Clannad: Mou Hitotsu no Sekai, Tomoyo-hen

Clannad: Mou Hitotsu no Sekai, Tomoyo-hen is set in an alternate reality where Tomoya Okazaki dates his junior, Tomoyo Sakagami.

Tomoyo has been elected to be the school's next Student Council President. This is great news as she can now work toward her goal of preventing the school's cherry blossom trees from being axed. Although Tomoya is ecstatic for her, given his reputation as a delinquent in school, his relationship with Tomoyo is making them the subject of gossip around the campus, which can potentially compromise her standing as Student Council President. The school community's disapproval of their relationship becomes more apparent when the Student Council's Vice-President and even the school's administration warn Tomoya to distance himself from Tomoyo.

With the bad atmosphere widening the rift between Tomoya and Tomoyo, will Tomoya succumb to societal pressure and do as they say, or will their love for each other rise above it all?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Okazaki, Tomoya Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Sakagami, Tomoyo Main

Kuwashima, Houko Japanese

Sunohara, Youhei Supporting

Sakaguchi, Daisuke Japanese

Suehara, Yuji Supporting

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Tsuruoka, Youta Sound Director

Takao, Noriko Episode Director, Storyboard

Lia Theme Song Performance

eufonius Theme Song Performance

Reviews

Aug 22, 2008

KholdStare88

Recommended

This one episode Clannad OVA is to me one that is filled with emotions. Aside from that, it manages to do three things to the Clannad series: One, it provides the romance that was mostly minimal in Clannad. Two, it provides the drama that gradually fell from the plot after Fuko and and Kotomi's arc. And three, it allows satisfaction to Tomoyo supporters, since not everyone was a Nagisa fan. Many people expected Clannad to be a series with significant romantic struggles and a high level of drama, but it instead turned into a slice-of-life comedy after the first one or two arcs. But with ... this OVA, many will finally find what they have been searching for.*

Story: 10/10

It should be first clarified that this is an alternative world to the Clannad series; it's not a continuation of Clannad. Although it is only one episode, it manages to drive the plot very well without pacing issues. Except for the first few minutes where I needed to "adjust" to the situation, I was never lost or confused. Some wanted this to be two or three episodes, but I must admit that I rather like the one episode presentation, mostly because I cannot see how this OVA could improve. The suspense was always there, just right, and dragging out the story might lessen the impact that the OVA had on me, and possibly for many others as well.

Story-wise, it was excellent, and I repeat: I am not a Tomoyo fanboy. The mood in the beginning was awkward at first because I just simply didn't expect what was happening, but the relationship that Tomoyo and Tomoya have until she was made president is very romantic without ever going over the top. The story then progresses to an internal struggle in both Tomoyo and Tomoya - the struggle betwen affection and ambition. As both strive for their similar goals, they realize how much of an influence they have on each other, even after they both said their good-byes. For some reason, I was very touched by this, and every scene portraying their internal struggle and external façade was completely believable. I felt as if I was one of the two, facing the exact same pain. This is to me a sign of excellent scripting and directing, and for that, the adaptation and story gets a ten from me. The episode succeeded brilliantly at conveying the message of how love cannot be simply replaced by something else because love cannot be easily sacrificed and forgotten.

Art: 9/10

I must admit that there were several noticeable inconsistencies about animation, which makes me think that Kyoto Animation did not try very hard animating this OVA. However, that's comparing the OVA to Kyoto Animation standards. To the casual viewer, this episode would be beautiful from Tomoyo's expressions, which is very unlike her usual "tough" expressions, to the scenery of the snow falling in the background. I don't want to over-criticize an episode served mostly as a promotion to remind us of Clannad for After Story, so I will give this category a solid nine.

Sound: 8/10

Well I wasn't really impressed by the score of this episode, but then again, I'm never really satisfied. An eight means that I most did not notice the background music due to it being not exceptionally engaging but also not bad enough to be annoying. But then, there's "Ana," the Engrish song at the end of the series which was very hard to listen to. To be honest, the melody of the song was perfect for the scene, but since English is my main language, I tried to comprehend the words of the song, which did not work very well. However, I will still give this category an eight because I will give this OVA the benefit of the doubt that a Japanese viewer would not be distracted by this song. It was really hard watching a serious scene while trying not to laugh at how bad the lyrics are.

Character: 10/10

As I mentioned before, not only was I absorbed into the episode, I felt the emotions of the characters. Tomoya and Tomoyo seemed to real, and everything was clicking into place - the background, the scenes, the dialogs. What I love best was how Youhei was handled. Even in such a serious episode as this, he still gave the viewers a few laughs like he did in the Clannad series, but not enough to distract from the mood. I think that the strongest aspect of the series is how the characters were portrayed.

Enjoyment: 10/10

If enjoyment means sitting through the episode feeling as if you have never even taken one breath, then yes, it was very enjoyable. Analysis aside, this is one of the few series that gave me a "wow" feeling after watching it without doing any extra thinking. In short, it was just a good experience sitting through the episode, and at the end, I started thinking that I was definitely glad to be able to see this OVA.

Overall: 9/10

Because this is still a typical romance/drama, a nine is the highest I can give it. However, I will say that it did impact me quite a lot. I see Tomoya and Tomoyo as two people I should look up to, two people I should strive to be. They have their ambitions, and even though their obstacles were each other, they managed to overcome that obstacle to achieve their goal. What I learned from this series is that I have to also strive for what I believe in, because who knows? Maybe what I left behind will return to me later on.

*Just for clarification, I do not dislike the Clannad series.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Sep 26, 2008

animefan4life

Mixed Feelings

I like Tomoyo as a character a lot but not with Tomoya. I feel that his character needs to be the person to support someone which gives him strength and reason to do better. Tomoyo is already a very strong character which in turn would make him feel more vulnerable. The chemistry between them wasn't there as it was with Nagisa. It was just awkward to watch. Eventhough Nagisa can become dependent and annoying at times, her gentle and innocent side compliments Tomoya.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Sep 14, 2010

kekekeKaj

Not Recommended

Despite being a just a short, half 25 minute OVA, "Clannad: Another World, Tomoyo Chapter" managed to capture most of the essence of the original series - just like the original series, it's guilty of being over manipulative, of having contrived scenarios that strives to squeeze a tear or two out of the audience by whatever means necessary. In other words, it's guilty of being complete bullsh*t... just like the original series.

In this alternative playthrough... er, I mean, alternative universe, Tomoya is dating Grey Haired Girl instead of Brown Haired Girl, and Grey Haired Girl gets elected as the Student Council President. The gist of ... the episode is that her role as President does not mix well with her role as Tomoya's girlfriend, as

a) she is has so many duties to perform as President that she can't find enough time to be with Tomoya;
b) Tomoya has a bad reputation as a good-for-nothing-deliquent, so people disapprove of the match up, and
c) there's also the sense that Tomoya, being a good-for-nothing-non-delinquent, is holding Grey Haired girl back from Greater Things.

So far so good - this isn't actually a bad set up at all... except "Clannad", being "Clannad", has to go and over do it by laboriously shoving the point down the viewer's throat. Take for example, one of the mini stories in the episode, where Tomoya is waiting for Grey Haired Girl after school so they can go home together. Grey Haired Girl is busy with student council stuff, so she proceeds to use the PA system to announce to Tomoya - and the rest of the school - that she's too busy to walk home with him that day. My eyes boggled in disbelief as the proceeding blame for this fell almost entirely on Tomoya, who is guilty of... what? Waiting?? Now, I don't know about you, but if the Student Council President uses the school's PA system for her personal matters, it would probably occur to me that she's irresponsible and is prone to abuse her powers; it might occur to me that she's probably unsuited to being president... but "ZOMG IT MUST BE HER BOYFRIEND'S FAULT!!" isn't likely to be the conclusion that jumps out at me. And this pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the show. Doesn't matter what happens, everything always gets blamed on Tomoya, even when it made absolutely no sense to do so. Meanwhile, Grey Haired Girl is treated like some potential future president of the country with everyone droning on about how she's being held back by Tomoya from doing Greater Things, and no one pauses to consider that, even if assuming everything is Tomoya's fault (which it isn't), the very fact that Grey Haired Girl is so easily led astray should speak volumes about her suitability for the Student Council President role. But no, none of these sensibilites appear to cross anyone's mind, and I ended up feeling as though I was watching a comedy show called "Tomoya the Scapegoat".

The anime is quite neatly summed up by a song which is played at the emotional apex of the show at the end. It's a really nice sounding song which at first seems to be trying to communicate across some extremely emotional message. It's a song that seemed suitable to be played at the most emotional part of the show... until you read the English lyrics... or to be more accurate the Engrish lyrics. It's clear that the lyricist had very little understanding of the English language, and just threw together a bunch of words that seemed nice. The result is something that so laughably bad that it dispelled most of the atmosphere the anime is trying to create at that point. Here are some of the choicest lines from the song for your enjoyment(and no, there's no translational issues here - these are the actual lyrics of the song, since it's sung in English, or rather some twisted form of the language):

"People's hand does not reach, so merely has the worship."

"The place is a lofty lord, can't meet nobody put on."

"Like the head of the shade, figure will be thrown away."

And why do I say this sums up the anime quite neatly? Because just like this song, the anime might give the impression of being an emotional one, only to collapse completely under the lightest scrutiny because it's not backed up by solid substance.

Do I have anything good to say about this OVA? Well, I guess it's not filled with sickening amounts of moe like the original series is at least, since Grey Haired Girl is one of the less moe characters in the dating si- err... I mean the anime's cast. Ehhh... that's about it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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