クラナド アフターストーリー Episode 04

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Over lunch, Kotomi, Kyou, and Ryou are made clear on the Mei/Youhei situation by Tomoya and Nagisa. After school, Mei is still determined to get her oniichan back on the soccer team, so Tomoya and Nagisa accompany Mei-chan to the soccer club room. The soccer team is full of arrogant guys who haven’t forgotten nor forgiven Youhei for disrespecting his senpai’s in his first year (even though Youhei is now in his 3rd year). As such, the trio are not given a chance to present their case, so they pay Miyazawa a visit, where Tomoya tells how he met Youhei (both were busted for fighting) and they became friends.

Mei is still determined to get Youhei back on the soccer team despite how arogant and rude they were. Tomoya tries to convince Nagisa to go home, but she won’t hear of it. Again, the trio goes to the soccer club room and are rudely treated. However, the captain of the club agrees to make Tomoya, Nagisa, and Mei ball fetchers in exchange for consideration to allow Youhei back in. Rather than practice seriously, the team purposefully kicks balls so that the trio will have to run after them. One even purposefully drills a ball into Mei-chan’s gut.

After practice, again an attempt is made to get them to let Youhei back on the team but the team has had enough and begins to torment Mei-chan. She screams for her oniichan and Tomoya has had enough, but Youhei beats him to the punch (no pun intended) and a fight starts, Tomoya ordering Nagisa to get Mei to safety. The fight goes outside and apparently ends in a draw with Youhei and Tomoya left on the ground in the rain. Because of how Youhei has treated Mei, Tomoya then gets into an argument and fight with Youhei despite the pleas to stop from Mei and Nagisa.

Eventually, Mei and Nagisa break up the fight and finally, Youhei realizes that Tomoya wasn’t dating Mei at all and Mei has learned that Youhei still cares for her. The following day at school, the battered Tomoya and Nagisa walk to school where they meet Youhei. Nagisa isn’t sure what’s going to happen as the two boys look angry, but then they break out in laughter at their injured, bandaged faces (which is how they were when they first met). Kotomi, Kyou, and Ryou come up and it is clear that Youhei and Tomoya are friends again. Nagisa is happy about this.

Sometime later, the two of them talk things over in Youhei’s room before heading to Nagisa’s house so that Youhei can see his true love, Sanae-san. Seeing Aki0-san outside, Youhei asks for Sanae-san (thinking she’s his oldest daughter). When Sanae-san steps out and explains that Akio-san is her husband. Nagisa wonders why Tomoya hasn’t told Youhei the truth yet, but the answer is clear in Tomoya’s laughter. Despite this (and Akio-san’s attempt to beat Youhei), Youhei and Tomoya are still best of friends.

Thoughts/Review:

 So Mei-chan wants her older brother to be back on a soccer team because in her mind, that is what will make him return to normal. OK, I can buy that as an idea. However, after Mei, Tomoya, and Nagisa actually meet the Soccer Club members and find out what utter bastards and scum buckets they are, one would think that just maybe, someone with reason would tell Mei (assuming she didn’t come to the conclusion herself), “Are you sure you want your oniichan with bastards like this? They might influence him to be worse than he is.”

Nope, we aren’t going to do that, y’all. No, lets grovel to the arrogant punks because only soccer will make “oniichan” back to normal. It doesn’t matter if they abuse the heck out us because oniichan needs to play soccer. It doesn’t matter how they humiliate us because this is the team oniichan must be on in order to play soccer and be a good boy again. After all, jerk wads like this clearly won’t influence oniichan to the negative. Ugh! Whatever.

I remembered the Rugby Club having problems with Youhei in the first episode of Clannad and I figured his problems with the Soccer Club woud be the same — some disrespect on the part of Youhei that put him on the bad side of the club. Well, OK, that happened but because the Soccer Club is so unlikeable and unreasonable combined with the scenerio I put above, that makes the end of the Youhei-Mei arc to be rather “Ugh!” As such, there was no sadness (despite the attempts to make it so) and not even anger, only eye-rolling, “whatever” moments because things just didn’t feel real or right.

On a side note, based on Miyazawa’s conversation with Mei, Tomoya, and Nagisa, I’m going to guess that the man she was hiding in episode 2 is her older brother that she talked about. If so, maybe she and Youhei can get together.

So while not a bad episode, it didn’t have the impact it should have had because of the unbelievable soccer team.