The (not BL but) Anime Thread

[Kreekakon]

Well, this post is coming in a bit late, since I already finished the show a couple days ago...but I still want to talk a bit about Clannad: After Story.

Long story short, and most important tibbit: You WILL cry. Once the feels train starts going it is not going to stop.

Long version (No SPOILERS): After watching the first season I thought it was pretty good, but After Story despite having a rocky start completely took my heart, and deconstructed it to a pile of lovely mush.

After Story's opening stories were mostly quite meh especially when compared to the first season's character stories.

Yukine's story, despite her being quite a likable character, was particularly horribly contrived, and definitely the lowest point of the entire series. Her story made very little sense, and many of the reasons that certain events that are set into motion are result of the characters' stupidity.

The others were much better (Though that's not saying much) with Misae's arc being probably my most liked one out of the three.

But after the character arcs are over it's when the "fun" truly begins. Referencing a review that I saw, the first season of Clannad is the depiction of "school life", and After Story is the depiction of "life itself".

There are so many reasons that the story works, and I'll list them off point by point since there are more than a few:

1. The characters' interactions, obstacles, and natures are all good at heart.

Not once in the series have I seen problems arise because of "cynical" issues such as cheating, distrust, or general bitching (Save for very few things which I feel like was handled well enough that it didn't give off a negative vibe too much, or that I just couldn't blame them). The characters in the series are all very supportive of each other, and want each other to succeed. Seeing them all be so positive, and never resenting one another makes the plot, and story very likable, and in turn makes me want to see them succeed.

This is extremely impressive since they came up with obstacles that the characters had to overcome without making them seem like bitchy people who resent their lives.

The obstacles are no less impactful though, and put very heavy strain on the characters.

2. The character development is extremely apparent, and very well paced.

You can see the main cast move through their lives, and VERY visibly be different from when they were still high school students. They are now members of society with family members to support, and they mature up massively. When they run into problems they also deal with them maturely (Or at least realize that they have to mature up)

3. The contrast in theme between season 1, and After Story.

I have seen complaints on some reviews that the first season was relying too much on moe aspects, and too randomly cute. However, same as with what I said before with Higurashi, I believe that this was actually an intentional, and positive theme that they put in for the series AS A WHOLE.

The cutesy nature of the first season reflects the care-free nature of pre-adult life. There are problems in such a life, but they are all trivial for the most part easily overcome when worked towards hard enough. It is significantly less heavy than society life problems.

However once the characters graduate from school the cutesy nature of the series is mostly gone save for light-hearted segments. This reflects the heavy nature of society life, and how serious dealing with it can be sometimes.

I believe another intentional addition was removing many of the secondary characters from the picture. While this is apparently done so that the main characters can have more screentime, I believe it was also done to reflect how everyone parts ways, and rarely see each other after school.

4. The characters all are extremely close, and work VERY hard to maintain this closeness, and their happiness.

Nothing much to say about this. It is a hard sensation to describe in words. It is also a very main reason why one will cry when it works out (Happiness), or doesn't work out (Sadness) for the characters.

5. The story is relatable.

It is actually scarily relatable. The story is one that one could not rule out completely of happening in one's true life. All the happy, and all the bad could happen, and that boosts the power of the story oh so much.

It is so relatable that it can even cause you to rethink certain aspects of your life, and realize things that you have overseen...mostly in the department of love, family, and relationships with people in general. It has potential to be life-changing.


That's basically all of my main thoughts on After Story. I could go deeper, and talk about individual story happenings, but I felt that they would all eventually lead back to one of my above mentioned points, so there's little point.

All in all, this series was amazing, and potentially life-changing. The opening episodes were a bit on the weak side, but the second half is truly amazing. Once the feels train starts it won't stop.

This has now officially become the second media which has made me cry genuine tears after Higurashi Kai, and the FIRST to make me continuously cry on multiple occasions.