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© 2004 by Key / Jive / Kyoto Animation
© 2004 by Key / Jive / Kyoto Animation
© 2004 by Key / Jive / Kyoto Animation
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February 18, 2010
by: Eric Anderson
Can this follow-up series live up to its predecessor’s magic?
Review Hardware Used: Samsung LN46A650 46-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV; Panasonic SA-HE100 Home Theater Receiver; Xbox 360 console
Disc Description:
Picking up where Clannad left off, After Story follows Tomoya and Nagisa over the next ten years of their time living together as a family.
Disc Review (This section may contain spoilers.)
Have you ever wished that you could freeze a single moment and that your life could simply stay like that for the rest of time? If you have, you know that’s not how things work. The moment comes and the moment goes, and you’re left in its wake, dazed, and wondering how on Earth you got here in the first place. Clannad: After Story is kind of like that. Picking up almost right where the first series left off, if you don’t count that extra Tomoyo episode they threw in, Tomoya Okazaki is drawing ever closer to graduating from high school, something he could have never done had he not met, and fallen in love with, Nagisa. Now the two of them are a couple in that sometimes they hold hands, but they do live together, which is actually kind of strange. At first glance it would appear that things could just go on like this forever, but like real life, that’s not the way things are destined to happen.
After a rather unnecessary opening episode involving a baseball game, the series launches into a solid three arcs of side-stories concerning some of the more ancillary characters from the original show. The first surrounds Youhei, Tomoya’s best friend, and Youhei’s little sister Mei. Mei is worried that her brother is headed down the wrong path, so to ease her mind, or at least get her to leave him alone, Youhei hatches a crazy scheme that snags Nagisa’s mom and seems like something right out of an 80’s sitcom. The whole experience comes off as awkward and contrived, and it makes Youhei look like a really superficial jerk when we know he’s capable of more than that. I thought it was a really weak way to open the set, and it had me worried about how the rest was going to turn out.
The other two arcs involve Misae, the young woman who runs the dormitory where Youhei lives, and Yukine, the girl who seems to be living in the reference room at the school. Both of these stories are a bit more emotionally driven than the first arc, but at the same time they leave much to be desired. Every time one of the major characters from the first series appears on screen you find yourself wanting to know more about them and not the side-actors. It felt like filler, and even though there were some good parts, I didn’t see the need to devote eight entire episodes to these tales. There was so much potential with the characters they’d already focused on that I didn’t quite understand the decision to try to cram in more stories.
 © 2004 by Key / Jive / Kyoto Animation
Nagisa wakes Tomoya every morning in his new apartment
It isn’t until the last third of the set that we get to the meat of why we came here: Nagisa and Tomoya, and their ever-expanding relationship. As they near the winter of their senior year, Nagisa, who is stricken with anime-girl wasting disease, once again becomes ill, and due to the severity of her illness, is forced to miss so much school that she will have to repeat the year for a third time. I liked this plot element. It added another layer to the characters’ development. Now Nagisa will have to overcome her crutch of always having Tomoya around to pick her up when she falls, and Tomoya will have to make something of himself in the big world out there without Nagisa to keep him on track. Will he be able to become a man and make a future for himself? Will Nagisa be able to hang on to her dreams of running the drama club and being independent?
How it plays out was not what I expected, and I applaud the show for that. They went a different route when all the other series of this ilk might have taken the easy way out and gone for the fairy tale ending. Under all the bright, vivid colors and idyllic sunny days, there’s some realness to Clannad that honestly took me by surprise. It was refreshing to see and almost made up for the disappointing first episodes. It all comes to a head near the end of the set when a devastating setback arises in Tomoya’s future plans, and he comes to a drastic decision that will not only affect his and Nagisa’s lives forever, but also the entirety of the show.
 © 2004 by Key / Jive / Kyoto Animation
Tomoya’s new job takes him high above the city
Like I mentioned at the start, we’d all love to have that perfect moment be the rest of our lives, and for Tomoya and Nagisa, there’s probably nothing that would make them happier, but that’s never going to be the way things go down, and it’s how the characters handle that realization that makes this such an intriguing show to watch. Sure, these two represent something that few of us will ever know, with her bottomless pool of support and his endless supply of sheer tenacity, however I think it’s easy to see a little bit of yourself in both of them and you can’t help but cheer them on as they try their hardest to make the best of the life they’ve been given.
The show’s presentation is, in a word, gorgeous. Animated in 16:9 aspect ratio, every frame is lovingly crafted. The choice of colors is indicative of the style, and invokes all the feeling you’d expect from a show of this type. The character designs are also excellent, in the traditional big-eyed anime look you’ve come to know and love. The music is a bit flowery and sometimes the same tracks are over used, but the sound itself is clear and nicely balanced. Strangely, there is no English dub, only the original Japanese track with subtitles. The subs are done well enough, but they’re presented in yellow, which is never going to be my first choice as they often appear blurred or hard to read. Save for a couple trailers and some clean credit sequences, there are no extras to be found.
The Bottom Line
The message of Clannad: After Story is simple, yet poignant. Even though life may throw some real curveballs at you, your friends and the people you love will always be there to help you through whatever may come. They may not be related by blood, but they’re your family none the less. It’s a beautiful message when taken at its heart, and this show does a fantastic job of conveying that heart. It’s by no means perfect. Nagisa’s simpering tone will just about drive you up the wall, and Tomoya’s stubborn nature can get insanely frustrating, but these are small issues when taken into the overall picture, and in a way go that next step in making the characters more robust, more real. The darker tone towards the end of the set is a departure from the first series, so it will be a shock to some, but if you liked the original Clannad I would highly recommend watching this second installment.
 © 2004 by Key / Jive / Kyoto Animation
Will their love be enough to get them through the hardest of times?
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