クラナド アフターストーリー Episode 16
Clannad After Story 16

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

In the Illusion World, Garbage Bot brings more junk into the house of Mystery Girl. Mystery Girl wants Junk Bot to stay with her and not go back out again, but Garbage Bot leaves anyway, knowing that in leaving and finding a way off this world is the only way he can truly be with Mystery Girl forever. As the snow falls, Garbage Bot takes junk to the make-shift flying machine as Mystery Girl watches. However, all he can do is pile the junk up — he cannot actually finish building the flyer.

In the real world, time passes and winter draws near. One evening after Sanae-san leaves Nagisa for the evening, she walks with Tomoya. Tomoya ponders whether it would have been better for him to not have met Nagisa since she wouldn’t be in her current life-or-death situation. Sanae-san sweetly rejects this and in the end, Tomoya apologizes for his remarks. At Christmas, a very pregnant Nagisa and Tomoya are out on the town and Nagisa wants the Big Dango Family thing again for a present. Tomoya thinks this will be nearly impossible, but again, he finds one of the large, stuffed dango plushies which makes Nagisa happy.

At New Years, Youhei, Kyou, Ryou, and Kotomi-chan stop over at the Okazaki residence to visit with Nagisa and Tomoya. Everyone is excited to see how far along Nagisa is. After reading the traditional New Years cards (amongst which are cards from Tomoyo and Yukine), Tomoya gives Youhei a new music CD from Yoshino as a present for Mei-chan. Youhei asks Tomoya what it is like being a father to which the others express their interest in this as well. Tomoya doesn’t really have an answer, just happy to be married to Nagisa.

The conversation shifts to Kotomi-chan’s research in America, picking up the work her parents left. It seems that it is highly possible that there is a hidden world in something akin to another dimension that interacts with our world and vice versa. Indeed, the two worlds may be strongly connected at some level and that there may be more than one such hidden world created by the thoughts of others. After Nagisa wonders what this hidden world would be like, Tomoya immediately has a flash of the play Nagisa put on about the girl alone on a world and wonders why. Ryou mentions how there is no one future as there are many possibilities, which supports the idea of multiple worlds. Youhei likes the idea that in some other world, he might be dating Ryou, something Kyou objects to.

After Tomoya and Akio-san pay a visit to the hospital construction area, a snow storm comes in that shuts down the city. Unfortunately, not only does Nagisa get ill, she goes into labor two weeks early. Sanae-san, Akio-san, and Yagi-san arrive and after many hours of labor, Nagisa gives birth to Ushio. However, as Tomoya holds their child, he notices Nagisa does not look well. She struggles to consciousness and sees their child, even speaking a bit where she is thankful to having given birth to Ushio in their home. However, she’s tired so Tomoya talks and talks instead. It is clear that she is slipping away and eventually, she does die, never getting to feel the cheek of Ushio. Now, Tomoya truly wishes he’d never met Nagisa so she’d still be alive now.

Thoughts/Review:

Illusion World is back. Could Mystery Girl be Nagisa somehow? It sure looks like her in this screen shot. Plus, with Nagisa’s death in this episode (or at least apparent death) plus Nagisa telling that story of the girl trapped alone in that other world, it would make sense for her to be Mystery Girl. Since Tomoya somehow knew the story and seems to have some sort of connection to the Illusion (Hidden) World, maybe he’s Garbage Bot. Maybe this time around was an attempt by Tomoya to make things right but having failed, he now wishes he hadn’t met Nagisa. I don’t know. There’s still not enough facts to really make a good theory.

As expected, Nagisa passes away. It figures that Nagisa would die on a snowy day. After all, she nearly died as a kid on a day where there was snow on the ground. Regardless, as expected, the whole scene was very sad and hard to watch because I don’t like being depressed these days. I probably won’t recover until tomorrow. I do wonder though with Nagisa being dead now and we are only at episode 16, where the heck does things go from here? Besides the linkage to the Illusion World (yay Kotomi-chan), what else is there? The previews imply Tomoya becoming a poor father, maybe even like his own dad. I guess we’ll find out.

While on the subject of sadness, with so many episodes left, I found myself thinking of Fuko-chan again. I haven’t thought about her in quite some time (sadly) but now that I do think of her, I remember wanting her to have some sort of happy end and recovery from the hospital. Maybe that still is possible with the Illusion World (or worlds as Kotomi-chan theorized). Maybe somehow, Fuko-chan is able to return due to a wish and Nagisa as well (if those lights are part of the Illusion World that have crossed over into the real world). It could happen seeing as how Shima sorta came back to life in the form of his cat. Obviously I don’t want that kind of resolution but it would be nice for both Fuko-chan and Nagisa to come back.

It was really nice seeing Kotomi-chan, Kyou, Ryou, and Youhei again. Its odd that even now, Youhei cannot address Tomoya by his given name and vice versa. It would have been nice to have Tomoya and Yukine back too, but I understand why they weren’t included. If there is a funeral service shown, I’m sure they’ll cameo there if nothing else.

I guess it is time Tomoya self-loathing for a while, which could be depressing, irritating, or annoying. See you then.