Finished Clannad: After Story last night for the first time. My heart bro.. my heart..
If you haven't seen Clannad/Clannad: After Story, warning there are spoilers ahead. More importantly, what the heck go watch both now.
Firstly, I would like to say that I personally enjoyed After Story (AS for simplicity) more than Clannad. I'm not sure I can pin exactly why, but I will try my best. I believe one of the sole reasons I enjoyed it more was the closure we get with Tomoya and Nagisa's relationship (episodes 16-21 were hard on my soul though). I enjoyed seeing them get a happy ending. One thing I found super interesting were the parallels the show drew between Tomoya and Tomoya's father. Up until the last couple episodes, Tomoya saw his father in a negative light as the only interactions he could remember of his father at the time were ones of his father's negligance of Tomoya, although we learn that this was not necessarily true. When Ushio and Tomoya went on the trip up north to the flower patch, Tomoya realizes that he was just like his father, ignoring Ushio for 5 years and just being a terrible father overall. This moment of realization struck me really hard was one of the best scenes in this series. Tomoya's grandma a real G.
The conclusion of the other world was rather interesting. I don't really have much to say about this since I don't really understand it, nor do I think it was intended for the audience to understand the other world. Throughout both series, I had been trying to guess who the two characters in the other world could represent but alas it was difficult and everytime I thought I was right, the show threw me off. As the other world ended it was a pleasant surprise to see that the girl was Ushio and the robot was Tomoya. The moment when Ushi said "See you later papa" or something similar was a moment that put a smile on my face. In the case for the weird plot magic that was going on that I didn't really enjoy in Clannad, I think it works here in AS for the simple fact that I really hoped for a happy ending lol.
Overall, I think I'd give AS a
9.5/10. I really enjoyed the show and I loved all the characters for the most part. One thing I did miss in this show that was different in Clannad was all the interactions between the characters. I really missed Sonohara in AS as we only saw him like 3 times.
As always, these are just my initial thoughts after finishing the show, so if I missed anything please let me know
going to write something about God of High School as the show is nearing it's end
Last edited by wizard; Sep 18, 2020 at 07:23 AM.