Re: Clannad After Story Episode 16 English Dub 720p Resolution
Velasco Thibault
The Clannad animated television series is based on the visual novel Clannad by the Japanese visual novel brand Key. The episodes, produced by the animation studio Kyoto Animation, are directed by Tatsuya Ishihara, written by Fumihiko Shimo, and features character design by Kazumi Ikeda who based the designs on Itaru Hinoue's original concept. The story follows the main character Tomoya Okazaki, a discontented high school student whose life changes when he meets a girl one year older than he is, named Nagisa Furukawa.
If you were wondering why I was being picky about conveniences at the start of explaining this meeting, it probably makes sense now. This resolution to the conflict between Tomoya and his father is just convenience after convenience after convenience after convenience. Some small, some embarrassingly large.
The story seems to have been built on missed potential from the get go. From the synopsis, I was under the impression that the story involved a cast of characters helping teenagers with their magic powers, rather than scouring town to make people stop using them. The result of this, is that each of the initial episodes were a shallow dive into unfleshed characters who had no hope of having a follow up session in the story. Angel Beats might have been bogged down by too many characters, but the characters they focussed on managed to get some backstory to them. Then again, not a single character in Charlotte feels like they have an ounce of flesh on their bones.
I cried so much when I finished the whole series including the after story. But I have a question, what happened to Tomoya? Because after Ushio died, it went into like recaps and stuff. Please answer!
The last 2 episodes of clannad after story are just flashbacks or recaps? so tomoya and nagisa do stay together after all???? So then why does clannad after story 24 show tomoya talking to the twins about dating one of them?? If he decided to go out with the long purple haired twin then how can him and nagisa still together?????
Sounds like an interesting series to check out, but I see where you're coming from in your objections. Sometimes you're just not in the mood for fantasy and parallel universes and such.
There's an anime I watched a couple episodes of that seemed to be more of a non-fantasy series (though I can't say for sure, because I only watched it in math class once). It's called Azumanga Daioh, but good luck finding it, because it's apparently neither Netflix nor Funimation. Guess that wasn't so helpful after all!
@Omni: is that the last episode of clannad after story, the recap episode? If so, then that blows! Everyone, or at least the majority people dont really find the recap usefull, I for once, thinks its just a waste time, especially if they include it in the series run.
The ride was fun ever since back in the first episode. Im sad its over but it was just grand while it lasted. Thanks for bloggin the show omni! I enjoyed heading over here to read impressions and comments after each episode.
To start putting it all together, I will begin with the general scenes presented to us, before moving on to the specific elements. First, the hill where Tomoya has to make the choice to speak to Nagisa or not. While this very literal visual reference to their first encounter may make one initially believe that this is the past, it quickly becomes obvious that it is something else. Tomoya remembers his life up until the final moments with Ushio which we saw; it is after all because of the events of his life that he is inclined to let Nagisa walk by. As for Nagisa, when she does eventually speak we find that it is not her past self either; not only does she remember her life with Tomoya (referring to it in the past tense no less), she also knows what is on his mind. Finally, looking at the world itself, time has stopped, frozen at this moment of decision.Looking at these details, this scene is obviously Tomoya thinking back to this moment, when he met Nagisa and set this chain of events in motion. What is less clear is what exactly it is that we are seeing on screen. It is not actually the past. Perhaps it is merely a visual representation of his thoughts? Perhaps he is experiencing this event again in his mind, and in his mind cannot bring himself to speak. Or, perhaps the pivotal choice he faces combined with the supernatural powers at work have made this a physical experience, a physical place out of time. Which is the case cannot be determined for certain and does not really matter. All that matters is that this scene embodies the choice he has to make, in the physical form of this important moment from his past. Nagisa's nature is similarly unclear. Is she actually a ghost Nagisa, drawn back to Tomoya in his mind or in this timeless place in order to play the role of her past self? Or is she merely a fragment of Tomoya's mind speaking for the real Nagisa? A difference in Nagisa's case is the fact that she speaks to Tomoya, tells him what she thinks, which pushes me toward believing that this is in some way actually her, and that this is in some sense a real physical experience which they have both been drawn to in order to facilitate Tomoya's final choice.The other scene is the illusionary world. It has been around since the very first episode, though it has never been clearly explained what it is. It is described by the doll as a world that has ended, a place where even time does not exist. The world that the doll came from, the real world, is described as being the past, the future, and even the present. Being without time, aligning the worlds chronologically is impossible, and it is simpler to think of them as linked worlds, one affecting the other, rather than one following the other. Kotomi's parents' research describes just such a world. We do know more about the illusionary world, the final pieces the girl gives us just before it is destroyed, but for now it suffices to make one final point about it. While a proper temporal relationship between the two worlds cannot be achieved, the illusionary world does seem to have a temporal connection to the timeless hill that Tomoya finds himself on. The scene is presented such that it seems that the destruction of the illusionary world is what causes Tomoya to 'wake up', suggesting that, being two timeless places, the hill and the illusionary world can interact in a temporal way, whereas it seems to come before, during and after the real world. Why the events in the illusionary world affect Tomoya in this way, I will get onto later.
The doll in the illusionary world is Tomoya. Ushio states that the orbs in that world are the feelings of people in the real world, and that the doll started out as one of those lights. From this we can conclude that the doll started as the manifestation of Tomoya's feelings in the illusionary world, before being turned into the doll. There is obviously some difference between the doll and the other lights in the illusionary world, as they simply passively exist, while the doll was able to gain some degree of life with the help of Ushio, I'll examine this difference later on. Focusing on the doll for now, if it embodies Tomoya's feelings we would expect a link of some kind with the real Tomoya - and we find it. When Nagisa accidentally retells the story of the illusionary world in her play, real Tomoya recalls the story. Similarly, doll Tomoya recalls a life in a different world. This is one of the hints as to the timeless relationship between the two worlds - since both versions of Tomoya recall each other, this means neither one really comes after the other, otherwise only one Tomoya could remember the other. It also doesn't seem to be happening at the same time, as both speak about the other as if it is a memory from their distant past.It is simplest to think of both Tomoyas as being parts of a single whole. They are both part of a single complete existence, so they perceive each other, but because they are in separate worlds they each perceive the other part of that existence as a complete life outside of time, neither past, nor present, nor future, or perhaps all three at once. To be more precise but possibly less clear, time in each world is block time, and while in-world perception is classically linear, the perception of the other world is of the entire block, while cannot be reconciled with the perceived linear time of the reference universe and thus appears out of time, or as past, present and future.
The events which follow Tomoya's choice to stay with Nagisa are sometimes referred to as a deus ex machina. Before 'dying', Illusionary Ushio mentioned the power of the orbs, importantly that they are more powerful when brought together. The combination of real Tomoya and doll Tomoya now use this power to travel to the moment when Nagisa died and change the outcome. This time she lives. And since the power which granted this wish was the power of all the feelings of the city, shown by the numerous blue orbs, rather than one man's wish, it will work properly this time. This may seem to be a case of conveniently undoing a bad end using magic. However, Tomoya later reveals that he remembers the original version of events. This is not a case of going back and rewriting an unhappy ending. The unhappy version was a necessary stepping stone to get to the happy ending.Tomoya starts as a person stuck in an unchanging world through his own inaction. Throughout the series he consistently has to improve his lot in life by taking action. Helping the people around him, moving on with his life, moving out and getting a job, reconciling with Ushio and his father, helping Ushio in the illusionary world, constantly pushing forward. Having gone through all this only to lose everything, he is presented the choice of going back to his old life, or sticking with his new life regardless of the consequences. Rather than undoing the character development after episode 16, the fact that he does remember everything that originally happened, is forced to choose to face it or to give up, and chooses to face it, validates and completes all of the character development throughout the series. Having reached the end of the journey he is faced with the ultimate question - knowing how it ends, would he do it all again?As for the actual ending, it fits into a pattern throughout the series wherein the positive actions of the protagonist always bring about a happy ending. After Story isn't a story about living with the harsh realities of life, it is a story about the willingness to take on the risk or even inevitability of those harsh realities to seek whatever it is you desire. Such a story would be sabotaged by having the protagonist lose out in the end despite his perseverance. Were it to end that way, the story would be that Tomoya sought to set his life right, and instead only made things worse, a message a series like this is obviously not going to try to convey. While Tomoya did eventually get the convenient happy ending, he only got it by proving that he would accept the harsh reality of the original chain of events. The point of the series is in the journey, not the destination.
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