Ryan Reviews : Clannad ~After Story~ Kyou Arc

It’s been awhile since we’ve actually posted anything on this blog, so I’d thought I take the liberty and post something. In Japan, the eighth and final DVD for Clannad ~After Story~ came out not too long ago. On this DVD, an extra story arc called “Another World, Kyou Chapter” was included. This places us in an alternate Clannad world in which instead of dating Nagisa, Tomoya choses to date Ryou when prompted. To my knowledge, all these story arcs gain their original basis in the visual novel released by Key in 2004. I’ve only just started playing it so I can’t really say. I’m pretty sure though, but feel free to yell and caps lock me to death if I’m wrong.

The extra episode takes place somewhere in-between the events of the first season of Clannad. As the name implies it focuses heavily on the would be relationship between Tomoya and Kyou. However Kyou’s sister, Ryou also plays a role in the arc. The episode begins right away when Ryou confesses her feelings to Tomoya and problems ensue when Kyou and Tomoya are caught doing something in the local park. The main idea of this episode is to encompass a traditional Clannad story arc that would normally take a span of 4-6 episodes to tell and compress it into one.

With that challenge in mind, the pacing is very well done. Even though you can feel the story moving fast, it’s not to be a bother and things remain comprehensible. Obviously in order to fill in some of the gaps you need to have watched at least some of the original Clannad, but I doubt you’d be watching this if you hadn’t otherwise. Yes, from exposition to dénouement everything runs smoothly. A very lovely and intriguing story. In fact, I think this can actually stand up to a full length story from Clannad. It kinda makes me wonder what it’d be like if it actually was. Guess I’ll have to keep wondering though. The animation in this OVA seems to be lacking that “shine” that I normally think of when I watch a Clannad episode. It might be just me though. I really do think it could have looked prettier and better. Characters are pretty much like you remember them, except for the little tweaks for this alternate world, and they progress well with the story. Overall, I enjoyed this extra story arc from Clannad.

~Ryan