Monday, July 21, 2008

Clannad Special: What if...


On the last disc of Clannad DVD, there is an extra episode. It the story of "what if" Okazaki went with Tomoyo Sakagami.

I was kind of hoping to see the death of another major character. Then I came to my senses: nobody wants to see tragedies nowadays. I'm probably the very few people who like to be emotionally tortured by tragedies. Story writers for Clannad has already put one tragedy into the movie, there is no reason for them to do it again. Tragedies just don't sell very well to the generally public.

Overall, as an add-on special, it's a pretty good "alternate timeline" story. It also have some of the usual emotional stir Key/VisualArts have in most of the anime lineup.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think this episode becomes much more meaningful if you see it as the starting point for the "Tomoyo After" storyline. I know the game hasn't been fully translated yet, but the manga version "Dear Shining Memories" is available to read online. "Tomoyo After" feels like a very different kind of "Clannad" story - in some ways I think it's even more touching. But it can get a whole lot sadder, too.