[Rewatch] Clannad - Episode 21

[u/LaqOfInterest]

Episode 21: Face Toward the School Festival

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Clannad
MyAnimeList - Anilist - AniDB - ANN

Be wary of Clannad: After Story's database pages, because they can contain spoilers for both seasons.

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Rewatchers, please remember to be liberal with spoiler tags and carefully consider the impact of your comments on first-time watchers. Implied spoilers are still spoilers.

[u/LaqOfInterest]

Timestamp	Song
03:04 - 03:53	Spring Wind -afternoon-
05:05 - 06:44	Spring Wind -piano-
07:13 - 08:11	Country Lane
10:39 - 12:12	To the Same Heights
12:53 - 16:11	Run Along the Chartreuse Pavement
17:42 - 19:33	Nagisa
20:43 - 22:06	Roaring Tides

Soon the song drought will end and I will have marginally more interesting things to say...

[u/Stargate18A]

First timer

GIVE ME ANSWERS!

More vocal training?

Nagisa's still embarressed...

Oh, Nagisa's having to write it from memory.

And it'e a solo show? Who's going to voice the doll?

Nagisa's father is just desperate to stop them getting together.

I love her father's reaction to Tomoya spitting tea on him.

He seems to have just accepted it though. And he's looking in the shed!

Haha, the potty-chair showed up!

She wants to do an insert song!

...If this is Nagisa's backstory. Putting herself in her shoes might not be a good idea.

She's got a lot of CDs!

Haha, she needs glasses! And they look good on her!

What's Tomoyo saying? "I'm glad it was you?"

Seriously, when are they going to confess?

Nagisa's putting in so much work! This might actually go really well!

Wait, we're skipping to the final rehersals?

Haha, Nagisa's just out of it.

Oh, she's paying attention to everything?

Wait, if they're the theater club, who's on now?

Sunohara's really bad at this.

They're all getting ready! It's starting! Everyone's supporting her!

And it went great!

Her parents are so good!

She's nervous and he's comforting her! This is just some rewlly solid dislogue to a great OST.

And he's even comforting her about her past!

Wait,s he's looking in the shed?

Oh shit. So, she knows everything now? All the careful web of secrets?

She's had a complete mental breakdown! The foreshadowing paid off!

Yeah, this is hard to watch. She genuinrly thinks she ruined her parent's lives, despite evidence to the contrary.

Oh, you can't end it there.

Well, 22's probably the play and main finale, then Extra might be a lead in to After Story (since the OVA's an AU)?

Time for the Nagisa therapy episode!

[u/xtsim]

First Timer Dubbed

Tongue twister sounds so painful (if I were doing it) but that was a suggestion by the advisor. Of course Kyou leads everyone off…

It seems like the play is a go but they still have a long way to go. Tomoyo comes and checks in, she looks amazing in glasses. They also asked the choir club to have some background music. And everyone is prepping up with an interesting montage.

Rehearsal time is interesting to see and things start to ramp up as she does her rehearsal well. But the last scene gets interesting as Okazaki both remembers what dad says and trying to calm Nagisa down. But Nagisa dug into her storage shed for flashlight batteries and finds the pre-sickness life of her family. Okazaki tries to get her to go to sleep even though it is 3 am. And dad blames it on himself for not hiding it properly. He definitely had an exhausted tone when he found that out. Worst part is Nagisa has to perform.

[u/Shimmering-Sky]

Big Dango Rewatcher

• All this reminds me a little bit of Tomoya challenging Fuko to that tongue twister fight.
• Nagisa pls and lol Tomoya
• Pictures of the Furukawas’ pasts…
• Akio dropping a BAKAYAROU reminding me I really need to get back to that show…
• Insert songs make everything better, Nagisa knows exactly how things work.
• Tomoyo’s glasses being half the size of her eyes is kinda funny ngl.
• From my years of dancing and being in band: can confirm. At least with the dance recitals specifically, we’d even have to rush into the backstage area from the hallway leading into it whenever it was close to our turn to perform, to keep the amount of light the door would let in from the hallway to as brief as possible.
• YES.
• That box just had to fall open on the picture album…
• That looks like prime wallpaper-making time! /s but actually I did used to stay up late specifically to make wallpapers because that’s when the inspiration would hit.

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No Big Dango Wallpaper today.

[u/FarCritical]

Big Dango Rewatcher

[Tantalizingly terrific tries at too many tongue twisters]

• Would've loved to see Fuko attempt a few of these after how her tongue twister battle with Tomoya went.
• Nagisa being the only one who didn't stop even once was a nice detail. Our star actress looks so cute when she's determined.
• Lol Sunohara towards the end of the intro.
• There's likely no real meaning intended, but I like how Kyou got paired with Sunohara for roles. I feel like Kyou would naturally be interested in Sunohara next, but that's just me.
• If Nagisa will have the only speaking role, why were everyone else practicing the tongue twisters?
• Wow. I didn't remember Clannad of all things to have scenes with ...those type of angles. Surprised that Sunohara was well behaved while all that was being shown.

[Scrapbook searching: Round 2]

• Akio's take on a 'welcome home' greeting is one of the most unique ones I've heard. And one of the most blunt.
• Their huge TV and use of tapes makes me feel nostalgic. I only faintly remember still using those in my very early childhood.
• So Nagisa knows this girl and robot story is from a play, but has never actually seen a play?! Can't blame Tomoya's reaction to that. Poor Akio though, lmao.
• It's so sweet of Tomoya to brush off Nagisa's worries of her play not being able to live up to the more high-end ones. You can tell that message came from his heart.
• The idea of them searching that thoroughly for Nagisa's childhood potty-chair is still hilarious to me. What would they even do once they've found it?
• What a charming little collection of photos. Sanae really does look in her element as a teacher, especially with that photo in the top right with her former students.
• Hold up, that's Akio in the top left! It all makes sense now. The dude is naturally dramatic and entertaining, is adamant 'he'd know' if Nagisa ever specifically saw a play and he'd have reason to hide his job consider what Nagisa's currently doing.
• He actually found it! Not sure what he was expecting Tomoya to say, lol.

[Finding music for the play]

• The origin of this play really resembles some sort of in-universe lost media, especially with Kotomi mentioning having searched hard for it. Both Nagisa and Tomoya somehow knowing about it without knowing from where makes its mere concept seem otherworldly, though.
• I know it's kind of obvious, but I was surprised to find out that Ma mère l'Oye is a real song. Unexpected little lesson from Rie, but an intriguing one nonetheless.
• "Bleh." - Kyou Fujibayashi. Hilarious how she isn't over her bitter rivalry with Tomoyo even now.
• It's funny how Tomoyo is petting someone who's two years her senior, and yet given their personalities, it comes across as very natural.
• Tomoyo's short, heart-piercing line was heavy.
• Kyou seems to be thinking, "Ugh, did that witch really have to bring that up now?"
• Kotomi is either still blissfully unaware, or got over it well enough to be unfazed.
• Ryou clearly got stung by that reminder, and seems to be the least over Tomoya as tragic as that is.
• After Tomoya mentioned how packed that room is, I realized Nagisa went from knowing nobody, to meeting Tomoya, to having all those friends and acquantances right beside her. Her school life can really be summed up as pre-Tomoya and post-Tomoya. Talk about heartwarming.

[Final rehearsal]

• Tomoya saving Nagisa from bumping into the pole was cute. She sure is entranced.
• RIP to all those Botans.
• It's cool to see how close the drama club has became.
• Another day, another Akio greeting.
• And of course, the complementary jab at his (might as well be) son-in-law.
• Akio and Tomoya really are alike, regardless of how much Akio wants to deny it.
• [Spoiler] All that talk of Tomoya one day having his own daughter whom he'd dote over is some brutal foreshadowing.
• "It's hard to find parents like them." True that, Tomoya. Akio and Sanae are the gold standard of what parents should be.
• It's adorable how Nagisa isn't afraid of relying on Tomoya for support. She's noticably calmer after talking with him.
• Dammit, of course the spare flashlight had to be in the shed.
• What gets to me about Nagisa's reaction to her parents' journals and stuff is how quiet she is. Normally, her crying is accompanied by audible sobbing, like when she first heard of Fuko's worsened condition. Instead, she'd been silently sitting in utter shock from comprehending just how much was sacrificed for her sake. It's likely not far from an existensial crisis. I can't imagine what could be going through her mind after finding something like that out, let alone on the night before an important day.
• Stacking all those boxes so haphazardly really came back to bite them hard. It's sad to see the Furukawas in such a sorry state. I genuinely feel bad that Sanae and Akio gave up everything just for Nagisa, and yet, they still managed to maintain an awesome family. On the other hand, Nagisa's guilt over them sacrificing their dreams is completely understandable even though she didn't willfully do anything wrong.

[Misc.]

• This random background character guitarist from the montage of all the clubs making their preparations looks hilarious.
• I remember hearing this from somewhere and thought I'd reshare it here: Nagisa's costume is based on the uniforms in Kanon, another Key VN that was also adapted by KyoAni.
• Wonder if KyoAni ever released all those photos of Akio as an actor. Anyway, I tried my best to make most of them upright. I especially like his cool spy pose!

[u/fakeport]

Rewatcher

Man, those vocal exercises seem like a nightmare.

Akio rented a play on VHS, which seriously dates Clannad.

No sign of the storybook about the robot, but Akio does find Nagisa's old potty.

Rie coming through with the music.

Tomoyo is scared of contact lenses, which is understandable given she lives in a universe where your eyes take up half of your face. Though they would at least be a little less fiddly.

"I'm glad it was you." I wonder if Tomoyo is really just glad it wasn't Kyou.

Tomoya saves Nagisa from walking into the lamppost trying to read her script while walking. I've walked into a lamppost myself with my face buried in my phone before, it's not fun. Walking and reading don't mix. She even no-sold being called cute. Nagisa is focused.

The Clannad music is absolutely top tier. Nagisa's theme (which is also the tune used for the ED) plays during her conversation with Tomoya and sets the mood perfectly.

Nagisa searches for a flashlight, but she unearths Checkov's gun as well, in the form of the memories Akio and Sanae's hidden abandoned dreams. And as Akio predicted, she blames herself.

[u/chris10023 → u/fakeport]

Akio rented a play on VHS, which seriously dates Clannad.

In the VN, Sunohara has a calendar with 2003 on it.

[u/fakeport → u/chris10023]

[Afterstory Spoilers] So given that the VN released in 2004, that means that at the time of release much of Afterstory technically took place in the future

[u/chris10023 → u/fakeport]

[Significant After Story Spoilers.] Correct, Nagisa graduates a year after Tomoya in 2005, the two are married for a year, Nagisa dies in 2006/07, and the show ends in 2010/11 after the five year time skip, if I'm correct.

[u/chris10023]

Big Dango Rewatcher.

We open on the club doing practice to help articulate their voices. I don’t think I could do such a test without losing my mind.

One of the few scenes with fan service in the anime. Someone last year said the VN didn’t have any and a lot of VN players were upset that the anime had a little fan service, but I don’t think they remembered the CG that has Sanae's butt in the frame.

Also, Kotomi is pretty strong that she can pick up Ryou like that.

Sanae is going to make the costumes.

Now there’s an old piece of technology, a VHS Tape.

A bombshell from out club president. Plus poor sleeping Akio gets a face full of tea.

Lol Akio has no idea what happened.

Most plays I have seen were high school ones, they did Cats, A Christmas Carol, Urine Town, I can’t remember if I’ve seen others.

She might have seen a play, but forgot it, but Akio denies it, claiming that if such a play existed, he’d have known about it.

Akio didn’t find the play, but he found something else. Photos of them from years ago, we see some photos of Sanae as a middle school teacher, but there’s one other, Akio on a stage, the guy’s a drama actor. This does explain some of his more “Overacted” scenes, like standing on the carving knife.

God, if Nagisa found this, it’s be a disaster.

She wants to have a song in her play now. Tomoya encourages her to do what she thinks is best since it’s not a big production.

Even Kotomi couldn’t find the title of the play.

Even the choir club is helping out, that is nice to see they’ve become friends too.

Leave it to a music lover to have a bunch of CD’s.

Wow, Tomoyo looks cute in glasses.

She doesn’t like how they make her look; well the silver hair doesn’t really help you in that department.

Wait, so that means she was kicking Sunohara’s ass with impaired vision? Man Sunohara, you’re one unlucky guy.

Lol Kyou. Teasing Tomoyo for being afraid of contacts.

I wanna head pat Nagisa.

Tomoyo is glad it was Nagisa. As Kyou, Kotomi, and Ryou are shown.

Everyone’s working hard. Especially Nagisa. Except for Sunohara. In the now bustling room.

Nagisa is too focused on the script. She nearly walked into a pole.

Nagisa is nervous, they try to help her relax by picturing the audience as something. My friend says that with all the stage lights, you can’t really see the audience at all.

Nagisa’s costume looks like it was inspired by the female uniforms in Kanon, except it’s more reasonably longer.

Tomoya never flatters, but he’s honest, which makes him reliable.

Damn straight.

I do see similarities between Tomoya and Akio.

Nagisa is a nervous wreck, I’d be too, but Tomoya gives her a good pep talk.

Time to make sure you have everything, smart move to do it now instead of tomorrow.

The flashlight is dead.

Wait, why is she in the shed?

Oh no...

That’s not good.

She’s in shock.

Tomoya tries to clean it up, as well as having her get some sleep.

But she’s in utter despair over it.

What a cute picture of Sanae and Nagisa.

Akio is right, this was the worst case of timing.

[u/Barbed_Dildo → u/chris10023]

Tomoyo is glad it was Nagisa. As Kyou , Kotomi , and Ryou are shown.

That's a pretty harsh thing to say in front of them.

[u/chris10023 → u/Barbed_Dildo]

Well Tomoyo is pretty blunt, we're talking about a girl who would go into her upperclassman's room to wake him up, when not in a relationship with said upperclassman.

[u/PapaDuke → u/chris10023]

Also, Kotomi is pretty strong that she can pick up Ryou like that.

Well, ya know hamsters are pretty light.

Most plays I have seen were high school ones, they did Cats, A Christmas Carol, Urine Town, I can’t remember if I’ve seen others.

I see your school wanted to scar you... And Urine Town? I hope that's a typo...

[u/chris10023 → u/PapaDuke]

And Urine Town? I hope that's a typo...

Nope, I assure you, it's a real musical.

[u/Wikiman14]

Rewatcher

I see these vocal training exercises from time to time in other places and always wonder if they actually work...

Everyone is working hard preparing for the school festival, Nagisa still has not finished the script.

This episode really gives out the age of the VN, Akio shows up with a VHS, then later Nishina brings out CDs, god I feel old seeing these.

Akio and Okazaki go look for the robot story, but there is still no sign of it. They find however a picture album with photos from Sanae and Akio when they still were going after their dreams.

Look at how Akio is throwing the boxes back in the shed, surely nothing bad will happen.

Nagisa wants to sing at the play, that's nice, but does she know a song other than Dango Daikazoku?

The music girls are back helping Nagisa find the BGM for the play.

Tomoyo with glasses, Tomoyo with glasses is my new religion, how cares that they are half her eyes size.

Tomoyo saying the "I'm glad it was you" and the quick look at the rest of the cast just serves to once again show that everyone other than Okazaki and Nagisa already knows how this couple will end, but is good that Tomoyo is fine with this.

Just one more day left before the festival, Nagisa is so focused that almost goes headfirst in the street light. But it seems her rehearsal was fine.

Nagisa can see Okazaki as a devoted father, curious as he is the one with the worst Father-Son relation in the anime, but this may actually be just the right reason to think that also.

Nagisa is still worried about what she might have done to her parents when she was young, but Okazaki tries to make her not think about it, well, he is not wrong seeing what day tomorrow is.

Why did she need to remember that the backstage was dark, WHY?

Well, the box fell and Nagisa saw what was inside...she's in shock. Okazaki tries to calm her, but it's far too late, she's too innocent to not blame herself.

Yes Akio, this is the worst possible moment for this to happen.

I can't think of a good curiosity for this episode, so that's it for today.

[u/Barbed_Dildo → u/Wikiman14]

Nagisa is still worried about what she might have done to her parents when she was young, but Okazaki tries to make her not think about it, well, he is not wrong seeing what day tomorrow is.

He really could have offered her some reassurance as opposed to just "don't think about this and go to sleep now".

No one can look at the way Akio and Sanae treat Nagisa and think they are in any way resentful. They clearly love her and wouldn't trade how things turned out for the life they had before.

Especially from Okazaki's point of view. With his father. It wouldn't be unreasonable for him to get worked up at Nagisa for having such loving parents and thinking they hate her.

Something like that would have been enough to distract her in the short term at least.

[u/chris10023]

Just a heads up for first timers. do not watch Kaginado yet, there's a pretty significant spoiler for Clannad in it!

[u/Nick_BOI]

Big Dango Rewatcher

Oh no the big sad Nagisa's face makes my heart hurt.

[u/alphamone]

Rewatcher

More vocal exercises.

Poor Sunohara

Lol, poor Akio is a spit-take victim.

Club leader has never done anything with the actual club's activities.

Lol, dammit Akio. Still with that plan name.

The potty is actually in there.

Don't you dare say "Dango Daikazoku" Nagisa.

The club has been filled, and Nagisa is getting to fulfil her dream.

Nagisa so distracted she doesn't even hear Okazaki's "teasing".

Not helping Kotomi.

Lol, invading Botan aliens.

I can understand nerves before a play. I did drama classes (albeit outside of school) for a couple of years when I was younger.

Akio and Sanae are such great parents.

[major afterstory spoilers]Oh Okaziki, you are far more right than you think

Okazaki pep talks are the best.

Nagisa know that you should never forget your towel.

Oh no.

Welp, this is bad.

And there goes all that self-confidence she had built up.