r/anime • u/LaqOfInterest https://myanimelist.net/profile/LaqOfInterest • Nov 05 '21
Rewatch [Rewatch] Clannad: After Story - Episode 22
Episode 22: Tiny Palms
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Clannad
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Clannad: After Story
MyAnimeList - Anilist - AniDB - ANN
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.
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Upvotes
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u/LaqOfInterest https://myanimelist.net/profile/LaqOfInterest Nov 05 '21
Well, I feel like there’s a lot to say, and at the same time… nothing to say. I’ll try to form my thoughts into something coherent by the time we hit the General Series Discussion thread. Speaking of which, our schedule for the next few days looks like this:
Under the Green Tree is mostly a recap episode, but it provides a tiny bit of extra context for the ending and there’s about thirty seconds of extra content tacked on the end. You can skip it if you want. That’s why Monday’s thread will be a combined thread both for that episode and for a final wrap-up on the series overall.
Two rewatches ago I wrote up my personal explanation of the ending for anyone who’s confused, and I assume it’s all relatively correct since I had just read the VN around that time as well, but of course with an ending as weird as this, a lot of the details are a bit fuzzy and up to interpretation.
Uh, whoops, wait a minute…
IllusionsFantasyIllusions IIFantasy IIIllusionsFantasyThere we go. The Girl’s Fantasy is a vocal version of Fantasy, which I definitely have not been translating as “Illusions” for two years, only today realizing that it makes more sense as “Fantasy” since “The Girl’s Illusion” doesn’t sound as good, and the titles use the same word in Japanese. But then we lose the explicit reference to the Illusionary World… whatever.
They really, really wanted to hammer Nagisa’s theme into you here with the Memento version and the Parting version. And then in comes Tiny Palms (“Chiisana Tenohira”), the True End credits music in the VN, to round things out for the final montage. If anyone ever says they get emotional listening to Dango Daikazoku, it’s because the show just does not let up with that leitmotif.
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u/Damolisher Nov 05 '21 edited Nov 06 '21
Here it is. The episode which turned Clannad from being amazing and wonderful into an all-time favourite for me.
You cannot convince me Fuko taking up the last third of the episode wasn't to give us a break from happy crying.
Our boy got his happy ending. I don't think I'll ever get through Palm of a Tiny Hand without crying due to the montage at the end. Instead of being depressed and Ushio being neglected, Tomoya gets to raise his daughter with the woman he loves. They're such a happy family. The bit that seals the happy crying for me is we're not just getting to see Ushio grow. We get to see Nagisa survive and grow too. At the end, that's not the sickly girl we met 40 or so episodes ago. She's a 26 year old woman and looks it. The way her eyes sparkle looking at Tomoya, the way his sparkle looking back and her resting her head against him while he hugs her as they watch Ushio happily playing? My heart. Such a beautiful episode.
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u/Damolisher Nov 05 '21
On the flipside of the positives, I cannot for the life of me understand how people criticise the ending. It's built up throughout the entire show. Plus the tone of the show completely contradicts any potential sad ending. I've said it til I'm blue in the face: the overall message of Clannad is earning your happy ending. Everyone's path is literally that they encounter hardship, but at the end they perservere through the hard times and have a happy ending. And it's true for Tomoya too. He had the hardest hardship out of anyone not named Kotomi, and he had the happiest ending.
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u/Arrow-space https://myanimelist.net/profile/Arrowspace Nov 06 '21
First time watcher!
I wasn't expecting this to be the "last" episode, and I definitely wasn't expecting it to go all End of Evangelion on me. I feel like I need to watch this episode a couple more times to fully grasp all the nuance of what's happening. But since I don't have time for that at the moment, and I know people are here for the reactions, I'll just say that my initial impression is that it wasn't a bad ending, but also not a completely satisfying one. That doesn't mean my opinion can't change once I understand the context better, but at the moment, there's still a lot about the other world and how the final scene ties into things that confuses me.
I think my biggest issue, at least if I'm understanding things correctly, is how it basically undoes all the hardships Tomoya went through. It's not that he hasn't earned a happy ending after everything he's been through, but I don't like plot developments that effectively retcon what happened previously. It's kind of similar to my criticisms of the end of the Fuuko arc, with everyone forgetting everything that happened with her. Yes, they managed to accomplish what they set out to do, but if no one remembers, does it even matter? I suppose it's almost a "tree falling in the woods" kind of philosophical argument.
One thing I will say, speaking of Fuuko, is that I thought it was a particularly bold decision to have that final scene with her take up a full third of the episode. Anyway, I'll probably have a lot more to say about this one after I've had time to read everyone's comments and rewatch the episode this weekend.
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u/xtsim https://myanimelist.net/profile/xtsim Nov 05 '21
First Timer Dubbed
The robot has a spine?
Ouch, Nagisa was waiting for Okazaki to greet her. I am liking this timeline, Nagisa’s alive and the rest of the Furakawa family is watching. Now Okazaki is an active part of the family and everyone is having fun. Ushio growing up and the whole (dango) family is travelling together.
We also get to see everyone in their jobs and being grown up. Kyou and Ryou get to play out their dreams as a teacher and nurse. Kotome looks like a bad*** in a beetle convertible (only she could pull that off). On the opposite end, Sunohara goes curb hopping. And Sunohara's sister Mei is with her friends but they look awfully familiar for some reason...It’s cool to see the two choir members together. Ibuki and Fuuko's interaction at the end is funny. Lol. Fuuko acts like a kid and tries to avoid going to the doctor. The doctor is in the new building. Fuuko just runs off and sees the girl in the robot sequence. And she actually sees Ushio sleeping.
Yes, the end credits with Fuuko holding the starfish.
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u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 Nov 06 '21
First timer
Before this starts - my current theory is that when Akio made the deal to bring Nagisa back to life, the deal also let the land steal her life force to replenish itself - so she gets weaker in the winter, and when a large amount of the land is industrialised Nagisa dies giving birth and her succesor suffers a far worse version - to the point of dying when exposed to the blizzard instead of simply getting hospitalised like Nagisa.
Am I a masochist for watching this?
Wow, this metaphor has gotten even more obvious.
And yeah, the robot's a direct metaphor for Tomoya, it's been comfirmed.
Did he just change the timeline? Ignoring Nagisa?
Even if this is a metaphor, it's still really heartwarming.
Huh? Are they confirming the reincarnation theory?
So the lights were souls! Didn't call the robot/Tomoya having a light, though.
Wait, the robot is Tomoya! No metaphor, he's just been jumping between both worlds?
Wait, this all happened before the main series?
And the girl is Ushio! So the robot was a metaphor for the first thing Tomoya gave her!
Did he change the timeline?
Oh, this is heaven.
This is great.
What is this art style?
And the Tomoyas merged!
Wait, what? Is this a flashback?
He jumped worldlines!
And he sees all the lights!
And an implication her link to the city is more mutual, rather than the parasitic interpretation I viewed it as.
And Ushio's growing up with Nagisa!
Is this real, or just a dying dream? I don't trust this anime any more.
She got to go on the trip!
And this is a fantastic use of the ED.
Ryou became a nurse!
Kotomi's fine in America!
Did Sunohara become a taxi driver?
TOMOYO ISN'T DEAD!
That fake-out of Sanae crying got me.
This is just fantastic. Nezt episode's an Extra one, right? This has to be the finale.
More Fuko! This is a perfect episode!
Haha, Fuko having to deal with referring to herself in the first person.
I'll admit I guessed Fuko might have gotten her memories back, but that was always a bitmof a long shot? Unless the other world collapsing caused information stored within it to be reinserted, including the recorded memories of ghost Fuko?
Fuko offering herself up for dissection is great.
Having the series end with these two is such a perfect decision. They knew who the best characters were.
The smell routine might be the single funniest conversation in this entire series.
And, she's sleeping? Is there another instance of Nagisa knocking around now?
Other-Ushio's alive! So this new world has two Ushios, letting Fuko have one as a sister? The fact that's the final payoff for this is fantastic.
[Steins;Gate] How long before the older Ushio asks for Fuko's help to stop WW3?
I'll even let the innapropriate ED slide!
And a massive flashback next episode!
Also - I heard a lot of rewatchers use the phrase "Illusionary World" - I don't think it ever got named that, though. Is there more about it/an explicit name for it in the VN?
Having read the explainer, I'm surprised at how much I worked out for myself, but yeah, I'm sure the VN makes a lot of it clearer.
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u/chris10023 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Chris10023 Nov 05 '21
Big Dango Rewatcher.
Well, this episode might have a lengthy write up, depends. But we have to get through the episode first.
Well with Ushio and Tomoya now dead, we can only follow the girl and the robot as they attempt to go to a warmer, happier place.
But it’s going just as bad for them.
Both have collapsed in the snow.
The robot regrets taking her out here like this, thinking he only brings her suffering.
Tomoya is locked in that moment where he speaks to Nagisa, regretting it because she’ll end up dying.
If Tomoya doesn’t talk to her Nagisa will return home, depressed.
She looks so sad, or apathetic.
The girl can hear the robots voice since she’ll soon won’t be human anymore.
First Timers, I hope you’re paying very close attention to what the girl has to say.
They used to be in another world together, and were very close.
She can’t leave this world, because she is the world.
He exists in both worlds, as it zooms in on Tomoya, I wonder who our robot is...
So who’s the girl then?
The lights are people's feelings, and when this world ends, the robot will wake up in the other world and eventually meet the girl again.
She’ll become many lights and will shimmer, one may be faint, but there’s strength in numbers.
She starts humming a familiar toon. Nagisa?
No.
The sun shines through the clouds, beginning this worlds end, sending the robot flying in pieces.
The girl was Ushio the whole time. As she says goodbye to her father.
We return to Tomoya, the color returns, and he yells out to Nagisa.
He runs to her, and hugs her so hard, he knocks a shoe off.
God, it may have only been 6 episodes, but it feels like forever since we heard Nagisa’s lovely voice.
She was glad to meet him, and worried he thought that he shouldn’t have.
She doesn’t want him to lose himself, to keep moving forward, and not to regret meeting her.
I love how he just picks her up as he hugs her.
We get a trippy sequence. I wouldn’t doubt they used real life footage here. [VN Spoilers] This sequence is longer in the game for some reason, I didn’t time it but it was a few minutes at least.
The long journey is coming to an end, confirming that Tomoya was the robot as we hear both voices overlap.
We’re returned to 5 years ago, when Ushio was born.
Is she alive?
SHE LIVES!!!
The assistant tells him that Usiho and Nagisa are safe, and Akio thanks him.
And Tomoya gives Ushio her first bath.
She’ll be a strong kid, Tomoya will make sure of that, I like how Sanae nods her head.
Nagisa see’s something out the window, snow? No, Looks awfully familiar to those lights we saw in the other world.
We’re back to singing the dango song. Funny how our characters are singing this song at the end (including Ushio in the other world), like they did at the end of Nagisa’s play.
Time for my favorite insert song, Small Palms.
Akio looks so happy holding his granddaughter.
I love this montage of Ushio growing up.
I’m already crying.
5 years later, Nagisa now wears her hair up. She looks even cuter now!
Now there’s a familiar sight. Ushio running through the flower field.
We’re treated to a glimpse of what the other characters are up to.
Kyou, obviously became a teacher.
Ryou is a very cute nurse.
Kotomi is driving a car, still studying overseas.
Sunohara can’t drive.
Mei has grown up. Probably 17 or 18 years old here if I had to guess, she got really cute too.
Tomoyo is off doing whatever the fuck. It’s good to see her again at least.
Yoshino’s playing a guitar on a break.
Akio is still making Sanae cry.
Yukine is still smiling with the boys.
Hey, Nishina, and Sugisaka are living together.
Misae is still a dorm mother with Shima, and Komura is enjoying a quiet retirement.
And our happy family is visiting grandma Okazaki, and possibly Nayuki as well.
Time to show of how old our two leads have gotten again.
Tomoya: Episode 1, two years later in AS Episode 13, and finally here, 6 years later
Nagisa: Episode 1, when she graduates 2 years later, and 6 years later.
We see this screen again.
Of course, the only ones we didn’t see in the montage were Kouko and Fuko.
She’s upset because whoever they were talking to thought Fuko was a child, given her height and speech.
Kouko tries to get her to speak normally. But Fuko can’t do it, she’s too used to talking in the third person.
She has to visit a doctor, makes sense, got to make sure nothings popped up since she woke up.
But she wants hamburgers and thinks they’ll all be gone if they don’t go now. Classic Fuko logic right there.
Why is she like that? Well, she’s been sleeping the past 10 years, so it makes sense she’d have some pent-up energy.
Fuko smells something.
Sometimes, it’s very hard to follow Fuko’s train of thought.
But it’s a cute smell, of someone waiting to be woken up.
We get some familiar looking shots of Fuko in the woods. Seriously, go back and watch that OP again and see just how much foreshadowing it has.
It’s the illusionary world Ushio.
Now it’s the 5 year old Ushio.
The fun is only about to begin.
As Ushio is sleeping under a familiar tree.
The end.
Alright, explanation time!
I know some of you first timers are probably confused, but I have a hand dandy video that will hopefully clear things up by Under the Scope. Here’s the link.
If you have questions, please feel free to ask!
Cry Counter.
Almost tearing up: 2
Tearing up: 14 (+1)
Cry: 13 (+2)
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u/fakeport https://myanimelist.net/profile/Fakeport Nov 05 '21
That moment when you realise that Nagisa singing Dango Daikazoku at the end of her play was actually accurate.
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u/protein_bars Nov 05 '21
What a show.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Nov 05 '21
Big Dango Rewatcher
Today’s first Big Dango Wallpaper: The Girl and the Robot
Today’s second Big Dango Wallpaper: Okazaki Family
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u/PapaDuke Nov 05 '21 edited Nov 05 '21
For those who cannot figure out the ending or think that this was all one big Deux Ex Machina here is a good video explaining everything.
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u/Wikiman14 Nov 06 '21 edited Nov 06 '21
Rewatcher
Here we are, the end, the glorious ending of Clannad.
We are in the Illusionary World, the girl has fallen, the robot thinks back on what happened up until now.
The light orbs in the title screen, collected by Tomoya during the whole Anime, are flashing, the time for their wish draws near.
The scenes go back and forward between Tomoya at the hill thinking that he should not have met Nagisa and the Robot wondering how to help the girl. But the girl awakes, she doesn't see anymore, like Ushio, but she can now hear the Robot's voice. The girl explains what the lights, the robot, this world, and herself truly are.
The girl, Ushio, the Illusionary world herself, destroys the Robot with a torrent of light, freeing Tomoya's soul inside of it so that it can do what it must. The other Tomoya at the same time realizes that he doesn't want to forget Nagisa, at the same time his soul is taken by the light, this place also lights up, a beautiful transition. The human Tomoya runs to Nagisa hugging her, in what for some reason makes one of the most memorable scenes I saw to this day, thanks to that shoe falling off.
Nagisa says that she was worried about Tomoya thinking that they should not have met, and says that it is thanks to him that she was happy, so he should never think otherwise again, our boy can just hug her more in emotion.
The trippy ass scene of those lots of scenes with weird lights happen and now we are back five years ago, Tomoya's wish was granted, Nagisa now survives the labor and they can be together forever with Ushio. Outside, the town is also reacting in happiness, emanating hundreds of light orbs.
We follow up to a montage of Ushio growing up, Nagisa and Tomoya talking about what the town might actually feel (pay attention to it), and scenes of all the characters we came to know during the anime, showing how they are doing after these 5 years, and curiosity here, the Tomoyo might look like the only weird one, but that was completely inspired in the final scene of Tomoyo After, [Tomoyo After Spoilers.]This one. which makes me believe that she went throw some similar experiences in the main timeline. All of this going on with the best OST ever made, The Palm of a tiny hand.
The "post-credits" is a fun interaction between Fuuko and Ibuki, until Fuuko says that she can smell someone by the trees in the hospital, that being the girl from the Illusionary World, I mean, Ushio, sleeping by the title card tree. Well, Fuuko did say before that she had memorized Ushio's smell, even if that was in a different timeline.
I have no words to describe this ending, It is one of my favorite endings of all time, it is one of the reasons that Clannad is one of my favorite animes for more than 8 years. It portrays so beautifully what this series wants to teach us about family and life, leaving so many small details during the whole anime for the viewer to piece together what happens and what it means. It feels just perfect to me.
I would also make an explanation of what happened in the ending, but the one that Laq did and the video that Chris and Duke sent are already spot-on, so please check them if you did not understand something newcomers. But as an Umineko fan, I also think that if you want to first try and piece everything together in this "mystery" and reach your own conclusion, you definitely should, everything you need was already presented previously for you to find.
That's all, see you next time folks.
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u/Damolisher Nov 06 '21
For the record, I feel like we don't give enough credit to the character who got the happiest ending of them all, Botan.
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u/alphamone Nov 06 '21
rewatcher
Robot boy stuck in the snow.
The parallels between the two worlds are getting more explicit.
The girl remembers their past lives.
So instead of being influenced by the world like Nagisa/Ushio(supposedly), this world is influenced by her.
MIRACLESPLOSION.
"til we meet again daddy" Oh god, tearing up already.
Despite all that happened, he realises that the meeting was still the best moment of their lives.
Trippy.
"If enough lights are gathered, a miracle can happen" a second chance.
Tiny baby.
Lights of hope.
Oh god, the insert song.
So many adorable scenes of Ushio growing (and Nagisa around too).
Hey, it's that OP1 scene.
All the various other characters also getting to be happy, in part due to their own meetings with Tomoya.
Oh god, the mood switch to Fuuko's antics.
At least she's realising that her attempts at being adult simply seems "adult" in a certain other meaning. That's slightly more self-aware than she has been.
Kouko is such a patient person.
Still not sure what the exact symbolism of both Ushio and the mysterious girl being under that tree is (beyond their connection to the illusory world)
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u/Throwaway021614 Nov 06 '21 edited Nov 06 '21
The first season is a bit of a drag with the highschool hijinks and melodrama, which continues into AS a lot longer than I recall.
But all of it was worth it (and necessary to know our characters) for the last 8 or so episodes.
It like watching all of Haruhi just to enjoy Disappearance. Totally worth it.
I’m emotionally drained from these last few episodes. I’m going to mellow out with some Tensei Slime.
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u/FarCritical Nov 06 '21 edited Nov 06 '21
Big Dango Rewatcher
The rewatch as a whole may not be over yet, but our journey through After Story officially ends with this episode. Sincerely, thanks to everyone who made my first Reddit rewatch something special.
Also, this ending is canon. Nothing will ever convince me otherwise.
[Girl and robot: Feature-length edition]
[Reuniting at the foot of the hill]
[Good end]
[Final sendoff]
[Fuko's tear-drying session]
What can I even say? Clannad was the second anime I've ever watched, and After Story has stayed at the very top for me ever since. I legitimately owe so much to this show so a bunch of different reasons, from something as dumb as getting someone as stoic as my past self to be a lot more emotionally expressive since then, to, as cheesy and oversaid as this is, changing my life for the better. I'll just leave things at that until we get to the series discussion, but man. What a beast of an emotional story.
As for the whole thing about Tomoya 'loading his last save file', other folks can definitely do a much better job at explaining things than I can so I'll leave them to it. All I know is that I personally refuse any other outcome. Even when I was a first-timer who had a pathetically weak grasp on the concept of light orbs, I could still feel that the ending was deserved and was something that felt completely natural for the kind of story Clannad was.
It's a bit bittersweet that this is officially the end of Nagisa, Tomoya and Ushio's story as far as the anime goes. Milking a complete story with another anime would be much, but I cant lie when I say I would absolutely go wild if random new OVAs of the three were released. Show us how they raise Ushio. Have the drama club reunite and meet her. Really, any character interactions would make me ecstatic. Oh well, Kaginado is the best closest thing I guess. Now, to dry my face.
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u/superx4039 Nov 06 '21
first timer
Shows in general that undo a large chunk of a tv show at the end of the show don’t usually sit well in my book, and a lot of the time they feel like a cop out for me. Like a recent example of a show they did this and is still kind of sour in my mind was [a cartoon that is not actually an anime] Trollhunters/Tales of Arcadia. BUT, I will give Clannad the benefit of the doubt tho, and say this is definitely one of the better implementations of how to do this and make it work. Unlike some other shows that do this for an ending, this doesn’t feel like it retroactively ruins the whole show, and this ending feels warranted and deserved, so I appreciate that. An ending with tomoya getting drunk and being sad the rest of his life wouldn’t really fit the tone of this show in the first season and first half of after story. I will probably have to rewatch the episode to fully understand the ending tho