The scene looks hopeless in the illusionary world as the robot tries to pick the girl up from the snow. As her existence begins to fade, she can finally hear the robot’s voice and explains her purpose in this world before using the accumulated orbs of light to perform a miracle. As the illusionary world is destroyed, she says thanks and goodbye to her daddy for being there with her, finally revealing their identities to be Ushio and Tomoya respectively.
Tomoya seemingly returns to the moment he first met Nagisa and they profess their love to each other. The two then return to the moment that Nagisa “died”, only this time she is alive and well after giving birth to Ushio. Nagisa is first to notice the orbs of light floating in the sky, and everyone else goes to look at the sight as well.
We then see progress through the years as Tomoya and Nagisa raise Ushio to five years old as well as the progression of the other secondary cast. While going to the hospital with Kouko for her checkup, Fuko wanders off the beaten path and finds Ushio sleeping under a tree and states that their fun days are about to begin.
Impressions:
Clannad is unofficially over and what a ride it was with a great finale and happy ending to the series. The vocal version of “The Girl’s Fantasy” at the beginning of the episode was especially powerful and enhanced the feeling of Tomoya’s hopelessness right before the miracle. All of the character arcs were given meaning as everyone’s happiness helped to create the miracle. It was Tomoya that helped everyone attain their happiness in each arc, and it’s fitting that they all helped Tomoya achieve his happiness in After Story, a blissful life with his new family. It was fitting that Ushio returned to the place where miracles happen at the very end, the place where Akio took Nagisa so many years ago and wished for a miracle.
Clannad’s big mystery is still the illusionary world, which is an anomaly. When was it created and when exactly did Ushio appear in it? Perhaps it came to be when Nagisa first conceived the play about a girl alone in a desolate world. We’re also under the assumption that when Ushio died, she somehow traveled back in time through the illusionary world and built the robot to help her collect the orbs of light to save Nagisa.
My big question still is how Ushio was able to defy death and go to the illusionary world. To avoid the headache, we should probably say this was all due to Key logic. Something to do with Nagisa being linked to the city, so Ushio is linked to the city through their spiritual connection. My lesser question is how Tomoya’s consciousness got linked to the junk robot. The details of its origin aren’t that important, but I still like the think about it. The robot, as a part of Tomoya’s consciousness, urged him on to help others and create enough orbs of light for their own miracle. This is turning into a giant time paradox if I really think about it. I feel like this has turned into an incoherent rant at this point so…
Moving on, I like Fuko, I really do, but the joke near the end with Fuko and Kouko went way too long. I’ve also been thinking of a couple things in the finale that aren’t of great importance but will express anyway.
1. Fuko is a 10th grade dropout. What is she going to do with her life besides play with Ushio all the time and generally act retarded?
2. Fuko is 25 but continues to look like a 12 year old. Everyone else has grown up at least a bit. Even teenage Mei looks older than starfish girl. Speaking of grown up Mei, holy crap! I’d watch a show just about her. Cough.
3.. I liked how several scenes in the finale linked up with the first OP, “Megumeru”. Of note are the robot and Ushio’s final moments together, Fuko finding Ushio in the field outside the hospital, and finally Ushio running through the field of flowers. I love the little nostalgic details and such that went into the show. The final addition of Fuko and Ushio to the front of the TORCH line was icing on the cake. In a way Fuko has the last laugh… Or should I say the last dozo?
The extra episode looks like a return to the school days part with a focus on Nagisa before meeting Tomoya. Personally I’d prefer an epilogue where everyone gets together at the end of After Story to catch up on old times, but it doesn’t seem that’s going to happen. So uh… let the Little Busters anime speculation begin?
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I guess the junk robot probably symbolizes Tomoya’s life. That might be why he is linked to it.
@scott: What’s the reasoning behind the robot symbolizing Tomoya’s life? Just asking for some clarification on your theory.
Too much “If you played the game, you would know” explanations floating around. Ultimately, Clannad has some good moments and an inspired final ~12 episodes, but a head-scratcher of an ending and too many garbage story arcs prevents me from really calling it “good”.
@kadian: Yeah, the illusionary world was left very vague in the anime, but perhaps the extra episode will shed some light for those of us that haven’t played the VN for one reason or another. I don’t consider any arc to be garbage because everyone is important in contributing their happiness, and orbs of light, for the miracle to happen.
I understand that everyone contributes and such, but I felt that multiple arcs could have been seamlessly woven into one, or that some stories could’ve become continuing subplots rather than the entire focus for 3-4 eps so that we don’t have to get an f’n Sunohara arc. That way, we could’ve gotten more time on the the light orbs and exploring the meaning of the girl and robot in the snow rather than a “huh?” kind of ending that, as people elsewhere have noted, felt way too condensed.
In the end, I think following the VN format too faithfully alienated those who haven’t played those types of games but may otherwise have enjoy the story.
just finished it right now and i think it was really good. I hated that i cried a couple of times during this anime. Never on clannad but much rather in after story. Overall, it was a really damn good experience and i am really thankful to my friend for recommending the anime ^^