We’ve finally hit the halfway point of the series now. Episode 12 kicks off with Yoshino telling Tomoya a story and him picking up some valuable advice from it. This episode is pretty much a embodiment of why I love Clannad: Heart-warming stories, good direction, and great characters. The episode ends on a pretty serious note and even though I knew it was coming some time I just didn’t know when. It all lines up pretty nicely though. Since we’ve reached the half-way point I want to talk about the whole series thus far. It has transitioned pretty well by picking up where we left off the first season and then moving us on with Tomoya and Nagisa into a world of adult responsibilities. Obviously they are the biggest focus, and while I have admittedly not seen a lot of change in Nagisa, Tomoya himself has been growing up. This makes me happy. I mentioned in a previous post how I like to see characters age and change with the experiences they face. The fact that it seems like a new setting with him being out of high school is also enjoyable. The arcs that built on this varied in degrees of enjoyment, but they still provide interesting build to the point we are now. (mild spoiler in the next sentence) Right now, with the proposal at the end of episode 12 promises interesting developments in the future. As long as Clannad continues in its direction it can only go up. In the case of Clannad, it’s either you love it or you hate it. If you can’t enjoy the characters then you can’t like anything else. In the end, ~After Story~ is proving to be a worthy predecessor to the first season of Clannad. I look forward to more. -Ryan
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