[Ascaloth] CLANNAD (TV), Episode 21 at Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

[Ascaloth] CLANNAD (TV), Episode 21

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Popularity: 6% [?] Published by Ascaloth March 15th, 2008 in Ascaloth, Anime

So, they decided to start off this episode with several minutes of chanting entirely meaningless tongue twisters. And by the end of it all, my brain had pretty much turned to mush. Which might be why I don’t really have a strong impression of this episode, save that for the most part, it has a very nice slice-of-life feel, with not really a lot going on; basically, it felt like a setup episode for something big. But considering that there’s only one episode after this left, it barely feels like all the build-up happening in this episode is going to lead to a definitive conclusion like previous Key/KyoAni works have had. And maybe that is the point; if the series is ending on a note that barely feels like an ending at all, then maybe KyoAni isn’t intending to end it at all. Will there be more CLANNAD after the last episode next week? I have high hopes for that.

CLANNAD (TV), Episode 21.

With the advent of Blu-Ray, VHS is sinking deeper and deeper into the ‘dinosaur technology’ status it has been mired in since a long time ago. In fact, one can hardly find any VHS players available around here these days. Yet, as far as I know, they still cling on to a presence in the more rural parts, and even some of the smaller cities of Australia. Don’t ask me how I know that.

Squirtle squirtle. Squirtle squirtle squirtle.

This actually reminded me of when I participated in something similar in the past, listening to the radio to pick out suitable BGMs that we’re going to use for the play. Don’t ask.

A meganekko Tomoyo is fine, too. Although I can’t help wondering, if her eyesight really was as bad as she claimed, how did she manage to fight so well anyway? Come to think of it, who taught her how to fight anyway?

However, it does explain though why Tomoyo just matter-of-factly kicked Sunohara aside while getting into the scrap with the gang back in Episode 17. She doesn’t differentiate between friend or foe because apparently she can’t, not without her glasses anyway.

Everyone’s said it to death already, but I guess it won’t hurt for me to beat the dead horse once more. Kyou-sama is AWESOME. :p

Someone on Animesuki Forums pointed out that they may actually be watching a scene from AIR (TV) here, and the woman in the TV is likely to be Uraha. Can someone provide a screenshot for comparison and analysis, if possible?

It seems like my previous Freudian rambling about a possible Electra complex on Nagisa’s part might hold true after all. Putting that aside, it’s pretty amazing how the Tomoya-Nagisa pair seems to be a pretty close approximation of what a school-age Akio-Sanae pair might be. Of course there are the minor differences, like Tomoya being snarkier while Akio is more GAR and so on, but one can almost imagine young Akio and young Sanae acting almost the same way as Tomoya and Nagisa now back in their day.

The link is confirmed; the "Mysterious World", which is apparently officially termed the "Illusionary World", is the subject of Nagisa’s play. Of course, there’s still no clue as yet as to what else it might be. And certainly, it has to be something more than just a figment of Nagisa’s imagination.

I really enjoy these scenes of Nagisa looking up Tomoya whenever she has something on her mind. It really drives in the fact that they are the best of friends, able to be most open with each other. Theirs is a romance that is different from the kinds most commonly seen in this genre; it is not the explosive, highly melodramatic kind, but it is the strong, quietly firm kind that leaves no doubt that they are right for each other.

Of course, I’ve heard views of certain people who doesn’t believe that Tomoya and Nagisa does indeed have a relationship going on, mostly because they don’t exhibit a lot of the behaviours that characterise passionate romances in anime and live-action. These arguments are of course rebutted by others, who do indeed see a budding romance between Tomoya and Nagisa. Indeed, a quietly budding romance such as the one Tomoya and Nagisa share do indeed seem to exist; under John Lee’s theory of loving styles, what the two currently have could be described as storgic love, an affectionate form of love that typically develops out of friendship, and where sometimes the involved parties cannot pinpoint the moment when friendship became love. Under Robert Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love, what Tomoya and Nagisa share right now is liking, which is intimacy without the factors of passion or commitment having yet been factored in; being only students at this point, it’s a bit too early for them to be talking about passion or commitment…

I just went on a sociological ramblefest again. My bad. Let’s move on.

Shit. Fan. Impact.

Akio didn’t quite reveal what kind of jobs he was doing in the last episode, but here, we see that Nagisa was merely following in his footsteps. Well, that kind of explains why he’s such a quirky, yet incredibly charismatic character…

Have any of us wondered just what kind of sacrifices our own parents had to make to bring you up? If we think about it, these are likely to be very heavy sacrifices indeed; so heavy, that perhaps none of us at this age level could even comprehend, much less contemplate it. Yes, I know this is veering dangerously towards a didactic line, so I’ll just end it here. We can all think about it, on our own time.

Is it just me, or does young Sanae-san eeriely resemble a certain Asahina-san (Dai) a great deal?

And with that, both Tomoya and Akio have to cope with the fact that Nagisa had seen Akio’s and Sanae’s past, and the sacrifices that they had to make for her. With the knowledge of their sacrifice haunting her, how is she ever going to deal with them, and how is it going to affect the play she’s been wanting to put up all this time?

Final Episode Preview

With Nagisa apparently going emo over the knowledge, her dedication to the play seems to be in great danger. Is she going to be able to concentrate in time?

And even if this current arc could be wrapped up within this episode, the fact remains that next week would be the final episode of this series’ run. Clearly, there is no space for the much talked about After Story within this broadcast, which has led to all sorts of reactions from the animeblogosphere ranging from screams of bloody murder to fervent prayers for the hope of a Second Season.

To that effect, count me in for the latter camp, although I firmly believe that Kyoto Animation will make good on its promise eventually. The folks at KyoAni have always built their solid reputation on the basis that they always do things properly, and I certainly can’t see them disposing of that reputation so easily. I have great faith that the After Story Second Season is coming, although as to what form it would take, I still have no idea. I’m still fairly certain that it’s coming though, despite there having been no announcements up till now; KyoAni’s marketing department has always had several tricks up its sleeves in recent times, and one would recall that they did not offically announce their decision to do CLANNAD (TV) itself until after the end of Kanon (2006)’s last episode. They can be up to almost anything at this point, and we’ll only know by next week at the earliest.

So let’s wait until then, and see what happens. Ascaloth, out.

Popularity: 6% [?]

7 Responses to “[Ascaloth] CLANNAD (TV), Episode 21”

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1 RmX 6 comments Mar 15th, 2008 at 1:00 am

It’s bad to scream bloody murder without first producing a corpse.
2 Mirrinus 13 comments Mar 15th, 2008 at 1:02 am

Your sociological ramblings are much welcomed by me. Honestly, some people seem to think there’s only one way to illustrate romance or something…
3 Madame 2 comments Mar 15th, 2008 at 7:10 am

Am I the only one amused by Sanae and Akio’s terrible parenting? This whole thing wouldn’t be an issue at all if they’d just let her know all along that they had to give things up when they had her… They could say “Why yes, we had dreams. We loved those dreams. But we couldn’t have you and those dreams at the same time, and we love you more.”
4 Setsukyie 34 comments Mar 15th, 2008 at 9:42 am

“Why yes, we had dreams. We loved those dreams. But we couldn’t have you and those dreams at the same time, and we love you more.”

I kind of agree to that. But it’s too late to do so. Just like what Akio and Sunohara said, Nagisa is the type who blames herself with this kind of thing. If only they told her earlier, when Nagisa was in her childhood days..

Hoping for a 2nd season here..
If a 2nd season is indeed in the making, it will probably come out after Haruhi 2..
5 velocity7 6 comments Mar 15th, 2008 at 10:42 am

Ascaloth: Actually I messed up, and read “gensou monogatari” as “gensou sekai”. It should have been “Illusionary Story”. orz

Still though, in the game it’s called “gensou sekai” (Illusionary World) when the chapters actually play back.
6 thenullset 3 comments Mar 15th, 2008 at 10:34 pm

I’ll second that about enjoying sociological ramblings - I learn so much stuff from reading anime blogs.

I figure there will be some sort of announcement to the next Kyoto Animation show at the end of Clannad next week. I’m hoping that since Kyoto Animation doesn’t have a show in the spring that we will be getting Haruhi season 2 starting in the summer or at least something in the summer.
7 IJ 24 comments Mar 16th, 2008 at 3:54 pm

For my part, I’m with Asaloth in that I think they will be furthering the story. Given everything I’ve heard about After Story, KyoAni would be foolish not to do it. But to do it, they have to do it right, and given my conversations with velocity7, it can’t be done in just one episode or even a three-episode OVA. It would have to be at a bare minimum of twelve episodes. Why?

–After Story takes up a sizable chunk of the whole of the story, about a third is one figure I’ve been quoted.
–Given everything I’ve heard about it that’s non-spoilerish, and what little spoilerific stuff I’ve read, it’s essentially the “heart and soul” of the whole story. Without it, you cannot properly conclude CLANNAD.

There are other elements that I could talk about, but to be honest, I don’t know enough about said elements, or any elements I do know of, I suspect, will be rather spoilerific in nature, so I’ll save those for a different day.

In the meantime, other comments, the reason they do all those tongue twisters is simple: You’re on stage and you don’t want to flub up a line. I speak from my own theatrical experience. Sometimes, especially if you have some lines that require oral gymnastics at the skill level of, say, Nadia Comenici or Mary Lou Retton (yes, I’m somewhat dating myself here), ya gotta figure out how not to trip up on yourself somehow. Not to mention, I loved that little moment with Kyou as well.
–IJ.

Do not use any < and > for your own sake. It will end the comment there and then. Also, there is an automatic IQ filter which weeds out comments made by those who accidentally got transported from the stone age.

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