Never underestimate how much your friends trust you.

Dear Tomoya,
I must stress that you cannot rely on deception as a method of communication. It may be alright to do this just for fun, but this isn’t the approach you should take when dealing with family issues. If you had just brought both Youhei and Mei to me I’m sure we could have settled this quickly and promptly. You put Mei in a lot of danger by involving her with the school affairs, and it’s not like you didn’t know what kind of attitudes they have. Somewhere along the way you forgot that you are a better friend to Youhei than to Mei, underestimating what he thinks of you and only looking at things in the shoes of Mei. Of all people to provoke Youhei you would be the last he would respond to. Youhei had absolute faith in you, whether it was in taking care of Mei as her boyfriend or something else. You thought he was heartless but he was worrying the whole time; you thought he wasn’t paying attention but he was silently watching the two of you the whole time, to make sure you lived up to his expectations of his best friend. You should try to learn more from your girlfriend, you have taught her many things over the last year but you seem to be unwilling to listen to all her concerns about you. As her boyfriend you should be taking into serious consideration her opinion of you, in a relationship it is not enough for only one to be changing and the other to be making the changes.

Yours,
Yukine Miyazawa.

Would Youhei really want to play soccer with those people?

Why Yukine? Of all the characters in the show, Yukine seems to be the one who is most capable of looking at social situations from a very broad point of view, being able to understand all parts of the situation simultaneously and objectively. Aside from her, Ryou Fujibayashi is the only other in the main cast that also excels at this, but her naïve nature would bias her opinions and suggestions (Maybe Sanae too, but we don’t know enough about her to say for sure). After even a short consultation Yukine was able to understand Youhei’s reasoning for leaving the soccer club, and his reservations against joining them again. She did address this, but Mei and Okazaki were both too stubbornly single-minded to pick up on her hint.

That aside, the supporting characters in Clannad just keep getting stronger and stronger; the curiosity around Yukine and her brother (I’ll assume that the guy that she was harbouring in episode 02) is building, but at the same time I really wish KyoAni would slow down with the character introductions and focus solely on Tomoya’s past and/or his relationship with Nagisa. At this point we don’t know how strong Tomoya and Nagisa’s relationship is, and the matter between Tomoya and his father is still unsettled. It’s strange how both of those are unaddressed since if Tomoya was still staying at the Furukawa’s the relationship should be more intimate; else he would be staying back at home meaning he settled the matters with his father.

An unusually powerful aura for a supporting imouto character.

Episode 03 was a good turn-around from episode 02 and feels much more on route. I was not too impressed with the first bit of the episode where the two going out since it seemed a dry carry-through of the previous episode, but it really did illustrate Youhei’s awkward social manners and overall immaturity and depression. The story finally starting to kick itself back in in the playground scene through parallel events where Youhei and Mei’s histories start revealing themselves. We are reminded of the certain issue that prevents Youhei from playing in the soccer team, this was only mentioned once in a brief scene in the first season. The tensions further In Mei’s rant in the dorm at 11:11, I believe that it is none other than her brother that she is referring to, or at least the version of her brother that now exists only in her memories. Like I complained before, this arc is focusing on the minor characters, but even as minor characters I am finding Youhei as a character with a reason of existence for purposes other than comic relief, and Mei as a more and more powerful individual and no longer just “Youhei’s random sister” like she was in the first season.

I noticed both Mei’s voice actor and KyoAni’s use of camera angles to be superior this episode. I’m not an experienced seiyuu critic, so I’ll just point out a few lines I found particularly effective. At 14:14, Mei’s line “Gosh, he’s so hopeless…” is one of the most emotional lines, perfectly expressing the feeling of laughing one’s problems off. Compare to the same line at 10:19 which is said much more neutrally. Another particularly good script sequence is at 11:11 in Youhei’s dorm: “That’s right. But that’s not all” and the crepe/photo-booth lines are full of imouto goodness. I think the breathing has a lot to do with effective voice acting, I’m noticing a lot of little gasps and puffs and hiccups that make Yukari Tamura’s voice acting (for Mei amongst many other roles) much more effective and realistic.

On towards the camera angles, I find the choices excellent for isolating characters to show the feeling of being left-out. This is mainly Youhei in this episode, and going through these snapshots it really provokes one to think about how much he is hiding when he is his usual perverted smug self. I disabled the subtitles since I want to focus on the animation only; these are presented in chronological order.

Ending remark: What’s Ryou doing in the next episode preview? Everything so far seems unrelated to her…

After watching the first episode of Clannad After Story I found myself wondering who a lot of the characters were. Naturally, I have a bad memory, and only recall the faces of some characters from some part of the first series. I skimmed through the first series to re-familiarize myself with these characters that have Fuko’d from my mind. Hopefully they’re here to stay, instead of running off after an un-surprising fail.

Forgotten Character #1: Yusuke Yoshino

First appearance: Episode 3

Yusuke Yoshino was the electrician Tomoya Okazaki helped get out of a bind when accused of dropping a tool on a man’s car. He has a strange charismatic aura, and says things such as

Tomoya saves Yoshino from a fake accusation

“I want you to reflect on this one day and think if what the electrician that day said was true or false. At a place you feel most restful, next to the person you find most dear. People’s lives are repetitions of actions hurting each other. It’s understandable to doubt others, but being unable to trust anything is the same as being unable to sense other people’s love.
Aren’t you, perhaps, feeling lonely? Aren’t you, perhaps, living slavishly? Are you able to laugh with an honest heart?”

Yusuke was part of Fuko’s arc in the first series, being the fiancé/husband of her older sister, of whom is:

The first appearance of Fuko's sister, in the Furukawa bakery

Forgotten Character #2: Kouko Ibuki

First Appearance: Episode 3

Kouko was the art teacher in Nagisa’s freshman year, but retired after Fuko got involved in a car accident. (Whether the accident was the reason for her retirement I am not sure of.) Kouko, with Tomoya and Nagisa’s assistance, are married on the school grounds where many of the students attend due to a subconscious link with the wedding and the starfish Fuko has been carving and handing out.

Misae Sagara, frequently seen around Sunohara's dorm

Forgotten Character #3: Misae Sagara

First Appearance: Episode 1

Misae is the housekeeper for Youhei Sunohara’s dorm. She doesn’t have that much of a role in the first series other than for comic relief, however, I expect her to be a major part of one arc in After Story. (see prediction #2)

That’s it for the reappearances; we should all remember Mei as the matchmaker from the summer special (episode 23). The following is a list of obervations I noticed throughout episode 01, and I think these will give us some predictions about After Story’s course of flow:

Prediction #1: Tomoya’s daydream

The first scene we see are two Tomoya- like people, one at a young age, riding on a train past the trademark yellow floral fields, followed by them holding hands, having a seemingly enjoyable and relaxing time. I suspect that this is a flashback of Tomoya’s childhood while he still got along with his father. Furthurmore, Tomoya’s father is also mentioned at 8:40, where Nagisa asks Tomoya to invite him but Tomoya suggests another time would be better (possibly because of his shoulder + baseball.)

Another possibility is that the scene is of Tomoya and his future son, but I see no reason for Nagisa to be absent.

Tomoyo's compliments start unveiling a complicated past.

Prediction #2: Tomoyo & Misae’s past

There was some interesting conversation between Tomoyo Sakagami and Misae Sagara at 07:40 that seemed to be a follow up to episode 11 17:25. Tomoyo seems to look up to Misae and wants to become friendly rivals, speaking like she has learned much from Misae in the past. This leads me to think that Misae has had a major role related to Tomoyo’s dark history that was left unmentioned in the first series.

Furthurmore, regarding Tomoyo, in the opening (1:06 into the opening, 2:07 into the episode) we see her making a promise with someone, but aside from gender she is completely unidentifiable. I thought at first that it was Misae she was making a promise with, but it is unusual for that to take place in a classroom.

The following are all observations in the opening. Add 1:01 to the time if you’re checking this with After Story 01, to compensate for the duration of the introduction.

Prediction #3: Tomoya & Yoshino

0:40 into the opening we see Tomoya in the car of who looks like Yoshino; since Tomoya has no plans to enter college it’s possible that he has started working with Yoshino as an electrician/repairman.

Kyou confronting the Special Child

Prediction #4: Kyou as Tomoya & Nagisa’s daughter’s teacher

At 0:52 we see Kyou leading a group of children, and she had mentioned earlier (Episode 17 05:44) that she wanted to become a kindergarten teacher. There seems to be a single child that is shown several times in the opening and ending, it is possible that this is Tomoya and Nagisa’s child. It would take several years for Kyou to complete her teaching education, and it coincidentally takes a similar amount of time for a new-born to reach kindergarten age. Seeing that the in the first episode of After Story the Theater Club members were still in high school, I’m expecting a big change in pace the next several episodes.

Fuko embracing the Special Child

Prediction #5: Fuko’s awakening

At 2:17 we see someone with Fuko’s trademark hair and blue ribbon embracing that child mentioned in prediction 4. Since Kyoto Animation wouldn’t be one to neglect details and reasoning, I suppose one of the reasons Fuko had such a big arc in the first series is because she becomes an important character in After Story.

Characters in the ED:

The Special Child makers her third appearance at the start of the ending, the dango that follow directly after provide futher indication that she is indeed Nagisa’s daughter.

The moonwalking characters seem to be presenting themselves in what appears to me the order of least- to most-important role. This should be another indication of which characters After Story will focus on. Strange that Tomoyo is all be the way behind Rie and Sugisaka, since she is one of the fourexplicitly mentioned in the opening. Perhaps there is another reason to the sequence of these characters that will be revealed later on. There are some characters I am not 100% sure of, and two I cannot identify at all. Here is the list, in the order of appearance:

1. Toshoi Koumura (counsellor)
2. Sanae Furukawa
3. Akio Furukawa
4. ???
5. Yukine Miyazawa (library coffee and charm girl)
6. ???
7. Mei Sunohara
8. Misae Sagara (and cat)
9. Tomoyo Sakagami
10. Takafumi Sakagami? (Tomoyo’s brother)
11. Yusuke Yoshino
12. Kouko Ibuki
13. Sugisaka (Rie’s friend; threatened Nagisa regarding the choir club)
14. Rie Nishina (former user of violin)
15. Kotomi’s godfather
16. Kotomi Ichinose
17. Ryou Fujibayashi(and botan)
18. Kyou Fujibayashi
19. Nagisa Furukawa
20. Tomoya Okazaki

If anyone knows the identity of those two characters I would be highly interested and grateful if you let me know.