January 18th, Thursday.
A certain household in Tokyo.
Yuuto Kaneshiro glanced toward the living room, looking hesitant.
The family TV was in the living room, and it was currently on. The problem was that someone had already claimed it: his older brother, Naoto.
Naoto was in his second year of high school and loved anime just as much as he did. In fact, it was his brother who had gotten him into anime in the first place. But unlike Naoto, Yuuto preferred school slice-of-life shows.
The current situation was that his brother had seized the TV to watch Radiant Warriors, and Yuuto had no way to wrestle it away from him. Watching Clannad was out of the question.
Normally he would have let it go. His brother was older, always looked out for him, and had even used his part-time job money to buy him snacks just last week. Plus there was no winning a fight over the remote. Giving in wasn't the end of the world.
But now, Yuta himself had spoken up. Yuuto felt like he couldn't back down.
He took a deep breath, marched into the living room, and declared, "Big brother, I want to watch Clannad."
"Go on, get out of here. It's almost ten. Go to bed. You're not watching Clannad," Naoto refused.
"I want to watch Clannad!" Yuuto repeated, his tone noticeably more serious.
Naoto looked up. Seeing how dead serious his little brother was, he tried a different approach. "Go to sleep first. I'll buy you something yummy tomorrow."
"No! I want Clannad. If you won't let me watch it, I'm going to tell Mom about that thing you accidentally broke of hers," Yuuto huffed.
"I..."
Naoto's face fell.
He was about to try talking his brother down when Yuuto suddenly turned and bolted toward their parents' bedroom door, raising his hand like he was about to knock.
Naoto panicked. "Fine, fine, fine! I'll switch it! Just don't tell Mom!"
He quickly changed the channel.
Only then did Yuuto walk back to the living room, satisfied, and settle in to wait for Clannad season two, episode two.
"I seriously don't get what's so great about some school anime," Naoto grumbled under his breath.
"Radiant Warriors is the one that's boring. It's completely pointless," Yuuto shot back immediately.
That did it. Brother or not, some things could not go unchallenged. Naoto was about to teach his little brother a lesson when Yuuto stood up and started heading toward their parents' room again.
"Get back here! Come back right now!"
Naoto instantly realized how bad this could get and backpedaled. "Clannad is the best! Clannad is the greatest! Happy now?"
Yuuto turned around as if nothing had happened, circled back to the living room, and sat down to wait.
...
Somewhere in the countryside, far from Tokyo.
A middle-aged couple had their feet tucked under the table, watching TV in silence.
Suddenly, the sound of someone thumping down the stairs filled the room, and a pretty teenage girl appeared before them.
Kotone Mikage. Their daughter.
"Mom, Dad, I forgot to mention this before. The anime Big bro Yuta's company made airs every Thursday at ten. It's almost ten now, so please switch to TBS and support him," Kotone said.
"We don't even understand anime. Is that really necessary?" her mother asked with a frown.
"Of course it's necessary! Big bro said ratings are super important. They could decide the fate of someone really important to him. And I already told him on the phone that we'd watch. I can't go back on my word. How am I supposed to face him when I move to Tokyo?" Kotone said earnestly.
"Alright, alright." Her mother finally picked up the remote and switched to TBS.
Her father glanced at Kotone and waved his hand. "Okay, okay. We'll watch. Now get back upstairs and keep studying. Don't end up failing the exam."
"As if." Kotone muttered, then headed back to her room to keep reviewing.
...
Ten o'clock.
Clannad season two, episode two, finally aired.
Ryuji Kageyama was parked in front of his TV, right on time.
Unlike other viewers, as a diehard Clannad fan from the very beginning, he didn't need anyone to rally him. He had watched the first episode last week, and he was not about to miss the second one.
Last week's premiere had mostly been about a baseball game. As a season opener, it was on the mellow side, but that was Clannad's style.
Quiet, gentle moments that carried undercurrents of warmth and emotion.
Nothing wrong with that.
This week's episode two opened with a short scene featuring a little girl and a robot. There had been a brief flash of a robot at the end of episode one, but Ryuji had not thought much of it at the time.
Now, something felt off.
The little girl and robot scenes had appeared repeatedly throughout season one. Back then, everyone assumed those scenes were just the play the female lead performed at the school festival, and that the storyline had been wrapped up there.
But now it was clear that was not the case at all.
The thread had been planted since season one and was continuing into season two. Whatever the little girl and robot storyline was about, it was clearly very important.
The question was how a plot that existed outside the main story and had no obvious connection to any of the main characters was going to come into play later.
After the girl-and-robot segment, the OP kicked in.
Season one's opening theme had been beautiful, and season two's was every bit as good. And of course, both lyrics and composition were by Yuta Shido.
Watching the credits, Ryuji could not help feeling once again that Yuta was genuinely gifted.
Episode two was titled "Searching for a Fake Love."
At first Ryuji was confused. The male lead was already with the female lead. Why was anyone searching for fake love?
As he kept watching, it gradually made sense.
It was not the male lead looking for fake love. It was his buddy Sunohara. To put his younger sister Mei's mind at ease, Sunohara was trying to find a fake girlfriend, with the male lead's help.
After a little over twenty minutes, episode two ended.
Ryuji sat there thinking.
It looked like a multi-episode arc was starting from episode two, similar to the Fuko arc and the Kotomi arc from season one. He just was not sure if this arc focused on Sunohara, on his sister Mei, or on the brother-sister relationship itself.
"Shido said CLANNAD means 'family.' If that's the hint, then this arc is probably about the sibling bond."
"From what I can tell so far, the core of season two hasn't changed. The art is still polished, the character designs haven't dropped in quality, and everything feels solid."
"It's just that season one was so emotionally powerful that topping it feels almost impossible."
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