The winter season’s been over for a few weeks now, but I’ve only recently finished the shows from the winter season (and some from the fall) that I was watching. I’ve yet to finish Akikan! and RideBack, and I haven’t caught up to the latest episodes of Churuya-san, Haruhi-chan, and Hetalia Axis Powers. The first two will be tedious to go through, but I’m sure I’ll devour the last three on some weekend.

Since I haven’t written anything anime-focused in a couple of months, here we go with brief thoughts on two of the eight winter 2009 shows that I completed.

Clannad ~After Story~

After Story continues with its prequel’s structure by going through Sunohara’s arc, then Misae’s arc, and so on. Despite what notdotq’s lolikitsune thinks, I think the show does a superb job of conveying what he perceives as the story’s primary message: hope never dies (I cannot comment on the movie’s ability because I have not watched it). Some claim that KyoAni’s method of linearizing Key’s multi-path visual novels just doesn’t work. This is a challenge for adaptations of visual novels of course; Riuva’s Ascaloth highlights this issue in his review. I agree with his opinion that KyoAni has excelled at bringing these different paths together into one solid narrative that demonstrates how these different situations helped Tomoya develop into a mature adult. Perhaps the only real flaws that I find in the story content of the show are Misae’s arc and the rushed ending. I feel that Misae’s arc was oddly placed because it has no real place in the show. It doesn’t involve Tomoya and Nagisa at all, and despite somewhat adding onto the themes of the show, it didn’t do much to advance the plot.

Touching on the ending… perhaps I didn’t feel as disappointed by it because I already knew what was going to happen. As Tomoya collected light orbs throughout the show, it began to be quite obvious what they would all lead to: reset ending in which Nagisa survives. Watching the ending wasn’t particularly frustrating, because I felt Tomoya was getting what he deserves. He already crumbled under the death of Nagisa, and even after completely turning himself around and even making amends with his father, Ushio was to suffer the same fate as her mother. Tomoya, who helped and tried his hardest for his friends and family, needed a happy ending. While I didn’t think Nagisa’s survival was necessary (Ushio living on would have been enough), it’s incredibly satisfying to see a hard-working, good-natured guy rewarded for being kind.

I liked how eternal put it: Clannad is a fairy tale. I don’t consider the realistic plausibility of the story if it never aimed for realism in the first place. From Fuuko’s arc in the first season, it’s clearly obvious that magic will occur. From the beginning, and if you have watched or played Air and Kanon, you very well know that Key stories are full of fantasy and wonder. Sure, the reset ending may have made our tears for Tomoya all for naught, but isn’t it nice to see him genuinely happy?

Maria-sama ga Miteru (4th season)

It was no surprise that I watched this; Marimite is my second most favorite series, just behind Aria. There’s nothing like seeing a bunch of Catholic schoolgirls prance about while engaging in pointless drama. The fourth season brought more of this, but a minor character was suddenly put into the spotlight: Touko. I quickly grew to love her tsundere ways.

With that, all I have to say is:

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(Main page/archive image taken from Danbooru)

This post is tagged clannad, maria-sama ga miteru, winter 2009