April 2012
10 posts
2 tags
Episode Eight: On the Proper Use of Memory Loss
The crying game continues.
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It’s what looks like the penultimate episode of the Fuko arc, and shit is hitting the fan. Tomoyo forgets! Ryou and Kyou forget! Even poor old Sunohara forgets, the bastard, as do Nagisa’s parents. At the episode’s end, only Nagisa and Tomoya are left, and whether or not they’ll last to the end of next episode is up for debate. If no...
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Episode Seven: Cry, Damnit! Cry!
This isn’t looking good.
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Looks like next episode is going to be one of those infamous crying episodes of Clannad. There was a lot of crying in this episode, too! Not just the show attempting to make the viewer cry, but the characters themselves getting down and sobbing in despair. It’s a bit like a laugh track, except I suppose it is meant to make you sob rather than...
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Episode Six: Invasion of the Starfish
They’re everywhere.
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I’d totally read a novel about how Fuko’s starfish obsession takes over the world. Think the Maromi obsession from Paranoia Agent, or the spirals from Uzimaki—except with wooden starfish, starfish-shaped bread, star-shaped cakes and every other conceivable kind of star you can think of. In the center of it all, a certain mysterious girl who...
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Episode Five: Fuuko Raises Her Hand
Fuko has a question!
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Fuko wants to know what happened to the theater club. Was there not a theater club? Fuko appreciates the help of archenemy Tomoya and his friend but do they not have things to accomplish on their own? Why must they drop everything and assist Fuko in her starfish-carving activities? If they were to ask Fuko to join said theater club then Fuko would probably agree...
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Episode Four: THUNDERCATS ARE GO!
The cast assembles!
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This episode feels like the “beginning” of Clannad in a lot of ways. No more do you have character introductions in which Tomoya just happens to run across a new girl with a strange quirk. Instead, he and Nagisa are on the move, pulling multiple characters together in order to keep their dream of a Theater Club alive. As much as I don’t think that...
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Episode Three: In Which Boars are Adorable
Okay, Botan is pretty cute.
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If there’s one thing I’ve come to learn about Clannad, it’s that it doesn’t try to make you empathize with the characters. Toradora made me care about Ami, Honey and Clover same me see myself in Takemoto’s shoes, but the cast of Clannad? Except for maybe Tomoya, they don’t act anything like real people. What the show does...
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Episode Two: The Episode With Basketball In It
Not quite what you’re expecting.
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This episode continues with the somewhat forced character introductions. Newcomers include a girl who is apparently a genius, and another girl who is apparently obsessed with carving stars and has cut herself many times. The former is spacy enough, but I have serious problems believing that the latter is a high school student. If the Real Average...
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Episode One: We start to walk up the long, long...
And so it begins.
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It becomes obvious right away that the folks over at Kyoto Animation aren’t taking it easy, adapting the story of Clannad into an anime. A lazy studio might take the general beginning of the visual novel, pan over pictures of Tomoya walking to school, then to where he meets with Nagisa, then have the two of them walk up a hill. That sort of happens here, but...
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The Beginning
An explanation might be required.
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“I have never seen a work so well crafted together in a combination of good storytelling; strong character development, artistic value, impressive visuals, and soul haunting music all weave together for form this beautiful masterpiece. It was because of Clannad that I was interested in what define “masterpiece”, before Clannad I have...
