Finally, KyoAni answered our prayers and gave us a nice little Kyou episode. Although I wished they’d make it longer, like a movie or something instead of just a short 23 minute episode. Even so, despite being a full episode, it wasn’t really as touching as the Tomoyo episode. It was missing some kind of magic. Even so, I’m still happy to be able to see Kyou one more time.

To be honest, this is the first time I’ve seen Kyou look so miserable. I really wonder why people always go melancholy when they’re in an unrequited love situation. It’s really interesting that Kyou changed so much from just being in love.

I mean look at her. This really isn’t like her to get all sulky over something that’s (sorta) none of her business. I really wonder what she’s trying to achieve by walking outside in a sweater in an unkept manner. Despite being a pretty girl, the animators actually managed to make her look like a mess. Though, come to think of it, I kinda like her when she’s a mess. GAH WHAT AM I THINKING?!

Figma reaction to Kyou and Tomoya:

Yeah I know. I WTF’ed too. That was way too quick, but it did make an awesome basis for a rumour and Kyou doing insane and irrational things.

We love your laugh Kyou, but you’re not hiding anything.

Her sadness seemed to be increasing exponentially this episode.

I’m sad….

Hug me.

I get the feeling that Ryou has bigger breasts than Kyou.

I love the guess who scene. It really brought out the emotions they were going thru.

For some reason, a girl cutting her long hair is a very very big deal. No, I’m serious.

“No way you steal my boyfriend.”

“You’re too late. If you really loved him you wouldn’t be running away”

She’s like a mix of Ryou dere and Kyou dere.

Doesn’t Kyou under a shadow remind you of someone?

Someone who was in the hospital for quite a long time?

Confirmed. Kyou’s breasts are nowhere as big as Ryous.

Short haired Kyou ftw.

Kyaaa Tomoya is so lucky. I want to have many lives too, and in each life have a Kyou, a Ryou a Nagisa, a Tomoyo and a Kotomi.

Anime, like every other story, has an end, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll feel that slight sadness whenever the credits roll on a really good show that you’ve been following. Take CLANNAD for example. Don’t get me wrong. I personally do not like the WTF ending, and I don’t consider it the ending. I consider the extra episode an ending, because it finally gave me closure by showing Kyou in a bathtub. Then, one of my friends came up with the picture you see up there. It made me start wondering: What if CLANNAD ~After After Story~ happened? Or CLANNAD ~Ushio After~ happened or something. Would you be able to imagine yourself in that future?

So why the hell am I still ranting about After Story’s ending? And why do I think Kyou’s bath scene is called an ending? And what am I trying to make of this anyway? Well, for the first question, it’s because I cannot stop believing the fact that KyoAni succumbed to having to please their fans more than taking a firm stance in the story. And Kyou’s bath scene to me was a good ending because it finally showed me what I longed to see over the entire time I was watching CLANNAD. It ended it for me. My wait was over. I can die happy. That’s why.

As for the last question, it turned out that even after the curtains fell on Toradora just a week ago, I found myself watching Toradora 25 for the 10th time. I realized how addicted I was to a story that actually ended it all. I realized how amazing a story could be by killing the plot right at the end. I finally realized that even though its ended, the spring season is coming with another big package of wonderful shows to be enjoyed. And all that could not have happened without the previous season’s shows ending.

It was quite a revelation for me, because now I can put the past behind me, and finally believe in the fact that our lives are indeed full of endings. We need endings. It turns out that in the end, it didn’t really matter if ending was good or bad. All that mattered was that it ended. This is also probably why many people I know have stopped watching shows like Naruto or Bleach. Simply having a show go on and on and on tends to drag you along, and that innate desire for an ending would start to turn your enjoyment into frustration, and create that discontent inside you, and breeds contempt for the show.

This is also probably why a Future in Anime is completely unrealistic. Ai-chan will never row the gondola to complete her prima exam under Akari’s supervision, and Ushio will never live to enter high school, and Ayu would never marry Yuichi, and Tsukasa will never mother two cute children who are just like her and her sister. This is perhaps a cruel consequence of the fact that as much as we’d love to see those characters more, at the same time, unknowingly, we also wish it would end.

But we can take comfort in the fact that although the anime world is perpetually transient, our lives will go on, and they will go on for a much longer time than any anime show ever will, and finally when the day comes to pass when our role in the world has ended, the credits will finally roll on our lives too.

So let’s take this chance to enhance our lives a bit, and make sure that our ending is not a rushed one, like most of JC Staff’s productions. Let’s make sure that we paint the grass on our side of the river a little greener, and make our grapes a bit less sour, and make our love lives a bit sweeter, because when we look back on our lives, people will judge our lives based on how much character development we’ve gone through, how much they wished we would go down another route, and how wonderful it would be if that love triangle lasted a little longer.

And when people will finally remember us, we might find life again in their imaginations and illustrations, and finally live in the two dimensional world we’ve always wanted to be in, and finally follow Ushio to the gates of her high school, sit in Ai’s gondola, meet mama Tsukasa, and ask Ayu if she still visits the tree stump in the forest.

After all, one can dream, can one not?

I don’t get it! I really don’t get it! Wha…? What? So what happened to Ushio? Wait, so we spent 5 emotional episodes for NOTHING? So this episode just like, NEGATED all those previous episodes? Now Nagisa’s just ALIVE and WELL and so is Ushio? So… what…? I don’t get it. Is this another world or something? Wait, hold on, are we changing stories now? Like did Okazaki take a different route or something during the birth of Ushio or something? SOMEONE TELL ME I DON’T GET IT!

Then all of a sudden there’s THIS scene. Wha…? Why did Tomoya think meeting Nagisa was a mistake if she never died in the first place? What the hell? Like, so Ushio died, and Tomoya just loaded up a save game and tried another route to avoid Nagisa from dying? Wha? I just don’t get it!

Speaking of which, Tomoya’s bear hug is really strong, he just lifted Nagisa off the floor by almost a foot. Phew!

Okay, so like, Nagisa didn’t die and stuff right? But WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON THEN!? All of a sudden its “Load Game” and then “Oh you don’t have to worry about Nagisa anymore ^_^”, says the midwife. I truly do not understand where all this is going.

Maybe there’s some Mariana Trench hodo deep meaning to this sudden story flip? Something to do with, like just be happy everyone around you is alive or something? Someone tell me what this is called in literature, like a story suddenly rewinds to where it was again and then gets played out in an alternate reality. I’m not sure I would call it ‘would be’s.

Nagisa is hotter as someone else’s wife. She looks a lot more mature too and a lot healthier. Well, all of a sudden Ushio did meet her mother and never asked dad to talk about her until he cried. It just seems weird that the story suddenly took this kind of turn. Its as if all of a sudden the writer tore out the pages that he too more than a month to write and just wrote a summary of a better future. WHAT’S UP WITH THAT?!

And wtf @ Fuuko. Has she no common sense at all? If I were around her I would pull all my hair off by the time I murdered her. And the worst thing of all is, they DARED to spend 6 minutes. FREAKING SIX MINUTES OF MY LIFE WATCHING A RETARD TRY TO REWIND THE IMI WAKANAI CONVERSATION 5 TIMES.

Okay, so everything’s alright now? Just like that? Ushio’s actually okay, and Nagisa is still around to provide Tomoya with his carnal needs, and Ushio knows her mother? Wha…? Did I miss something? Like, was there a joke? Is this some kind of reference to something?

This was the only consolation in the story. Mei has grown up from ultracute loli to superhot girl. I find it surprising that she hasn’t been scouted down by gravure idol companies yet. Gosh this picture is so good I could vector it, and hang it on a wall just for the lulz of it. My feelings of Mei from THAT episode is coming back.

It is accomplished.

Meanwhile, In other news, unknown girl dies of unknown cause in unknown world. This series sure has a lot of unknowns.

And 4-chan has the audacity to do THIS to us.

… And then Episode 23 is Tomoyo After! Ahhh one can dream…

First of all I’d like to express how much I lol’ed at this scene, and how aliens was the subject of the conversation there. The gags in this series are just ingenious.

Kyou as a kindergarten teacher. Certainly suits her. Something that I can’t help but wonder however in this series is the atmosphere surrounding Tomoya now. It seems like all the girls he was schooling with before are thinking of hitting on him, now that they know he’s a widower. And why not? He’s shown some amazing capacity for love, and he’s got a REALLY REALLY cute daughter.

So is Fuuko, having being sick for so long, but spiritually linked to the Okazakis, she seems to have a certain fondness for Ushio and her dad. Of course, all this may just be me guessing and fantasizing about how the plot will continue in Clannad and how everyone would live happily ever after.

But then again, what If I guessed right?

I agree with Fate and Nanoha. Ushio really is cute. She is the cutest thing ever since Mei-chan in CLANNAD. One comes to wonder if all anime, solemn or not, intentionally or not, is doomed to have some kind of harem involved, and a harem for one guy at that. And the worst part is, the guy doesn’t know how lucky he is. This post is only about Ushio btw, and is just a collection of images for those who are inclined to stare deep into our newborn heroine’s eyes.

Ushio really looks like her mother, Nagisa. But this tomboyish girl is nowhere near as weak. She’s as strong as piece of steel, being able to hold tears in in the most difficult of times. Truly a hero for her age. On a side note, Ushio really doesn’t look anything like Tomoya. I wonder what she got from him…

Love for toys? Nope.

Puppy look? Nope.

Stubbornness? Perhaps…

One thing’s for sure, she really does look like Nagisa. And I doubt anyone could resist those puppy eyes.

So cute. The thing is, no matter how little Ushio looks like Tomoya, they still look no less than family with each other for some reason. Its amazing how quickly Ushio warmed up to Tomoya after all these years spent away from him.

This scene reminds me of Kanon. Kyoto Animation is trying to make a statement here. If you want to draw good, you should start with the evenings.

Ushio is truly Nagisa’s daughter.

I think she could say ‘anpan’ and make a country fall in love with her.

I mean look at her! Don’t you wish YOUR kids were like this?

KyoAni has a way of bringing comedy, drama and romance together in a nice little side story that is good enough to have a book of its own. This week and the last’s are on a story about a long lost romance and a Fuuko-esqe presence that involved a cat and Misae. Yes, a cat. Ever wondered how Misae came to be like this?

After meeting Misae, a guy called Shima Katsuki fell in love with her, and wanted to grant her a wish. However, he was extremely ill and knew that he could never make it to grant Misae a wish.

Because he could not do it, he had to delegate this job to his cat, who stayed loyal to him to the end. He gave his cat a small bag and told him that there is a light in the bag that will grant Misae any wish she had. The cat took this to heart, and like Makoto from Kanon, decided that in order to carry out his master’s wish, he had to make the transformation into a human being.

Misae is a serious person. She is level-headed, organized and always knows what she is doing. Being entrusted with the honourable task of being the Student Council President, she was a respected figure in her school.

Like every healthy girl in the the world of anime however, she has a crush on someone. This pseudo-cool looking student called Igarashi is Misae’s current weakness.

Little did she know he already had a girlfriend.

Of course, Misae didn’t know that. Meanwhile, Kanzaki in his human form came to Misae to try to grant her any wish. Innocently.

Kanzaki was rather adamant at granting Misae’s wish even though she didn’t want it to. Because, this caused everyone to think that Misae has a special relationship with him. Which Misae didn’t want anyone to think lest she could not get close to Igarashi

Which cost him dearly.

He even waited in the rain to so Misae would have to take care of him, in the hopes of calming her heart to say her true wishes, even though she didn’t.

But Kanzaki would not have Misae pass up the chance of being granted simply any wish she wanted. He had resolved to make sure Misae got her one true wish

But Misae made it clear that she really did not want that wish to come true.

And lo, her wish to not have the wish be married with Igarashi granted came true. Igarashi ended up with another girl.

Kanzaki then scolded her hard and ended up crying himself because Misae was such a stupid girl.

Eventually Misae started to like Kanzaki, because he was always kinder to her than Igarashi. It turned out that Kanzaki liked Misae too.

Kanzaki waited outside her school, but her friends spotted him and decided to bring let him in to the school. However, you are not allowed to enter another’s school, so they disguised him in a girl’s uniform.

And thus the story of how Kanzaki became a trap (Kanzako) for a day. Her his trappy cuteness spawned schoolwide attention and love from the boys and jealousy and hatred from the girls, even her his accomplices expressed regret at the moe level she he achieved from simply wearing a girl’s uniform.

Her His beauty surpassed all imagination, and attracted the likes of playboys and ikemen-wannabes in the school.

Which wasn’t exactly her his plan when he came to Misae’s school.

While in the school, she he saw Yoshino, the pop-star turned electrician in the present day, recklessly pursuing his ambition to be a rock star.

For those of you who did not know, here is present-day Yoshino, his wife, Ibuki-sensei on the right and Misae on the left.

Eventually, Kanzakoki Kanzaki found Misae in a student council meeting. Ibuki-sensei was just about to enter the room when she saw her him. Since it looked like Kanzako Kanzaki had something to say to Misae, she let her him talk to Misae. She He took the opportunity to confess to her, which was in many ways Shakespearean in comedy.

Eventually, Misae found out it was Kanzaki, and went out with him. I am in your akimatsuri, possessing your dangoes.

Misae, confessed her love for Kanzaki and wished for him to be with her all the time. However, Kanzaki, being a cat in human form, could not stay any longer.

Kanzaki left, and Misae was destroyed.

However, Kanzaki, still being determined to grant her wish, decided to return as best he could, as a cat.

Misae did not realize this, and realized that the cat which kept following her around was her one true love.

But later Okazaki the high priest of loli and shota spirits spoke to the cat and informed Misae of the cat’s true nature. Misae realized that cat was Kanzaki and that she was always with him.

And they lived happily ever after.

Okay, so how many of you fapped to trap Kanzaki?

A few days into the release of CLANNAD After Story ep 3, and people still keep going on about how cute Mei is in the episode. Well, I really wonder what took everyone so long to realize she is unnaturally cute and loveable. I for one have noticed this since Mei first arrived when Nagisa was trying to protect Tomoya from Youhei.

Debut appearance of Mei. When she first appeared, the first thing that came across my mind was, “holy shit Youhei DOES NOT HAVE THAT SISTER”. One comes to wonder if they are even from the same family, or that it was just Youhei’s luck that he got all the bad genes. His sister is a composed, rational and mature person, contrasted with a guy who brings his girlfriend to an arcade on the first date.

Cute Mei is cute. In this picture she looks like a figure straight out of a Japanese barbie doll box. The short pull over and the pink dress is an awesome fairytale dress up for a person of her age. Gotta love it when Mei went to hug Sanae and say “I’m sorry for you!”

Mei is one of a kind when she looks back. If I didn’t tell you this was a minor, you probably wouldn’t know. However hard to believe, Mei is more like Youhei’s Older sister more than anything. Her worries for Youhei are way more than what a normal 14-year old is usually capable of.

IMO Mei and Tomoya could actually be brother and sister. Their hair is the same, which says something about resemblance. Their thinking patterns are also the same. Whenever someone close to them is in distress, they drop everything to help the person out. Not to mention they get along with each other so well it almost seems as if they have known each other forever.

Okazaki’s Konata face is teh lulz. If Konata were a shotacon and a little boy would call her ‘Onee-san’, she would probably also go into the = A = face mode and say “enough! I shalt take this no longer!”

The Japanese Gossip. Do not fall in the trap of the Japanese Gossip.

And now, for the obligatory Mei Onii-chan animation.

This week’s CLANNAD is once again, an outpouring of the very love and youthful springtime of the anime world! Well, not exactly youthful, but certainly full of love. Who would have ever thought one could fall in love with another’s mom? Nagisa certainly is in a bad position when her mom is out dressing up and looking good in public.

Its truly amazing to see Sanae finally come out of her housewife mediocrity into simple stunning beauty. Akio is extremely lucky to have bagged such a girl since most girls like these would have been scouted out and turned into workers for the idol, showgirl and AV industries already. Though, what is really amazing is that after all these years of incredible pressure and stress from being a mother and wife to a hotblooded guy, Sanae still manages to find the frame of mind to play girlfriend and dress up. Most people who have reached an age like Sanae’s would have become very cynical about life and would have lost all the mood for things with even the slightest childishness in it. Truly an amazing person indeed. Even more so, all those years have not even managed to scar her once on her looks, and she continues to look as pretty as she would’ve been when Akio was courting her.

Sanae the nurse. This kind of look would have millions of patients flock to whatever hospital she works for. The special treatment afforded by her looks would be enough to homeopathically cure a million types of common diseases, including anorexia and depression. Awesomeness level: 100.

Sanae the police woman. At first glance, this looked like a scene straight out of You’re Under Arrest!. With her looks, Sanae would quickly subdue any criminal who suddenly notices her and stops to wonder why such a pretty girl is in the police force. Yes, I am sure most of you would probably have wasted a few minutes of your life thinking why there exists such a pretty girl in the police force, and another few minutes to wonder what would have gotten them in there in the first place. Awesomeness level: 10, 000.

Sanae the cat maid. I can imagine Tsuruya in a cat maid costume, and stare at her for a while, but Sanae in a cat maid costume makes noses bleed. Nagisa seems to think that when Sanae goes outside with this kind of look, she and a great many other girls will have less than no chance getting the boys’ attention. Of course, Tomoya is desperately trying to hold his nose from spraying blood all over the floor. Not only would it make a real mess, it would mean a complete deviation from the original CLANNAD story too. Awesomeness level: 10 million.

Sanae-sensei!! XD This kind of teacher should be arrested for being a distraction to male and lesbian students in the classroom. Even the top student will be having trouble listening to her in class unless he is gay. But most top students are gay anyway. They never seem to be interested in girls and are always out to put people down even when they have the most miserable love life. I digress. Sanae in this outfit looks almost as if she went to teach in school just to pick up a nice young teacher man who doesn’t do drugs and will cherish her for all eternity. Though, she might just end up attracting young tough guys like in Unbalance or B Reaction. Awesomeness level: 50 trillion

Sanae-chan! Did Akio fall in love with a girl that looked like this? She looks less hot here than she would a teacher (or maybe I’m just getting old). Nagisa can certainly still score points with Sanae looking like this. Or maybe it was a wise decision on Sanae’s part to dress up like this, to lower the playing field some. And so that she wouldn’t be recognized by Akio to avoid getting Sunohara onto the headlines and obituary early. You never know, because chances are she is older than you and has better judgement. Awesomeness level: 10 trillion.

Edit: More seifuku shots by popular demand

Sunohara is so unmatched.

Sweet sweet smile.

Finally, Sanae in burumas. Now, CLANNAD has been teasing me lately with the many buruma shots of its epic-win-class characters. This however, arguably tastes better than Kyou, Kotomi and Tomoyo combined, because she DIDN’T TUCK IT IN. And Sanae’s less defined body shape just makes her all the more charming. Why did I put this last? Because I thought it was a picture in a class of its own. Enjoy the fappage. Awesomeness level: 100 million billion trillion okkusenman.

After a whole month of non-blogging, it seemed almost completely appropriate for a brand new theme to be put on a site. One month of searching for myself and doing all the real things in real life really brought me back to the ground, and helped me find all the things I always wanted from an anime in real life. But I’m not here to talk about my life. I’m here to say that it is AUTUMN! (And about the theme, yes I have become an ARIA fan. <3 Akari.)

Now that Itazura na Kiss and Macross Frontier has ended, I almost cried when the credits started rolling on the end of Nogizaka Haruka no Yuutsu, goodbye awesome summer season… However, it seemed that KyoAni was determined to keep the fire that is CLANNAD alive and burning. Just this spring, they have already brought us a wonderful beautiful anime series that pictured the lives of a group of highschool students and a little romance that formed between them. Now, After Story does not look to disappoint. I don’t know about you guys but sequels to stories like these are very popular with me.

The family is back again with their old antics: multi-antennaed girls and a hyperactive dad along with a Tomoya that continues to constantly have his eyes half open. I wonder if he even cares much about anything at all. The thing about him is that, unless its Nagisa getting hurt or Sunohara getting beaten up, Tomoya doesn’t seem to have very strong muscles on his eyelids.

Speaking of which, Tomoyo has not lost her touch, and Sunohara too, has not changed from being the only character in the series with a superhuman constitution.

Mei, is moe as ever, and now with the extra blush after she sees Yoshino the electrician. Seriously, I forgot what Yoshino was. A musician? Someone please refresh my memory.

Ooh the adults are back. Misae, the housemother, Yoshino, the electrician, and Fuuko-chan’s Onee-san. Speaking of which, Fuuko seems to be missing. Perhaps she will come back as a HITODE F.O.E. random encounter to spice things up a little bit.

Alright. No supermarket is complete without the Buruma Section. So here it is. This is Kotomi getting ready for the game with pure buruma goodness.

Here’s the student council president, also not willing to lose out in the buruma game.

This is Tomoya trying to hit to Tomoyo that those burumas are really hot. One thing to note is that the scene after this shows Nagisa staring thoughtfully at them. Perhaps Nagisa isn’t the thick headed girl Nogizaka Haruka is, and actually experiences envy.

Here’s another Kotomi attempting to swing the bat with her butt. Baseball should be played by girls in burumas. I am sure the stadiums will be packed to the brim even in a bad game if that were the case.

Here’s Tomoyo, now trying to tell everyone that she is a girl, and not an anorexic trap. Of course, she had her chance to sparkle in episode 24. If only CLANNAD was actually based on the Tomoyo route. The emotional and wishy washy Tomoyo is soooo much better than the composed and serious but lame Tomoyo. IMHO.

Here’s Yoshino trying to cast GAR Level 8 on himself.

And finally, a reward for actually making it this far, here is the prized Kyou buruma shot. Although, one must point out that although the drawing is not exactly consistent with her gender, surely the artist must have had his reasons for drawing her like this. Perhaps they actually got a bunch of girls in burumas to jump and took a shot of it to be able to draw this scene.