again. And maybe next week as well! Yay~! (She’s so cute when she actually gets a little shy…)

What the heck Tomoyo? I don’t remember you being this cute last season! I remember you being a super perfect, can-do-anything Class President. Not that I’m complaining. This was fun to see. It’s like they were trying to show why Tomoyo beat Kotomi in SaiMoe.

“Eh?” Fucking adorable! >////< I love Nagisa even more than ever.

Ah, every time I think my Nagisa love has reached its peek…she gets even cuter. It’s not fair~!

Nagisa is so cute when sh’es playing baseball. (Okay, so she’s alway cute…)

Hmm…right now I’m reminded of something and am making a delcaration. If the Red Sox win the World Series again this year I will do a massive image spam of cute girls with baseball stuff. Featuring Nagisa and Rin from Little Busters! of course!!

Kotomi doesn’t bother me like she does for other people. In fact, I like that she’s still around even though she pretty much does nothing useful. She’s a lot more entertaining after her arc ended. She’s not just the moeblob with a touching story anymore. She’s the moeblob who adds humor by being a genius moeblob. And I like it!

Sunohara was so useless (in a good way ^_^_. You’d think that someone who was so good at sports in the past would at least do a little bit better. (Also, this is the only screencap of Kyou…sorry about that fanboys)

Ha. Kotomi screwed up too and she got encouraged instead of scolded. Too bad for you Sunopi. You just don’t make a pretty enough girl (wait…what?).

“What kind of quiz is that?”

I. Fucking. Love. Nagisa. (Sorry for the swearing Nagisa-chan, but it is the only way to express my intense fangirl adoration!)

No one has ever looked cuter when they’ve failed.

Mei doing her very best fangirl cheer and being adorable! Yay~!

Aw, silly Yoshino Yusuke (you always have to say the full name). This is one of those ROFL moments I was talking about though. I really can’t add anything, except…it’s just awesomely funny.

Especially this. Awesomely cool guy voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa curled up in the corner. Can’t find this anywhere else and it is classic.

>////< (Nothing else to say)

Ah classic. I think this is the best orz I’ve ever seen. As usual Tomoyo, you are the best at everything you do.

Alright, he got to finish this time. And the epic speech was epic (and so fun because it was so out of place). Ah, the simple humor is best. Yoshino Yusuke…you are awesome.

Fight-o desu yo~! It felt like that was Sanae’s only line in whole episode. She just said it over and over and over.

Now then, is Tomoya going to do it? Can he drive in the winning run!?

With his incredibly adorable girlfriend looking at him like that he better!

But alas, the tension is deflated immediately when they switch right to the victory party (wtf!?). It was obvious, but still…don’t spoil your own anime!

And this scene with Sunopi thinking Sanae is Nagisa’s sister…does this mean we get to see Sunohara’s route after all?

Aww…I’m all smiley again~!

Oh my god! Tomoya did it! No wai!!! I’m sorry, but the victory party bothered me much more than you’d think it should. I’m a big fan of sports movies and stories and they just ruined! Not fair!

However, it’s okay because Nagisa looked adorable running to home.

Oh yeah…and to ruin our baseball party and remind us there’s a plot. Seriously…for just a moment…when are we going to be hitting the plot?

But ignoring that again, quite simply, I just enjoyed Clannad like I always do. It’s fun and it makes me smile (which you should have guessed by the fact that I mentioned smiling quite a bit). So maybe not everyone thinks the After Story is doing what it’s supposed in regards to the plot, but hey. Right now I’m satisfied just like I was last season. Because I’m entertained. That’s enough for me.

Simplicity after all!

—–

Preview

Hey, are we really getting Sunohara’s route next week? I hope so. I always hear so much about it! Though, fitting it in here, I’m sure a few things are different. But still! I’m just glad if we get to see it.

Any episode with Sunohara is a good episode.

Now then, let’s just leave off with the obligatory Nagisa and Tomoya shot.

Awesome. Glad to have you back Clannad.