Clannad ~After Story~ - Episode 04 Discussion / Poll

[Kushi]

Wow this episode was awesome! The fights the drama wow! 2 wows lol.... great episode now I wish more than ever that Sunohara ends up with someone now. I felt kinda sad how he was so into sanae and even thought he had a chance ...

Gooo Sunohara get yourself a woman!

[davie]

This episode is brilliant.

Throughout season one of Clannad, Sunohara always got beat up in less than 2 seconds by Tomoyo and Tomoya never actually showed true anger, so you could say I was surprised (in a good way) to see the guy who gets beaten up by a girl constantly and the guy with arm problem (he sure can throw a punch) to be able to take on a group of soccer guys and then still have enough energy to fight amongst themselves. I haven't had the chance to play the game since I can't read Japanese so I'm completely oblivious to all the arcs so I judge the clannad series solely on the anime. The execution of story telling was great, and as I can tell from other posts, the anime managed to invoke feeling among the watchers (the part where the soccer team mistreats Mei, Nagisha, and Tomoyo and the part where the soccer captain (not sure) harasses Mei when she is crying). Also, good shows tend to explain show a flashback from the past and have the situation repeat itself again in similiar way (I.E. Tomoya and Sunohara laughing together after fights) and I think the technique was done excellently.

To sum it up, I was extremely happy with this episode with its beautiful animation, excellent story telling, and its ability to develop the characters' feelings. 10/10 !

[Fennecus]

Always a pleasure to see and hear Yukine.

[cbatty]

What a fantastic episode.

I haven't played the game either so I am oblivious to the arcs that are unfolding. For me, it is a week by week revelation of the story through the anime. From this point of view, I love this show and the strong bonds of family and friendship that exist between the main characters.

Spoiler for Clannad After Story, ep 4:

This episode really highlights that the relationships between the characters can't be broken by misunderstandings and arguements and the coming together by Tomoya and Sunohara was brilliant - both after their fight and when they first met back in first year. There was definitely a symmetry there.

Nagisa's development throughout the series has been a joy to watch. She had gone from such a timid and shy character to someone who can stand up for herself and what she believes in, and to protect her friends in time of need.

Can't wait for my next dose of Clannad next week.

[Bennyswan]

This episode is awesome

10/10 for me.

I loved the brawl scenes, I just wanted to beat the crap out of the soccer team. :P

[monir]

The episode seems to have invalidated a lot of the discussion in the previous episode thread where the focus was if Youhei was an asshole and that's how the game portrays him in a certain portion of the story. Episode 4 tells us, he is not! The soccer club, on the other hand,...... dear heavens.... a saint would loose it when dealing with those kind of people.

I loved Mei's line when she was telling Youhei, "I'm sorry Onichan" as those two, Youhei and Tomoya, were duking it out. I absolutely loved their take on each-other in their own misguided way.

Since I couldn't find much to complain about, I rated it a very good episode.

[brocko]

I can understand how fetching soccer balls was meant to portray the soccer team in a bad light, building up hate and dislike within the audience, but to me it just felt abit farfetch'd so some of the impact was somewhat lost on me. It would've been better if they were goalkeepers and had balls kick at them instead imo. I dunno maybe I'm just being nit-picky lol =P

Other than that though, it was a pretty nice episode, especially the way it ended.

[Haru~]

Originally Posted by brocko

Other than that though, it was a pretty nice episode, especially the way it ended.

My friend, I'm surprised you said it's a nice episode even though you rated it 1 which is painful.

For me, it's perfect adaptation of the game as they brought the key parts beautifully.

[brocko]

LOL! We can see what other people voted?
Anyway the 1 was just a little trolling on my behalf
I don't normally take part in the episode votes so i figured i mine as well have a little fun this time around lol =P

EDIT: And plus i don't believe in the fact that complex opinions can be represented by a mere number anyway. So er... a little bit of a rebellion vote as well perhaps? lol =P

[IRJustman]

Originally Posted by brocko

LOL! We can see what other people voted? :heh:
Anyway the 1 was just a little trolling on my behalf :p
I don't normally take part in the episode votes so i figured i mine as well have a little fun this time around lol =P

For my part, being just a forumgoer, while trying not to bait anyone and trying not to be confrontational, I'd rather see honest and fair voting. While I'll give you some points for openly saying that you're being disingenuous with your voting, being disingenuous is just that, as well as being another word for "dishonest".

--Ian.

[ReneeBurossamu]

I was sort of confused with the overall plot with this one and many others.

Mei came and Sunohara was getting a fake girlfriend, and suddenly it shifted to a real relationship? And now Mei thinks he's different not because he has a girl, but because he hasn't played soccer?
I didn't exactly get it. It didn't connect in my mind.
Anyway, animation was beautiful but it was kind of... I don't know. Strange? But the crying thing was terrible. I thought the guys were going to do something bad to her.

Still don't get the plot though. Probably because I don't understand the whole "fake date with Sanae becomes a real relationship" thing.

Ah, I just watched the fight between Sunohara and Tomoya.
The girls were sobbing begging them to stop without intercepting. How stereotypical.

[sikvod00]

I know the soccer club being filled with a bunch of douchebags was just a mere plot device to build up the rage in Tomoya and finally get Sunohara to respond, but they still pissed me off. What they were doing was beyond the arrogant bullying typical of jocks; their actions were needlessly sadistic and utterly cruel. I'm surprised they haven't gotten an ass kicking before, courtesy of the student council president.

[OceanBlue]

Originally Posted by ReneeBurossamu

I was sort of confused with the overall plot with this one and many others.

Mei came and Sunohara was getting a fake girlfriend, and suddenly it shifted to a real relationship? And now Mei thinks he's different not because he has a girl, but because he hasn't played soccer?
I didn't exactly get it. It didn't connect in my mind.
Anyway, animation was beautiful but it was kind of... I don't know. Anticlimactic with Mei crying for some reason. Probably because I don't understnad the whole "fake date with Sanae becomes a real relationship" thing.

Initially, it was set up for Mei, but Sunohara started believing that he could make a real relationship out of it and that Sanae really did like him. He became deluded [or deluded himself] and started believing it was a real relationship. That's why they added the bit about Sunohara finding out Sanae was really married to Akio at the end, so they could resolve the problem of Sunohara believing that there was actually something between them.

I personally thought it was anti-climatic because there was no change in the characters. There was a change in the viewer's impression of the characters, but the characters themselves didn't really go through much of a change, and even if they did, it wasn't large enough for a climax. Other than that, I loved this arc [probably also because the siblings are high on my favorite character list].

Edit:

Originally Posted by sikvod00

I know the soccer club being filled with a bunch of douchebags was just a mere plot device to build up the rage in Tomoya and finally get Sunohara to respond, but they still pissed me off. What they were doing was beyond the arrogant bullying typical of jocks; their actions were needlessly sadistic and utterly cruel. I'm surprised they haven't gotten an ass kicking before, courtesy of the student council president.

I don't think that they being... douchebags [Rage!] was only a plot device. You can tell from the conversation in the beginning that the soccer club members were idiots anyway, but it probably also had to do with the fact that the only impression they had of Mei was from Sunohara and, to an extent, Tomoya. If their feelings for Sunohara were that strong, it would be understandable that they would consider Mei nothing but annoying when looking at her through their biased mindset. They haven't seen the Mei we've seen, after all.

Of course, that's no justification for the extent that they went to.

[Reckoner]

This was the best episode so far of the season. Clannad proves itself to be good once again when not focusing on Kotomi or Fuko (Especially Fuko). For whatever reason, male friendship seems to strike a chord in me when used with flashbacks in such a manner. A comparable feeling to the flashbacks in the movie Akira between the two main characters...

My main criticism of this arc lies in how the idea was executed. This was supposed to be about Sunohara not showing his care about Mei. The whole idea of using Sanae as a fake girl friend, while being funny for some, was VERY preposterous. I am not saying that the plot always has to be 100% believable or anything, but this goes a little beyond my standards of what is OK for suspension of belief. The Sunohara sibling arc could have been initiated in much better ways than this, and ultimately it harmed it a bit.

The rest of my criticisms are slight annoyances that I see in the episodes that are often countered with moe moments anyways.

Overall the arc gets an 8.5, this episode gets a 9/10.

[Anime Daisuki]

Well, we've seen how easily Sunohara is pleased. This and episode 1 were my favorite episodes of the season. I didn't like how the siblings arc started off but this last one saved it for me.

[Farplaner]

I think a lot of the mentioned issues about the script has to do with the anime being a continuous story while fitting all the arcs in.

If you think about it, it would make a lot more sense when in the game, each story arc is its own entity. Tomoya wouldn't be living with Nagisa. Mei wouldn't know Nagisa's family so well. And we don't get appearances from Kyou, Ryou and Kotomi. It would be a lot easier to stomach Mei not recognizing Sanae.

I appreciate KyoAni being faithful to the original material, and I'd say they're doing a very good job.

[Kristen]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

The other fact with Kotomi is that shafting her would be much more a trouble than anything else.
Why suddenly remove her or reducing her implication, despite she is a very devoted friend to the cast?
That would be like removing Ryou from kyou's antics etc, it wouldn't make much sense in term of settings and consistency of said universe. Plainly speaking, it would be far more stupid to let her go MIA, while it can't be helped for Tomoyo considering how she is busy.
From her route until now, it would be ironically more logical to see Kyou and Ryou with Kotomi than Botan, for obvious reasons.

They could make her decide to study abroad, or have her graduate early or something. There are ways to shaft her. I mean, I love some of her interactions with Kyou/Ryou. And she is my favorite character. But I don't want her to become nothing more than just a clueless bad violin player. If that means that she has to disappear, then so be it.

[Cloudkiller1]

9.5/10 for me. Could have been perfect but not without its flaws which is rather minor. One of the better episode for AS thus far. Keep it up KyouAni!

[Proto]

They could make her decide to study abroad, or have her graduate early or something.

That would go against one of the major themes in her route, which was her getting out of her depressive bubble and open up to her school and social life. Seeing this Kotomi instead of the often self absorbed one is already result of major character development. Unless you want to have some character regression it is not viable

[kk2extreme]

where's fuko, will we see her soon, i kinda miss the random moments with her

anyways, there is one word for tomoya and youhei, BFF