Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

An extended Illusory World scene at the beginning of the episodes serves as a little reminder that this is still the After Story that is being the focus of this second season, and while we might not actually be in the meat of the After Story scenes in the series yet, it is an indication that there is still much more to come. Otherwise, there’s still nothing much happening in the way of the main storyline, and this episode is the start of what is apparently the Sunohara Siblings Arc. Strangely enough for the uninitiated, it is often considered one of the better arcs in the original CLANNAD VN; I have no idea how that’s going to work, but let’s go along for the ride anyway.

CLANNAD ~After Story~, Episode 2.

One of the game vets was going "STAY TUNED FOR THIS!" in the AnimeSuki thread, so let’s do just that. Since it’s Sunohara, we’ll probably be seeing him using this line in the most non sequitur moments soon enough. ^_^

Mirrinus, also from the Animesuki thread, commented on how Sunohara seems to have a delusion not uncommon in young people of his age, the thinking that all would be good if he could only land himself a relationship with a girl, and that this particular delusion often comes of not pausing to consider one’s motives for why one would want a relationship in the first place. He has a good point in how the lack of maturity in Sunohara’s thinking displays an immaturity not altogether unbelievable for a youth of his age, but in a way, I can certainly see how Sunohara is even more likely to hold this viewpoint. After all, he has an example of a guy benefiting from a relationship right before his eyes; can you really blame him for reinforcing that belief in his mind?. ^_^

(Speaking of which, isn’t that the AIR peach juice and the tiramisu juice there?)

And the notorious prankster Okazaki Tomoya puts his next nefarious scheme into plan. Little does he know that very soon, the prank will slip out of his grasp and start running away….

I concur with the question. Not that it has ever stopped the guy before….

It’s amazing how KyoAni can still come up with some ridiculously smooth action scenes whenever they feel like it, and Kyou’s combo definitely counts as one of the more awesome ones. I like Key adaptations as much as the next Kagikko, but I’m really starting to miss the awesomeness that KyoAni can give in their fight scenes when they’re particularly dedicated to it….give us some more FMP, please!

It’s been a long time since we had a display of Kyou’s martial abilities, and it was almost as if she knows it too and is trying to make up for all of it. What makes her even more scary awesome is how she’s laughing this time around; an angry tsundere committing violence is standard stuff, but a tsundere committing violence in glee is the stuff of awesome nightmares.

And she’s on a roll here, taking the chance to smack even Tomoya with a good one. 10/10 for momentum.

I guess Hinano-sama can be thankful that I’ve unfortunately run out of Hinano jokes for the moment…. :p

Well, allow me to say sorry on behalf of my fellow guys for being guys…. -_-

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen girls doing this gesture in my schooling days before, for the same reason….. XD

The game vets have said that all the Kotomi scenes at this point are basically KyoAni originals; apparently she didn’t appear very much in the original VN, and in fact a lot of them was KyoAni using Kotomi in place of what should have been Fuuko, for obvious reasons. Not that I mind too much; it gives Kotomi a bit more personality than she might have originally had, and I bet quite a few are there are happy enough just to have a lot less of "Douzo!"

What do you need to do to get an upgrade for Kotomi’s violin? And what do the upgraded stats look like?

The next girl they ask is Yukine, and for a while there it actually seemed to be a good idea…..

….until something completely random happens.

Random as it may seem, it may actually not be all that random after all; apparently the nameless punk is the link to Miyazawa’s story, and may serve as a sign that KyoAni fully intends to cover the Yukine sub-route as well once they are done with the Sunohara siblings. The first half of ~After Story~ is probably going to be KyoAni doing their darndest to wrap up all the references to the game as best as they can, before proceeding to the main story. Hmmm…..I’m impatient for the true After Story, but this doesn’t work too bad either.

And the clincher which shocks even the Dirty Duo.

Usually, I would have thought Sanae is just being Sanae….but because of my stupidity in spoiling myself on a certain SEEN in the Baka-Tsuki translation, I know this is not even the most misleading thing she is capable of. It makes one wonder whether she is simply just Sanae, or whether there is a LOT more to her than it seems on the surface…heck, she’s a woman who’s probably pushing 40, and still retains the ability to charm her prospective son-in-law AND his friend. That’s a power that will tempt even the best of women,  especially if you consider that the woman knows that such power will not last much longer….. XD

Seems like the ‘hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii~’ is also a hereditary trait in the Sunohara bloodline.

Tomoya has the look of a prankster who realises that one of his pranks have gone "off the wire".

I’m not the only one to have noticed that Nagisa’s change in hairstyle is clearly not for the worse; I believe there was even one who said that "from imouto to woman with just a single accessory".

Still, for all the points she scored with her hairclip, Nagisa pales in comparison to her mother, so much so that the common consensus amongst fellow animebloggers is that Sanae is the main draw of the episode. As there’s little more I can do to add to the chorus, I’ll leave you guys with a dedication to all of you members of the Sanae Cosplay Fan Club.

Back. Only in anime can a MILF completely disguise herself simply by donning a seifuku and megane with a change of hairstyle, but as it IS anime, Mei naturally can’t see past her disguise. What’s most interesting though is the expression on Mei-chan’s face; I can’t even tell if she’s concerned or jealous, or even feeling something else I haven’t thought of yet. In any case, the Sunohara Siblings Arc continues in the next episode, and we’ll see how the whole charade goes from there. It’s not a particularly substantial episode, so I’ll be waiting to see next week just what it was that makes the Sunohara Siblings arc such an acclaimed one amongst the game vets.

Until next week. Ascaloth, out.