Review Clannad Episode 22

still pretending that I'm not too lazy to get the screen shots from this anime. So imagine 4 images, three of them of emo-Nagisa, and one of bewildered Tomoya. Snarky comments extra.

My Thoughts:
Well, Nagisa shows her teenage self nicely in this episode, as does Tomoya. Neither of them fully understand what it means to be an adult, or a parent, and their reactions here (Nagisa to the thought that Akio and Sanae gave up their dreams for her and Tomoya for not quite knowing how to explain that to her) showcase that perfectly.

It's obvious that they don't realize that parents are happy to see their children excel. In fact I gave up my dream of doing nothing, and go in to work every day, just so my kids can have things.

All references to obscure geek-beloved movies aside, one thing I am wondering about is just what that whole dream world thing was about. Sure, I get the prime concept that it was the basis for Nagisa's play, but it doesn't tell us anything.

Where did she hear it from? Why did it sound familiar to Tomoya? Why has it been popping up throughout the entire series if it's only relevant to the last episode?

Yet, my biggest question would by, why didn't Akio get kicked out of the play for coming in, and yelling at a student? Especially when some of the words used were expletives?

But I digress, we've had 22 episodes of relationship building between Nagisa and Tomoya and that's all we get? I'm especially left wondering about the after-game portion from the source material. Alas, KyoAni can't produce perfection with every episode and storyline.

Episode Summary:
Nagisa is being all emo about the fact that her parents stopped pursuing their dreams in order to spend more time with her. Anyways, it's the day of the school festival (and the play) and Tomoya is trying to spouting oddball things in a vain effort to cheer her up.

Once they get to the school, the rest of the drama club sees Nagisa's angst and they too try to cheer her up. Upon failing, they split up to spend some time at the festival. When Naigsa and Tomoya get separated, she heads up to the reference room where old videos of her dad's plays are stored. Tomoya finds her there, and after a few minutes of watching, shuts down the video and takes Nagisa to where the stage is.

Once the play begins, Nagisa has something of a breakdown, until Akio pops up and basically yells at her for not realizing that as a parent, his dream is that she fulfills her dreams. Sanae chimes in with something similar, and then Tomoya drops in and tosses in his two cents worth.

So, we get Nagisa doing her play, and find out the full story of the dream world.

Anyways, the drama club has a party, and then the next day, Tomoya and Nagisa goes out on a date because they don't have any school. One of the places they go is the drama club room, and Nagisa finally notices that Tomoya had put her in for day duty. After some playful banter, Tomoya confesses to her, and she gets all weepy like.