As the festival draws near, the Theatre Club continues rehearsing and preparing for its play. Everyone is available to help out, and the episode turns slice-of-life for a majority of the time. But there’s still a little incident at the end that puts the success of the play under concern. Plus the viewers have a lot of unanswered questions as well.

Synopsis

Play preparation comes together with voice drills and BGM selection. Different technical roles are assigned, and it looks like Nagisa will be the only actor in this play of a girl in a world that has ended. Maybe there’ll be a narrator, too.

Sanae and Akio also help out, the latter providing videos of old plays. While Nagisa is distracted, Akio and Tomoya try to look for the storybook of Nagisa’s play, should it exist. They are interrupted, though, and have to stuff things back in the shed quickly.

Dress rehearsal goes by well, and Nagisa is nervous that night and can’t go to bed. Tomoya tries to clear her mind, which works until Nagisa has to search the shed for some flashlight batteries. She discovers the albums of her parents’ past, and now nobody can predict her state of mind…

Will there be blood?

Impressions

We’re just kinda moving along. I’m leaving myself numb to the fact that only one TV episode remains (Xebek feels similarly). I guess I’ll watch the movie after that and then see how the DVD episode matches up to it. The title of the extra 23rd episode is “The Events of Summer” (夏休みの出来事), and I don’t really know what it means. I read elsewhere that it’s about a baseball game? Sounds like a chance to slip in a Haruhi reference as well. Maybe it’ll be the theater club against the Kamigahara Pirates. :P

As for the story, I’m glad for all the plot development, but it doesn’t feel entirely gripping so far. Maybe it’s just a preparation for the final episode? I haven’t been moved to tears yet; this is something Fuuko and Kotomi have done, but Nagisa isn’t yet there. Unless it’s because Nagisa’s story is, for the most part, kinda realistic. Fuuko gets her supernatural miracle with the wedding and astral projection. Kotomi gets a suitcase passed down for years. Nagisa’s parents sacrificing their dreams for their child? Not all that uncommon. o.o So unfortunately it doesn’t tug at our hearts as much, despite how admirable the act still is.

Plus we were expecting this for a while I guess. While I said in previous entries that she’s warming up to me (and she still is), Nagisa still hasn’t topped the story endings of the previous girls yet. Memento is not impressed either; Tomoyo said she’s glad it ended up being her, but why really? Just because their personalities are similar?

I guess I’m just asking for too much. Ascaloth analyzes the growing relationship under some models, and Tomoya and Nagisa aren’t in any unhealthy position; they just move a little more slowly or develop things differently than your typical harem couple would.

So I should be proud of that, that they’re building a relationship that will last instead of one that will end in divorce after a few years …. but that just isn’t fun. x.x Everyone is fuming over how they’re not together and kissing yet. This is fictional drama after all, not a life lesson as to “how you should slowly build a relationship in reality.” We need more jealousy and obsession. Otherwise the penultimate Nagisa victory in After Story won’t feel as deserved.

This struck me as really, really cute for some reason

Shirukii remarks, “Kyou = perfect girlfriend material, Tomoyo = perfect waifu material. Nagisa? Moe cockroach?” Yes, moe cockroach. She’s going to be around no matter what all the other fans say. ^^; Beyond Haruhi II and hopefully into a 1-cour second season. And the other girls appear even less in After Story, don’t they? Poo. At least put Kyou and Youhei together or something (by the way I like how she addresses him by first name).

Anyway, a little bit on the fun part — the camera angles which Kurogane enjoyed and Totali was so mesmerized in, he forgot to pay attention to the dialogue. It wasn’t all that important anyway. As usual, Hinano is displeased, but I slightly agree with her this time. We hadn’t had anything really hot-blooded since Kyou’s shed scene, so it seems like KyoAni decided to make up for the last few episodes of non-harem with this whole stretching business.

And they didn’t really have to. The whole first half of the series was just cute and funny (with Fuuko and Kotomi, who really aren’t ero material) whenever there wasn’t serious drama. Seeing Kyou and Tomoyo in various places was a treat, but I had accepted that as being over now. –But oh well; I shouldn’t complain. ^^;

I think I must have forgotten discussion of episodes past. Was there formerly talk of glasses vs. contacts with the other girls? Why did Kyou laugh (and at whom)? Cute face anyway, but I can’t remember the inside joke.

Is that really a soggy cigarette as a result of Tomoya spitting tea in his face? A friend had to point that out. I thought Akio was eating a piece of squid or something (and it made NO sense to me). But, yeah, I guess he hardly smokes it; just uses it as a prop of GARness if he doesn’t notice for quite a while that it isn’t … dry.

The vehicular detail amuses me. I wonder if this is like… KyoAni’s CEO’s car. Just a fun little plug that nobody will notice.

Curse you, DS! I can’t think of Nagisa’s singing any different way now.

Those have to be reading glasses. As if huge anime eyes defy physics and human nature already, now the glasses that they wear don’t even cover the whole eyeball. How is she supposed to see? XD I can recall in Lucky Star and Magic Knight Rayearth that Miyuki’s and Fuu’s glasses cover their whole face, but it looks ‘dorky’ as a result. You need small glasses for the ‘hotness’ effect, but they just look so impractical. ^^; Ah well, another quirk of anime I guess.

Others have mentioned how a ni-nen-sei can just pat her senior’s head so easily. Sure, she’s the student council president, but still… Is petting a common form of praise in Japan, or is it just an anime thing? Nagisa just responds so cutely to what Americans would find offensively patronizing.

And of course Tomoyo has to bring up the relationship subject, which I am happy about that it hasn’t been thrown into the wind just because the other girls’ arcs are over, but it still doesn’t feel too nice to hear. ^^; Add that to Tomoyo’s lack of experience in that field I guess, as she’s taking her loss rather professionally now instead of emotionally. Kyou’s and Ryou’s glances seem to say more to the audience than it says to themselves. I wonder if memories flashed in front of them just then of what could have been…

I wonder how long it took for them to build that… Really I’m jealous of these Japanese school festivals. Like with this quiz display, it seems you can learn a whole lot more through hands-on application than just studying all semester without too much outside-the-classroom activity.

I laughed at this, right when the explosion engulfed Nagisa. No it’s not because she died, it’s the way she died. Botans all around and aliens wondering if her act will save the Earth or not. Apparently it doesn’t, but KyoAni gets a free chance to animate an apocalypse, and we see a silhouette dissolving in a ball of energy much like in mecha or action series. Such a sad fate for the world, how the girl couldn’t save it but somehow survives the explosion and now lives alone with her one robot.

Anyway I look forward to a KyoAni-level ending, even if it’s in an odd place in the storyline. People say that we should expect an announcement in a few weeks at random, since that’s what happened with the Clannad announcement, far after the last episode of Kanon aired, and we weren’t sure what was going to happen after Lucky Star.

~Crisu

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Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Clannad 19 – Life with Nagisa
• Clannad 20 – The Real Story Begins
• Clannad 23 – Mei-chan kawaii~
• Clannad 20, Nagisa’s past and her true feelings.