Another Sunday arrived, and the seventeenth episode of AD finally went on air.
To say the least, the episode's plot far exceeded anything the fans had imagined.
First, Nagisa Furukawa's death was brushed over almost in passing.
Then time moved on.
Years passed, just like that.
During those years, the protagonist, Takasaki, threw himself into work. On the surface, it looked like a man simply trying to keep life moving, but any viewer could tell that it was nothing more than a way to numb his own pain. He buried himself in work until there was no room left to think, until exhaustion could cover the emptiness his wife had left behind.
What no one expected, however, was that Takasaki had left his daughter, Ushio, in the care of his in-laws. He barely even went to see her. Even for him to spend a single day with his own daughter, his mother-in-law had to personally visit him, talk to him, insist, and confirm whether he would actually agree.
Wasn't that exactly the image of a man half-destroyed inside, half-surrendered to his own collapse?
Unable to overcome his wife's death, he had also abandoned the responsibility of raising the daughter she had left behind. Aside from working and sending money for basic expenses, he had handed everything else over to his in-laws. Education, affection, presence, care... everything that should have made him a father seemed to have been thrown away.
When his daughter did something worthy of praise, he did not praise her.
When she made the smallest mistake, he immediately reprimanded her.
The image of an irresponsible father appeared before the audience's eyes, raw and undisguised.
Was this still the Takasaki they knew?
What was the difference between the Takasaki of now and his own father, the one who had ended up in prison?
Both had lost their wives while they were still young. Both had gradually deteriorated afterward. Both had ensured the bare minimum for their children's survival, never failing to provide money for basic living expenses, but when it came to education, presence, and paternal responsibility, neither of them had fulfilled much of anything.
He had always been the person who hated his own father the most.
And now he had ended up living exactly like him.
After watching those scenes, many fans felt their stance begin to shift.
Little by little, they began to understand what this anime might be trying to convey.
On top of that, Takasaki's five-year-old daughter, Ushio, appeared in this episode and, in a very short time, captured the audience's hearts.
First, because her appearance strongly resembled her mother, Nagisa Furukawa.
And then because that child was far too sensible.
Even after losing her mother and being practically ignored by her father, she did not throw tantrums, cry endlessly, or act spoiled. She was polite, gentle, well-raised, and kind.
She was, quite simply, the perfect image of a daughter.
After the episode aired, the protagonist Takasaki was torn apart by viewers.
Ushio, on the other hand, climbed straight to the top of NatsuYume's trending rankings.
And the seventeenth episode's ratings were even slightly higher than the sixteenth's.
It closed at 5.71%.
That situation left an entire group of Sora haters completely speechless.
Even many fans of Sora's anime were confused.
"Weren't people saying they were going to drop the show? Then why did the ratings go up a little this week?"
"Probably because last week's plot rhythm was too intense. A lot of people who had been saving episodes couldn't hold back anymore and caught up with the latest broadcast, contributing to the seventeenth episode's ratings."
"I really was thinking about dropping it, but after Takasaki's daughter Ushio appeared, I couldn't stop watching."
"Damn it, this episode hurt so much. The girl completed a task all by herself, went up to her father, and told him she had done it alone. And what did Takasaki say? He told a five-year-old girl that it was nothing special. Would it kill him to praise her once? Would he die if he said one kind word?"
"When Nagisa died, I had already lost hope, but Ushio was written in such a painfully lovable way that now I want to see where her story goes."
"Same here. I was caught by Ushio immediately."
"So I'm not the only one who likes Ushio."
"The problem now is that irritating protagonist. Nagisa died, so you should take responsibility, support the family, and raise your daughter, not give up on yourself and dump the child at your in-laws' house. How does that make any sense?"
"Anyway, I'll watch one more episode. I'll never forget the wound left by Nagisa's death, but for Ushio's sake I'll watch next week's story too. If there's nothing worthwhile, I'm dropping it."
"I can't even imagine how beautiful life would have been if Nagisa, Takasaki, and Ushio had lived together as a family of three. This is all that old bastard Sora's fault. He caused this entire tragedy with his own hands."
"I think I finally understand. A bunch of people said they were going to drop it, but deep down, they still can't let go, right? No matter how badly that old bastard Sora handles the plot later, at the very least they want to see the ending."
"But I have to say one thing. If, after Nagisa's death, the story had Takasaki raising his daughter while getting romantically involved with the female characters from the first season, I'd drop it immediately. I'd even block that old bastard Sora."
"Exactly. That's what I'm afraid of. Nagisa dies, the protagonist stays sad for a while, then goes looking for a stepmother for Ushio. That would be the most disgusting plot possible."
"If that old bastard Sora dares to write something like that, then not even the god of anime can save his reputation. It would be a permanent stain on his career."
"All I can say is that episode seventeen was saved by Ushio. If she hadn't appeared, a lot of anime fans might have completely lost hope in this show."
"How did a romance anime turn into a story about parenting halfway through? And why am I still watching with so much interest? Was this part of your calculations too, Kantoku Sora?"
What no one in the Japanese anime industry expected was that the seventeenth episode of AD would still manage to reach 5.7% in ratings.
The very same fans who had said online the previous week that the anime's plot had collapsed, the same people who had cursed Sora nonstop, were all obediently sitting in front of their televisions this week to watch the update.
That left both Sora's haters and the four major broadcasters stunned.
Since when did Japanese anime fans have this much patience?
The heroine of a romance work died, and they could still endure it?
Perhaps, in all of Japan, the only person who had never truly worried about Clannad ratings was Sora himself.
After all, in his previous life, how many fans of the game had stopped playing immediately after Nagisa Furukawa died?
How many fans of the anime had abandoned the series the moment they saw Nagisa die?
Otaku were still otaku, no matter the world.
There was no essential difference between the fans here and the fans from his previous life.
If everyone in that world had been able to accept this plot, then in the current Japan, there was unlikely to be such a drastic change.
He could be cursed as much as they liked. It was not as if their words would peel off a layer of his skin.
Besides...
Nagisa Furukawa's death was still nothing.
In a few weeks, when Ushio's death arrived, that would be the true blow.
In late November, temperatures began to fall across Shikoku.
It was around that time that, because the station's TV dramas had performed terribly in ratings for two consecutive cours, Ryo Yukishiro from the production department showed up once again at Yume Animation's headquarters, shameless as ever, to visit Sora.
The moment Sora saw his expression, he knew exactly what kind of request he was about to hear.
Since he was serving as Kantoku on three anime projects at the same time, he had spent the past six months practically destroying himself with work. At the moment, he had no desire whatsoever to get involved with the southern regional consortium's TV drama production as well, not even by simply contributing a script.
But he also could not withstand the persistent pleas of an older man who looked as if he was standing on the edge of despair.
In the end, he could only agree for the time being.
At the very least, he would have to wait until November ended and the production of Clannad second season was completed. Only after carving out a small opening in his schedule would he be able to consider that matter properly.
Two days later, Sunday arrived.
The broadcast day for Clannad eighteenth episode.
By the afternoon, the Japanese anime industry began to stir, as it always did on broadcast days.
In the past, only Sora's fans became active at times like this.
Over the past two weeks, however, even his haters had started mobilizing alongside them.
They still refused to believe that, after the death of the female lead in Clannad second season, the anime's ratings had not fallen.
After thinking it over, they concluded that perhaps the dust simply needed time to settle. Maybe Clannad ratings would truly collapse with the eighteenth episode.
So what if the character named Ushio had appeared in the seventeenth episode and turned out to be adorable?
AD was not a children's anime. It was understandable that fans felt a certain novelty when such a cute character appeared for the first time, and that this helped hold the ratings. But relying on a five-year-old girl to keep the numbers high? The haters did not believe that could last for long.
As the broadcast time approached, the haters and Clannad fans once again began arguing fiercely.
When the haters cursed Sora, the anime's fans might even join them.
But when the haters cursed AD, Nagisa Furukawa, and Ushio, the situation changed completely.
Hinata closed the forum with anger in his eyes.
After taking several deep breaths, he managed to calm himself a little.
As a thirty-five-year-old father with two daughters, watching the last two episodes of AD had been, for him, an experience of pain and admiration at the same time.
Of course, he also hated the plotline in which Nagisa Furukawa died.
But he had to admit that, before and after her death, the way the anime portrayed Takasaki's family, the figure of the father, the daughter, and the in-laws was far too moving.
He could curse Sora all he wanted, but his evaluation of AD as a work had not dropped in the slightest. Or rather, to be honest, this kind of story, one that portrayed the cruel uncertainty of human fate, held a rather high place in his heart.
After gathering his emotions, Hinata waited for the broadcast to begin.
As usual, before the episode started, the southern regional consortium's broadcaster aired a brief promotional spot for Shingeki no Kyojin, an anime scheduled to premiere in April of the following year.
Then Clannad opening theme began to play.
The eighteenth episode directly continued the ending of the seventeenth.
Because his daughter wanted to go out and the in-laws were not at home, Takasaki, despite his reluctance, ended up taking the girl by train to the travel destination his mother-in-law had chosen for the two of them from the beginning.
And then, in this episode, the first small foreshadowing appeared.
Inside the train, Takasaki lost his temper and snapped at someone. Frightened, Ushio quietly withdrew and ran off alone to cry in the restroom.
When Takasaki noticed, he felt that something was wrong. With an awkward smile, he asked why she needed to hide from him if she wanted to cry.
Ushio lifted her eyes toward him with an expression so pitiful it made one's chest tighten. After hesitating, she murmured softly:
"Sanae-nee said that when I want to cry, I'm only allowed to do it in the bathroom... and..."
Sanae was Takasaki's mother-in-law, Ushio's maternal grandmother.
But because she liked others to call her Sanae-nee, nearly every character in the anime addressed her that way.
Seen in that moment, the scene seemed only slightly abrupt, even a little strange. Hinata did not think too deeply about it either.
What he still had not realized was that this line would, in truth, become the greatest tearjerker of the entire episode.