[Ascaloth] CLANNAD ~After Story~, Episode 1 at Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

[Ascaloth] CLANNAD ~After Story~, Episode 1

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

Loading ...

Popularity: 3% [?] Published by Ascaloth October 4th, 2008 in Ascaloth, Anime

The generally lackluster Summer 2008 is well and truly over, and with the advent of Fall 2008, comes the first of many highly anticipated offerings of the new season. It may have been a barren six months with only an OVA to tide the Kagikko over, but Kyoto Animation finally makes its return with CLANNAD ~After Story~, continuing the adaptation of the Key story that it started almost exactly a year ago with CLANNAD (TV). It’s time to welcome back the cast of CLANNAD once more, and this time, for what has been considered amongst the game veterans as the heart and soul of the story.

Much thanks in advance for AQS-TWH-Sprocket, whose zero-day subs I will be counting on for the screenshots of the articles to come. CLANNAD ~After Story~, Episode 1.

And right off the bat we get this scene from Tomoya’s flashback, most likely a memory of himself with his father when things were still rosy. No other clue as to what it might mean, so perhaps we should leave it for next time.

His days of soaring in the limitless sky on the wings of his two divas at an end, Alto-hime trades his ponytail back for his short hairstyle, and resumes his monogamous love affair with the cute little Dango-otaku. And with this, we are well and fully back in the CLANNAD world. Time to reaquaint ourselves with our dear Tomoya and Nagisa, whose road to OTPness never once showed any signs of being sidetracked, which is more than could be said for most couples in anime.

Oh, and it seems that Nagisa is able to call her beloved "Tomoya-kun" by now. Mei’s training sure has paid off. ^_^

If my memory has not failed me, did we get yet another light ball here from when CLANNAD (TV) ended?

Contrary to the title, the first episode of ~After Story~ does not actually start off with the first scenes of the corresponding After Story portion of the visual novel; instead, KyoAni seems to be taking the chance to clean up all the signature scenes they didn’t get around to in the first season, and for the first episode, they’re starting off with what many of the game veterans have been hoping for, the "Baseball Route".

By the way, I wonder what Hinano-sama is thinking about the fact that KyoAni’s Kotomi, as can be seen here where she actually takes the initiative to participate in the game, actually seems to be growing even more of a personality than she probably did in the VN? :p

We all know Tomoya is an awesome prankster, but I didn’t know he was this good at spin, heh. The guy may be a delinquent, but I’m fairly certain he’s got it made in life either way.

Since when did Tomoyo learn how to suck up to people so well? Although considering she has political experience from being Student Council President, she probably learned something for her stint…

The subject of Tomoya’s father remains a sore point between the couple, but one which seems to have to wait for now. One of the things which makes Nagisa such a good match for Tomoya is how while she often has to depend on him, she also contributes to the relationship in her own way by encouraging him to stop running away from his own problems. Of course, it’s not something that can be done overnight, but considering Tomoya doesn’t snap at her whenever she bring his father up, it’s significant progress.

Apparently Misae, Yusuke and Kouko actually know each other from before. Considering that there apparently is a Misae arc in the VN, I wonder if this will have something to do with it later?

Oi oi, I’m sure this counts as cruel and unusual punishment, no? Particularly if the said bread comes with a special blend of jam….

I’m pretty sure Sunohara is going down a new evolutionary path for homo sapiens. What with having taken such a bashing from Tomoyo’s pitches that Akio’s seem tame by comparison, the guy must have evolved a skeletal structure containing Mother Nature’s version of shock absorbers. Crusader, does the military have a use for this guy?

Loved how Nagisa couldn’t keep her eyes off her boy while he was in close proximity with another female; maybe she’s not totally clueless after all. Let’s just hope that little hint of possible jealousy doesn’t develop into something more…..BTW, to the guys at AQS-TWH-Sprocket, wasn’t there any other way to translate Tomoya’s line here? If you think about it a little too much, it just sounds so…..wrong. :p

An emo facial distortion for the ages. Call me a sadist, but I couldn’t help but grin when Okiayu Ryotaro busted out that awesome growl of pain. It’s unlike anything else I’ve heard before, lol.

And with a hot-blooded proclaimation full of GAR….

….Akio continues to perpetrate the stereotype that hot-blooded GAR usually comes at the price of a corresponding lack of brain power. I mean seriously, dude, you have at least two good alternatives as replacement pitchers, and Tomoya should have told you about them….

Nice pitching form.

Tactical Nuke Baseball. I wonder what would be the recorded speed of Tomoyo’s pitches?

I wonder if we can hook Kotomi’s brain up to a supercomputer and have her create the world’s first Artificial Intelligence? Of course, let’s hope it doesn’t become something like this….

Captivating.

Tomo-pyon?

I am completely unfamiliar with baseball, so someone tell me, is this what they meant by a "squeeze"?

Dramatics is fine and all, but for a while there, I thought the bat was going to go right around and smack the poor catcher in the face. Is the catcher usually a safe distance from the batter in usual baseball games?

/facepalm. Yusuke is supposed to be a musician in his time? This guy is even more of a drama whore than Akio is, and the latter is the one with the theatre background too.

I was hearing repeatedly from the game veterans about a supposed "famous Tomoyo ORZ" scene, and I don’t really have a clue what they’re talking about, except for this….did I guess right there?

And he makes a second try at it, this time asking for a time out to go….

"Your future….belongs to you!"

FABULOUS.

And with that, the first episode of CLANNAD ~After Story~ ends as the Baseball Route used as a filler episode, meant to ease us back into the CLANNADverse with an inspired use of a filler route to reintroduce us back to the cast. While some are impatient for the real meat of the story to begin already, others are perfectly cool with this decision, and for my part, I lean towards the latter opinion. While the structure of this first episode leaves no doubt that it was a continuation of an unfinished story, and that perhaps it would have been best to marathon CLANNAD (TV) before watching this to better get back into the CLANNAD groove, the use of the Baseball Route here certainly helps to ease us back into things.

And considering that there’s heavier stuff to come, perhaps it’s not so bad to have our fun first while it lasts.

Next Episode Preview

And from the looks of it, ~After Story~ is not done with the side routes yet; in fact, Episode 2 appears to be what the game veterans call the Sunoharas’ Route, one which is apparently lauded by them as one of the better sub-routes in the VN. I have no idea about that, but we’ll get to see next week….now that we may once again add CLANNAD back into our end-of-week schedule. Once more, let’s begin climbing up the long, long slope…

This is Ascaloth of RIUVA, resuming my weekly coverage on the blog, signing out.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Buy Some Artificial Vaginas now!

12 Responses to “[Ascaloth] CLANNAD ~After Story~, Episode 1”

Feed for this Entry Trackback Address

1 Ichigo69 1 comment Oct 4th, 2008 at 2:00 pm

>>>I was hearing repeatedly from the game veterans about a supposed “famous Tomoyo ORZ” scene, and I don’t really have a clue what they’re talking about, except for this….did I guess right there?

actuall, THIS –> http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/6114/hcg04ece7.jpg (NSFW) is the ‘Famous Tomoyo orz’ scene. ^_^
2 tj_han 1176 comments Oct 4th, 2008 at 4:57 pm

Your screenshot shows Tomoya’s sacrificial bunt, where he moves the first runner up to 2nd base at the cost of him getting out.
3 Klashikari 4 comments Oct 4th, 2008 at 5:18 pm

-I’m not exactly convinced that Nagisa was “jealous” regardless it was intentional or not. Rather she was more like observing in order to learn, as she is self conscious for her lack of physical skills and such.

-Yep, it is the infamous OTZ pose that Tomoyo do quite a LOT in Tomoyo After, thanks to… Takafumi XD

-A squeeze is maneuver that makes use of a sacrifical bunt so that the runner on the third base can score.
When it is Nagisa’s turn, Kyou was on the third base, hence Akio “suggests” Nagisa to do a simple bunt that won’t do anything good (though even a normal swing would be no good as demonstrated XD) but that might give the opportunity for Kyou to score.

In your screenshot, it isn’t “technically” a squeeze as Mei was in the first base, but it is somewhat the same thing. (if I made a mistake, please correct me).
In the last Inning, Akio “forbids” Tomoya to do a squeeze as since it is the last inning with 2 outs, it would be way too obvious for the opposing team that the furukawa bakers will attempt a squeeze (especially that Tomoya has been probably framed as a poor batter). Attempting a squeeze in such situation would be a suicide, especially that the runner on the third base is Nagisa, so she would be caught with ease.
4 totali 6 comments Oct 4th, 2008 at 10:31 pm

LEAN DOWN AND HIT IT BABY.
5 Kherubim 14 comments Oct 5th, 2008 at 12:35 am

ALL HAIL DELICIOUS KYOU AND MISAE!!!

If hot-blooded GAR is an indication of lack of brain power, how does Yusuke figure on that metric?

Sunohara is really a combination of Iron Man and Weapon X, how else can he take such abuse?

“Spread your legs out more, lean down and hit it” LOL, double entendre FTW!!!
6 Ascaloth 159 comments Oct 5th, 2008 at 1:45 am

@TJ & Klashi,

Thanks for the info.

@totali,

HELL YEAH BABY

@Kherubim

Yusuke doesn’t figure on the GAR list as far as I know. He’s just a drama whore to a degree that rivals Akio. :p
7 C.I. 40 comments Oct 5th, 2008 at 1:50 am

Kyou’s pitch can transcend eras and dimensions!!111!!111
8 C.I. 40 comments Oct 5th, 2008 at 2:52 am

*Tomoyo’s pitch

My bad. fix’d.
9 Calawain 3 comments Oct 5th, 2008 at 7:19 am

I am completely unfamiliar with baseball, so someone tell me, is this what they meant by a “squeeze”?

In English, that’s not necessarily a squeeze. A squeeze is when you bunt with a runner on 3rd to try and get him home. Otherwise putting your bat out like that to tap the ball into play is called a “bunt.” However, Japanese is known to import English words incorrectly, so to them “squeeze” might mean “bunt” in English. I’m a huge baseball guy so it was rather amusing to hear how they interject random English terms while playing to describe stuff in baseball. Not all of it sounded quite right.
10 Tremere 2 comments Oct 5th, 2008 at 7:47 am

I wonder if Tomoyo’s pitch and pierce the heavens.
11 Klashikari 4 comments Oct 5th, 2008 at 8:03 am

Calawain: No, that’s not the case.
The japanese do use the proper vocabulary in Baseball. They do use “bunt” for bunt (バント - Banto).
They do use squeeze for what it is, and it is actually shown in this episode.
12 Calawain 3 comments Oct 5th, 2008 at 9:35 am

@Klashikari

Alright, I don’t think I was paying too much attention to whether there was a runner on third or not. I’ll take your word for it =)

Do not use any < and > for your own sake. It will end the comment there and then. Also, there is an automatic IQ filter which weeds out comments made by those who accidentally got transported from the stone age.

What would you like to see more of here?

Scathing reviews.: 30% (43)
Funny lists.: 18% (25)
Sexy pictures.: 38% (54)
Event coverage.: 5% (7)
Interviews.: 1% (2)
Photos.: 8% (11)

Total Votes : 142
Vote

Search

Latest

Related Entries

Featured Feeds

Counter

23 currently online
50 maximum concurrent
2815101 total visitors

Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts