Fairly recently, I found myself rewatching Clannad, and it’s sequel Clannad: After Story with my fiancé, primarily as a way to get her to understand how a specific relationship of mine functioned in the past, but it also served as a great way for her to consume a really great show that even she became addicted to, so much so that she has begun collecting stuffed penguins the same way Nagisa did with the Great Dango Family. This post, however, was supposed to originally be a companion piece to a video released three years prior, but with my lack of free time able to invest into my YouTube channel at the moment, I decided to still release it as the first post on this very site.
The TL;DR of it is, my relationship with my father was absolutely terrible, he chose other people over his own family, much like how Tomoya Okazaki’s father, Naoyuki, chose alcohol over his son. The scene in episode twelve of After Story in which Tomoya loses the chance at a new job opportunity because of his father’s actions stuck hard with me, but the confrontation he has with his father in prison later in that episode made me tear up and realize just what kind of person I perceived my dad to be.
Maturing with the Audience
The second time I watched this series however, things were different, both in life and how the show affected me. By the time the story approached the arc about Tomoya losing his shot at a new job, I felt more sorry for him than I did feel myself in him. You see, a lot of things have happened over these past five years including some deaths in the family and a sale of a house my father and I had to take on together which in the end brought us closer together, understanding each other from different perspectives and finally burying the hatchet. I no longer fear myself becoming something that I hated, the way Tomoya had been going down the path of becoming his father.
Near the end of After Story, Tomoya takes his daughter Ushio on a trip, staged by Nagisa’s parents Akio and Sanae. During the trip, Tomoya’s grandmother, Shino, meets with her grandson and Ushio, explaining how Naoyuki was when he was at Tomoya’s stage in life. Past Naoyuki, who was a bright soul, is contrasted by his present self who has no reason left to live, after his wife passed away. Shino’s words stick with Tomoya, making him give Naoyuki one final chance, at least to meet his granddaughter, Ushio, for the first time. The happiness that this brings to Naoyuki and the confession he gives Tomoya made me think to the evolution of my relationship with my father. That is to say, my dad just wanted the best for me, even if we didn’t always see eye to eye. It hurt us both to go through what we did and, like Tomoya and Naoyuki, we’ve moved on and understand what’s more important.
It Speaks to Quality
I suppose maybe another five years may pass until I rewatch Clannad. Most definitely, it’s something I want to share with my future children, but I think it’s going to deserve a rewatch right before they’re born. By then I will be in yet another part of my life where I might need someone else’s advice, most likely Akio Furukawa’s in this case, on how to be the world’s best dad. No other show has got to me on that deep of a personal level, sure there are other shows I want to share with my fiancé and my future family, but I don’t think any of them come close to what Clannad is. Quality isn’t just defined by the polish a show might have, how good its soundtrack or its animation are, or how well written the script is. Of course, these all have a role to play, but I’d be foolish to deny the weight that relatability plays into deciding what shows truly become your favorites.
I suppose this is the point in the post where I ask what you all think? As I’ve written this, I’ve already felt the differences between it and crafting a YouTube video. Are there any shows you feel have grown with you as a viewer, that give you different emotions based on what time you viewed them in life? Or maybe a manga or something that isn’t even related to the eastern comic book industry? Let me know, and maybe I’ll take a look at them in the future.
Clannad and Clannad After Story can be streamed on HiDive.