HomeAnimeThe Rest of Their Life - Clannad: After Story Part 2 Review

The Rest of Their Life – Clannad: After Story Part 2 Review

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The Rest of Their Life - Clannad: After Story Part 2 Review 1 Title: Clannad -After Story- Part 2
Published by: Siren Visual (Australia), Sentai Filmworks (US)
Based on: The Visual Novel of the same name by KEY / visualarts
Genre: Romance, Drama, Fantasy
Audio: English and Japanese Dubs
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Runtime: 300 minutes
Cost: $49.95
Classification: This title is rated PG for Mild Themes, Sexual References and Infrequent Course Language
Blurb: It has been a long time coming, however the final volume of Clannad has been released. By this point, if you are interested in starting the series, you should go back to my original reviews and read them, as this is for those who need a push to the end and achieve the full Clannad experience. A beautiful ending to the series which will no doubt bring some to tears, whilst displaying a series on appreciation of life and family togetherness.
Special Thanks: Special thanks goes to the Siren Visual PR Team for providing me with a review sample of this title.

Seems like I haven’t written a review in a week, alongside my one week intensive course at university I have also been captivated by some of the series that have been released this month and had my eyes glued to the television (Oh, and sleep…. I like sleep). The first series that I finished watching? Clannad -After Story- Part 2, the ending to the long run series that has spawned the most episodes out of any KEY anime adaptation, and most probably is the most memorable. How did the ending fare? Read on to find out!

The Rest of Their Life - Clannad: After Story Part 2 Review 2

An alternate path opens up for Tomoya and Nagisa as they enter their second semester and head towards graduation. Beyond school they look forward to a family of their own, through not without facing hardships and ultimately tragedy. After Story follows on from the original CLANNAD series and further expands on the themes of family, trust and empathy.

I would first like to draw your attention to the image above. Whilst only three of those characters retained a focus on either opening sequence, you would most probably say they are the protagonists for the series right? The final part of the series essentially involves removing three of those characters from the storyline entirely, making one a background character and cutting another one out of the picture later? Can you make a guess at which characters fall into which category? As during the first three parts of the series have focused on each of the female characters both primary and secondary, this time the storyline is Tomoya’s Arc, which focuses on his development and his quest for a happy life. Of course, there are a few complications to make that happen: Kotomi, Ryou and Sunohara are written out of the story fairly early as they go and seek their own careers, Kyou remains in the town as a Kindergarden teacher and yes, on the happy couples goal to have a child together, Nagisa ends up dying whilst giving birth to their daughter Ushio. Instead, with Tomoya all alone in the world, the secondary character positions fall to Akio and Sanae Furukawa, Ushio who is five years old after a time jump and Yusuke who still remains Tomoya’s work colleague.

The Rest of Their Life - Clannad: After Story Part 2 Review 3

But more on that later as before this we still are given the last few episodes of “Happy Clannad” where Nagisa finishes her schooling and graduates whilst her and Tomoya start their life together. These are definitely enjoyable episodes as whilst they may not use the high intensity comedy, they place the comedy on more awkward situations that would only really work with a family such as Nagisa’s (First drink of Sake for example). These final episodes are also used to show Nagisa as less of a frail girl and more as someone who wants to live a happy and fulfilling life to the point where she can get a job and support Tomoya instead of him supporting her. As well, it appropriately sets the tone for the concluding episodes.

The switch in characters may be surprising for those who are both used to other KEY titles, which usually do change characters, but not to the extent where characters are taken out of the series or even give the male protagonist any sort of character development outside that to progress a female friends storyline. This time however, Tomoya is faced with a number of troubles that he must solve to live the happy life he originally planned: Bereavement, the willingness to be a father, forgiveness alongside others. The issue I have with these episodes, is that whilst they spend a significant amount of time developing Tomoya’s relationship with Ushio, his father and another character, I felt underwhelmed when they forced the concluding plotline without having more development of Ushio – making the storyline more linear then previous episodes.

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For those who are interested, there are also three bonus episodes for you to enjoy at the conclusion of the story. The first explains Nagisa’s life before she met Tomoya which is an interesting prospect but I found it an easy episode to skip over. The second episode focuses on the Kyou arc from the Visual Novel where instead of starting a relationship with Nagisa, Tomoya chose to start a complicated relationship between the two twin sisters, which is actually very enjoyable and one of my favorite arcs from the novel. Finally there is the obligatory (and easily skippable summary episode).

Overall however, the storyline was as rewarding as the previous parts and it was nice to see a conclusion to several of Tomoya’s own plots. Whilst the ending might have been overly happy, leading up to it was a well written tale that treated viewers both to the tragedy and heartwarming moments that make KEY storylines something special.

The Rest of Their Life - Clannad: After Story Part 2 Review 5

As this is the fourth review on this series, I don’t think I need to give a full lecture on the design, music and voice acting, however I do have a few comments for these criteria. First of all, the design in terms of environment seemed to improve from previous sets of episodes, with a nicer variety of designs that required more detail such as the areas visited by Tomoya and Ushio on their trip. I do have a qualm with Ushio’s character design… whilst she is completely adorable, she seems to wear her school uniform everywhere: On a summer trip to actually going to school which is perhaps a bit awkward to me. Music was strong, featuring tracks from the visual novel alongside some nice lyrical tracks at some points. Voice acting features the same enjoyable cast, with Luci Christian also voicing the role of Ushio as she did with Nagisa. They also chose to bring in a quartet of the characters singing the Dango song, which to me, didn’t suit the characters in the Japanese dub singing, let along the English dub cast.

In terms of packaging, I would say it is the best out of the four Clannad sets. Maintaining the Siren Visual tradition, Clannad – After Story – Part 2 has a slipcase, this time featuring all the “High School Friends – Tomoya, Nagisa, Kotomi, Kyou, Ryou, Tomoyo, Sunohara and Botan” sitting in the Drama Club room appearing to be taking a group photo only to be distracted by more the one thing. Even if this part focused on other characters, it is good to end the series with a nice “Main Character” slipcase. – Hey, it is better then the Other World slipcase of Part 1 right? The actual DVD cover is reversible, with the outer cover featuring the grown up Nagisa alongside Ushio and the inside cover featuring those two music club girls that don’t hold much weight in the series – I shall keep my Nagisa cover. The episodes are covered over three DVD’s and they are designed essentially the same as the other nine that have been released so far, featuring the music club girls, maid Nagisa and the Mother/Daughter pair (Would have been more inclined for a Tomoya/Ushio one if anything). Overall, as with the other three, the packaging design is good, and it goes well alongside the other three on my bookshelf at the very least.

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Unless you include the bonus episodes (Which I believe were aired at the same time in Japan) or the Slipcases as bonus content, there isn’t any extra content besides four trailers for previously released series – Durarara!!, Tatami Galaxy, House of Five Leaves and Tower of Druaga. It is a shame, as I could see quite a significant amount of bonus content available. Whilst bonus content isn’t required for series, it is disappointing when a really good series has absolutely nothing.

Getting onto the final and all important Personal Opinion. If I were to rank Clannad against all currently released KEY anime series, it would most probably be tied first with Kanon as they both add that extra bit of supernatural creativity to make it less of a bland romantic series and instead puts itself out there infront of the crowd with some interesting characters and drama. I won’t deny, the ending could have been better and could have used two of the three bonus episode slots to extend the storyline just a bit further. Overall however, if you have watched this far, you have no reason not to watch this one right?

Final Score

Storyline/Character Development: A-
Design: A
Music/Voice Acting:
A
Packaging Design/Extras: C
Personal Opinion: A-

Overall Score:  A



















Afterthought

The Rest of Their Life - Clannad: After Story Part 2 Review 7

There still remains one more Clannad title that Siren Visual has yet to release or even announce, however I do hope they release Clannad -The Motion Picture- which has already been English dubbed by the folks at Sentai Filmworks in the US….. at the very least they seem to have a much more upbeat Dango theme song in the movie….

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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