Clannad Ending - Discussion and Interpretation Thread [Spoilers Aplenty]
 

What this thread is not about: Moaning and bitching about how crap the ending is or Raving and rambling about how great the ending is. There are other threads here for that.

What this thread is really about: As the title suggests, this thread will seek to do exactly what it says, that is to interpret and discuss about the surreal events concerning the Illusionary World that leads to the ending we see in episode 22 of After Story.

All speculation, theories and discussion are welcome, and remember to please keep things civil.

Finally: Since this is a discussion of the ending, after all. SPOILERS ARE APLENTY! You have been warned.

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Now to get the ball rolling, here's my take on the ending. I'm not really the sort to lump my thinking into long-winded essays as other talented users here are capable of doing at ease, so they'll all be in point form. Please bear with me. :cool:

• It is established that the Illusionary World (from hereon called IW) is a dimension adjacent to the one the characters reside in (from hereon called the ClannadVerse (CV)), as speculated by Kotomi's parents before their untimely demise. It is not bound by time and space, as travellers who come in are able to exit in a different time.

• This IW can only be accessed when one possess the right conditions.

• Yukine mentions of the Town legend of light orbs, which only appear when one attains a moment of happiness. Only a select few people are blessed to see and receive such orbs, and Tomoya is one of them (for reasons which will become apparent below).

• While Yukine makes first mention of the light orbs after Tomoya sees and receives one, they can also be seen during Fuuko's "class" with Sanae-san (series 1, episode 8), Kotomi receiving her teddy bear (series 1, episode 14), and Misae-san spending time with her cat (AS, episode 6), as well as Tomoya reconciling with his father (AS, episode 19).

• These light orbs then travel beyond the dimensional plane into IW, carrying the thoughts of happiness of these townspeople.

• The IW is somehow bound to Nagisa, while Yukine makes mention of light orbs existing long before everyone's time, so it can be speculated that this IW existed for time immemorial, granting miracles to other people, and thus is born the legend. (Makes sense as there wouldn't be a legend if no one told the story in the first place, no?)

From here on, I would like to refer to this decent interpretation by this Chinese blogger, I shall attempt to translate to my best into English:

Events not run "chronologically", as IW is not bound by time and space, but run in the order that they occur.

• 1. Akio runs to the big tree in the mystical open plain and makes a wish to save Nagisa. The Town grants him this miracle by using the light orbs within the IW to save her. But in turn, this binds her life to the town. In a way, the IW now "feeds off" from Nagisa's attachments towards the town, resulting in her fragile health.

• 2. Tomoya and Nagisa meet and fall in love. This unintentionally causes Nagisa's attachment to shift from the Town towards Tomoya, as a result, the IW would "extract" the lifeforce from Nagisa in order to maintain its existence. (Before Akio made the contract, the IW had always been just a container for the light orbs. )

• 3. Nagisa dies, and Ushio inherits Nagisa's contract with the Town.

• 4. Ushio dies.

• 5. Due to her unique existence with the IW, and her subconscious will to save her mother (this is mostly speculated), Ushio is reborn in the IW and binds her will to it. Though she loses her memories in CV.

• 6. Tomoya, either through death (from grief, suicide?) or through a very strong will, also arrives in the IW, as a light orb (also losing his memories in CV).

• 7. Ushio sensed an orb that somehow seems more sentient than the others, and thus creates a body for that orb (Tomoya/the Robot).

• 8. Both Ushio and the Robot begin their life in IW.

• 9. The Robot somehow remembers something, but can't exactly place what it is, and is compelled to want to take Ushio out of the IW. As Ushio's will integrates even more with the IW, winter arrives.

• 10. Ushio now remembers part of her memories in CV and her desire to save her mother.

• 11. Ushio tells the Robot (Tomoya) about the light orbs, and sends him back in time, back to when Tomoya first met Nagisa, in order to collect as many orbs as possible.

• 12. Tomoya returns to that point in CV, but loses his memories in IW. Ushio becomes one with the IW, collecting the orbs as Tomoya receives them in various alternate timelines.

• 13. In the various alternate realities (as seen in the game, and in the DVD special episode 24, where Tomoya ends up with Tomoyo instead), Tomoya collects the various light orbs for every happiness he, or someone else he helps, attains.

• 14. Ushio in turns receives them, and "resets" the world to that point for every orb collected so that Tomoya may go and collect more. As there are more orbs, the IW regains its ability to sustain itself.

• (Points 15-17 in the original refers to mechanics more relevant to the game players than the anime watchers, which I feel would be redundant, so I'll skip to point 18)

• 18. And finally, Tomoya enters the timeline we see in the anime, where he meets and marries Nagisa. Nagisa still dies in this timeline, but he still manages to collect a few more orbs before coming to CV Ushio's death.

• 19. As Tomoya now collected quite a lot of orbs, IW Ushio is now able to perform the miracle by sending Tomoya back to when CV Ushio is born, and with the power of the orbs, saves Nagisa's life again.

• 20. As history has been altered, the Ushio born in this CV is considered a different person than IW Ushio (though their souls are linked, think Tsubasa Chronicle for this one, i.e. same soul, different bodies).

• 21. Due to the family love created by the Okazakis, the IW is able to sustain itself, and CV Ushio no longer falls ill.

• 22. Her task completed, IW Ushio travels back to CV, where her soul "fuses" with CV Ushio, and she is found sleeping under the tree, where Fuuko (from her residual memory from previous timelines) manages to find and befriend her.

Phew, now that was long! Now feel free to speculate away, and come up with something better and less long-winded than this. :heh:

(The blogger even went so far as to speculate that the second Robot created by IW Ushio is actually Fuuko. But Fuuko's will to help her sister in CV was so strong she rejected Ushio's help. Ditto for Shima the cat. Though I think that's stretching things a bit far, IMHO. )

Another mention must be given to VRMN's excellent post in the episode 22 thread about the ending.

In a way, this is similar to Groundhog Day, or to use a more familiar analogy, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, where the protagonists are given the chance to try and try again before they get things right.

Well, #2 and 3 do a good job explaining how Nagisa and Ushio both died, but the entire concept of the IW is still as weird as hell. I thought it was just meant as a parallel or a metaphor for Tomoya and Nagisa. I didn't know that Kotomi's parents' idea was actually fact. I thought it was just an innocent speculation of the nature of the universe. Very, very bizarre.

I can accept the lights of happiness to a certain extent, but different dimensions connecting and what essentially amounts to time travel? I think Einstein just rolled over in his grave. :p

I will just ask you, can Einstein explain ninja techniques that destroy world? Big animals sealed in a being? Or immortality?;)

And really, you need to rewatch the episodes after reading the explanation to see the details. You just have to connect them to understand.

You know what, I felt like it was a cop out by-- oops BANHAMMER!


Some random thoughts:

I wrote earlier: "Without the events of 16-21, Tomoya could not have earned Ushio’s love, required for him to have an existence in the illusionary world."
(I was alluding to Ushio's construction of a body for *Tomoya*.)
Amusingly, VRMN's post says exactly the same thing (and no, I hadn't seen the post before I wrote that). Coincidence? Hmm, maybe we're soul mates...
"Without the love of his daughter, without the events of the past arc, Ushio would have never built the robot for her father's soul to occupy."


From the visual novel, given enough light orbs:
…I ought to call out.
// …声をかけなければ。
But…
// でも…
Would it be better not to do so…?
// そうしないほうが良かったんじゃないのか…。
It would be better not to get acquainted with a person like me…
// 俺なんかと出会わなかったほうが…
It would probably be better to part our ways here.
// このまま、別々の道を歩いたほうが、良かったんじゃないのか。
But…
// でも…
I…
// 俺は…
Call out
// 呼ぶ
Don’t call out
//OMG NAGISA DIES –> leads to bad ending
// 呼ばない
“…NAGISA!”
// 「…渚っ！」

Interpretation: (and NOTE THAT I'm referring to the player character as "you"!!)
Okay, so before you get the After Story BAD END, you (Tomoya) actually call out to Nagisa during this "flashback" event. But you doesn't really understand why; you doesn't know that Nagisa’s about to die, and you don't know the hell that your immediate relations (Ushio, Sanae, Akki, Naoyuki) are going to experience after Nagisa's death. However, during the BAD END, you will get the remaining light orbs from Naoyuki and Ushio by bringing them happiness/love. [correct me if I'm wrong here, it's been a while...]

After you get the After Story BAD END, you now know the hell that you've lived through. You now have the necessary understanding to make the choice to call out to her, or ignore her. Do you regret meeting Nagisa, because doing so caused Nagisa, Ushio, and many others so much unhappiness?
If so, you don't call out. You decide that meeting Nagisa led to too much pain and suffering for everyone. You doubt that a happy result could actually occur because of what you've seen from your memories from another world. As such, Nagisa dies in childbirth right afterwards--the same as the BAD END.
Or do you realize that regardless of what you know will happen if you meet Nagisa, that Nagisa is the only one who you can be truly happy with? You call out to her, even though you know that meeting Nagisa had led to tragedy before, yet you cling to the hope for a miracle to prevent it. It is then that the miracle occurs, and Nagisa survives Ushio's birth.

I was kidding about Einstein.

...and as I've said for what seems like the millionth time, I've watched both series at least twice, though it has been a few months since I've rewatched the first CLANNAD series.

They never explicitly stated that the IW was really real. I mean, to be honest I never took Kotomi seriously. Why would I? Up until now, there was no real evidence of stuff like parallel dimensions. That, and the anime had been thus far extremely realistic. Even taking the parallel world into account, I was under the impression that the girl/robot was just a metaphor for Nagisa and Tomoya, respectively. Frankly speaking, there's no way I could have known it was Ushio. She hadn't even existed at the time... not even in concept.

And even with everyone explaining the ending to me, I still can't see myself sitting down and actually... enjoying... the last episode (22). It's far too disconnected and disjointed to enjoy except as a collection of random abstract concepts that play with time and space like a yo-yo.

If you watched the first season twice, you should know the connection of the worlds to the memories of Nagisa and Tomoya. The theater club's play based on Nagisa's subsconsious hinted Tomoya about the illusionary world.
Now this is a problem in your part, the fantasy elements are always there in first season. The illusionary worlds are shown time-to-time in whole Clannad story, to explain what happened to Ushio and Tomoya after episode 22. Parallel to the story, the girl gets weakened like Ushio to make the girl and the robot remember their mission.
That's because the illusionary world existed after the "ENd of The World"
Key or should I say Maeda Jun likes to make stories that are not explained briefly.
He just puts some hints or clues in order to make people to interpret in their own way what he really wants us to know.
It's like he's telling a riddle and he wants us to solve it.

Well, the framework for Ichinose family's arguments establish the worldview context, but that unfortunately isn't exactly forthcoming without going into some work on the thought experiments in QM. It is of some surprise that Many world under Hawking turns out to simply fit what's been observed in this story flow wise and in Kotomi arc wise. Building this case on 'how can it have happend in the context of the story' took out an entire night of sleep and some cramming though.

The Chinese site has worked out a chronology, but this would apply to the visual novels which is in my argument a bit closer to the Dewitt/Everett variation on Many Worlds.

This also may just be my opinion, but last time I checked, "hinted" isn't good enough to establish fact. It could just as easily been a metaphor, as I had previously thought. I always just figured Nagisa's play was about how she felt about her own seemingly ephemeral existence. I didn't know she LITERALLY meant another world. If I had thought she was being literal, it would simply be an assumption. As it was, my assumption just happened to be on the wrong side. So I chose to assume it was based in reality. I might have been wrong, but that doesn't mean my "decision" was wrong.

I'll give you that one.

...What? Sorry, but I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about... at all. That's completely out of left field to me. :uhoh:
Is this is CV... or what?

Well, that's just annoying! I mean, I both like and appreciate exposition. Typically. In fact, I'd rather be bored for five minutes than be confused for two episodes.

I think I should go to bed now. I have class in the morning. :p

The exposition of the play. Nagisa talks about how the play is set in a world that has already ended. (at first I didn't care much about the play, but it's actually important.)
First season, episode 22. (20-21 possibly)
Second season, ep16[11:51]

That is if you still cling to the rigid three-dimensional chronology, then yes, she hasn't existed. But bear in mind that the existence of IW is not bound by time and space. The moment Ushio first enters IW, she can reset the world over and over again, back to a time before she even existed in CV, but it does not affect her existence in IW.

You need Quantum Mechanics-fu, Spectacular_Insanity.


Existance of IW is not bound by the time and space of the clannad normal universe as it is a localized system which stands on its own, although connected to the original clannadverse. I tried to explain why that is so in a few posts over the episode 22 discussion thread. (although it seems now that it's mostly a 'wha...?' response)

I wanted to point this portion of the series for all the time but because it's' connected with Episode 16, Nagisa's unlucky delivery, I just couldn't :heh:

Oh yeah, I didn't really understand what they were talking about then. Partly because I kind of glossed over it, partly because I didn't care, and partly because their conversation induced brain meltdown. :heh:

Well, as they say, hindsight is 20/20. At least I know NOW, if that even means anything anymore.

And THAT is precisely how Tomoya makes the "right" choice in episode 22! :D

:cool:

I think the proper term for that find is, BINGO.

I will also add that the anime series implied PLENTY that the story we got from season 1 and AS is NOT the first loop!
As implied in lots instances, Tomoya KNEW already about the illusionary world when Nagisa mentions about her tale, it even creeped him out as he seriously has a "deja vu" feeling, though Sanae and Akio fail to see what he is talking about.
Furthermore, Tomoya also had a chilling flashback of the IW in the snow, implying more and more about his "previous life".

Since the Illusionary World was created by Ushio, there is no way this story could be the first loop, as Ushio had to die first. Ergo, she already existed, but be it anime or game wise, we don't know "when", and using Kotomi's explanation, there is no way to tell how many loops it has happened.

All of these facts are taken from the ANIME and interpreted like this, thanks to Tomoya and Akio comments. There is no need for game knowledge here, but it certainly needed a second watching.

Ergo, Tomoya had fun time with hellish misfortune until he got these light orbs.

I think that just the fact that we all have to be here rationalizing and interpreting what happened with regard to Tomoya's journeys through alternate dimensions means that it probably could have been brought across a whole lot better in the anime.



And even setting all of the above aside, it still doesn't alleviate the fact that the mysticism involved in the story and the themes of family ties don't exactly merge together to form a complete whole like they could have and that the idea that one can find a new way to honour the memory of a loved one, right their downward spiral, and start a new life competes with the idea that ones fate is semi-predetermined because of a pact made with a town carrying over to a new host.

In fact I'd continue to argue that they clash with one another to a point where the shows themes ultimately end up becoming less then sum of it's parts.

Can you elaborate more? I'm interested. What do you mean they clash?:p

Please elaborate, if this is for discussion of the sometimes confusing ending, fine, but if this is another one of your thinly veiled attacks on the show for which I have no time for, I am going to have to ask you to stop and take it somewhere else. I did not open this thread just so you could have another excuse to attack the show.

Yeah, it makes sense now, but I thought the girl in the Imaginary World had been a metaphor for Nagisa... the fact that it was actually Ushio completely escaped me. it doesn't help any that Ushio and Nagisa look really similar.

I swear that this series has become work just to understand. :heh:

You know, simply saying that it's similar to Higurashi makes it so much easier for me to understand, as I already have an elaborate personal analogy for Higurashi. Thanks.

Depending on the level of your enthusiasm, it could either be work or passion, or just plain boredom. :cool:

Why, thank you. A rather flattering compliment, considering I've not seen a single episode of Higurashi, and only learned of its involvement with multiple time-loops through hearsays from the internets. :D

Actually I thought of Clannad as better than Higuarshi. Maybe it is the humane factor involved in this series that make it easier for me to understand.

I, for one, is somebody who graduated from high school a couple of years ago, and being someone who spent an extra year as compared to my peers, I would say that although my grades are not so good and I can't make it into college or university, high school is truly an experience to be remembered. Definitely all the friends made are not forever, it is certainly the events that happened, and the things done with them (mostly stupid, but not as bad as my middle school in which I had a few legal issues) that makes it something that I want to keep going forever.

Unless you have been total goody-two-shoes the entire of your high school life, school days are always experiences worth remembering when you become a member of society. I may still be the same rude, uncouth, stubborn and insulting person I was in the past, but the experiences I have made in school have made me who I am.

In a certain South East Asian country with a rather screwed up education system rather similar to Japan, it is not the content learnt during the lessons that make the students effective and useful members of the society, but rather, it is the experiences they had that made them that (apparently the semi-useless Ministry Of Education and certain principals likes to take credit for something they made a mess of, and the teachers had to clean up for them). Each student will come out differently, but if society is willing to give them a chance to prove themselves in the tools of trade they excel in, everyone benefits, and in order to do that, empathy is probably the most important thing that is required.

Likewise for everything one sees in life, it is important to play on the strengths that one has rather than constantly criticising the weaknesses he/she/it possesses. It takes incredible perception to see from all points, but the amount of experience one harnesses adds to the empathy one is able to give. It is a pity that disillusioned self-declared "pragmatists" and "realists" continue to discredit the fact that everyone is useful to the society.

If one has a heart, let him love. If one has no heart, but has a brain, teach him how to love. If one has no brain, no heart, but has a spirit, teach him how to fight in order to protect.

After all, it is what life really is. A coconut. And Clannad really puts it in the most optimistic way one can see. Even Tomoya lost almost everything he had by Episode 21, he was given a chance of redemption, and he took it, and all that convinced him to do it is to tweak his pessimistic outlook a little, as evident of his actions throughout the story to change the experiences and memories he had in his life.

This just popped up on Sankaku Complex:



Clannad's Storyline Explained

It'll help fans of the ending to explain their stance better, it probably won't change the minds of non-fans in any case, but either way, I think this should be put into the OP. :cool:

EDIT: As monir advised, I have uploaded the image to my own Photobucket account. I'll keep the spoiler tag for the time being while I try to figure out how to post it in thumbnail....or perhaps a mod can assist me on this? :heh:

EDIT 2: Ok....this is as best as I do. Sorry, alcohol in the system really kills my thinking process. Can some mod out there finish the job for me? :heh:

EDIT 3: Bah, Proto pointed out the Tomoyo After spoiler, so I put it back in spoiler tag....please, someone, anyone, finish the job for me. -_-

Asacloth, I can't see the image for whatever reason. Are you hotlinking? Upload it to any image hosting site (my favorite) and then post it in thumbnail form so dial-uppers don't curse and your children for the injustice.

With all the episodes at hand, I resumed Clannad once again from episode 10 and marathon through the ending. I want to quote the brief talk Kotomi had in episode 16 about the "hidden world" by using SS-Eclipse's translation. I'll also omit the dialogues by other characters to keep her statement as whole:

"It's another world that exists right next to this one, but can't be seen or felt. But we are starting to find out that's not entirely true. It's probably akin to a warped extra dimension. The current theory states that what we perceive as objects are stuck firm to high dimension planes and they cannot remove themselves from their maximum existence. For example, energy due to gravity is said to transcend through dimensions. Time, space, and people's minds echo in a strange way to recreate both worlds or create whole new ones. They might be affecting each other like that."

And now Ushio's explanation in episode 22 about the Illusionary World/Hidden World to the robot (aka Tomoya). Once again, I'll forego most of the robot's dialogue and some of Ushio's response to keep things simple and straight to the point:

Ushio: I can finally hear your voice. I soon won't be a human so I can hear your voice. I was having a dream. I learned a lot of things in it. About myself. About you.... You and I used to be in the same world. We were very close, too. Long ago, though. Actually, we might still be.

Robot: So we weren't supposed to be in this world, after all! Let's go back together.

Ushio: In this world, I am the world. If I leave this world, this world will disappear. Then many lights would meet misery. Those are feelings from people in the other world. You were one of the lights too. The world that is the furthest, yet the world that is the closest. We've always been there. Yes, we came from the same place. We only see things differently.

Robot: Another world? Is an alternate me there?

Ushio: You should be able to tell, since you exist in both worlds. We were able to meet despite the differences in the world. You will soon fall asleep in the world and wake up in the other world. You will meet many people, and many things will happen. Then you'll eventually meet me. Like we can see people's feelings from the other world as light in this world, my feeling will become many lights in that world and shimmer. Each light may be very faint, but gathered together they should become a strong force.

*Ushio hums the Dango song.*

Robot: I know that song.

And finally, the little portion of the dialogues that goes along with the blurry background imagery of the town right after Tomoya hugs Nagisa in episode 22. Those portion of dialogues should fill in the blank for what is about to transpire and how the happy ending comes forth:

Nagisa: "Would you like me to take you to a place in this city where wishes come true?"

Tomoya in a deep voice that I think suppose to project a much older self to signify the flow of time in the other world: "It's coming to an end... the long, long journey..."

*Ushio cries after her birth. Tomoya wakes up with a start as if from a trance.*

---

When I put these three pieces of dialogue together, the ending starts to make sense.

- Everything that has happened up until episode 21 took place quite sometime in the past (or to quote Ushio from IW, "Long ago"). All those events are also from Tomoya's point of view. As we come to see, he has been pretty miserable through out his life. His mother died. His father has been pretty rotten to Tomoya as he wallowed himself in self pity, but was determined to take care of his son because Tomoya was his obligation. As a result, he drifted apart from Tomoya which adds to Tomoya's misery because he pretty much raised himself where he probably couldn't brag to his dad about that he took a dump all by himself. Tomoya meets his future wife and has lost her after giving birth to her. Then the daughter also dies eventually. The grief stricken Tomoya asks for a miracle as he holds her daughter's life-less body. He also specifically states, "No... I don't want this." As he lies down on the snow along with Ushio still in his arms, the screen starts to fade into whiteness. This is where Kotomi's explanation about the hidden world comes into play. To quote her:

"Time, space, and people's minds echo in a strange way to recreate both worlds or create whole new ones. They might be affecting each other like that."

The Illusionary World is a given premesis for this show. We need to accept it as fact to understand the rest of the ending. The creation of the world comes into play when Tomoya refuses to accept how his life has transpired thus far with the death of Ushio. His desire was so strong that he was able to transcend into the Illusionary world and attract Ushio's (aka Hidden World's) attention. Ushio helps him to change the direction of the event from the point where Nagisa gives birth to Ushio. And to do that, a new world needed to be created. In this new world Nagisa doesn't die at child birth. And Tomoya finally find happiness after a long, long journey through misery.

The last part where Fuko meets Ushio... now this is where I face roadblock to understand the last puzzle. Fuko is meeting Ushio for the first time after the creation of the world. My confusion is this world is Tomoya's or another world created by Fuko's desire to meet Ushio. If it is Tomoya's world, then Fuko is just taking a nap under the tree, and Tomoya-Nagisa are somewhere nearby. If it is Fuko's world, Ushio has made her appearance in this world just for Fuko.

Here is a thumbnail of an edited timeline without the spoiler
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/3051/timeline.th.png

Feel free to replace it

The last part has absolutely no explanation even in the game. Actually the game only shows IW Ushio, not the "normal" Ushio in her sailor uniform.

The general and usual theory is that, the miracle was powerful enough that it manages to bring back "Original Ushio" who is the last piece that should be drifting into nothingness after her job done.
It is unclear why she was appearing there, but it is very likely that Fuuko is somewhat related to this phenomenon due to her astral experience "remotely" similar to "original Ushio" existence.

That part is briefly touched upon on the CLANNAD Another story chapter, memories of a town. I encourage people to read it as it kind of explains how things fared out after the story ending for the Okazaki family.

We know the Hidden World's version of Ushio needs to stay there because as she said, she is the world. And if she leaves, the world disappears. So that can't be the Ushio from the Hidden World.

By the way, she did drift into "nothingness" as shown outside the window when Tomoya held the newly born Ushio. Those blue lights were drifting upward. As the Ushio from the Hidden World said, her feelings became many lights and were shimmering.

Ascaloth: Thumbnail has been added to your post. You and your children are saved! :D *cough - Ascaloth*

Thanks.

And it's Ascaloth. :D

Actually, considering how the last scene was executed, it is showing the IW crumbling to send back Tomoya in the normal world. As far as I can see, the lights were gathered in the IW so far, until the journey was finally over.
Then only afterwards, the lights appeared back in the normal world, creating the miracle (synchronization with the town?).

IW Ushio had to remain as "the world" so that these lights wouldn't turn into despair, but since the lights were now used for the miracle, IW Ushio existence becomes rather moot as the "IW".

Is Tomoya going back to the hill really considered time travel? In the science fiction sense of the word I really don't consider it time travel and more of a wish being granted via metaphysical means? Especially when you consider time travel in the sense that say "back to the future" the time machine propose it as.

You can also count the "mental" time travel like shown in the movies "Butterfly Effect" or "Donnie Darko".

Or perhaps what is left of her and the IW become the Town in the remaining world. Thus the IW "ends" and IW Ushio is "reborn" into the world as Ushio. Thus she may or may not have some of those memories (Ushio has always seemed a little too good of a kid and always wondering off without anyone really bothering her). Add to this the scene with Fuuko...perhaps that is meant to mean that even IW Ushio found happiness and is within Ushio still, and thus why Fuuko can "smell" her and fleetingly sees the IW Ushio.

This would, by some definitions, mean that Ushio still is the world.

Huh? you think that is a big deal? On the Another story novel I linked...

Japanese must have a very romantic view of some countries. Because...

Your sarcasm doesn't work well proto :heh:
Well honestly, I never considered that side story seriously, even if it is "canon". As you say, even 15-16 years old kids would have hard time to travel alone sometimes, so a grade schooler is basically suicide (as she isn't even sent to an acquaintance whatsoever).

Edit, Sheba: oh yeah, big time. It would be scary if she was sent to Paris. Somehow, Japanese are really too daydreaming about France, despite even the language has nothing that charming (spare me the usual crappy "langue de banlieu" and the rest..OTZ)

I'm going to give my interpretation as when I played the game. This may be right, it may be wrong, but it's what I thought until reading other interpretations.



That is just how I interpreted it on my first playthrough. Though the explanations here make more sense. XD

For reference purpose:

Ushio-IW: Ushio from Illusionary World
Ushio-RW: Ushio from Real World

I don't think the scene was meant to show IW's crumbling. The reason for that is when Ushio-IW said that she was starting to hear the robot's thought because she wouldn't remain in her human form much longer. Ushio was more of an avatar of the Illusionary World so the Illusionary World could better interact with the Robot-Tomoya. As Tomoya was being sent to the Real World, the job for the Ushio-IW's avatar came to an end. When Ushio crumbled, that's when the miracle started to happen. The lights' seen in the Real World after Ushio's birth is Ushio-IW's feelings which is also the sign of the miracle has successfully taken into effect.

Don't hurt me, but I think that's not correct either. :D Once again it was touched upon in the explanation by Ushio-IW and Kotomi in her Hidden World explanation. Ushio-IW said she was dreaming. She was learning about herself and the robot. It tells us that the Illusionary World made the Ushio-IW avatar by using lights from Ushio-RW. The lights are the projection of how people are seen in the Illusionary World. The lights are people's feelings.

If all those lights are indeed used to create the miracle, it doesn't mean more lights won't be transcending into the Illusionary World from there on. Hence, the existence of the Illusionary World is always a given. The need for its existence will be there as long as people's feeling are in constant flow. Surely, the need for miracle won't end with Tomoya's either. As a result, the Illusionary World continues with its barren existence.